More important to eat enough calories or not go over macros?

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southpaw211
southpaw211 Posts: 385 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I guess I'm kind of addressing this to the TDEE - 20% etc crowd, as that's what I'm doing to lose.

I'm working out my dinner/after dinner meals for today, and I'm going to be under on calories and protein and over on carbs and fat. I plan to take a short run tonight, which will probably burn about 250 calories. I should be eating around 1600 calories total, maybe 1700. So is it more important for me to get those extra calories in, or to not go over on carbs? I'm not too worried about fat, as I think my fat could be about 10 grams higher, based on my calculations.

I haven't eaten anything I've logged past my afternoon snack, so I'm just playing around with my diary, trying to make it jive before I actually do eat. Some days, planning my food is like putting pieces of a puzzle together! :ohwell:

Replies

  • Showcase_Brodown
    Showcase_Brodown Posts: 919 Member
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    I usually don't fret too much about fat vs. carbs. If I hit 30% protein and my calorie goal, I am happy. I'd aim to hit your calorie goal first and foremost if you are looking to lose weight. Protein is the first macro I would focus on after that.
  • iarelarry
    iarelarry Posts: 201 Member
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    Calories!
  • JesterMFP
    JesterMFP Posts: 3,596 Member
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    Are you using the TDEE-20% method and logging/eating back exercise calories?
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    I wouldn't worry about it too much...especially not for just one day. As long as I get 0.9 - 1 gram of protein per Lb of my LBM and 20-30% of my diet in fat, I don't fret my macros too much. I have days where I just eat all the carbs too and give myself a nice boost.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    Are you using the TDEE-20% method and logging/eating back exercise calories?

    Also this...little confused. You don't eat back exercise calories with TDEE method.
  • southpaw211
    southpaw211 Posts: 385 Member
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    Thanks everybody - I'll go with the calories.

    My TDEE - 20% is around 1650 calories. Before I got my fitbit, I had MFP set to 1650 calories and would log any exercise as 1 calorie. But now that I've synced my fitbit to MFP, I kind of have to log my exercise for real (I do use a HRM) and subsequently had to lower my daily calorie goal to accomodate for that.

    Oddly, I've found over the past 3 weeks of having the fitbit, I've been subconsciously eating faaaaar less than I should have and as a result lost nada. I think even though it's neat, I probably should have just kept doing what I was doing instead of adding the fun electronics and added data. Just this week getting back to what was working for me just fine before the brief stall.

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