Do you eat all your suggested calories?

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Replies

  • spoonyspork
    spoonyspork Posts: 238 Member
    No. I make sure I meet most of my nutritional needs (mainly: always at least 100% on the protein and at least 90-100% of fats and carbs) on whatever I feel like eating for the day and 'bank' the rest in case of weekend partying or having a really 'hungry' day. If weekend partying doesn't happen then I just drop more weight that week!

    I do make sure to net at least 1200, though I don't eat back my exercise calories except to net at least that, and make sure I go over 100% on carbs, fats, and proteins days I do exercise.

    I'm very close to maintenance now but have been doing it this way all along. Still averaging ~1.5 lb/wk loss (not still losing 1.5/wk consistently -- the average just continues to be that because it was a LOT more in the beginning and a LOT less now).
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    christinev297 wrote: »
    MCIBTY wrote: »
    Rockin2014 wrote: »
    No. I don't eat my exercise calories back. I've been losing 2 pounds weekly.

    Um, why not?

    probably quicker weight loss.

    Speaking for myself, it irks me to do all that exercise only to eat all that hard work back.

    I don't exercise for calorie burn. Example: I do strength training to keep as much lean muscle as I can while eating at a deficit. If I increase my deficit too much (not eating back any calories) then the hard work of strength training is defeated....it's like working out to increase muscle loss.

    OP - we all have different goals. Bottom line, pick numbers that are sustainable for you.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    why wouldn't I? that calorie goal is a deficit based on the stats I put in...provided you put your information in accurately, I don't know why you wouldn't.

    what do you think is a lot? I lose weight easily on 2300 - 2500 calories per day...I need around 3000 to maintain. Most women who do just light exercise a few days per week can maintain around 2000 calories per day.

    "A lot" is always going to be relative...your caloric needs vary depending on stats and activity.
  • brightsideofpink
    brightsideofpink Posts: 1,018 Member
    I think the only time I didn't is when I had the stomach flu. Because stomach flu.

    Otherwise, every single delicious one of them. 60 lbs gone in 48 weeks.

    I should note that I spent a great amount of time examining what the appropriate deficit was for my goals, and how to get there. I carefully weigh and log. I set my goal for a reason. Changing the inputs changes the output, and as I said, I chose that output with careful consideration.
  • Britxclarity
    Britxclarity Posts: 235 Member
    I don't eat all of my mfp calories it gave me 2920.. When night time rolls around I usually have 1500 or more still left over. It worries me that I am doing it wrong? Should I be trying to reach 2920 everything? Granted I know before I could easily eat over 2920 in a day just by buying combo meals at fast food places and such..
    But since I'm trying to eat clean and actually consider what I put in my mouth.. I can't reach up to that number cause at the end of the night I'm full.

    All of this stuff is confusing I'm scared that since I'm not in taking the 2920 that Im slowing down the weight I could be losing weekly. And also my excersise that I do definitely does not burn a lot of calories for what I'm in taking for example: yesterday I used about 1600+ of my Calories but I only burned 478 of them while excesising for 23 minutes
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    kayfaei wrote: »
    I don't eat all of my mfp calories it gave me 2920.. When night time rolls around I usually have 1500 or more still left over. It worries me that I am doing it wrong? Should I be trying to reach 2920 everything? Granted I know before I could easily eat over 2920 in a day just by buying combo meals at fast food places and such..
    But since I'm trying to eat clean and actually consider what I put in my mouth.. I can't reach up to that number cause at the end of the night I'm full.

    All of this stuff is confusing I'm scared that since I'm not in taking the 2920 that Im slowing down the weight I could be losing weekly. And also my excersise that I do definitely does not burn a lot of calories for what I'm in taking for example: yesterday I used about 1600+ of my Calories but I only burned 478 of them while excesising for 23 minutes

    So what weight loss goal did you select?

    Like if 2 lbs weekly, that 2920 is already 1000 below what you burned in the day, and you missed it by another 1500, so eating well under 1/2 what you are burning.
    Body won't like that for long.
    Bigger is not better.

    But, what exercise did you do burning 478 cal in 23 min?
    That's actually very high - so either little to lose and very fit and very intense workout, or a lot to lose and fit and pretty decent workout.
  • Rockin2014
    Rockin2014 Posts: 196 Member
    MCIBTY wrote: »
    Rockin2014 wrote: »
    No. I don't eat my exercise calories back. I've been losing 2 pounds weekly.

    Um, why not?

    Because I'm not hungry, my energy levels are great and I can't see why I should eat them just to eat them?
  • Britxclarity
    Britxclarity Posts: 235 Member
    edited April 2015
    heybales wrote: »
    kayfaei wrote: »
    I don't eat all of my mfp calories it gave me 2920.. When night time rolls around I usually have 1500 or more still left over. It worries me that I am doing it wrong? Should I be trying to reach 2920 everything? Granted I know before I could easily eat over 2920 in a day just by buying combo meals at fast food places and such..
    But since I'm trying to eat clean and actually consider what I put in my mouth.. I can't reach up to that number cause at the end of the night I'm full.

    All of this stuff is confusing I'm scared that since I'm not in taking the 2920 that Im slowing down the weight I could be losing weekly. And also my excersise that I do definitely does not burn a lot of calories for what I'm in taking for example: yesterday I used about 1600+ of my Calories but I only burned 478 of them while excesising for 23 minutes

    So what weight loss goal did you select?

    Like if 2 lbs weekly, that 2920 is already 1000 below what you burned in the day, and you missed it by another 1500, so eating well under 1/2 what you are burning.
    Body won't like that for long.
    Bigger is not better.

    But, what exercise did you do burning 478 cal in 23 min?
    That's actually very high - so either little to lose and very fit and very intense workout, or a lot to lose and fit and pretty decent workout.

    I'm sorry you lost me a little - the weight loss goal? If you are asking my goal weight I set it to 173. But I a in the very low 400s if that helps.. The excersise I chose always is aerobic general. I use a treadmill and a galzelle or however you spell it
    And sorry op didn't mean to hijack your thread just hope I am doing this correctly
  • jcox147125
    jcox147125 Posts: 11 Member
    I do but I have a fitbit so I feel its a bit more accurate for exercise burns than general tracking on MFP. Sometimes I will leave a couple hundred calories on active days as a buffer for my less active days though!
  • jkwolly
    jkwolly Posts: 3,049 Member
    I eat all the calories.
  • Unknown
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  • vchan000
    vchan000 Posts: 38 Member
    I eat to within about 100-200 calories of my every day goal, and if I've exercised that day I eat about half to 3/4s the calories MFP says I've burned if I'm hungry. If I'm not feeling hungry or it's less than a couple hours until bedtime, I leave the exercise calories on the table.

    My meals are generally planned about the daily non exercise calorie limit and I make up the difference if needed with snacks.

  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    Yes unless I am sick I eat to my limit. I usually exercise and eat a portion of the exercise calories back.
    My goal is 1270 which is not a lot for most people since 1200 is usually the minimum reccomended amount. I would consider eating above 1800 to 2000 calories to be a lot for me.
    What is a lot of calories for you?
  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,652 Member
    HappyCampr1 wrote: »
    One of my favorite quotes - "the trick is not to eat as little as you can. It's to eat as much as you can while still losing weight."
    That's my favorite one to ignore.

  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    kayfaei wrote: »
    heybales wrote: »
    kayfaei wrote: »
    I don't eat all of my mfp calories it gave me 2920.. When night time rolls around I usually have 1500 or more still left over. It worries me that I am doing it wrong? Should I be trying to reach 2920 everything? Granted I know before I could easily eat over 2920 in a day just by buying combo meals at fast food places and such..
    But since I'm trying to eat clean and actually consider what I put in my mouth.. I can't reach up to that number cause at the end of the night I'm full.

    All of this stuff is confusing I'm scared that since I'm not in taking the 2920 that Im slowing down the weight I could be losing weekly. And also my excersise that I do definitely does not burn a lot of calories for what I'm in taking for example: yesterday I used about 1600+ of my Calories but I only burned 478 of them while excesising for 23 minutes

    So what weight loss goal did you select?

    Like if 2 lbs weekly, that 2920 is already 1000 below what you burned in the day, and you missed it by another 1500, so eating well under 1/2 what you are burning.
    Body won't like that for long.
    Bigger is not better.

    But, what exercise did you do burning 478 cal in 23 min?
    That's actually very high - so either little to lose and very fit and very intense workout, or a lot to lose and fit and pretty decent workout.

    I'm sorry you lost me a little - the weight loss goal? If you are asking my goal weight I set it to 173. But I a in the very low 400s if that helps.. The excersise I chose always is aerobic general. I use a treadmill and a galzelle or however you spell it
    And sorry op didn't mean to hijack your thread just hope I am doing this correctly

    When you set up your MFP profile, besides a goal weight, you selected a weekly weight loss amount.
    Most select 2 lbs weekly because they want to lose it fast, be it reasonable or not for amount to lose. For you it is.

    That means MFP already has your eating goal 1000 less then it think you burn on non-exercise days.
    And on exercise days when you burn more, you log it and eat more, to keep that same 1000 cal deficit.
    But you are missing your goal by 1500, so you have a 2500 cal deficit, which indeed means you eat less than 1/2 what you burn.

    Now, about what your burn, don't log walking as aerobic general when there is walking in the database - just be honest with the time and pace you went. If you walked 1 hr and 3 miles, then don't log it as 1 hr and 4 mph because you eventually got up to that speed.
    If the gazelle feels like the same level of effort, heart beating, breathing rate, log it the same.
    Those walking/running entries are accurate for calorie burn because they have specific speed with them - aerobic general has no intensity to it - you have no idea if your level matches what it's intended to be for.

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