I go over a couple of days a week. Am I ruining everything?

So I have a question. My calorie intake is 1200 a day and for most of the week I do well with that. But there are a couple of days out of the week were I end up going over.

Now I'm not talking majorly over. I'm talking like today I ate 1310.  and Thursday I ate about 1325. One week I had a day where I got up to 1400. Is going over by that much gonna make me gain weight back? Every other day besides those two I ate 1200 or 1205.  I try to be really strict on my 1200 calorie a day thing but life happens. I get invited to dinner a lot. And I never over indulge but I still go over. It's frustrating because I have no idea if it is ok to eat 1200 one day and 1300 the next or if I am just ruining everything.

Technically speaking, you could eat 2,000 calories and as long as you still have a deficit,  you won't gain weight. That's the whole purpose of counting calories-to learn how to healthily and effectively lose or control weight. To lose, you must consume less then you burn. Though the larger your deficit, of course the quicker your lose will be. but if you're trying to maintain, then as long as you don't eat over yo maintenance, you should not gain weight back. For example, I've been counting for 3 months on Monday, lost 20 lbs. so far! At least once a week, usually Saturday, I end up eating close to my maintenance (which is 2100 on a lazy day) and it doesn't make me gain, it just doesn't help me lose.

Did I help?

That's pretty good news. So then I am not undoing anything. If anything I'm slowing my weight loss down by maintaining my current weight. I guess that makes sense.

Second everything by Kittie except the 2000 part.  Everyone's base is different and it's pretty likely that yours isn't 2000.  Go by your burn meter Total Estimate to figure out what you would have to eat to 'maintain' and not lose.

Original Post by kisteel:

Second everything by Kittie except the 2000 part.  Everyone's base is different and it's pretty likely that yours isn't 2000.  Go by your burn meter Total Estimate to figure out what you would have to eat to 'maintain' and not lose.

True. And if in fact she does burn 2000 in a day, I'd recommend that she eat 1500 calories (500 deficit), rathan than 1200, which is the bare minimum for an adult woman.

"Zig-zagging" calories can actually be a great way to keep the metabolism high in order to lose weight. If you always eat only the mininum (1200) or below that, your body will slow down your metabolism in order to save energy, because it can't know when it will get more of it.

But if you eat a different amount of calories each day (below a certain maximum, depending on your needs) you keep your body burning more.

For example: I eat between 1,200 and 2,000 calories each day. This is my food log of the last 7 days:
Sunday: 1,329
Monday: 1,463
Tuesday: 1,809
Wednesday: 1,738
Thursday: 1,439
Friday: 1,614
Saturday: 1,962

I'm moderately active and maintaining a weight of 120 lbs at 5'6".

Original Post by herzknochen:

"Zig-zagging" calories can actually be a great way to keep the metabolism high in order to lose weight. If you always eat only the mininum (1200) or below that, your body will slow down your metabolism in order to save energy, because it can't know when it will get more of it.

But if you eat a different amount of calories each day (below a certain maximum, depending on your needs) you keep your body burning more.

For example: I eat between 1,200 and 2,000 calories each day. This is my food log of the last 7 days:
Sunday: 1,329
Monday: 1,463
Tuesday: 1,809
Wednesday: 1,738
Thursday: 1,439
Friday: 1,614
Saturday: 1,962

I'm moderately active and maintaining a weight of 120 lbs at 5'6".

Hey! Sorry to butt in, but 1600 cals/day sounds a bit low for you. I am also moderately active and I need just over 1600 to maintain on rest days. And I`m both lighter and shorter than you (5'2.5'' and 113ish).

Thanks for the help everyone. it's good too know that I am most likely not gaining by going up a little, but I actually am still trying to lose so I'm just hoping I can still make it to my goal weight and then after that worry about mantaining my weight. I don't want to be the weight I am forever. I mean I'm fine but I could look a lot better if I lost about 10 more pounds.