Under calorie goal in diary?

HappyKat5

I always notice that in my friends newsfeeds concerning their diaries, that a lot of people are under their caloric goal (I am guilty of that as well, but striving to eat closer to my goal.). I’m curious why people aren’t eating their allocated amount. For me, sometimes, I simply am too full to eat/drink anymore. But, I’m curious. I don’t record any of my exercise points even thou I know what I burn via my heart monitor/chest strap so I feel it’s somewhat accurate. Any thoughts on this?

malibu927

It will say that even if you're one calorie under goal. The idea is to come as close to your goal as possible after exercise calories. So you should be entering what you burn and eating those calories back, but depending on what you're doing your HRM may not be an accurate way of estimating what you burned.

LifeWithPie

The red numbers annoy me.

HappyKat5

@malibu927 Thank you for the quick response. Due to medical issues, I could never eat my calories allocated AND my exercise calories. I usually am eating until about 12 am to just get my “normal” calories in.

HappyKat5

I’m actually looking for a new HRM (my last one finally went to HRM heaven after 3 years, but I did swim and workout pretty much all the time.) Even if it said the amount burned, I still take it will a grain of salt, but at least it gives me a baseline count

quebot

My calories burned are always off. I sync my workouts through Google fit, mainly because it shows me my workout steps (when I walk on a treadmill) vs. my IRL steps in daily life. It syncs super weird and I get an obnoxious amount of calories extra that don't seem to line up with my math. So I simply just keep that in mind when eating and never eat back all of my exercise calories. I struggle eating the minimum as is. Today I even ate a taco bell, and barely made it to 1300. If I could eat more, I would. I'm stuffed.

HappyKat5

@quebot I’m not familiar with Google Fit. I usually wear a chest strap and have a Polar because I rarely do machine equipment. When I see the calorie count, I take in consideration of how I “felt” during the workout. I feel like I’m pretty close, but again, I don’t feel like I can trust that number 100%

quebot

HappyKat5 wrote: »

@quebot I’m not familiar with Google Fit. I usually wear a chest strap and have a Polar because I rarely do machine equipment. When I see the calorie count, I take in consideration of how I “felt” during the workout. I feel like I’m pretty close, but again, I don’t feel like I can trust that number 100%

Google fit is just an app on your phone. I calculate calories burned by taking my heart rate during my workout and do the math. I'm really out of shape from illness and my heart rate is normally 150-170 just walking fast on incline, so calorie burn is up there, but never as crazy as it shows once synced to mfp.

JeromeBarry1

The best thing about myfitnesspal is that shoutyguy can be muzzled. Thank you, crew!

As far as me and my food diary, I usually manage to finish the day under my budget. At this time of my life, it's not a personal challenge to see how big I can make my weekly deficit. -1750 is fine. There's no need to keep trying to get to -10,000 again.

OP, Seeing that you've had so much of your innards removed causes me to wonder that you call yourself "Happy". I congratulate you.

Momepro

I like to keep a few in reserve for underestimating purposes. I know I'm not the best at accuracy, and I'd rather be under than over .

HappyKat5

@JeromeBarry1 I call myself Happy because I should have been dead 10 years ago (I’m celebrating my anniversary in August). My body shut down and there was nothing that I could do, no amount of money, not my education...nothing. I managed through and even my doctors are astounded that I am here and doing relatively well. Illness can make you humble REAL quick and also can put your priorities in order. Life is too short, to be all negative. So, that’s why I’m happy

beatyfamily1

I’m always over my calories but I still lose fat. MFP actually has me at 1,500 but I eat around 2,000 calories. I don’t watch calories. I watch macros. I don’t record exercises either. Some people think less will get them to lose weight faster. Maybe they aren’t logging everything.

mazcor536

Momepro wrote: »

I like to keep a few in reserve for underestimating purposes. I know I'm not the best at accuracy, and I'd rather be under than over .

Same here! Keep a few spare just in case.

LivingtheLeanDream

The MFP way means you should be eating back your exercise calories.

If you don't feel hungry then choose some calorie dense foods ie. peanut butter/ nuts which mean you can get closer to your calorie allowance without feeling too full.

If you aren't sure about the amount of exercise cals you can eat back aim for 50%. You'll know by your rate of loss per week if you can then up your calories and eat more.

gaelicstorm

Personally I'm saving 200-300 each day because this weekend I have two parties to attend and it is my son's birthday and we are taking him to dinner. I'm trying to save a little bit every day so I can "afford" that cupcake I want on Saturday.

Chunkahlunkah

I’m often under and occasionally quite a bit over. For weight loss, my plan is to average for the week at the figure MFP gave me. But still, that figure is just an estimate so I’m not that strict with matching it so long as I’m getting the results I want.

LivingtheLeanDream

gaelicstorm wrote: »

Personally I'm saving 200-300 each day because this weekend I have two parties to attend and it is my son's birthday and we are taking him to dinner. I'm trying to save a little bit every day so I can "afford" that cupcake I want on Saturday.

Personally I do the same and it works well. But if the OP was consistently eating under her calories then that wouldn't be healthy in the long run.