I only had a half day scheduled at work today, so I got to sleep in (yay! ) which got me to thinking about what I would then have for lunch... "lunch? what about breakfast?" (this is what I was thinking in my head).

Given that I will probably only have a 12-14 hour day today instead of an 18 hour day, that's pretty much an entire meals worth of calories that my body won't need, or will it?!

I think I'm probably over thinking it...

But on days that you get to sleep in or go to bed early (so your day ends up being a lot shorter) do you find that you eat less calories? Is this ok? Because in my case, not having breakfast and a morning snack will probably put me under 1000 calories for the day.

Or should I still make sure to have the 1500 or so calories that I would normally have in a day?

Sorry, this is longer than I expected...

Oh, also, I completely agree with the concept of only eating when you're hungry, but should I try to be eating more calorie dense foods then if I'll be eating less food?... If that makes sense.

Thanks ladies! (and gents!)

I just try to keep my 1000 calorie deficit for the day. My average calories burned is 2500 but on a day that I sleep in or lay around I can burn as little as 1900. So if you were less active because of the sleeping in, you should eat less calories to maintain a good deficit.

Hi EricAnn,

Someone with better info will chime in but my thought is that our bodies consume calories 24 hours a day. Yes, less so when we're sleeping, but we still need a minimum number of calories to exist. I've always heard/read that number to around 1200.

Having said this, I've had occasional days where I didn't get to 1200 and I didn't sweat about it. I actually try to focus on keeping a 3500 deficit in calories per week so I can lose a pound.

i just posted about this last week in a less active part of the forum...here is a copy of what i wrote:

how do you keep calories down when your days are SO long?

i am up by 5:30 a.m. and going all day long, busy, and get to sleep by 10:30-11 p.m. Every Day!...i'm trying to keep my calories around 1500 but have continually been going over that...i'm doing heavy weights on the machines and have been getting hungry!

here is what i had today:
- bite of PB at 5:45 a.m.
- protein shake at 8 a.m.
- sugar free blended coffee at 11 a.m.
- greek yogurt/PB with half an apple at 1 p.m.
- spinach and a sausage at 2:30 p.m.
- corndog at 3 p.m. (the ONLY unhealthy item all day)
- greek yogurt and granola
- few bites of SF pudding
- few bites of chips (i was getting hungry)
- protein shake (because i needed to eat something before i ate all the chips lol)

TOTAL: 2025(!!!)

i find that my body likes some food about every two hours...doesn't have to be much food, just something...i try to focus on healthy choices...i do NOT like eating three solid meals a day, it upsets my stomach and i feel WAY full and i just dont like it...

how do you cut calories down while being up for 17 hours or so a day?? is this normal? is this linked to weight training?

ETA: my workout included 4 sets of 10 reps each ab crunches pulling down 110 pounds and 3 sets of 10 reps each arms at 85 pounds and 3 sets arms at 40 pounds...normally i go back to the ab crunches but someone else was on there...and THEN i went up on the treadmill for 26 minutes and ran a mile and a half at 5.5 speed in intervals...it said i burned 210 calories but i work so hard on that, that i am dripping in sweat halfway through like usual

ETA 2.0: i also am on my feet for 5 hours at work ( i work part time this summer) monitoring students in rooms, activities, playground, lunchroom and today we went on a long walk with them)...i also am on my feet doing house cleaning at home, running errands etc...

I have a strange feeling I actually read this when you posted it and it was probably in my mind still, haha.

I ate pretty normal today (calorie wise), but not very healthily... I guess we'll see how my body reacts to that.

If you're not starving, there's absolutely nothing wrong with having a very low calorie day (or two or three). Your body knows just what to do when you don't give it enough fuel -- i.e., draw its energy from your fat stores.

F.

You won't do any damage by having a random low calorie day, just as you won't do any damage if you have a random higher-calorie day. It all balances out in the end.