I am a convert from weight watchers to CC. In one of the older incarnations of ww, we had an amount of points to eat per day, such as 25. If we ate 20, we could bank those extra points for a special event, or for those days when we were extra hungry.
Can the same thing be done with CC? I'm still new to it, and it sounds like it would be self imposed calorie cycling with out a label.... in the last two days I ate 1250 and 1380, respectively. I don't really have a cal limit, thinking 1600 or so on the high end when I work out (karate, kickboxing), and 1200-1400 on the lower end.
Hi Nic - sure, you can manage your calories any way that works for you! Lots of Calorie Counters zig-zag their calories from day to day with excellent results. Personally, I allow more calories for the weekend, and that works for me. Why not give it a try, and see what happens?
I calorie cycle a lot as a maintainer, did it a lot when actively losing. I set an average I wanted to hit per day with a total for the week. I also would save for the days I knew I had something big coming up.
I do this all the time. I have my general range I stay within, but it works out more on a weekly basis. I eat far less during the week than I do on weekends, and it really works well for me.
I don't specifically save up for the weekend but if I know I'm going out to a restaurant or someone's house, I do plan around that and stay on the low side on other days, so I have a little bit more flexibility.
I also don't specifically zig zag, but I find that I just naturally move between low and high days when I stay focused on my body's natural hunger.
The other thing I've found is that even if I am having a day that I'm a bit more relaxed about how much I eat, I am still making different (and better!) choices than before so it doesn't feel like it's a major burden to stay within my plan calories even when I'm at a social event involving food.
I'm still kind of new to the whole calorie counting thing, and although I know not to go under 1200 calories, I don't want to get too high, either.
Online there are calculators, but I find it tough to figure out what 'lifestyle' I have. I do mostly office type of work, but I do kick boxing and karate, so I put myself down as 'moderately active'.
I figure I"ll aim for 1200-1700, depending on how much exercise I do and how hungry I am. I just really want this to work.
Calorie Banking?
