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

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  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,131 Member
    edited January 2016
    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
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,131 Member
    edited January 2016
    @level3tjg and @Shortcake3293 you may want to read the stickies: they are useful little tools.
  • BrideSept2017
    BrideSept2017 Posts: 28 Member
    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
    lulalacroix Posts: 1,082 Member
    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
    cross2bear Posts: 1,106 Member
    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
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    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
    samchez0 Posts: 364 Member
    For the most part but I don't beat myself up if I go over by 20 or something.
  • platinum1k
    platinum1k Posts: 20 Member
    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
    Protranser Posts: 517 Member
    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
    Carlos_421 Posts: 5,132 Member
    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.

    tumblr_n2idehndbj1ra11u8o7_400.gif

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