Your Calorie Goal

pichu318

This is more of a curiousity and opinion based question.

When creating your calorie goal do you base it on the amount you want to eat in a day or the Net? Do you decide that you will only eat X amount of calories unless you earn more, or do you eat X amount of calories and everything you burn is bonus?

Edit: Personally I try to eat between 1,350-1,650 calories regardless of what I burn. I do try to burn enough that MFP says that I am at a net between 1,000-1,200, but that is a secondary objective to me.

Ninkyou

I use the TDEE approach, which means I eat the same amount everyday. However, that includes any and all exercise I'll do throughout the week. It's already been factored into my calorie goal.

WendyLaubach

I try to hit roughly the same daily calories regardless of what I burn. On the other hand, what I burn from day to day is very consistent, and I've proved to myself over several weeks that this particular balance feels OK and is sustainable. It might be different if my exercise routine changed dramatically from day to day. But I'm trying to get thoroughly used to a new volume of eating, which means it's important to me to eat about the same every day.

Sued0nim

I have a basic calorie goal from MFP set at sedentary

And I eat that

I'm not sedentary but my fitbit picks up on the difference and I eat that too

I workout hard generally 3 times a week, log it with a mixture of experience and HRM read outs and eat that

I don't necessarily eat them that day but across the week

I've also found with ongoing tracking that my maintenance is around 1000-2000 higher per week than all the estimates and gadgets I own so I generally go over weekly by between 500 and 2500 calories but I monitor that too

dhimaan

Old TDEE was 2500. Still trying to find out new maintenance. Try to get at least 2200 calories.

melonaulait

I dropped my goal down to 1350 but I never eat the same amount every day so the actual goal is pretty irrelevant. I try to keep a 1300-1600 net. My TDEE is supposedly 1900 something when sedentary...

girlviernes

So, my goal is to eat 1800 kcals per day and burn 2800 kcals per day. However, if I want to (e.g. out at a party) I can eat more, up to having only a 500 kcal deficit.