12:00 and 100 calories left.

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Quinn_Baker
Quinn_Baker Posts: 292 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Oops. Well I had a great breakfast but my lunch was less than healthy. Now its noon and I only have about 100 calories left for the entire day. I plan on exercising later but it won't burn more than 200 calories. Ideas?
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Replies

  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
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    Eat a normal healthy meal that will fill you and call it a day. Learn from it and move on. Its ok to be over occasionally. Keep in mind if you hit your calorie goal from MFP you will be at a deficit. You need to eat 500 extra calories (if your goal is 1lb a week) to even break even.

    I am not a big believer in killing yourself with exercise or starving yourself. Just chalk it up as a lesson in managing your intake.
  • tatasmagik
    tatasmagik Posts: 185
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    Just keep tracking what you eat. It's okay to have a less-than-perfect meal or day.
  • momonthego42
    momonthego42 Posts: 24 Member
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    Maybe changing up your exercise option. If you can do water aerobics that burns a lot of calories and would allow you to eat a little more this evening.
  • iiwish
    iiwish Posts: 36 Member
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    Eat later when you're hungry. Don't worry about going over sometimes and don't starve yourself.
  • laserturkey
    laserturkey Posts: 1,680 Member
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    Eat a normal healthy meal that will fill you and call it a day. Learn from it and move on. Its ok to be over occasionally. Keep in mind if you hit your calorie goal from MFP you will be at a deficit. You need to eat 500 extra calories (if your goal is 1lb a week) to even break even.

    I am not a big believer in killing yourself with exercise or starving yourself. Just chalk it up as a lesson in managing your intake.

    This.

    Also, if this happens to you frequently, it might be that you are not allowing yourself enough calories in a day.
  • Lyadeia
    Lyadeia Posts: 4,603 Member
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    Stay calm. :flowerforyou:

    Remember that the calorie goal on MFP is a deficit. Eating more than that shrinks the deficit, but unless you go hog wild, you won't be at maintenance or above. Keeping that in mind, you can probably have a couple hundred more calories and not gain anything at all. :wink:
  • janerfitnesspal145
    janerfitnesspal145 Posts: 55 Member
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    If you approach MFP as a lifestyle change for healthier eating (not just a weight loss aid), you don't have to sweat an off day every now and then. Some weeks I have cravings where I go over on calories multiple days, than I get back on track, with no change in weight.

    Don't skip eating dinner to keep from going over your calories for the day. Just do the best you can and keep going!
  • toutmonpossible
    toutmonpossible Posts: 1,580 Member
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    Eat lightly the rest of the day, or have a light-to-medium meal and make up the excess over the next few days. I never work out the number of calories. I just eat less and weigh myself a few times a week as I always do.

    It would also be OK if you drank water and unsweetened drinks the rest of the day.
  • MissSaturday
    MissSaturday Posts: 784 Member
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    Buy a honeydrew melon. You can eat it all and feel very full and calories are abt 100. That is great always i have some melon during the day!
  • whitebalance
    whitebalance Posts: 1,655 Member
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    Depends what you still need in your macros, but here are some ideas.

    My profile pic shows a breakfast-y meal that comes out just over 300 calories - two eggs, a bag of frozen veggies (Cascadian Farms Thai Blend are about 75 calories for the whole bag, if you can find them), an ounce or two of ham and no more than a quarter ounce of shredded cheese.

    300 calories is plenty for a nice big salad with deli turkey or a grilled chicken breast thrown in. Or a nice fruit/cheese/meat plate.

    If you can boost the burn, or live with posting 100 calories over your daily goal - Outback's "Chicken on the Barbie" with veggies is 401 calories and a whopping 59 grams of protein (but beware the bread!). Many restaurants have good low-cal options. See Olive Garden's Venetian Apricot Chicken (400), or Paradise Bakery/Panera Bread's Strawberry/Chicken/Poppyseed Salad (350). Half a club sandwich comes in around 300 calories (less at the place I just mentioned) and is filling enough for me to call it a meal.

    Good luck!
  • zedgt87
    zedgt87 Posts: 379 Member
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    eat a banana for dinner and call it a day. Meal timing doesn't mean much but total intake does. If you manage to stay under your calories you'll feel good knowing you still made progress today despite an early day splurge.
  • heatherk0908
    heatherk0908 Posts: 50 Member
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    I didn't read other responses so I'm probably repeating. I would just do your exercise and eat a healthy dinner and its not the end of the world to be over on calories one day.

    That being said, when I need a good low calorie dinner I always have salmon and veggies. I buy these frozen wild caught salmon filets and one of them has 100 or 110 calories. I cook it on the George foreman grill with cooking spray and lemon pepper. I'll usually make two and a serving of steamed broccoli. It's actually one of my favorite healthy dinner s and only 250 calories and tons of protein and practically no carbs.
  • PrettyPearl88
    PrettyPearl88 Posts: 368 Member
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    Eat a normal healthy meal that will fill you and call it a day. Learn from it and move on. Its ok to be over occasionally. Keep in mind if you hit your calorie goal from MFP you will be at a deficit. You need to eat 500 extra calories (if your goal is 1lb a week) to even break even.

    I am not a big believer in killing yourself with exercise or starving yourself. Just chalk it up as a lesson in managing your intake.

    I agree with this. Don't kill yourself. It's actually much healthier to lose weight at a slower pace. So if you have your goal set to losing 1 lb/week on MFP and you're only 200 calories from that goal number right now, just eat a normal (but healthy) dinner and settle for a small deficit today. You're still in a deficit, so you're still losing. You'll be fine.

    If, however, you meant that you only have 200 calories left before you hit your TDEE (the number of calories you need to eat daily simply to maintain), then if I were you, I'd exercise so I could have those extra 200 calories, cook an awesome 400 calorie meal for dinner, and call it a success that I didn't go over maintenance at least.
  • bfanny
    bfanny Posts: 440 Member
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    After getting that many different ideas, what do you think that you'll do?
  • evileen99
    evileen99 Posts: 1,564 Member
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    It's okay to be over on your calories every now and then.
  • Vorenus85
    Vorenus85 Posts: 109 Member
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    Consider that attempting to starve yourself will probably lead to a binge. Just eat as you would and consider this an off day. Start fresh tomorrow.
  • zedgt87
    zedgt87 Posts: 379 Member
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    Consider that attempting to starve yourself will probably lead to a binge. Just eat as you would and consider this an off day. Start fresh tomorrow.

    its not starving yourself though... she already had her calories just early in the day. The human body is designed to go long periods of time without food.. half a day is by no means starving yourself lol
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
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    Consider that attempting to starve yourself will probably lead to a binge. Just eat as you would and consider this an off day. Start fresh tomorrow.

    its not starving yourself though... she already had her calories just early in the day. The human body is designed to go long periods of time without food.. half a day is by no means starving yourself lol

    I agree with your point, if she is not hungry then fine, but far too many people will convince themselves they "aren't hungry". I don't agree with encouraging that behavior, ie punishing yourself with hunger because you ate too much at one meal. Its a slippery slopw.
    Personally, I would be starving. Doesn't matter how much I ate earlier in the day, I am not making it the rest of the day and night without being hungry.
  • zedgt87
    zedgt87 Posts: 379 Member
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    Consider that attempting to starve yourself will probably lead to a binge. Just eat as you would and consider this an off day. Start fresh tomorrow.

    its not starving yourself though... she already had her calories just early in the day. The human body is designed to go long periods of time without food.. half a day is by no means starving yourself lol

    I agree with your point, if she is not hungry then fine, but far too many people will convince themselves they "aren't hungry". I don't agree with encouraging that behavior, ie punishing yourself with hunger because you ate too much at one meal. Its a slippery slopw.
    Personally, I would be starving. Doesn't matter how much I ate earlier in the day, I am not making it the rest of the day and night without being hungry.

    Well if she didn't eat the following day because she went over the day before that would be the scenario you describe. I'd also like to add that while your losing weight your going to experience some level of hunger.. no two ways about it. Your putting a stress on your body in order to shape it/change it and its going to cause some discomfort. I try to embrace the hunger :D Maybe i'm just crazy
  • ecw3780
    ecw3780 Posts: 608 Member
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    Eat a healthy dinner with plenty of veggies and protein. Divide the number of calories you go over by 3, and subtract that from your calories over the next 3 days (or just log some of the food you eat today on Mon, Tues, Wed. ) This way, your weekly calories will even out, but you wont have to starve yourself tomorrow or for the rest of the day. I have been doing this for month now, and it has really made a difference on those days when I mess up. Remember, its -3500 over a week, so if you eat too much one day, just compensate over the next few days. Your body does not automatically rest at midnight.

    Or you could just work out a lot.

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