Ate Over Calories Today

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action0099
action0099 Posts: 12 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Today i feel so bad. I’ve been tracking with MFP since Jan 4 and have lost 16lbs. I run about 12-13 miles per week in addition to tracking calories. My calories went down by only 10 a couple days ago when i lost a little bit more weight (under a pound);
but I have wanted to eat everything lately and i usually don’t have that problem.
Today I’m almost 400 over (i have controlled myself until today). I feel so horrible!

Replies

  • BecomingMoreAwesome
    BecomingMoreAwesome Posts: 151 Member
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    What are your stats (height, current weight, goal weight)? Sixteen pounds in less than 7 weeks is pretty fast, though many people lose extra the first couple of weeks from water.

    Chances are that you’ve set a deficit that’s too aggressive to be sustainable long term. You might need a smaller deficit in order to stick with it.
  • SueSueDio
    SueSueDio Posts: 4,796 Member
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    action0099 wrote: »
    I have wanted to eat everything lately and i usually don’t have that problem.

    Where are you in your cycle? When I was still having them, I'd often have a couple of days or so where I felt really hungry just before my period started. I think some women get hungrier around ovulation too.

    Or, as someone else said, you might just have set too steep a deficit and it's catching up with you. It's fine to have a day or two per week where you eat at maintenance levels - it will just take a little longer to lose the weight, but that's okay! This is a lifetime project, after all. :)
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,925 Member
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    16lbs in a few weeks is a really fast rate of loss.

    Even if you went low carb and temporarily borrowed the loss of a few extra lbs by manipulating your glycogen stores, it still sounds as if you have been achieving close to a 1000 Cal a day deficit!

    Chances are REALLY good then that you're pushing through on an extreme deficit that exceeds 20% of your TDEE (25% while having sufficient fat stores that you would be correctly classified as obese)... making life not as happy as it could be.

    Even if you have a lot of weight to lose... a lb a week still gets you ~50lbs by this time next year!
  • h1udd
    h1udd Posts: 623 Member
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    Don’t feel horrible, look at the trend ... you have been in a deficit since jan 4th

    Going on that had you spread the 400 calories out over the last 2 months you would have eaten an extra 10cal a day ?? As you can see that will have made NO difference to your success

    So chill out, you are rocking it !!
  • Momepro
    Momepro Posts: 1,509 Member
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    Break things down into individual behaviors and habits. Instead of looking at this as an all at once, or all or nothing proposition, find ways to break things down into smaller and more sustainable habits. That makes it much easier to pinpoint where something is not working, and fix it, rather than staring at the whole jumbled mess of NOT WORKING. Plus, when you do backslide, you are less likely to drop everything, just one or two habits, that can then be fixed again. Otherwise, trying to everything at once, means that you are likely to leave out something important (like weighing food), and pay excessive attention to things that aren't. (Like fiber drinks and vinegar)
    Don't demonize foods that don't actually make you feel bad. Obviously if you have food sensitivities avoid those things, but don't cut out all your favorite goodies because they are not "healthy". Think of your calories as a type of currency. You should purchase the nutrient rich stuff first, budget for regular treats, and don't waste any calories on stuff you hate, even if it is theoretically good for you.
    Log EVERYTHING.
    Don't JUST weigh (with a scale is best) everything you eat, also write why you are eating it (i.e, lunchtime, hungry, kind of bored, out with friends, watching tv) and how you are feeling right before, right after and an hour after (hungry, comfortable, normal, full, very full bloated, drowsy, OMG I am so damn sick of this crap I want to throw the whole plate out a window, etc).
    This gives you a baseline pattern for your normal habits and routine. From there, it's just a matter of experimenting. Are you very full after dinner? Cut back on a few things. Does lunch leave you bloated and gassy after an hour, try less or no mayo, and see if there's something you don't mind dropping each meal (fries, or cheese, or maybe only 2 tacos instead of 3).Are you starving an hour after dinner?Maybe more fats during.
    It's amazing how quickly these small and easily sustainable changes will add up to big calorie cuts. Only cut one or two things at a time, until they become habit instead if trying to do everything at once. That way they become individual habits instead of one big "diet".
  • jenilla1
    jenilla1 Posts: 11,118 Member
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    Sounds like you just ate at maintenance for one day. It doesn't help, but it doesn't hurt, either. Doing this every once in a while is no big deal. As long as the general trend is heading in the right direction, you should be fine. :)
  • sexymamadraeger
    sexymamadraeger Posts: 239 Member
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    If you head out on a three-week vacation trip and get a flat tire on the first day, do you chuck it all in, scrap the vacation plans and return home? Or do you fix the flat tire, continue on your way and enjoy your vacation as originally planned?

    ^^^^
    Yep. Weight loss is a long slow journey. You have to see the big picture or it will drive you nuts. I never had tracked calories too closely but I have tracked weight. I have had so many fluctuations and plateaus and gains for no reason! Sometimes it's hormones. Sometimes it's your body just readjusting. But keep going. I never worried about the calories that much. As long as you're eating about the same every day you're good. Obsessing about the details will get exhausting pretty soon.
  • action0099
    action0099 Posts: 12 Member
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    Thanks guys. I am 5’6” started at 210 and am now at 194. My first goal weight is 185.
    A lot of the weight that came off had to be water at first—i was eating 1560 calories a day and it came off fast. I would eat back about 1/2 of my exercise calories back. I have no explanation for how fast the first 15 came off so fast—it just did.
    I do have my exercise level set to “lightly active” and should prob set it to “active” since i have started working out 5-6 times a week. I was afraid to put “active” at first because the calorie count looked so high for that.
    At the “lightly active” level right now at 194 it has me at 1490 calories. When looking at my macros most days i don’t eat enough carbs. Maybe i should up the carbs a bit I’m guessing.
    Thanks for all posts. I have read them all and am taking them all into perspective to try and fix this. I know it’s a lifestyle change and not a sprint to the finish. I was just surprised at how hungry I’ve been this week.
    This is the week before my MP so maybe it has to do with that and it just wasn’t that bad last month or i didn’t notice.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    action0099 wrote: »
    Thanks guys. I am 5’6” started at 210 and am now at 194. My first goal weight is 185.
    A lot of the weight that came off had to be water at first—i was eating 1560 calories a day and it came off fast. I would eat back about 1/2 of my exercise calories back. I have no explanation for how fast the first 15 came off so fast—it just did.
    I do have my exercise level set to “lightly active” and should prob set it to “active” since i have started working out 5-6 times a week. I was afraid to put “active” at first because the calorie count looked so high for that.
    At the “lightly active” level right now at 194 it has me at 1490 calories. When looking at my macros most days i don’t eat enough carbs. Maybe i should up the carbs a bit I’m guessing.
    Thanks for all posts. I have read them all and am taking them all into perspective to try and fix this. I know it’s a lifestyle change and not a sprint to the finish. I was just surprised at how hungry I’ve been this week.
    This is the week before my MP so maybe it has to do with that and it just wasn’t that bad last month or i didn’t notice.

    Activity level is based on your day-to-day life outside of exercise. That's why you log and eat back your exercise calories.

    TOM is a likely culprit. I'm also wondering if you're overrestricting the foods you're eating.
  • action0099
    action0099 Posts: 12 Member
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    Orphia wrote: »
    I looked at your profile and read your bio:

    "I have been on a weight loss roller coaster my entire life. I go up and down with weight like crazy. I used to eat one meal a day (worked when I was in high school--not so much anymore), then did Atkins, then weight loss pills...I just want to know how to eat right and not constantly try a "diet".

    "I joined "My Fitness Pal" to keep track of the way that I eat and to try and find a different way of living through eating. I am cutting down on calories and carbs and hope that this will help me to get to the weight that I want."


    People yo-yo usually because they starve and punish themselves to lose weight, and don't learn sustainable habits. Starve/overeat/starve/overeat, rinse, repeat.

    The idea most successful people learn is that you need to eat your favourite foods at your calorie limit for life.

    No diets, no deprivation, just calorie balance. Simple! Now take a deep breath and relax. You've got this.

    Then, let us know your height, weight and any health conditions you might have.




    I need to change my profile. More kids and all kinds of things have changed since then(2013). But you’re right in what you said to me. I am approaching this now as a lifestyle change; i think for the most part I have been. This increase in hunger after a month and a half just seemed to come out of nowhere.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,925 Member
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    The numbers on MFP and everywhere else are guesses based on equations that best fit the data the researchers had acquired.

    Any one individual can be up, down, or right at the level of their best guesses.

    Additionally what you are given as your activity level does not include ANY exercise.

    A sedentary person on MFP is estimated to maintain if they eat BMR x 1.25 calories. This activity level probably includes 45 to 60 minutes of non sitting self care activity a day, or ~35 minutes of moderate activity a day, or approximately 3500 steps (and not all three at the same time :smiley: )

    MFP assumes that you will add as exercise any activity or exercise that is not included in your base activity level, and since your complete dialed in deficit is included in your target to eat before taking into account any of this exercise, it assumes that you will actually eat on top of your original target the net true calories of what you spent on these additional exertions in achieve your desired deficit.

    While it feels good to achieve fast results, you will probably have the least undesirable side effects if you keep to actual deficits that do not exceed 25% of your tdee while having the fat reserves to support a classification of obese, deficits that do not exceed 20% of TDEE when no longer correctly classified as such.

    A double check to that would be a weekly loss that does not exceed 0.5% to 1% of body weight. And yes obese people can more often than not tolerate higher rates, up to 1.5% without too many issues other than a higher risk of non compliance. In any case to hit these percentages while not exceeding the % deficits the people in question would have to have very high TDEEs.

    Also, especially when dealing with a monthly cycle, aka TOM on MFP, you might benefit from plugging in your weight in a weight trend app (Libra or happy scale) or a weight trend web site (trendweight.com or weightgrapher.com) and consider your results based on your more stable trend changes as opposed to more variable scale weight changes.

    It is not uncommon for women to burn more calories leading into their period and a bunch of threads prove that it is not uncommon to either be really hungry or eat more during these times.

    It is never too early to start planning for maintenance.

    Ask yourself when you make your various food and exercise choices whether they are ones you see yourself following for many years to come as you are now in a position where you can start shaping your maintenance self!
  • amfmmama
    amfmmama Posts: 1,420 Member
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    That is life, and it happens, I think that being able to do that and get back on track tomorrow, just shows that you can do this forever. I had multiple birthdays dinners, and a girls night out this weekend... I was up a pound. Tomorrow, I will be back on track. I will not use going over, as an excuse to quit.

    Your loss shows that you are dedicated... You've got this!
  • action0099
    action0099 Posts: 12 Member
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    Thanks to all who clarified the activity level for me. Mine is apparently set correctly since i have an office job and sit most of the day.
  • fb47
    fb47 Posts: 1,058 Member
    edited February 2018
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    action0099 wrote: »
    Today i feel so bad. I’ve been tracking with MFP since Jan 4 and have lost 16lbs. I run about 12-13 miles per week in addition to tracking calories. My calories went down by only 10 a couple days ago when i lost a little bit more weight (under a pound);
    but I have wanted to eat everything lately and i usually don’t have that problem.
    Today I’m almost 400 over (i have controlled myself until today). I feel so horrible!

    400 over!!!! for one day!!!! Haha, that's nothing. Remember, to gain one pound of fat in a day, you need to be eating 3500 calories over your maintenance in one day, 400 is peanuts. You might get water weight when you weigh yourself tomorrow, but you can easily lose it the following day by eating 400 calories less or just ignore it and move on. I usually ignore it because by the end of the week, it's a minor blip in the radar...especially for 400 calories.

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