Newbie has a question

dmcquist

Hey All,

I'm on my 3rd day tracking food and movement with MFP and a Jawbone Up24. I just finished dinner and still have 782 calories left for today. Am I getting ahead by not eating them or is it important that I eat all of my calories each day?

Thanks.

Ready2Rock206

Eat them!! You're just setting yourself up for failure if you try to starve yourself skinny. Not a good plan at all.

neveragain84

Ready2Rock206 wrote: »

Eat them!! You're just setting yourself up for failure if you try to starve yourself skinny. Not a good plan at all.

This. Don't deprive yourself. You have enough calories for a yummy snack. Many times I save calories just so I can splurge later. Eat them.

stixwithit

My dietician has told me to eat the calories otherwise your body goes into "starvation" mode and doesn't know when you will feed it next and "hangs on" to the food you do eat instead of burning them.

kaydoh2014

In my experience, eating NONE of them back works against you. You come in 800 cals under your goal regularly and your body really will go into starvation mode. It doesn't take much to go into starvation mode. My suggestion, and I'm sure the suggestion of most people who will answer, is to eat back most of them. How many you leave remaining depends on you and how your body is adjusting to all of the other changes. And remember, MFP calculates your daily goal so that in a week you will lose what you've entered as your weekly goal. Which means that even if you're a little over your goal every day, you can still lose weight that week. You just won't lose as much that week as you'd have lost if you stayed at or just under your goal every day. Happy logging!

ShellyBell999

I eat 1/2 to 2/3 of my exercise cals back while losing weight. I only eat them all when I'm on maintenance. Having 20-30% left over is a good amount for dropping lbs.
you can't lose if your not in a deficit.
Good Luck!