Dieting for weight loss - compensating for bad days?

JammyDodga · #1 11-28-2007, 09:45 AM

Hi, I'm trying to lose weight.

I go the gym 3-4 times a week and play rugby on a saturday, but my main question is about diet.

I'm tracking everything I eat, and I'm aiming for around 2000 calories or just under a day (I'm 6'4" and 260 pounds so I think this is about right)

Most days I'm doing alright, but I'm not sticking to it religiously, so some days I'm definitely a fair bit over my 2000 calory target.

What's the best way to deal with this on subsequent days, or the day before? I.e. if I have 3500 calories 1 day, is it ok to drop to 1500 for the next day or two to compensate a bit, or will I start doing wierd things to my matabolism like being on a crash diet?

SmileyEH · #2 11-28-2007, 10:37 AM

If you actually are eating only 2k calories a day, then the odd 3.5k one is not going to hurt you at all. You should be losing weight extremely fast regardless.

istewart · #3 11-28-2007, 12:47 PM

No don't compensate, that's what girls do and why they have like 30% body fat. That and their [censored].

MaxPower · #4 11-28-2007, 02:59 PM

Given your size, weight, and activity level you should consistently lose weight even if you occasionally eat more than 2000 calories. You should figure out your Basal Metabolic Rate which is probably something like 2400 calories.

Weigh yourself once a week. If you weight less each week, what you are doing is correct. I don't think you need to compensate for days when you eat more (don't call them bad days). For instance last week I lost 2 pounds even though I ate pretty heavily on Thanksgiving and the day after and had about 8 alcoholic drinks. The key thing is to eat a healthy diet most of the time. Indulging yourself every so often is a good thing that will make it easier for you to continue to lose weight.

I don't know about metabolism, but I think that severely depriving yourself of calories on certain days is going to backfire because it will make you very hungry and cause you to overeat. Don't ever let yourself get very hungry.

JammyDodga · #5 11-29-2007, 05:34 AM

Thanks for the replies guys, all good advice.

I'ts quite hard to figure out what my BMR is, from things I've looked at on the internet its anywhere between 2500 and 3000. I'm quite a heavy build and have a lot of muscle in my legs, so I think I probably get through alot of calories before I even start excersising.