Saving Calories?
 

What are your thoughts on saving calories?

On Mondays and Wednesdays, my hubby and I cook dinner and watch a movie. I intend to save calories on breakfast and lunch so I can indulge at dinner and not feel so guilty.

Now I'm not talking your average cheesecake-variety 'indulge.' I'm talking a salad with chicken, hunk of bread, maybe a popsicle - about 600 cals or so, ending at 8pm. I hit the sack at around 10pm if that makes a difference.

I also intend to do this on that one day a week that I want to go out with friends and have drinks.

Any disadvantage to this?

Anyone have luck with this?

Thanks
k.

I do that alot. I will even eat lower cals for a few days if I know that I am going to be "splurging" later. I have better luck keeping an average for the week.

Yeah, i thought that was normal, as long as youère not saving 500 cals from Monday for Friday, right :) If you have balanced calories every day, I imagine that will be effective.

That's a strategy that many folks use, and it's just a matter of planning. As long as you stay within your set-upon calorie goal for the big meal and for the day, and you don't cut calories too severely in the early part of the day, it's probably OK. The only thing you might want to watch is that you don't let it slide into an everyday habit.

Jay

Or do like me and last week my "one bad day" turned into 3 "bad days" hahahah I am still down 2 pounds in 8 days so i am happy but I know I could of been down 3 pounds! lol

Yes, I do this, but I tend to compensate after I splurge. So if I go over 300 calories, then I cut 100 calories from the next 3 days or 150 over the next two. So I guess I don't "save" calories, I subtract them later.

If it leads to still sensible choices and is not a "let's starve for six days to pig out like mad on Sunday", it seems quite alright to me. :) The only disadvantage might be if you're like me, a.k.a eating more for dinner than at other meals = having a bad sleep quality (I guess my body doesn't like having more food to digest at night?). But this is very likely something particular to individuals, and not a rule of thumb.

Yeah, what others have said goes for me too.

For example today I met a friend for lunch at Chili's. I ate carefully, but it's just impossible to eat in a restaurant and have as few calories as eating home cooked. So tonight I'll eat only a chicken breast and my steamed veggies. I'll also limit my afternoon snack to just an apple, rather than an apple and the cheese I usually have.

I do this probably about once a week ... either to go to lunch with a friend or to go to dinner with DH.

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Thank you ALL for the feedback. I was hoping you wouldn't be like "YOU'RE CRAZY!" I think this day fast is helping my hunger cravings too.

Speaking of Chili's, I had their Caribbean Salad the other day. YUMSTERS. Guess that wasn't a 'saving' day.

Do you mean you're eating nothing during the day, or just eating fewer calories than usual? The latter sounds like a better idea to me, especially if you're eating 600 cals at dinner.

I ate about 300 cals until 7pm, when I ate 600 cals.

OK, hold everything. 300 plus 600 is 900. You should be eating more than 300 calories for the whole rest of the day up to dinner, and you shouldn't be eating under 1200 cals for the day. What you are doing is cutting calories too severely. So, you weren't telling us the whole story! Sorry, but that's not a healthy approach, in my opinion. :no:

Jay

JayEll grabbed that right before I did.

I hope your daily calories are more than 900 on average. (Unless this is some sort of doctor monitored program, of course.)

Please let us know. We just all want to be sure you're following a healthy program, and not doing any harm by too severely restricting your calories.

I also think it is dangerous to go too low in your calories to try to save them up for a splurge. I really think it can have the opposite of the intended effect. When you fast, your body stops burning fat and begins storing it. So when you start eating again, your body is going to store everything you consume as fat until it is back at equilibrium. For example, I had the stomach flu last year and literally could not eat anything for a 24-hour period. I lost several lbs very quickly but as soon as I started eating again, my weight was right back where it was when I started.

It's okay to be a little low in your calories, but you want to make sure you don't go so low that your body thinks it is fasting. Zenor77's approach of subtracting 100 calories per day over three days to make up for a 300-calorie splurge is a lot safer than trying to make up all 300 calories in one day.

Yeah, I saw the same thing.

900 calories a day is too few. You should eat at the very least a minimum of 1200. And if you're heavier to start with, you can bumpt that up even more.

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