Do calories even out over time?

Greetings everyone!

I have a question about calories --- if you overdo it one day and then drastically cut calories the next day, does it even out? I know it's better to stay steady --- but, in case you do majorly overindulge one day, can you eat a small number of calories the next day and do lots of exercise to make up for it? This would not be a good idea very often...but what about once in awhile?

In other words, I guess what I'm asking about is the effect of calories over time --- if you don't stay perfect with your daily calorie defecit but some days go over it and some days go under it, does it even out?

Thanks!

It's the long term pattern that really matters. A single day either way isn't going to have a huge impact on your long term goals. That's why you can't let a one day binge stop you.

Actually it's not better to stay steady because shaking up your calorie intake over the week keeps your system guessing. When you eat a lot your metabolism heats up; the next day when you don't eat very much you're still burning more since you fired it up with your heavy calorie day. Look at a weekly average and work within that if you can. Does that make sense?

 It's definitely easier to keep a steady pace, that I know from experience.

One day isn't the problem, it's the compulsatory acts we do daily. If you have ONE bad day, don't even worry about it. Continue with normal eating patterns the next day.

Yes, but just don't get into the binge/starvation cycle. So maybe if you eat a lot one day, instead of drastically cutting calories the next day, you can cut more moderately over the next three days.

I overdid one day last week bigtime. The next day I went for a little extra jogging time. I also didn't have any desert for a couple days, and ate a bit less the next morning. You can balance it out in subtle ways. So if you went over 1000 extra cals one day, the next day just go back on your program, but don't "not eat" as then you are not following a program.

One day is not a big deal.

Yes, it does even out in the end, within reason.

I overate a little bit today, so instead of my regular snack at  night, I just had a nice salad instead. Saved about 150 cals right there, to make up for earlier. I keep a running calorie total for the day, so I know when I've reached my calorie limit.

For example, if I ate a ton of cheese at a party, and then added it up and it was 1000 cals too much. I would make a mental note to cut back a couple hundred the next day, and try to get 200 cals of exercise in. Then do a little more trimming the next day perhaps. All I can say is that by doing this type of  thing, I am losing weight like clockwork, and no hunger problems, except for some Craving challenges from time to time.