How not to eat when you can afford to?

mkakids

I intentionally plan my days to have 1,000+ calories left at night. My non exercise days are 1500 calories, so I have 250 for bfast and lunch. That leaves 1000 for dinner and snacks! Yay! When I exercise I count back 50% and try to eat them all.

DaddieCat

Food is food. Nothing is good or bad as long as it's safely edible and fits in your calorie goals.

I would eat whatever i want and often fill my calorie gap with ice cream at the end of the night and it works for me.

Do whatever is sustainable for you. If you start demonizing types of food that you aren't willing to do without forever, then you run high risk of failure when you reintegrate those foods back into your diet.

I also agree with TDEE and use that method myself. The trick with TDEE is that it requires experimentation over time to find your true TDEE and it may shift depending on your current lifestyle. you have to make subtle adjustments based on loss or gain over time. I tend to reevaluate ever 6 weeks or so and make adjustments up or down depending on what the scale trends show. Note that I say trends. I weigh daily so that I have plenty of data points on m graph. it allows me to find an actual trend up or down, as I can easily fluctuate 7 lbs on any given day based on time of day, diet, type of exercise that day, etc.

You do not have to weigh daily, but taking some form of regular measurement under the same circumstances each time will help.

LovLeigh416

robertw486 wrote: »

LovLeigh416 wrote: »

So, you eat a little, you workout a lot, and at the end of the day you still have like 1,000 calories you can technically eat. How do you NOT go to McDonalds or eat pizza or something you know is bad but totally have the calorie budget for?

It's easy. For me, I eat less in the morning, work out a little harder sometimes, and have 2,000 calories I can eat before the end of the day. And I usually do eat most of them. Not at McDonalds, but that's up to you.

If you have calories to eat, you can eat them. My today included cake... big pieces of cake. And sometimes my days include all kinds of other stuff people want to label as "bad". On top of that, I usually eat at LEAST 50% of my calories at dinner time or later.

See, this is what I want to do

LovLeigh416

BecomingBane wrote: »

Food is food. Nothing is good or bad as long as it's safely edible and fits in your calorie goals.

I would eat whatever i want and often fill my calorie gap with ice cream at the end of the night and it works for me.

Do whatever is sustainable for you. If you start demonizing types of food that you aren't willing to do without forever, then you run high risk of failure when you reintegrate those foods back into your diet.

I also agree with TDEE and use that method myself. The trick with TDEE is that it requires experimentation over time to find your true TDEE and it may shift depending on your current lifestyle. you have to make subtle adjustments based on loss or gain over time. I tend to reevaluate ever 6 weeks or so and make adjustments up or down depending on what the scale trends show. Note that I say trends. I weigh daily so that I have plenty of data points on m graph. it allows me to find an actual trend up or down, as I can easily fluctuate 7 lbs on any given day based on time of day, diet, type of exercise that day, etc.

You do not have to weigh daily, but taking some form of regular measurement under the same circumstances each time will help.

I like this no food is bad attitude. But wow 7lbs of fluctuation in a day?

LovLeigh416

blankiefinder wrote: »

You are supposed to eat what MFP tells you to. What are you logging for burns? For example, 30 minutes of running at x speed for 300 cal

I never run lol I walk 2 mi in about 35 mins avg at 3.5 and burn around 200cals

DaddieCat

LovLeigh416 wrote: »

BecomingBane wrote: »

Food is food. Nothing is good or bad as long as it's safely edible and fits in your calorie goals.

I would eat whatever i want and often fill my calorie gap with ice cream at the end of the night and it works for me.

Do whatever is sustainable for you. If you start demonizing types of food that you aren't willing to do without forever, then you run high risk of failure when you reintegrate those foods back into your diet.

I also agree with TDEE and use that method myself. The trick with TDEE is that it requires experimentation over time to find your true TDEE and it may shift depending on your current lifestyle. you have to make subtle adjustments based on loss or gain over time. I tend to reevaluate ever 6 weeks or so and make adjustments up or down depending on what the scale trends show. Note that I say trends. I weigh daily so that I have plenty of data points on m graph. it allows me to find an actual trend up or down, as I can easily fluctuate 7 lbs on any given day based on time of day, diet, type of exercise that day, etc.

You do not have to weigh daily, but taking some form of regular measurement under the same circumstances each time will help.

I like this no food is bad attitude. But wow 7lbs of fluctuation in a day?

Yep. But it depends on activity and hydration for me. I lift... heavy and depleting muscle glycogen can change quite a bit for me. Not saying it will be that way for everyone but I have measured it... bit as I said... lots of factors go into that.

LovLeigh416

Ok so now I'm confused. My TDEE is way more than my calorie allotment and I don't get why? I selected lose fat and gain muscle but I didn't mean I didn't want the number on the scale to move? I would like to lose fat, weight less, and gain muscle. Does that not make sense?

rankinsect

LovLeigh416 wrote: »

Ok so now I'm confused. My TDEE is way more than my calorie allotment and I don't get why? I selected lose fat and gain muscle but I didn't mean I didn't want the number on the scale to move?

That's what that option means, if you want to lose weight, pick "lose fat". "Lose fat gain muscle" essentially means you want to keep your weight constant.

LovLeigh416

rankinsect wrote: »

LovLeigh416 wrote: »

Ok so now I'm confused. My TDEE is way more than my calorie allotment and I don't get why? I selected lose fat and gain muscle but I didn't mean I didn't want the number on the scale to move?

That's what that option means, if you want to lose weight, pick "lose fat". "Lose fat gain muscle" essentially means you want to keep your weight constant.

Ok. How about that macros ratio? It seems like a lot of carbs?

rankinsect

LovLeigh416 wrote: »

rankinsect wrote: »

LovLeigh416 wrote: »

Ok so now I'm confused. My TDEE is way more than my calorie allotment and I don't get why? I selected lose fat and gain muscle but I didn't mean I didn't want the number on the scale to move?

That's what that option means, if you want to lose weight, pick "lose fat". "Lose fat gain muscle" essentially means you want to keep your weight constant.

Ok. How about that macros ratio? It seems like a lot of carbs?

I don't pay too much attention to my carbs, I mainly try to hit proteins, and let the rest split between fat and carbs however it happens to fall on a given day.

Some people do better by reducing carbs, but it's not necessary. Personally, I just try to pick foods I find satisfying, which tends to reduce some carbs, particularly sweets, but I don't aim low carb. I think I'm around 46% carb over the past few months, and I'm doing fine.

I don't find a benefit in carefully controlling carbs that is worth the effort of adding another dietary constraint, because every additional thing you try to do means you spend more time planning meals out. I keep a rigid calorie goal that I try to adhere to very strongly, a looser protein goal that I aim for but don't worry terribly about if I miss by a bit, and don't control anything else except to try to plan meals that I find filling.

Others find a benefit in low carb that outweighs the cost in terms of additional planning and dietary restriction. Whatever works for you.

LovLeigh416

rankinsect wrote: »

LovLeigh416 wrote: »

rankinsect wrote: »

LovLeigh416 wrote: »

Ok so now I'm confused. My TDEE is way more than my calorie allotment and I don't get why? I selected lose fat and gain muscle but I didn't mean I didn't want the number on the scale to move?

That's what that option means, if you want to lose weight, pick "lose fat". "Lose fat gain muscle" essentially means you want to keep your weight constant.

Ok. How about that macros ratio? It seems like a lot of carbs?

I don't pay too much attention to my carbs, I mainly try to hit proteins, and let the rest split between fat and carbs however it happens to fall on a given day.

Some people do better by reducing carbs, but it's not necessary. Personally, I just try to pick foods I find satisfying, which tends to reduce some carbs, particularly sweets, but I don't aim low carb. I think I'm around 46% carb over the past few months, and I'm doing fine.

I don't find a benefit in carefully controlling carbs that is worth the effort of adding another dietary constraint, because every additional thing you try to do means you spend more time planning meals out. I keep a rigid calorie goal that I try to adhere to very strongly, a looser protein goal that I aim for but don't worry terribly about if I miss by a bit, and don't control anything else except to try to plan meals that I find filling.

Others find a benefit in low carb that outweighs the cost in terms of additional planning and dietary restriction. Whatever works for you.

Thanks Rankinsect. Very helpful. One last question. Which of the calorie numbers am I supposed to be eating? The BMR of the daily based on option 6? I is it saying that second larger number is what I can eat based on my activity level (so it's taking into account exercise burns?)? I think I read someone say that but I can't remember if it was this number or the TDEE one that includes exercise

rankinsect

BMR: Basal metabolic rate, this is basically the number of calories you burn if you were in a coma. It's the bare minimum just to keep your body functional and alive.

TDEE: Total Daily Energy Expenditure. This is the average number of calories you burn in a day.

If you are not in a coma (and I hope you never are!) if you eat exactly at your TDEE, your weight will not change over time. It will fluctuate up and down like all our weights do, but it will stay in the same range over time.

To lose weight, you need to eat some amount less than your TDEE. As a quick rule, -500 calories per day means a weight loss of one pound per week. Essentially, your body burns the TDEE every day, and most of that energy comes from your food, but 500 calories more are needed, so your body burns 500 calories of stored fat. This is all that is meant by eating in a deficit - you eat 500 calories less than you burn, so you lose 500 calories of fat per day (in actuality you lose from fat and muscle both, but if you keep weight loss to reasonable levels - no more than 1% body weight per week - and try to be active, you lose mainly fat).

The calculated number from your goal in step 6 is creating this calorie deficit that allows you to lose weight.