Anyone else nervous to go too close to the calorie limit?

gallicinvasion
gallicinvasion Posts: 1,015 Member
edited November 29 in Health and Weight Loss
I think I psyche myself out of calories sometimes. I use a food scale for calorie-dense foods at home and all my lunch prep recipes, but however exact I try to be, sometimes I just get way too nervous that I have miscalculated somewhere, and I start thinking about how many calories I could be off by, and then I stay away from my calorie goal by more than that imagined margin of error. Anyone else do this?
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Replies

  • smolmaus
    smolmaus Posts: 442 Member
    edited November 2018
    Do you weigh all your food or just the calorie dense food?

    I used to get weird about exact calories but then I realised that even if I weigh every onion and apple and grape there is still a margin of error depending on variety, ripeness, quality, age, how cooked or raw they might be etc. not even to get started on fat content in protein depending on how chubby the chicken was so even the most accurate measurement is still just a best guess. And my TDEE is both an estimate and variable day to day so both what I'm measuring and what I'm comparing it to are never going to be completely accurate. All you can do is give your best effort and be consistent. If you're making similar "errors" every day you can still get the idea of how you're trending!
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    I have to admit I never did this, but I'm a math geek so maybe my comfort with numbers made it easier for me to trust my logging!

    How much of a deficit are you running? Understand that even if you go a little over your calorie limit, you are still in a deficit and will still lose weight, just slightly less.

    Sometimes our biggest hurdles are the mind games we play with ourselves. If you are losing weight at an acceptable pace, try to pat yourself on the back and trust the process :smiley:
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,454 Member
    edited November 2018
    I had a lot of what I felt were obsessive thoughts around this in the beginning...I managed to talk myself off the ledge on that thinking. It was just learning a new skill, and spending time thinking about it. I know that logging works for me, so I just do it and I don't attach a judgement to it. It's a life chore such as putting gas in the car or doing laundry. I just weigh my food and log it. Sometimes I prelog, but I've done this so long that I pretty much know how much of something to prepare.

    I weigh myself and enter it. I log my exercise.

    It's in your head. Don't torture yourself with your own thoughts.
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,140 Member
    No never really sweated being exactly close to it because I know even if I go over by a hundred or so calories, I am still in a deficit.
  • amy19355
    amy19355 Posts: 805 Member
    quiksylver296 wrote: »
    The thing that helped me the most was learning what my TDEE was. My TDEE is about 2400 calories. My daily calorie goal is 1800. Which means even if I go over by 500 calories, I'm still in deficit!!! Learning that was huge for me!

    ^^ this
  • collectingblues
    collectingblues Posts: 2,541 Member
    I'm the same way. I intentionally keep my limit higher than it should be, and instead focusing on making sure that I close my day with X amount of calories "left". That also gives me a buffer for any (albeit unlikely, considering I use a food scale for everything, and my Watch is conservative on my calorie burns) measurement errors.
  • mitch16
    mitch16 Posts: 2,113 Member
    I've been down that rabbit hole. I'm a little OCD and have a history of ED, so I've come to terms with the fact that it's probably better for me to not weigh every morsel and just better for me to estimate to the best of my ability. And I'm still successfully losing, so it's working for me.

    Although being a healthy weight is healthy, don't undermine your mental health to get there.
  • Panini911
    Panini911 Posts: 2,325 Member
    not until i started trying to find maintenance (or stay at .5lbs) where the small numbers count. During weight loss my results proved what i was doing worked.

    but i remind myself that if I track and see my weight isn't stable loosing a half a pound or even a full pound is no big deal if i make an error (plus daily fluctations are greater than that anyway!)
  • pinuplove
    pinuplove Posts: 12,871 Member
    Tacklewasher wrote: »
    pinuplove wrote: »
    ETA, like this https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10702775/why-consistency-matters-more-than-accuracy-to-me/p1 (ignore the silliness at the end :lol: )

    Geez. Gonna bring up that thread of your every chance you can????

    Yeah, I know it's a good thread.......

    It's not as good as my stepladder thread, but I'm not above a bit of self-promotion :tongue:
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
    edited November 2018
    pinuplove wrote: »
    Tacklewasher wrote: »
    pinuplove wrote: »
    ETA, like this https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10702775/why-consistency-matters-more-than-accuracy-to-me/p1 (ignore the silliness at the end :lol: )

    Geez. Gonna bring up that thread of your every chance you can????

    Yeah, I know it's a good thread.......

    It's not as good as my stepladder thread, but I'm not above a bit of self-promotion :tongue:

    I remember that one.

    It was a short read.....


    :)

    Back to the OP, @gallicinvasion did you get the info you think you need?
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,454 Member
    *ba dum ccchh*
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
    Given how often I barrel over it at breakneck speed, I'd say no. But that's not really a good weight loss technique, either.
  • gallicinvasion
    gallicinvasion Posts: 1,015 Member
    smolmaus wrote: »
    Do you weigh all your food or just the calorie dense food?

    I used to get weird about exact calories but then I realised that even if I weigh every onion and apple and grape there is still a margin of error depending on variety, ripeness, quality, age, how cooked or raw they might be etc. not even to get started on fat content in protein depending on how chubby the chicken was so even the most accurate measurement is still just a best guess. And my TDEE is both an estimate and variable day to day so both what I'm measuring and what I'm comparing it to are never going to be completely accurate. All you can do is give your best effort and be consistent. If you're making similar "errors" every day you can still get the idea of how you're trending!

    You make a valid point! I weigh foods that aren’t like...lettuce lol. When I eat out, I weigh what I can, estimate the rest, and add cooking oil calories. I just need to remind myself that there’s never going to be perfection; I just have to get as close as I can and trust the process.

  • gallicinvasion
    gallicinvasion Posts: 1,015 Member
    kimny72 wrote: »
    I have to admit I never did this, but I'm a math geek so maybe my comfort with numbers made it easier for me to trust my logging!

    How much of a deficit are you running? Understand that even if you go a little over your calorie limit, you are still in a deficit and will still lose weight, just slightly less.

    Sometimes our biggest hurdles are the mind games we play with ourselves. If you are losing weight at an acceptable pace, try to pat yourself on the back and trust the process :smiley:

    I’m set to lose 1 lb per week, so I’m running a 500 cal deficit. So I should just remind myself there is that cushion there!

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