Weekly Calorie Budget
Hitting a perfect daily calorie target every day is unrealistic. This calculator lets you bank calories on light days and spend them on the days that matter — weekends, dinners out, heavier training days — while keeping your weekly total on track.
Weekly Calorie Budget
Range: 1,000–4,000 cal/day
Range: 100–600 extra calories on high-demand days
Weekly calorie pool
15,400
2,200 × 7 days
Banked for high days
+600
2 days × 300 cal
Your week at a glance
Mon
2,080
cal
Tue
2,080
cal
Wed
2,080
cal
Thu
2,080
cal
Fri
2,500
cal
Sat
2,500
cal
Sun
2,080
cal
Total: 15,400 cal ✓
How the weekly budget works
- 🏦Bank and spend: Your body doesn't track calories by the day — it tracks energy balance over days and weeks. Eating less Monday–Thursday and more on the weekend is metabolically equivalent to hitting the same average every day.
- 📅The 90/10 rule: If you nail your target 5–6 days a week and let the other 1–2 be higher, you're still in a meaningful deficit. Rigid daily tracking often leads to all-or-nothing thinking. Flexible weekly budgeting is more sustainable.
- 🎯Pre-planning high days: Knowing your "spend" number in advance removes guilt. You're not breaking the plan — you ARE the plan.
Guardrails
- ⚠️1,200 cal/day floor: Going below this consistently isn't a harder version of a diet — it's a fast. It significantly raises muscle loss risk, slows metabolism, and is very hard to maintain. If your light-day target hits this, pull back on your bonus or reduce the number of high-demand days.
- 📉Don't save more than ~500/day: Saving 600+ calories across multiple days to "spend" in one go tends to trigger hunger and cravings that make the spending day spiral. Smaller swings are easier to manage.
Don't know your daily target?
Start with the TDEE Calculator to find your maintenance and goal calories.
Read: The Weekly Calorie Budget
The full science behind flexible calorie banking and how to make it work long-term.
