Should I eat what MFP tells me to calorie wise or am I okay staying under ?

jjhall1990

I have managed to lose weight earlier in the year however over the last 6 weeks have put a few pounds back on. I am now a couple weeks into trying to be 'healthy' again.

And the main dillema I have on days I am eating well is whether I should really push to be on the calories that MFP have given me as mroe often than not I fall short and dont worry too much about this.

Thanks

Sued0nim

mfp is a NEAT calculation

it lets you lose weight based on your settings without purposeful exercise

yes you should, over the week, eat the calories allowed

plus you should eat back at least 50% of your purposeful exercise calories

but only if you log accurately by weight - otherwise you might need the spare capacity for errors

jjhall1990

Thank you for the reply - at the moment I tend to eat a few 100 calories under most days in the week...knowing that I will be more tempted to have food at the weekend with a high calorie count.

If this evens itself out over the week to be daily goal * 7 there wont be much impact ? I have heard myths such as eating too few a calories will put yourself into starvation mode where fat will not be burnt and just wanted to make sure that I am not spiting myself not eating those extra few calories.

pinkteapot3

They are myths - ignore them.

You can save a few calories up during the week to go over a bit at the weekend. Before MFP, I used Weight Watchers which is exactly the same but with points instead of calories. With WW you are formally allowed to spread your points over the week. You can't go for longer than a week (ie you can't go under for a month then have a massive weekend binge!) - but you can go under/over during a week, so long as you're on target for the week as a whole. I took the same approach with MFP and it worked for me.

I lost 20lbs between January and May and have maintained since, using MFP tracking throughout (321 day streak at the mo!).

I ate all my cals plus all my exercise cals, but I log both food and exercise extremely accurately.

Pearlaceous

rabbitjb wrote: »

mfp is a NEAT calculation

it lets you lose weight based on your settings without purposeful exercise

yes you should, over the week, eat the calories allowed

plus you should eat back at least 50% of your purposeful exercise calories

but only if you log accurately by weight - otherwise you might need the spare capacity for errors

Sorry to jump in on this thread - hope I am not being rude! - but I have a question about NEAT and purposeful exercise.
I have put myself as sedentary, although I dog walk and also muck out horse stable every day but that is not purposeful exercise.

My two questions are:

(1) How much actual "purposeful exercise" per week is lightly active?

(2) I don't understand about eating back calories. If, for example, I put myself as lightly active, then MFP gives me a higher daily allowance so that is more calories I can eat. If I did, for example, one hour of cardio 3 times a week, can I then eat back the calories burned during that purposeful exercise? My understanding was that the lightly active calorie allowance was higher to take into account purposeful exercise, so if I eat back calories burned during this cardio, aren't I in effect eating more calories TWICE? Do Not understand!!!

pinkteapot3

I put 'sedentary' as I do a desk job. I regular cycle and run, and log those as exercise and eat back the cals. I use apps to record my runs and rides so I know exactly how long I've done, and my speed (no guesstimates).

I suppose I was actually slightly eating under as I didn't log general walking about during the day (eg the five mins to/from the work car park).

I think that if you do a decent dog walk every day, and also muck out the horses, 'lightly active' would probably be about right for your general calories including these activities. However, an hour of cardio should be logged on top for extra calories.

'Lightly active' will add a fixed amount - obviously you could then do an hour a week of cardio, or 12 hours a week, and it wouldn't be accurate for both.

The alternative is to put 'sedentary' and log all exercise. If you know how far you walk your dog you could log that as walking.

Soopatt

I agree with the advice above about setting yourself as sedentary and logging any exercise you do, then eat half back. It is what I do and it is a safe plan - that way if you have a lazy week without exercise you do not need to worry about eating too many calories or trying to work it out again.

auddii

I also save calories for the weekend, so I'm general is not a bad concept. But, my daily goal is 2100-2300 calories a day. It's much easier to hit my nutritional goals while saving calories than someone who has a goal of 1200 every day.

Save calories if it works for you, but I would aim for at least 1100ish every day to hit your nutrition minimums.

Liftng4Lis

It's fine to bank calories for the weekend. A lot of people use a weekly goal, instead of daily.

Pearlaceous

Thank you everyone, and I will keep my setting as sedentary and try to work out how many calories I can allow for dog walking and mucking out the stable and use them as extra calories for meals out etc.
With regard to the OP's question, I think it is fine to go slightly under and then keep these calories for the weekend! That is what I do actually as I eat about 1150. Mine is set at 1200 to lose half a pound per week, and actually I have been losing nearer one pound, so probably I could eat more daily, but I like the option of being able to eat more at the weekend! I think this works for many?

mylittlerainbow

I consider the daily allowance as a ceiling and aim at about 100 calories below it, too. And I don't eat back my exercise calories. But for me, it's because MFP won't let me program under 1200 calories per day and says I'll only lose 0.4 lbs per week at that pace. Not acceptable to me! I'm aiming at 1 lb per week at the minimum (and I've been 1 - 2 lbs per week all along, so it's fine with me). (I'm barely 5 feet tall and was weighing 97 pounds before I gained all the weight that I'm losing now, so the 1200 really is a high ceiling for me to keep losing.)