Are you able to save calories for another day?????

I think so. I believe that's what you call zigg-zagging... If you count weekly cals then it shouldn't matter.

yes, your body works more on a week to week system, rather then day to day. i've had days where even if i worked out i wasn't that hungry, or i burned 1000+ calories in a work out. but i don't need to eat them all. however on the next day, i've i'm extra hungry, i know why, and i eat.

Even though I track my calories and exercise daily I really only pay attention to weekly numbers. Therefore, I guess you could say I "save" my calories for another day.

Yeah, you can remain in a calorie deficit on a weekly basis instead of each day. Little less tedious too.

Yes. Your body doesn't "restart" over night with the clock... it is works continuously. Some days you don't hit your calorie goal and some days you may go over a bit and it all evens out in the end.

Personally, I find it much less stressful to look at things in one-week increments rather than ond-day increments. As long as my whole week balances to hitting my 1500 calories per day, that is what I care about. One day I may only eat 1250 but then the next day I may eat 1750, but it balances out.

I try to look at my calories on a daily and weekly level. So it kind of resets on Monday, but I will sometimes balance my calories from the beginning of the week, all the way to the weekend.

Keep in mind people, time is not a biological concept in the linear sense. It's man made. it's not like your body knows what 10pm is. That is why when you hear people say "Don't eat after 7pm." I always ask, how does my body know what 7pm is? It's a made up concept, like the tooth fairy, Santa Claus, Bigfoot, and religion.

I have and not had any adverse weight gain as yet! just be mindful of what you eat x

You can up to a point.

But, if you have a calorie deficit of 500 calories every day for a week, you are going to lose a pound. If you then go out and eat those calories all in the next two days, you will gain a pound. So clearly you can't bank forever. You have a few days to play with, maybe up to a week.

The only thing to be careful of is that many people keep to a rigid diet during the week and then let loose on the weekend thinking they have banked enough to have some treats and most of those people don't lose weight because they are eating their entire week's deficit back up during the weekend without realizing it.

This is why MFP is go great -- you can't fool yourself like that if you track your food every day!

really? wow that just opened a huge door of oppertunities:)

just to be clear, so if i have a 200 cal defecit yesterday and 200 cal defecit today, I can eat a 400 cal DBC?

This depends on what you mean by 'deficit'.

I eat 1500 calories a day, which is already a 300 calorie deficit from my 1800 calorie maintenance goal. So, if I eat 1250 calories one day, creating a 250 calorie deficit on top of my original 300 calorie deficit, I will save those extra 250 calories and eat them another day if I feel like it. BUT, I will not eat my original 300 calorie deficit back another day, because that would not allow me to lose weight.

For me, my 1500 calories per day means I have a 300 calorie a day deficit average over the week. So, as long as I keep my average at 300 calorie/day deficit over the course of the week, I will play with it... and if it means a 450 calorie deficit one day so I can eat more and only have a 150 calorie deficit the next day but it still evens out to 300 calorie deficit per day over the week, then so be it. The weekly look at things doesn't work for everyone but it works for me.

*Edited for spelling. Also, I "reset" my count after one week. If I had an extra 150 calories two Tuesdays ago, I don't use those. I only pay attention to the current Monday - Sunday week.

Keep in mind people, time is not a biological concept in the linear sense. It's man made. it's not like your body knows what 10pm is. That is why when you hear people say "Don't eat after 7pm." I always ask, how does my body know what 7pm is? It's a made up concept, like the tooth fairy, Santa Claus, Bigfoot, and religion.

Haha, fantastic.

I always wondered the same thing. I don't have a "normal" schedule so 7pm for someone else is like 12am for me. It made things a little wonky and decided to try and not worry to much about it and just watch what I eat over all.

This is good information to have though, I'm glad I read this, now I don't feel so bad when I go a little over on somedays! As long as I make up for it later...or before hand!

But, if you have a calorie deficit of 500 calories every day for a week, you are going to lose a pound.

That's not necessarily true. If that deficit comes from BODY FAT then yes, but it doesn't always come from fat. People think that because you're in a caloric deficit you're gonna burn fat, but in the presence of insulin the body will burn stored glycogen because it cannot burn fat. So say you eat three meals a day and all have carbohydrates. If you're insulin sensitivity sucks, you're dealing with excessive amounts to deal with certain amounts of sugar. If you hit your "deficit" before the insulin is cleared from tissues or the bloodstream, your body can't tap fat stores to make up the deficit... Period.

It seems that changing you macro percentages doesn't matter much. Check this out. http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa0804748