Advice please..Today not eating enough...but yesterday I went over...

sjgold123

Hi all, so my calories are set at 1200 but today I've eaten 920 so far and been out walking a lot so my diary says I have 780 in green remaining.
So firstly is it saying I could eat 780 more direct to exercise if I wanted? I wouldn't as obviously the goal is to loose but wondered what this figure meant.
It won't allow me to complete my diary so do I have to eat a little more 280 snack.
I try not to eat at night as if I do I go for the bad stuff through feeling tempted not hungry. Also if yesterday's day went over for example would it all equal out in the week but not show on my diary?

Buy the way I had the breakfast wrap which has tomatoes, avacado and poached egg this morning (haveros ranchos) soon good!

chulipa

If you eat over one day and the next day or days you can eat less you can go by weekly calories. If I know I'm going to eat out I start cutting calories days before and some after to keep myself within my weekly calories.

amyn73

Just don't close your diary. It will be fine. I do that, too to balance calories. I ate a lot yesterday and haven't had anything yet today to eat. I'll be wayyyyy under but I just don't close my diary on those days.

adoette

Your weekly total deficit is more telling than your day to day. So if you are over one day and under the next, consider them a balancing act.

Susieq_1994

Basically what others said--going over one day and then under the next day is alright, as long as your calories balance out throughout the week. As long as you're not consistently one or the other, you're fine.

trusty48

Frankly- I almost never close my diary since there is no reason to. That way, if I have a midnight snack at 11:30 pm I can still add it as part of that day.

You may be overthinking this- there is nothing wrong with varying your intake. Going by the weekly average calories makes the most sense.

sjgold123

Thanks All, sure but how will it add into the macros etc? Even if you tick complete diary I can still add so maybe I have the settings different?
When I complete it will say if you eat like this you will weigh...

wizzybeth

Yeah but that message is inaccurate anyway. I never ever ever eat back all of the exercise calories it gives me. I try to stay under 1400-1500; less if im totally lazy and do no walking or exercise during the day

kgirlhart

All through the day you can look at your macros to see where you stand. If you don't complete your diary today you can still check what your macro totals were. If you are set to 1200 you don't want to make a habit of going under that, but if you went over yesterday it is fine to eat less today. As far as exercise calories go, mfp is designed for you to eat the extra calories you earn. But since calorie burns for exercise can be overestimated it is a good rule of thumb to start by eating back about 50% of them.

JeromeBarry1

Try to be in control of yourself when the web site refuses to publish your low calorie food log. Don't do anything silly because of it. If you know that you're going to hit a weekly calorie target despite exceeding a daily target, you can do it and the pouting web site can just get over itself.

sjgold123

Thanks ladies. Understanding it better now x