Do you worry about eating too many calories over your limit? How much is too much?
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xKoalaBearx
Posts: 181 Member
I see a lot of people worrying about eating too much over their calorie limit (100, 200, or 300 calories) for the day. I was exactly the same way, and I would over compensate by eating too little (100-200 calories UNDER my limit). This turned out to be detrimental to my overall progress, and for me, was completely unnecessary. I'll explain...
1. Eating too little (for me, under 1500 calories), put me in starvation mode. My metabolism slows down, I stop losing weight and even gain weight. So that's no good.
2. In order to gain a pound (a real pound, not just temporary water weight), we need to eat an EXTRA 3500 calories. And even that would take a few days for the body to fully convert. So, when I see the scale go up by 2 pounds in a day... if it was a true 2 pound weight gain, that would mean I would've had to have eaten and converted 7000 calories over the 1500 calories I'm supposed to have. 8500 calories? Overnight? No way. Therefore, it's not real.
3. I researched how many calories I would need a day to lose weight, maintain weight and gain weight. And what I found surprised me. For me, male, at age 42, when I was at 180 lbs, 5'6", no exercise, how many calories I would need to eat each and every day for 7 days in order to gain or lose 1 pound that week: (roughly)
a) lose weight: 1400-1500 cal per day (which is my NS target)
b) maintain weight: 1800-2000 cal per day (What??!!)
c) gain weight: 2300-2500 cal (What??!!) And this is every day for 1 week!
And that's with NO EXERCISE! If I include exercise, say moderately 3 times per week the numbers look like this:
a) lose weight: 1650-1850 cal
b) maintain weight: 2150-2350 cal
c) gain weight: 2650-2850 cal per day every day for a week
It's even higher if you exercise longer, harder and more frequently!
So as you can see, for me, one day of eating 100-200 calories more than my 1500 calorie recommendation is not going to affect me at all.
The problem, which got me into my obese weight level to begin with, is that I was, more often than not, eating more than 2500 calories a day, every day, every year.
Knowing the math helps put things in perspective. So don't worry about 100 or 200 calories. It's nothing in the whole scheme of things. This is why you should eat AT LEAST your 1500 calories (or whatever for your program) and not under it.
Keep fighting!!
1. Eating too little (for me, under 1500 calories), put me in starvation mode. My metabolism slows down, I stop losing weight and even gain weight. So that's no good.
2. In order to gain a pound (a real pound, not just temporary water weight), we need to eat an EXTRA 3500 calories. And even that would take a few days for the body to fully convert. So, when I see the scale go up by 2 pounds in a day... if it was a true 2 pound weight gain, that would mean I would've had to have eaten and converted 7000 calories over the 1500 calories I'm supposed to have. 8500 calories? Overnight? No way. Therefore, it's not real.
3. I researched how many calories I would need a day to lose weight, maintain weight and gain weight. And what I found surprised me. For me, male, at age 42, when I was at 180 lbs, 5'6", no exercise, how many calories I would need to eat each and every day for 7 days in order to gain or lose 1 pound that week: (roughly)
a) lose weight: 1400-1500 cal per day (which is my NS target)
b) maintain weight: 1800-2000 cal per day (What??!!)
c) gain weight: 2300-2500 cal (What??!!) And this is every day for 1 week!
And that's with NO EXERCISE! If I include exercise, say moderately 3 times per week the numbers look like this:
a) lose weight: 1650-1850 cal
b) maintain weight: 2150-2350 cal
c) gain weight: 2650-2850 cal per day every day for a week
It's even higher if you exercise longer, harder and more frequently!
So as you can see, for me, one day of eating 100-200 calories more than my 1500 calorie recommendation is not going to affect me at all.
The problem, which got me into my obese weight level to begin with, is that I was, more often than not, eating more than 2500 calories a day, every day, every year.
Knowing the math helps put things in perspective. So don't worry about 100 or 200 calories. It's nothing in the whole scheme of things. This is why you should eat AT LEAST your 1500 calories (or whatever for your program) and not under it.
Keep fighting!!
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I love how this was addressed quite often in the old forums. I used to see so many people com.t same misconceptions. It's definitely something that needs to be shouted from the rooftops: Your calorie suggestions are not calorie limits.
I'm on the women's 1200 plan, myself, and in weight loss mode I rarely go below 1300. I try to shoot for the 1300-1500 range, and I usually keep close to it, but I don't panic if I hit 1550. Keeping my head and eating the right foods is a bigger part of weight loss for me than calorie limits will ever be.0 -
Seems my phone is having some fun with me...0
