Eating calories based on activity? How?

WorkInProgress909
WorkInProgress909 Posts: 271 Member
edited November 2024 in Food and Nutrition
How do you eat calories based on how many calories you burned that day ? I need to plan my meals and do food shopping in advance for the week. If I exercise less or more than my goal and need to adjust my meal calories accordingly.. how do you do this? I hate buying food or preparing food and then having to throw it out because it did not fit my calorie goal. Or the opposite not buying enough healthy food to have around in case I need to eat more calories.

Replies

  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    If I'm hungrier, I just eat more. If there are no leftovers, I make something, like a salad or an omelette. Maybe I grab some granola or fruit or whatever.

    I just have food in the house, though. I don't plan everything out, so I'm not taking food away from next Thursday or anything.
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
    Keep in mind that MFP isn't adding calories based on what you say your workouts will be in your goals. That's just a goal, not an actuality. Instead, it's giving you a calorie goal based on your statistics, how active you say you are and how many pounds you want to lose per week. If you exercise, MFP will then add calories to that day's calorie goal that you will eat to maintain your goal deficit of .5 to 2 pounds per week.

    My suggestion would be to have some snacks on hand that won't spoil quickly you can use to supplement your meals as needed. I keep things like string cheese, Babybel cheeses, nuts, popsicles, protein powder, multigrain crackers, etc. in the house at all times. They have a long enough shelf life that I'm not tossing them if I don't eat them all in one week.
  • rosebarnalice
    rosebarnalice Posts: 3,488 Member
    I love my freezer. I can portion large recipes out into individual servings and then pull them out as needed. If I have a day where I didn't get a workout in, I don't pull out as much.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,487 Member
    I do the TDEE method and just eat the same calorie goal every day. I don't like trying to hit a moving target. How much are you exercising though that you need that much extra food??
  • Unknown
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  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    get out of the day to day minutia...your weight management isn't predicated on day to day, it is predicated on where you are over time.

    I have days when I'm over and days when I'm under, etc...in the end, the net effect is what counts, not my day to day. You don't gain or lose fat day to day.
    WorkInProgress909 wrote: »
    I am doing tdee also but there are days when I need to skip the gym and then I feel guilty eating so much. When I do exercise I can reach 1000 calories. But there are days when I'm not exercising at all because I oversleep or busy. So yes there is a difference in how much food I need.

    with the TDEE method, it nets out over the week, month, etc...don't drown in minutia.
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