What is the aim?

tracey19uk3470

What is the aim of the set calories per day? Is it to not exceed it? To be under or be exact?

kommodevaran

To consistently hit it.

aik633

To not go over except very rarely. I try to stay a couple hundred under per day.

estherdragonbat

To come close. I generally only eat back half my exercise calories, so my diary shows me consistently as a few hundred under, but I shoot for 'pre-exercise target plus 50%' and don't sweat if I'm 100 calories over or under.

nutmegoreo

I attempt to hit protein and fat goals or higher, carbs land where they may. As for the calorie goals, try to get as close as possible, if I'm over a bit (or a lot) one day, be slightly under the others, so that the weekly total is as close as possible. Exercise: eat about 75% of those calories to ensure the exercise is fueled properly. Do NOT get into a blame and shame then give up cycle for days where it's over. Just keep on keeping on. It's a long game, not a quick one.

Marilyn0924

aik633 wrote: »

To not go over except very rarely. I try to stay a couple hundred under per day.

No.
The whole point of plugging in your info into MFP, is that it calculates a deficit based on what you want to lose weekly. Undereating means you're eating less than you should, and in many cases, is an unhealthy level that can cause multiple health issues in the long run.

You should be aiming for the number MFP has given you.

Tblackdogs

Marilyn0924 wrote: »

aik633 wrote: »

To not go over except very rarely. I try to stay a couple hundred under per day.

No.
The whole point of plugging in your info into MFP, is that it calculates a deficit based on what you want to lose weekly. Undereating means you're eating less than you should, and in many cases, is an unhealthy level that can cause multiple health issues in the long run.

You should be aiming for the number MFP has given you.

Well sometimes. I told MFP that I wanted to lose .5 a pound per week. When I eat a couple hundred calories under goal, I'm on pace to lose 1 pound a week. That's still a safe (though less conservative) plan. Also, if I eat a couple of hundred less than goal, then I could go over by a few hundred a couple of other days. I usually don't do that, but I'm still eating a healthy number of calories a day.

kimny72

Tblackdogs wrote: »

Marilyn0924 wrote: »

aik633 wrote: »

To not go over except very rarely. I try to stay a couple hundred under per day.

No.
The whole point of plugging in your info into MFP, is that it calculates a deficit based on what you want to lose weekly. Undereating means you're eating less than you should, and in many cases, is an unhealthy level that can cause multiple health issues in the long run.

You should be aiming for the number MFP has given you.

Well sometimes. I told MFP that I wanted to lose .5 a pound per week. When I eat a couple hundred calories under goal, I'm on pace to lose 1 pound a week. That's still a safe (though less conservative) plan. Also, if I eat a couple of hundred less than goal, then I could go over by a few hundred a couple of other days. I usually don't do that, but I'm still eating a healthy number of calories a day.

True. But the vast majority of people choose an aggressive goal. And very few newbies choose 0.5 lb per week.

OP, the goal is to hit it. Realistically, you want it to average out during the week - some days a little over, some days a little under. And the more aggressive your goal, the more important it is NOT to undershoot too much.

cwolfman13

What is a goal?

kimny72

Shugahhfatt wrote: »

to immediately exceed it by about 500 to 700 calories a day restore and repair your metabolism.....(quote edited by mfp moderator)

I get that this worked for you but you can't keep assuming it would work for everyone. MFP goal plus exercise was the same as any other TDEE calculator I found, and it worked perfectly. For smaller women, just randomly adding 500 calories to their diet would be catastrophic.

Maybe you should start a thread in the Debate section and explain to us why you are so convinced of this instead of just randomly dropping it into newbie threads.