Can you collect your ex. cals and eat them all in one day?
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SolidGoaled
Posts: 504 Member
I have searched to see if anyone has asked this and couldn't find a query that would grab any relevant posts.
If you are set to a 1200 calorie diet - could you "save up" your exercise calories for a once a week cheat meal, or an "off" day?
You would then net under 1200 calories most days of the week, however, you would have one day where you would eat them all up, then your total calories for the week would balance to what they should be.
What would be the possible drawbacks to this? And the possible benefits?
I have been reading a lot about the "spike day" method, and I wondered if this would be a method of determining how many calories could go into the spike day. In fact, I think someone may have asked this, but I never did see an answer.
If you are set to a 1200 calorie diet - could you "save up" your exercise calories for a once a week cheat meal, or an "off" day?
You would then net under 1200 calories most days of the week, however, you would have one day where you would eat them all up, then your total calories for the week would balance to what they should be.
What would be the possible drawbacks to this? And the possible benefits?
I have been reading a lot about the "spike day" method, and I wondered if this would be a method of determining how many calories could go into the spike day. In fact, I think someone may have asked this, but I never did see an answer.
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Replies
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That's sort of how weight watchers works, you can use your extra points throughout the week as you wish. Not sure if it works or doesn't work though. If I am planning on going out to dinner one night, I try extra hard not to go over cals the other day and it seems to be okay so far for me.0
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HA HA HA...THATS FUNNY, NO YOU CANT DO THAT, ITS CHEATING AND YOU WONT LEARN ANYTHING FROM IT. THIS IS THE MFP WAY...ANOTHER WAY IS - MY FRIEND WHO IS A DIETTICIAN TELL ME TO HAVE AROUND 1600CALS PER DAY AND ONE DAY A WEEK HAVE 2000 - SOUNDS LIKE THE DIET YOU WANT TO GO WITH! AS LONG AS YOU KNOW ITS A 'TREAT' AND DONT TREAT YOURSELF EVERYDAY. GOOD LUCK.0
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ive lost 25lbs doing this. i eat about 1,500 cals aday, ( my goal asctualy is set at 1,750) but exercise so im usualy deficit of about -900 aday ( on average ) and on a sunday i eat my 1,500 & occationaly more ( add in a treat not every weeek) . of course this has no effect on my weight loss because im very deficit the other days. i lose about 2-3lb most weeks.0
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It's not like your body had some magic reset button, that resets your calorie needs everyday at midnight. So, yes, you can do that. Many people here (including me) watch their weekly caloric intake instead of their daily allowance. The MFP android app even has a feature for that.
Depending on the number of exercise cals we're talking about here, I wouldn't recommend eating ALL of them in one day/meal though. Eating 2000+ cals in one meal doesn't sound like something fun or healthy to do.0 -
It's not like your body had some magic reset button, that resets your calorie needs everyday at midnight. So, yes, you can do that. Many people here (including me) watch their weekly caloric intake instead of their daily allowance. The MFP android app even has a feature for that.
Depending on the number of exercise cals we're talking about here, I wouldn't recommend eating ALL of them in one day/meal though. Eating 2000+ cals in one meal doesn't sound like something fun or healthy to do.
Ha ha, yes, of course- I am a daily exerciser, so my ex cals for th week could be up there and would probably give me a tummy ache if I ate them all in one sitting!
Interesting responses so far0 -
Sorry, but no. You'll burn lean body mass on collection days, then add fat on your eat day.
NOPE!0 -
Yes you can. I pay more attention to my weekly average than my daily totals. Somedays I'm way over and make it for it by being under on other days. Some people do this to an extreme and have a 5000 calorie "spike" day. Like someone said, you body doesn't work on a 24 hour clock.0
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Sorry, but no. You'll burn lean body mass on collection days, then add fat on your eat day.
NOPE!
THIS is exactly what I am fearful of. Hmm....0 -
in the voice of Jillian Michaels-No You Cannot!
(those of you that know Jillian-this should totally make you laugh):laugh:0 -
i think physically, you can..but mentally if it caused me to gain weight that day, i would be disappointed. if i maintained weight, i'd be ok. discipline has been my achilles heel, so better i stay within my intake numbers always.0
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I wouldn't do 1200 calories. I'd add a couple hundred depending on what type of calories you are burning during exercise. My worry would be burning lean muscle as well. My other concern, personally speaking, is that if I do a hard workout and I don't eat enough that day, I am STARVING out of my mind the next day. That leads me to not make healthy choices.0
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I would think you could, because it's about net calories consumed over the course of week. That's why the spike day, calorie shifting, and maybe even carb cycling work. Those days that you eat more calories raise the threshold of your metabolism and help you to burn more.
As long as you stay under however many calories you are allotted over 7 days, you should still lose weight. But don't expect to step on the scale the day after that big meal and see yourself down.0 -
I think it depends on how many extra calories we're talking about. I can't imagine 6 days of 1500 calories and 1 day of 5000 can feel good. I think you can maybe splurge one day and go a little over - this helps prevent that feeling of being deprived. But overdoing it is just going to mentally reset your cravings for the bad stuff.0
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Solid, YES you can do this. Think about the science of the numbers. It takes a net loss of 3500 calories PER WEEK to lose one pound. It doesn't take into account when you lose those those calories. I've done this on occasion with great continued success (60+ pounds lost).
As a second motivator, if I go over my calories on Monday by 300, then I can either do 300 calories in exercise that day(usually don't want to do this) or take off 100 calories for the next 3 days OR exercise for 100 calories burned the next three days.(and don't add it back into the eatable food for that day).
So relax and enjoy. This method is good for spike metabolism AND to give yourself permission instead of not thinking that you've failed ONE day. Average it out and enjoy your journey.0 -
Sorry, but no. You'll burn lean body mass on collection days, then add fat on your eat day.
NOPE!
That's what I'd be afraid of, too. I would imagine you could probably be a little under every day and have that one day where you are at or slightly above maintenance with no problem, but that might depend a lot on how aggressive your deficit is. This may work okay for someone aiming for a .5 to one pound a week loss, but with a very large deficit I would be worried about getting into the area where you are burning lean mass going too much under. I have no idea where that area of lean mass burning exactly is, so I would probably err on the side of caution. But different things seem to work for different people. I seem to have good progress when I have a day or two where I am not dieting but still being reasonable (not crazy binge), but my rate of loss is slow. I exercise most days as well.0 -
i totaly agree with you!!Solid, YES you can do this. Think about the science of the numbers. It takes a net loss of 3500 calories PER WEEK to lose one pound. It doesn't take into account when you lose those those calories. I've done this on occasion with great continued success (60+ pounds lost).
As a second motivator, if I go over my calories on Monday by 300, then I can either do 300 calories in exercise that day(usually don't want to do this) or take off 100 calories for the next 3 days OR exercise for 100 calories burned the next three days.(and don't add it back into the eatable food for that day).
So relax and enjoy. This method is good for spike metabolism AND to give yourself permission instead of not thinking that you've failed ONE day. Average it out and enjoy your journey.0 -
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This is what I do to some extent - I go by my weekly goal rather than daily and eat back all my exercise calories. I have seen it said that changing the amount of calories you eat each day can help you lose weight.0
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Use your calories that day or don't use them at all. Saving for a whole week may just make it easier to binge etc and fall off track. Ultimately you can do whatever you please. I'm just not sure if something like that would be "optimal" for you, even if it seems to "work".0
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HA HA HA...THATS FUNNY, NO YOU CANT DO THAT, ITS CHEATING AND YOU WONT LEARN ANYTHING FROM IT. THIS IS THE MFP WAY...ANOTHER WAY IS - MY FRIEND WHO IS A DIETTICIAN TELL ME TO HAVE AROUND 1600CALS PER DAY AND ONE DAY A WEEK HAVE 2000 - SOUNDS LIKE THE DIET YOU WANT TO GO WITH! AS LONG AS YOU KNOW ITS A 'TREAT' AND DONT TREAT YOURSELF EVERYDAY. GOOD LUCK.
...That's almost entirely what this person described. Also, a lesson in internetiquette- take off the caps, it's seen as 'yelling'. ;]0
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