Do you actually hold yourself to your caloric goal, or ...

ew_david

arditarose wrote: »

I eat every delicious calorie I can, and then some.

Yassss

WinoGelato

juggernaut1974 wrote: »

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

The "winner" is the person who can eat the most delicious food and still meet his/her goals.

So much this.

William4MVP

Use it as more of an estimate especially now that I'm on a cut. I don't need it but there's days where I know I don't get enough protein

tomteboda

kshama2001 wrote: »

Because exercise calories tend to be inflated, I almost never eat every single calorie. But I never get super excited about it. That sounds a little...disordered. As if someone's calorie deficit is too aggressive or they rejoice in undereating.

There's a fair number of folks here who have disordered thinking about food. Its a reality, and not surprising because dieting is something a lot of people with anorexia / bulimia / orthorexia / eating disorder not otherwise specified do.

Its also why I absolutely NEVER congratulate my friends on daily recording / not meeting their goals. I happily congratulate them on weight loss, on logging records, on exercise goals, but you're just not going to see me getting excited because someone didn't eat their calories for the day. I've been in a bad place psychologically with food, and people encouraged me to nearly kill myself. I don't want to be there, even inadvertently now with others.

blues4miles

I am technically doing TDEE-20%. I think MFP is set for me to lose .5 lb or 1 lb a week and it just so happens that number is about what I want, 1520. Sometimes I'll go weeks where I'm eating 1600 a day and I don't sweat it. I don't 'eat back' exercise calories because I want to see how this TDEE thing works. I just aim for consistent exercise on a week by week basis. I tend to have problems eating at or slightly above maintenance on the weekends, so even though 1520 might be my goal my actual average over the last 3 weeks has been 1700. I think that is where a lot of people trip up, they say "oh I'm only eating 1200 a day" but forget two days where they binged to 2200 or whatever, and that will up your average. The numbers seem to be working for me. I'm as accurate in logging what I eat and what I burn as I can be. If I stop losing or the math doesn't add up anymore I'll start with 1) making sure my logging is still accurate 2) make sure I'm being honest and working hard with exercise and then 3) consider changing something up like eating less or working out more.

daniwilford

I never hit the finished post so it doesn't show on my news feed. Because of some comments here, I may change my like patterns.

ki4eld

I do my best to eat all my allotted calories. Sometimes I fail, but I'm much better at it now than I was a couple of months ago. I generally don't eat back exercise calories if they're less than 500. However, I'm now allowed to bank calories over the week, so I can make up a really low day or even out a high day. For a year, I was day-to-day. It's taking me some time to get my head wrapped around week-to-week. I think I'm still too strict with myself, but I'm trying!

khhregister

callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »

are you kidding, i eat all my calories.

id eat all yours too, if i could.

LOLOLOL

This gave me a great laugh today!!!

I'm aiming for within ~ 100 calories of my goal calories. That's one of these large Granny Smith apples I always have in the kitchen. I figure if I'm starving I'll eat an apple and that will hold me over. And if I'm not hungry and go under by 100, I'm "banking" emergency apples for the days I really need them!

VintageFeline

I never close out my day. I don't need to see the in 5 weeks nonsense and I don't need comments on if I am over or under because I don't need that reinforcement. I know what I'm doing and why.

As others have said, I also never like or comment on others closed diary posts. I have a fair few people, men and women, netting way below minimums even if only allowing for 50% eating back of activity. I find that alarming and don't want to reinforce the behaviour. And soon I'll be deleting them, some have asked advice in the past and ignored it, if you ask again and ignore it again then poof! It worries me too much to see it.

And as for the "but yay extra losses if I'm way under my goal" crowd. Nope.

Panda_brat

If I am under be a bit anywhere from 10 -100 I do not worry about it. their are days I am over by similar amounts. in the end it balances out. Sometimes If i know I am going out to a big meal and i know I am going to over eat, i will bank a few extra calories the week before. I am in this for the long term. a day here or their does not make much of a difference.

Shana67

1300 no matter what I've added in exercise - I only go over if it's a special occasion. Like tomorrow night is a friend's birthday party. I will be well over 1300

CinderellaDaisy

I aim to eat them all. But if I'm not to hungry I don't worry about going under because I know in the next day or two I'll make up for it. It's all a balance. However right now I'm breastfeeding so I do try to make sure I get close to my goal to make sure I'm making enough milk even when I'm not to hungry.

Machka9

juggernaut1974 wrote: »

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

The "winner" is the person who can eat the most delicious food and still meet his/her goals.

I'm a winner!!!

nvmomketo

I go over or under by a few hundred calories everyday. I think of it more as an average.

sugargrammy45

My calorie limit is what my doctor and I decided on and admittedly it is less than what MFP would give me. I use it as a guide but I don't go over it. Also, I NEVER eat the added calories that my exercise gives me. I do the exercises to burn off some of what I am eating daily. I just like it that way for me.

StacyChrz

arditarose wrote: »

I eat every delicious calorie I can, and then some.

Same here

angelamichelle_xo

i dont go over by more than 50 cal.

johnlockwood19

So far after about 21 days I've been under it most days, over it once, but not by much. I do try to not be too far under it. Working so far.

lindalee0315

I eat to maintain macros, but allow myself a little leeway. Tonight, for example, we went out to eat unexpectedly. I logged my meal and am slightly over in fat, so I will stay lower on carbs. I consider it a win if I'm within 5 grams of my macro goals. The one thing I'm super-diligent about is protein. I may flex out carbs and fat a little here and there, but protein numbers I always want to be meet.

Shortcake3293

I stay within my calorie goal and never go over or use my exercise calories. If it says I have used exercise calories, I adjust how much I eat.

PAV8888

It would be great if user definable bands were green, yellow/orange and red. I would suggest that -250/+250 is orange and -100/+100 is red depending on your TDEE, goals, and accuracy of your logging.

Appropriate goal setting is part of your weight management journey.

Blindly going for the max the app allows without having a clue as to what you are doing to your body feeds into the perpetual cycle of yo-yo dieting and various eating disorders.

PAV8888

@level3tjg and @Shortcake3293 you may want to read the stickies: they are useful little tools.

BrideSept2017

I don't have a food scale yet, and I don't prepare about a fifth of my meals (I live with my folks, and I eat dinner with them frequently) so I have to guess for those meals. Because of this, I try to keep a 200-300 calorie buffer below my goal during the week. That being said, if I am particularly hungry one day, I'll eat an extra snack, and at the end of the week I will indulge a little if I have the extra weekly calories.

Eventually I want to get a food scale and a Fitbit HR to have a better idea of my daily CICO and get closer to my goal, but right now I'm satisfied and losing weight.

lulalacroix

I am more concerned about the weekly average. If I'm under by a couple hundred on one day, I will surely go over on another.

cross2bear

I use the calorie goal as a maximum, and try to eat a deficit every day to bank some calories for anything unexpected or for those days when old habits come back to bite me (not so much any more). I think whats important to consider is hunger - if eating to goal controls your hunger, then great - do that. But for me, if I am in a deficit, but not hungry, then I dont eat. I think the relationship we have with food is sometimes more important than meeting an actual food goal, and for me, the emotional/psychological component is the demon I deal with, not the nutrition etc. I can make an obsession out of virtually anything.

Francl27

Honestly, if I have 100 calories left, I can't imagine not having a cookie to make my goal.

So I keep a lower goal in order to eat less cookies.

samchez0

For the most part but I don't beat myself up if I go over by 20 or something.

platinum1k

distinctlybeautiful wrote: »

... do you just consider it a maximum that you try not to exceed?

I'm not looking for advice! I'm just super curious because based on my newsfeed it seems like people are super excited about not reaching their goals. But the deficit should already be factored into the goal...

I stay below and I never eat what I exercise off.

Protranser

When I was in a deficit, I would look at the calorie goal as a maximum that I'd try my best to not exceed. Now that I'm in maintenance, I have to look at MFP's goal as a minimum or I'll keep losing, which is not going to be productive towards my ideal body composition goal.

Carlos_421

juggernaut1974 wrote: »

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

The "winner" is the person who can eat the most delicious food and still meet his/her goals.