Is everyone ALWAYS under their calorie goals, or is it an average?

Emmy4444

I'm frustrated and confused by calories. I just generally hate that there's a number applied to food. But if I need to adhere to this magical numbers game to lose weight, I guess I'm stuck.

During the week, I have no problem meeting my calorie goals. I eat the same thing pretty much every day, and it's always delicious and I'm not exceptionally hungry. I also exercise 3-4 times per week, cardio + strength training.

So when I go out on the weekend and drink, or eat more than normal, or different things even, when I go over on my calories, just how detrimental is it? Am I setting back a week's worth of progress or am I just averaging out? Am I sabotaging myself just by indulging on days that are a bit more restful than others?

Numbers.

It comes down to numbers and I hate numbers. How do I wrap my head around this madness?

Christine_72

Check out what your weekly deficit is in your diary

PammieSuzyQ

I'm under 7 times out of 10, but I'm working on that.

girlviernes

I am always under, but then I have a fairly cushy goal and I have some more room from exercise daily.

girlviernes

Yeah, I would recommend you do the weekly deficit goal. You could also have one calorie goal for week days and one for the weekend. You can basically tweak this however works best for you.

kegglemax

i always try to go over, but then again im using mfp to gain weight

MelodyandBarbells

Average for me. And on the iOS app there's an option to lock down the "start" of the week to any day of your choosing for reviewing your calorie summary, rather than a seven day running total

Weekly or no weekly, though, it's possible to wipe out your efforts with a couple days of eating and drinking but I'm sure you'll put in the work to keep things balanced

flatlndr

In the last year, I've focused on the weekly average. My Mon-Fri were typically under by a bit, my Sat was usually over, and my Sun pretty much spot on.

As I heard someone say in a nutrition podcast, you don't have to be an A+ every day of this journey ... if you're B+/A- on average overall, with only the occasional F (for fail) days, you're doing fine.

(Apologies if the school grade letters don't make sense to all)

Sued0nim

Emmy4444 wrote: »

I'm frustrated and confused by calories. I just generally hate that there's a number applied to food. But if I need to adhere to this magical numbers game to lose weight, I guess I'm stuck.

During the week, I have no problem meeting my calorie goals. I eat the same thing pretty much every day, and it's always delicious and I'm not exceptionally hungry. I also exercise 3-4 times per week, cardio + strength training.

So when I go out on the weekend and drink, or eat more than normal, or different things even, when I go over on my calories, just how detrimental is it? Am I setting back a week's worth of progress or am I just averaging out? Am I sabotaging myself just by indulging on days that are a bit more restful than others?

Numbers.

It comes down to numbers and I hate numbers. How do I wrap my head around this madness?

If you don't like numbers, just use the pictures ...there lovely charts to help you

Weekly averages are what counts

Use this chart on the app and set it to last 7 days ...

lieajane

TBH, I hate numbers too. I've started to weigh SOME of my food out of curiosity but I certainly don't track all my food and exercise - the levels of crazy it would drive me to are just not worth the extra weight loss.
Instead, I try to eat consciously - know roughly what I'm eating and why, and be sure that the food has something other than carbohydrates to sustain me. BUT - for me, weight loss is a side effect to fitness and feeling healthy, plus I enjoy working out and would choose a bike ride over a burger any day (problem is most days I would go for a bike ride and have multiple burgers and cake too). YMMV.

Don't forget your calorie goal already has a deficict built in, so you do have a little room to not count it perfectly, if you're willing to accept that your weight loss will be slower than predicted.

tigerlily_

I agree with the others - I'm under my calorie goal some days so that I know I've got a 'cushion' for if I go out and drink too much wine / eat a whole pizza on other days. I find this a LOT easier than trying to stick to an exact number every day with no wiggle room for general life fun

elixile

I'm with others on this. I do go over (usually at the weekend) but look at weekly average as I'm going along. As Lieajane mentioned, your goal already is at deficit (if you're not on maintain or gain) so if you keep to around that you will lose weight. I have lost a stone but it has been slow for me as I've not been that strict. I want this to be a long-term change so I'm trying to be realistic and therefore patient.

Though I know what to do though to lose more quickly now and have identified parts of my diary which could be reduced to help that (for me milky coffees and alcohol play a huge part). That's why logging is really helpful, even if you aren't weighing everything to the nth degree. But if you are less strict, expect to lose less quickly.

Ooci

I think it does very much depend where you are in your weight loss journey. There's a lot less wiggle room at the end of it - where I am now.
I've pretty much always gone over my goal and I've lost weight - 40 lb - quickly at first - more slowly as it went along - grinding to a halt at times during the 14 months I've been doing this.
I'm still finding I can get away with one bad day if I'm on or slightly under the calorie goal the other days.

TimothyFish

I don't give myself permission to eat more than the daily limit.

GingerbreadCandy

I am always under, but then again, I exercise (do yoga) daily, and depending I either won't or will eat half of my exercise calories back. (20 min of Yoga, for instance, among to 95 calories in MFP or something like that. since MFP tends to grossly overestimate the burn, however, I don't see a point).

TheEats

I average over the week. I am usually under Monday to Friday, and then use my "spare" calories at the weekend, to indulge in some chocolate, biscuits and richer meals. Works well!

ITVGuy2000

I'm not. I just try to be honest. Bad day... log it... good day... log it and celebrate it. It seems like most of the folks I am friend-ed with log pretty honestly. I try.

BuddhaMom74

rabbitjb wrote: »

Emmy4444 wrote: »

I'm frustrated and confused by calories. I just generally hate that there's a number applied to food. But if I need to adhere to this magical numbers game to lose weight, I guess I'm stuck.

During the week, I have no problem meeting my calorie goals. I eat the same thing pretty much every day, and it's always delicious and I'm not exceptionally hungry. I also exercise 3-4 times per week, cardio + strength training.

So when I go out on the weekend and drink, or eat more than normal, or different things even, when I go over on my calories, just how detrimental is it? Am I setting back a week's worth of progress or am I just averaging out? Am I sabotaging myself just by indulging on days that are a bit more restful than others?

Numbers.

It comes down to numbers and I hate numbers. How do I wrap my head around this madness?

If you don't like numbers, just use the pictures ...there lovely charts to help you

Weekly averages are what counts

Use this chart on the app and set it to last 7 days ...

Mind. Blown. Love this! Didn't know it existed!!

Jagerin

I'm generally under my goal count for the day, but I do try to get as close as possible. Most days, I end up with 50-100 calories left over. That is usually taken care of on Saturdays when I have my weekly gaming sessions and we drink a lot of vodka and rum. It all evens out.

lbride

I always go over my cal goal on the weekend. Still end up losing.