Seemingly drasticly different caloric needs- day over day
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amusedmonkey wrote: »Your needs don't change drastically unless your activity level changes drastically, but your hunger may as well have a mind of its own. I'm like that. There are days where I eat up to 1000 calories under what MFP wants me to eat and days where I eat 1000 calories over what it wants me to eat. I just keep a tally of my extra/debt calories and use any extra on days where I'm particularly hungry and make up for any debt on days where I'm fine with a lower intake. You could do it right on web app if you want everything to calculate automatically. Example:
1. I need to eat 1500 net calories. One day I wasn't hungry and ate 1000 net. At the end of the day MFP will show "Remaining" calories as 500.
2. I woke up hungry next day and felt I needed more food. I basically eat to my calories, and if by the end of the day I still feel I need more I just go to yesterday, look at remaining calories, use the quick add tool, and enter "-500" in the box. This will automatically give me 500 more calories for today. If you don't use them all, you can just carry them over to next day in perpetuum if you wish. If you use them all up plus some, you can carry any debt to next day but use a positive number in the quick add box.
3. Basically: negative numbers for leftover calories and positive numbers for debt calories.
If you need screenshot examples let me know.
1000 calories seems like alot for someone consuming 1500 daily!!
Where do you do enter the numbers? BTW- are you using the mobile app? Thank you
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sunsweet77 wrote: »Not sure if mentioned but stress and sleep make a huge difference for me. Food choice does also.
Interesting how it all works! I really try to consistently eat a whole food type of diet- I am trying to keep the stress to a minimum but yesterday I had a really condensed day, from like 5:30am- 2:30 in the afternoon without a break I wonder if that had something to do with it. Thank you
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Ready2Getcut wrote: »amusedmonkey wrote: »Your needs don't change drastically unless your activity level changes drastically, but your hunger may as well have a mind of its own. I'm like that. There are days where I eat up to 1000 calories under what MFP wants me to eat and days where I eat 1000 calories over what it wants me to eat. I just keep a tally of my extra/debt calories and use any extra on days where I'm particularly hungry and make up for any debt on days where I'm fine with a lower intake. You could do it right on web app if you want everything to calculate automatically. Example:
1. I need to eat 1500 net calories. One day I wasn't hungry and ate 1000 net. At the end of the day MFP will show "Remaining" calories as 500.
2. I woke up hungry next day and felt I needed more food. I basically eat to my calories, and if by the end of the day I still feel I need more I just go to yesterday, look at remaining calories, use the quick add tool, and enter "-500" in the box. This will automatically give me 500 more calories for today. If you don't use them all, you can just carry them over to next day in perpetuum if you wish. If you use them all up plus some, you can carry any debt to next day but use a positive number in the quick add box.
3. Basically: negative numbers for leftover calories and positive numbers for debt calories.
If you need screenshot examples let me know.
1000 calories seems like alot for someone consuming 1500 daily!!
Where do you do enter the numbers? BTW- are you using the mobile app? Thank you
Yes, it is too low to go under by 1000 every day, but on the odd days where I get 800 calories of exercise and just don't happen to have much of an appetite, going under by 1000 basically mean consuming 1300 calories (1500+800 = 2300 to eat, going under by 1000 means 1300). It doesn't happen often, it's just an easy number to quote.
Anyway. I use the web version for it and here is how it goes:
Say a day ends up like this:
Next day is like this, and I feel like I need a few more calories for a snack:
Clicking the quick add
I enter -166
Total changes on its own like this, and now I have enough calories for my snack.
It just feels easier than keeping a weekly tally, it's just a moving "calorie bank" of some sort which works for both extra and debt calories not tied to a time frame.1 -
amusedmonkey wrote: »Ready2Getcut wrote: »amusedmonkey wrote: »Your needs don't change drastically unless your activity level changes drastically, but your hunger may as well have a mind of its own. I'm like that. There are days where I eat up to 1000 calories under what MFP wants me to eat and days where I eat 1000 calories over what it wants me to eat. I just keep a tally of my extra/debt calories and use any extra on days where I'm particularly hungry and make up for any debt on days where I'm fine with a lower intake. You could do it right on web app if you want everything to calculate automatically. Example:
1. I need to eat 1500 net calories. One day I wasn't hungry and ate 1000 net. At the end of the day MFP will show "Remaining" calories as 500.
2. I woke up hungry next day and felt I needed more food. I basically eat to my calories, and if by the end of the day I still feel I need more I just go to yesterday, look at remaining calories, use the quick add tool, and enter "-500" in the box. This will automatically give me 500 more calories for today. If you don't use them all, you can just carry them over to next day in perpetuum if you wish. If you use them all up plus some, you can carry any debt to next day but use a positive number in the quick add box.
3. Basically: negative numbers for leftover calories and positive numbers for debt calories.
If you need screenshot examples let me know.
1000 calories seems like alot for someone consuming 1500 daily!!
Where do you do enter the numbers? BTW- are you using the mobile app? Thank you
Yes, it is too low to go under by 1000 every day, but on the odd days where I get 800 calories of exercise and just don't happen to have much of an appetite, going under by 1000 basically mean consuming 1300 calories (1500+800 = 2300 to eat, going under by 1000 means 1300). It doesn't happen often, it's just an easy number to quote.
Anyway. I use the web version for it and here is how it goes:
Say a day ends up like this:
Next day is like this, and I feel like I need a few more calories for a snack:
Clicking the quick add
I enter -166
Total changes on its own like this, and now I have enough calories for my snack.
It just feels easier than keeping a weekly tally, it's just a moving "calorie bank" of some sort which works for both extra and debt calories not tied to a time frame.
OK I get it! fantastic- Thank you!0 -
Besides your spreadsheet you really should listen to your body. Your symptoms really do sound like low blood sugar to me.
Try making up some 100 cal snacks ready to go when you get that feeling. This could be a dose of nuts or half a protein bar.0 -
Did you change your protein goal? At 1970 calories (I looked back to find a day with no exercise adjustment in your diary) your goal is only 74g of protein? That's only 15%. Is there a reason you're eating so little protein?
I do 40carbs/30protein/30fat and I know when I first started and was low on protein I was exhausted and sore - I just wanted to sleep. When I upped my protein I felt much better in a day or two.
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Ready2Getcut wrote: »OK.....so I'm finally getting the concept. When I am already in a calorie deficit-- even if it's only 500 calories-- I really need to "eat back" the calories I've earned during exercise. That's so counter-intuitive!
But I get it now.
Thank you
It's just a question of changing how you look at it. Traditional dieting wisdom says that the bigger the deficit, the better - so by that logic, you exercise a lot and eat very little.
But we now know that that is problematic in a number of ways, and that you are more likely to see long term success if you keep your deficit small, but consistent.
That means you need to eat more when you exercise more - otherwise your deficit is not staying consistent and may be bigger than you intend it to be.
You really don't have to eat the extra on the same day as the workout, though. Like many others, I don't get that hungry on the day of intense exercise - I get hungrier on the days following. I aim for a weekly average deficit, not day by day.0 -
CattOfTheGarage wrote: »Ready2Getcut wrote: »OK.....so I'm finally getting the concept. When I am already in a calorie deficit-- even if it's only 500 calories-- I really need to "eat back" the calories I've earned during exercise. That's so counter-intuitive!
But I get it now.
Thank you
It's just a question of changing how you look at it. Traditional dieting wisdom says that the bigger the deficit, the better - so by that logic, you exercise a lot and eat very little.
But we now know that that is problematic in a number of ways, and that you are more likely to see long term success if you keep your deficit small, but consistent.
That means you need to eat more when you exercise more - otherwise your deficit is not staying consistent and may be bigger than you intend it to be.
You really don't have to eat the extra on the same day as the workout, though. Like many others, I don't get that hungry on the day of intense exercise - I get hungrier on the days following. I aim for a weekly average deficit, not day by day.
Exactly!!! Like today ( keeping in mind that yesterday I didn't exercise, ate over my stated caloric goal, and was somehow wiped out / sick/ hungry the entire day)
Meanwhile - today: Up at 7:30 am ( with less than 7 hours of sleep), feel great, stay active around the house all morning, go the gym and do an intense 45 minute resistance training workout, go to the grocery, go for 4.5 mile ride on my mountain bike and just kill it- all on a small apple and some turkey. I'm 290 pounds......
It's 2:30 in the afternoon, and I'm just now starting to get an appetite. Almost unbelievable- but a discovery I would not have made if I wasn't strictly tracking my intake, and being transparent about it here.0 -
It's all about listening to your body, as well as watching the calories.0
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Besides your spreadsheet you really should listen to your body. Your symptoms really do sound like low blood sugar to me.
Try making up some 100 cal snacks ready to go when you get that feeling. This could be a dose of nuts or half a protein bar.
That's a good idea- yesterday it ended up being a 1/2 bag of potato chips from a filling station.
I agree- I've always had weird, unstable "blood sugar" like issues- the harder I push my body, the more erratic it becomes.1 -
Did you change your protein goal? At 1970 calories (I looked back to find a day with no exercise adjustment in your diary) your goal is only 74g of protein? That's only 15%. Is there a reason you're eating so little protein?
I do 40carbs/30protein/30fat and I know when I first started and was low on protein I was exhausted and sore - I just wanted to sleep. When I upped my protein I felt much better in a day or two.
That's interesting. I have not even been paying attention to the macros- at all. I think the current goal is either default, or something I set up 4 years ago. If you were to look at my build your first impression might be that I need alot of protein- maybe I do.0 -
Ready2Getcut wrote: »Besides your spreadsheet you really should listen to your body. Your symptoms really do sound like low blood sugar to me.
Try making up some 100 cal snacks ready to go when you get that feeling. This could be a dose of nuts or half a protein bar.
That's a good idea- yesterday it ended up being a 1/2 bag of potato chips from a filling station.
I agree- I've always had weird, unstable "blood sugar" like issues- the harder I push my body, the more erratic it becomes.
I think you just need to experiment more with which foods to eat to keep your blood sugar up. Crisps/chips would not work at all for me, they would run out on me in half an hour or less. I find oatcakes a very good option - other people maybe a protein bar, a smoothie, some fruit or veg. You need to find which foods work for you to give you steady blood sugar.0 -
Any possibility you could be coming down with a virus? I know I felt miserably achy and exhausted last weekend, and worried that it was food/exercise-related… and then my husband (who isn't counting calories) got the same symptoms the next day. It was just a virus. I rested, drank lots of water, and felt better in a few days.0
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CattOfTheGarage wrote: »Ready2Getcut wrote: »Besides your spreadsheet you really should listen to your body. Your symptoms really do sound like low blood sugar to me.
Try making up some 100 cal snacks ready to go when you get that feeling. This could be a dose of nuts or half a protein bar.
That's a good idea- yesterday it ended up being a 1/2 bag of potato chips from a filling station.
I agree- I've always had weird, unstable "blood sugar" like issues- the harder I push my body, the more erratic it becomes.
I think you just need to experiment more with which foods to eat to keep your blood sugar up. Crisps/chips would not work at all for me, they would run out on me in half an hour or less. I find oatcakes a very good option - other people maybe a protein bar, a smoothie, some fruit or veg. You need to find which foods work for you to give you steady blood sugar.
I really try to eat high fiber, low GI whole foods most or all of the time. if you look at my food diary you'll definitely see that. But when my BS becomes erratic, i don't get a warning, it just happens. It gets worse when I "push" my body ( exercise / restrict calories). I've been trying to figure it out for about 5 years.
That's why your idea about carrying snacks is a great one
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Any possibility you could be coming down with a virus? I know I felt miserably achy and exhausted last weekend, and worried that it was food/exercise-related… and then my husband (who isn't counting calories) got the same symptoms the next day. It was just a virus. I rested, drank lots of water, and felt better in a few days.
That is part of my symptoms......kind of a "first level". It starts with flu-like symptoms and then progresses into extreme physiological stress response, and then into even weirder stuff. But my blood sugar never goes under about 90. Figure that one out- my doctor can't, and as mentioned above- it's been about 5 years now.
I just have to "baby" my system.0 -
These things are sent to try us1
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Another possibility is dehydration. If you sweat a lot during your workouts and don't replenish water and electrolytes, you could crash hard until your body gets back into balance. If you are trying to eat healthy, you may not be getting enough sodium or potassium on exercise days.0
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It's not even that you look like you need more protein - you're set up to eat VERY little. 15% protein is what people on keto eat, but they eat 75% fat and you're nowhere near that amount of fat.Ready2Getcut wrote: »I have not even been paying attention to the macros- at all. I think the current goal is either default, or something I set up 4 years ago. If you were to look at my build your first impression might be that I need alot of protein- maybe I do.
If I were you I'd reset your defaults and watch your protein for a few day and see how you feel
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It's not even that you look like you need more protein - you're set up to eat VERY little. 15% protein is what people on keto eat, but they eat 75% fat and you're nowhere near that amount of fat.Ready2Getcut wrote: »I have not even been paying attention to the macros- at all. I think the current goal is either default, or something I set up 4 years ago. If you were to look at my build your first impression might be that I need alot of protein- maybe I do.
If I were you I'd reset your defaults and watch your protein for a few day and see how you feel
Ok thank you0
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