Can I do this??

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iwantniceabs
iwantniceabs Posts: 357 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I like to munch at night, but I've become a little obsessed with not going into the red with my calories - so a couple times I have logged my night time snack into the next morning's food diary...I'm really just rolling the calories over into the next day, so if I'm still in the green, is this okay? If weight loss is just calories in vs calories burned, then it shouldn't matter where I log it, but that I'm still in the correct deficit.....right....?

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  • 0PhAtDaDdY
    0PhAtDaDdY Posts: 569 Member
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    I like to munch at night, but I've become a little obsessed with not going into the red with my calories - so a couple times I have logged my night time snack into the next morning's food diary...I'm really just rolling the calories over into the next day, so if I'm still in the green, is this okay? If weight loss is just calories in vs calories burned, then it shouldn't matter where I log it, but that I'm still in the correct deficit.....right....?

    You are not rolling to the next day, you are over eating the current day...I think keep each day seperate...
  • nanegan
    nanegan Posts: 39 Member
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    I watch mine on a weekly basis. If it all adds up and you are losing, I would guess it is ok.
  • Jorra
    Jorra Posts: 3,338 Member
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    As long as you log everything eventually, it's not a problem. No matter what you log, your body knows what you did. That's what matters.

    I personally would get obsessed with getting out of the cycle by continually trying to eat less to make up for it the next day so I wouldn't have to keep rolling it over. Whatever works for you is fine.
  • hooverita
    hooverita Posts: 4
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    I think that's perfectly fine. In the end it's all about calories in vs. calories out.
  • Silverkittycat
    Silverkittycat Posts: 1,997 Member
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    I watch mine on a weekly basis. If it all adds up and you are losing, I would guess it is ok.

    I do the same. It's much easier for me to look at the entire week because I'm always over or under the daily goal. Some days I'm hungrier than others, or I just eat food with higher calorie amounts. It all averages out by the end of the week. :smile:
  • oats4breakfast
    oats4breakfast Posts: 225
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    It is an "over a period of time" deal. So if you can manage to create a 3500 cal deficit over one week, the theory says you will loose 1 pound during that week - regardless of the exact amounts you ate each day. So overeating 100 cals on day one, then under eating 100 cals on day 2, is effectively the same as eating the correct amount on both days. I don't think carrying the number over is really that big of a deal .... so long as you don't keep doing this. Because let's say you carry 20 cals over to day 2, but on day 2, you also overeat another 10 cals and find you have to carry over 30 cals to day three. Left uncheck, this will much like an unbalanced check book. This is no different than budgeting your paycheck really - you have a set amount of money and it's rare that people succeed when they rob peter to pay paul.
    So, if you over eat one day, there's no big problem if you gradually get that balance back. The problem will happen if you continue to carry over continuously and never know where "0" actually is.
    IMHO - if you over eat one day, it's not going to kill you. Just accept it for what it is and then do well on the next days (not undereating and/or carrying over). Accept the loss and carry on with your plan as-if nothing happened - because life happens. If it continues to be a problem (overeating), then consider more nutrient dense foods (and don't be afraid of satiating fats). This is the beauty of a food log - It's not just those numbers at the bottom of the page, it's also a record of what we ate, so on the days you were hungry versus the days you were not (assumig cals are similar) you can see what helped and what didn't - i.e high sugar intake will probably be when you need to snack ... or eating lots of nutrient useless foods like lettuce. Or perhaps you've been too ambitious on your caloric restriction. If you plan to loose 2 pounds per week and are always hungry, then perhaps try to only loose 1.5 pounds and eat more (better for psyche too). Targeting 2 pounds loss and failing is not better than targeting 1/2 pound loss and succeeding.
  • MIMITIME
    MIMITIME Posts: 405 Member
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    Judging from your photo you are doing something right! If it works for you that is all that matters. My spoiled doggie wakes me up in the middle of the night to get a treat. Sometimes I treat myself a little. If I do, I just add it to my breakfast calories and it all works out.
  • Rae6503
    Rae6503 Posts: 6,294 Member
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    Yeah, I also keep track of my weekly average in excel. As long as I average close to 2000 I don't care if I go into the red occasionally (although I've had a really bad month and been in the red pretty much every day).
  • iwantniceabs
    iwantniceabs Posts: 357 Member
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    Thanks everyone.

    I think I decided to go back to keeping track just one day at a time...I was going to push my huge-over-my-daily-calorie snack into tomorrow, but decided that I don't want to do this everyday... I'm not so good at always balancing my checkbook, so I don't want to make balancing my calories yet another bad habit to have to fix. But I will keep in mind that it's okay if I go over calories sometimes because it's the week as a whole that is really going to influence the scale. Thanks again!

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