Should i eat the "remaining" calories that are under weekly goal?

zandykes
zandykes Posts: 3 Member
edited October 2020 in Goal: Maintaining Weight
So, if im on a small deficit (0.5 lb) and my weekly under goal is (at times) between 1000-1220 calories (im on 2350 cal daily) i workout heavy and i don't log or add those calories..

My question here, is that should i eat these calories or not? some say that it is like a debt that i have to pay. My weekly should be at least close to my goal and if not then i have to eat what calories are left for that week so that my total or the sum of that week will be closer to/ or equal to my goal.

Thanks

Replies

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    It sounds like your goal for a deficit is 250 calories a day. You're increasing the size of that deficit by about 175 calories (assuming you're closer to that 1,220 under goal). This, of course, is assuming that your estimate of calories in and out is accurate. In reality, many people who are logging aren't incredibly accurate. We're maybe not logging some things that are low calorie, we're eating food that others have prepared, we're using inaccurate methods to measure some foods. In these cases, increasing our deficit can act as a buffer. So the real question is, what are you observing in terms of your actual weight loss over a few weeks? If you're losing faster than you expect, then you know your deficit is larger and you can eat some of those calories back. If you are losing at the pace of your original goal, you know that you aren't *really* 1,220 under your goal per week.
  • zandykes
    zandykes Posts: 3 Member
    Thanks, well i actually i am losing faster than what i planned for, InBody tests show that im losing more than what i planned for (working hours takes its toll). im attaching a screen shot for last seven days... mh333goqwxp8.jpeg
  • B_Plus_Effort
    B_Plus_Effort Posts: 311 Member
    need your stats, sex, age, weight, height but assuming you are overweight then No do not eat the remaining calories and don't just think daily, think weekly or monthly, what if you have a burger, fries, and beer on the weekend, it can all balance out for the week if you were under the other days, our bodies don't operate like MFP wants us to think they do, I ate a 1,390 calorie slice of cheesecake last night and was 1,200 over on my dailies and lost .6 pounds that day ha ha
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Depends on your stats since you said this is consistent.

    Is your small deficit there because you have very little to lose and you want max chance of retaining muscle mass?
    Then increasing the deficit into what may not be reasonable may be crossing a line for you.
    Sadly it's one of those things you only learn after the fact, when you wish you hadn't.

    Is your deficit small and below what could be reasonable because you don't want to impact good workouts, but having a bigger deficit isn't that bad except for maybe recovery?
    Then you have to decide how much that matters.
    Some people want to work out hard and get max benefit from the workouts, and anything that negatively impacts that is not desired.

    And perhaps you do save up for a special night of order out where known calories is less accurate and just figure you are covered anyway.

    While true our bodies don't reset at midnight, what we do day after day obviously has an impact for positive or negative on them.
  • zandykes
    zandykes Posts: 3 Member
    Many thanks everyone, i believe i understood the concept.
    Main thing here is balancing things out and not having a huge deficit, which happens frequently in my case.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    zandykes wrote: »
    Many thanks everyone, i believe i understood the concept.
    Main thing here is balancing things out and not having a huge deficit, which happens frequently in my case.

    The other "main thing" is adjusting based on actual long term results. 7 days may not be enough to see a trend of course.

    Simply put if your weight trend shows you are losing faster than you desired then eat more.
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 6,002 Member
    IMO, if you are hungry eat them, if you are not don't force yourself to.
  • Strudders67
    Strudders67 Posts: 989 Member
    The weekly average is a really good tool to use. As you say that you're losing at a faster rate than you planned, I'd say eat at least some of the calories so that you're a bit closer to your goal figure for the week.

  • VeryKatie
    VeryKatie Posts: 5,961 Member
    edited November 2020
    If you are losing more than you want to, then yeah go ahead and eat them. Or try to eat closer to goal than you have been. Or ... change your exercise up to burn less lol.

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