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Does calorie saving work or not?

venetianz
venetianz Posts: 78 Member
edited October 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
this weekend i am going out for dinner with my husband. I have a limit of 1600 calories a week. If i eat 1200 calories a day for the next 4 days and save up 1600 calories for sunday dinner, which means i can have 3200 meal on sunday. Can this help, or ill just be working backward?

Replies

  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,423 Member
    this weekend i am going out for dinner with my husband. I have a limit of 1600 calories a week. If i eat 1200 calories a day for the next 4 days and save up 1600 calories for sunday dinner, which means i can have 3200 meal on sunday. Can this help, or ill just be working backward?

    I don't see a problem with it. Lots of people do this - search for zigzagging or calorie cycling and you'll find lots of info.
  • venetianz
    venetianz Posts: 78 Member
    Thank you Rubbybelle
  • Puffins1958
    Puffins1958 Posts: 614 Member
    I've never done it, to me when the day is done.....the calorie count starts the next day. To me it's just defeating the purpose of trying to be healthy..... :)
  • Johnny_Castle
    Johnny_Castle Posts: 159
    as long as you don't take it to extremes (4000 calories one day, 0 calories the next day) you should be fine
  • claire_xox
    claire_xox Posts: 282 Member
    your body doesn't actually know what time it is - so it really doesn't matter
    HOWEVER I get into that sort of cycle often and sort of encourages binging
  • snockers3112
    snockers3112 Posts: 190 Member
    Nothing wrong with doing that...nothing at all :)
  • insane4train
    insane4train Posts: 58 Member
    After dieting hard for a while eating what ever and lot's of it if you want will actually help break your plateau and ease you mentally. This is a game and a tough one at that. Sometimes even the best players cheat!
  • rachypompa
    rachypompa Posts: 653 Member
    I do this all the time ... I think off my aim being to eat the right amount in a week, not each day. I always struggle to stay under my calories on the day I don't do exercise, so I just go over that day and make up for it another day. It's worked for me.
  • dreamshadows
    dreamshadows Posts: 734 Member
    I heard that it works. Just never tried it myself. I am a daily resetter. I understand WW allows you to do this.
  • Lauren38570
    Lauren38570 Posts: 239
    I 100 percently agree with puffins , I just say pick a day here and there to treat yourself
  • Lyadeia
    Lyadeia Posts: 4,603 Member
    I do this all the time. It works well, because the body's weight fluctuates daily anyway...and weight loss is generally seen in averages over a period of a week (which is also why daily weigh-ins can totally frustrate people).

    There's nothing wrong at all with having bigger deficits 6 days out of the week with a small one on that 7th day, cause in the end the average deficit throughout the week is the same and the body can't tell the difference anyway.

    I did this last week over Thanksgiving, and still ate wonderful foods on Thursday and still lost weight, inches, and body fat % between Sundays last week (I measure once a week to track body fat).
  • joclougherty
    joclougherty Posts: 59 Member
    I do this all the time ... I think off my aim being to eat the right amount in a week, not each day. I always struggle to stay under my calories on the day I don't do exercise, so I just go over that day and make up for it another day. It's worked for me.

    Me too! I do exactly that! I eat well during the week and at the weekend I might have a bottle of wine and a pizza but then I always run at the weekend too and I also look at my weekly deficit rather than daily. After all, this is a long term thing.
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