Calorie deficiency - ups and downs

Kimia

Really hoping someone can shed some light on this for me please!

I am being careful with my calories at the moment in the hopes of losing some weight before the summer hols, and from working out my bmr etc, to maintain my weight now it's 1,850. I exercise about 4 times a week so I am ok to eat approx 1,450 calories a day which is fine.

Now, my question is this. Some days, because life happens, I go over on the oul calories. Fine, says i, but in order to get back to business, should i lower the calories i consume on either side of the 'bad' day?

For example:

Thursday: 1,100 (so far - with dinner planned etc)
Friday: Going out to dinner so expecting to be approx 2,000

Should I not eat any more today so that I 'regulate' Friday's over calories? Or maybe eat a little less on Thursday and Saturday?

I know it's a little anal of me but it seems that once a week I always have a 'bad' day where I'm out for dinner or whatever so rather blow the day completely i'd prefer to get balanced about it. But is it not bad to eat less than 1,200 calories on any one day? So what matters more? Daily counting or weekly counting?

Help!!

EileenG

Average it out over the week and don't obsess about it. Consistently under or over eating is bad, but having a couple of high or low days is not a problem.

Think back to Hunter Gatherer days. There were bound to have been days when food was scarce, and other days when there was loads of it. The human body is well able to cope with that sort of fluctuation.

corkcomp

EileenG wrote: »

Average it out over the week and don't obsess about it. Consistently under or over eating is bad, but having a couple of high or low days is not a problem.

Think back to Hunter Gatherer days. There were bound to have been days when food was scarce, and other days when there was loads of it. The human body is well able to cope with that sort of fluctuation.

what she said ^^^

Getwellsoon

Yes I'd say don't stick to anything too rigidly, just even it out over the course of the week. In fact, I remember reading a while ago that it's good to vary the amount of calories you have each day as it keeps your metabolism ticking over and is very effective for weight loss (not grossly over or undereating, mind you, just varying it slightly and not sticking to an exact target). Just don't go overboard every day and make sure you eat healthy and unprocessed foods most of the time and you'll be fine!

Kimia

Thanks everyone! I'll make sure to do a bit of extra exercise too.