Should I eat all my calories?

suzlee1995

MFP says I can have a little over 1600 calories a day to lose weight (2 pounds per week). Should I be eating them all? Ive been eating around 1200-1300!

chandanista

You can eat them all. No reason to starve yourself.

Afura

The calories MFP gives you is with a calorie deficit already set to lose the 2lb/week. There is no reason you should be eating so far under it unless you're just not hungry. If you're hungry, eat. 300 extra calories can mean some ice cream, or some peanut butter. Heck, I had dutch caramel wafers because I was so low today (wth happened..).

stellabest99

I usually aim to eat back half, as I can't always use my food scale and any bought food can be hard to measure. That's the advice I was given by various people on this site when I first joined and asked the same question

heavy_heavy_lowlow

food can be ur enemy and friend, eat the right stuff and ur good. i can have 3,030 calories a day i workout in the morning and usually burn 600 calories adding more to my limit. by 11am im usually at like 3,630 calories to have for the whole day i usually eat Maybe 1300 of those maybe 1600

suzlee1995

Thank you all for the replies!!

pebble4321

Yes, go for it. I eat 1660/day (or somewhere near there) and that's quite sustainable for me, especially when I add a couple of hundred extra cals a few times a week from exercise.
I think if you go into this with a long term view and realistic expectations, it can be a pleasant revelation when you discover that you don't have to starve in order to lose weight.

MynameisChester

Instead of daily calories, I like to think of it more as a combination of being mindful of whether you feel hungry or not and tracking weekly calories. So for you 1600 x 7 = 11,200 for the week. On Monday you may feel full on 1200 calories, but on Tuesday you eat feel full on 2000 calories. Your average for those days still come out to 1600. As long as the week averages out to your calorie goal, you're good to go!

cadavis0609

Here's a tip, eliminate as much sugar as possible and you can eat a ton and still stay under. I have to find ways to up my calorie intake because I never meet my goal and I'm just not hungry enough.

rileysowner

stellabest99 wrote: »

I usually aim to eat back half, as I can't always use my food scale and any bought food can be hard to measure. That's the advice I was given by various people on this site when I first joined and asked the same question

She was not talking about exercise calories, she was talking about her base calories, and she should eat them all. The goal with losing weight is not to eat as little as you can, but to eat at a moderate deficit that allows for healthy and sustainable weight loss.

rileysowner

cadavis0609 wrote: »

Here's a tip, eliminate as much sugar as possible and you can eat a ton and still stay under. I have to find ways to up my calorie intake because I never meet my goal and I'm just not hungry enough.

Not necessary.

misskarne

cadavis0609 wrote: »

Here's a tip, eliminate as much sugar as possible and you can eat a ton and still stay under. I have to find ways to up my calorie intake because I never meet my goal and I'm just not hungry enough.

Not required unless medical reasons.

jandsstevenson887

You should definitely eat all your base calories. MFP is designed for you to eat those and your exercise calories but there is a chance they overestimate your exercise calories so most people advise you to eat back 50-75%. You can look at my diary and see what I've been doing.