“Using up” those extra calories in the evening

erinjleslie

I currently have MFP set to maintenance, and am working/hoping for recomp. I’m doing BBG (3 resistance sessions per week plus 3-5 cardio). MFP gives me 1670 calories per day, but I have my Fitbit connected and almost always get over 10,000 steps so it’s adding on 300+ calories.
Sometimes after dinner I realize MFP is saying I can have 2000 or more calories, and I’ve only eaten 1200 so far. I don’t want to under-eat, but at the same time, the foods I gravitate to after dinner are never the healthiest.
What to do when I unintentionally have a huge surplus of calories left over at the end of the day?

lemurcat2

Maybe save them for the next day and then use them more thoughtfully? I often find I'm hungrier the day after an activity than the day of, so flex calories through the week.

Another thought is that if your activity is pretty consistent through a week putting yourself as active and allowing negative adjustments with the Fitbit so the extra calories are not a surprise and you can plan meals accordingly.

rheddmobile

Are you losing weight? If you are leaving a bunch of calories often and not losing weight over three weeks or more, it seems likely your logging is off.

In order to recomp you need enough protein to allow for muscle growth.

erinjleslie

lemurcat2 wrote: »

Maybe save them for the next day and then use them more thoughtfully? I often find I'm hungrier the day after an activity than the day of, so flex calories through the week.

Another thought is that if your activity is pretty consistent through a week putting yourself as active and allowing negative adjustments with the Fitbit so the extra calories are not a surprise and you can plan meals accordingly.

Yes, good idea to change up the settings so that I start out with a higher calorie number and can plan for it, rather than having a bunch of surprise calories at the end of the day! I would have to be careful on less active days though.

rheddmobile wrote: »

Are you losing weight? If you are leaving a bunch of calories often and not losing weight over three weeks or more, it seems likely your logging is off.

In order to recomp you need enough protein to allow for muscle growth.

Hmm good thinking, I stopped losing and have maintained since Jan.31. So I guess either my logging is off, or MFP/Fitbit is allowing too many calories. Maybe I should disconnect my Fitbit from the app and add workouts manually?

margbarco

Perhaps you could sync your Fitbit steps a few times per day so there are no additional ‘surprise’ calories in the evening.

I try to sync mine before each meal or snack and eat the extra calories as I go along.

Dilvish

Gadgets can't accurately measure what you burn. Everyone is different that's why the numbers you see on these apps or gadgets are just generic estimates.

I personally ignore the amount of calories I can eat back from exercise because it is never accurate. Just like the "if every day were like today..." when you complete a daily entry...the weight they project in 5 weeks is never accurate.

If you exercise regularly and eat healthy and eat when you are hungry, the rest will take care of itself.

If you have been doing the same exercises over and over for a long period of time then it's time to switch it up. The body gets used to the routine so it becomes less effective. Try adding swimming...it's great exercise for maintenance.

angelsja

For less active days you can enable negative calories so under exercise it will say - X amount of calories untill you have reached and then surpassed whatever activity setting you picked

NovusDies

Dilvish wrote: »

Gadgets can't accurately measure what you burn. Everyone is different that's why the numbers you see on these apps or gadgets are just generic estimates.

I personally ignore the amount of calories I can eat back from exercise because it is never accurate. Just like the "if every day were like today..." when you complete a daily entry...the weight they project in 5 weeks is never accurate.

If you exercise regularly and eat healthy and eat when you are hungry, the rest will take care of itself.

If you have been doing the same exercises over and over for a long period of time then it's time to switch it up. The body gets used to the routine so it becomes less effective. Try adding swimming...it's great exercise for maintenance.

You have contradicted yourself here. You start with everyone is different and then proceed to give advice that, at best, only applies to you.

If intuitive eating worked for everyone we would not have an obesity crisis and there would be no such things as eating disorders. There would also be no reason to log food and exercise.

MFP is designed to eat back at least a portion of the exercise calories so it is best not to ignore it completely unless you are using a TDEE calorie goal that includes exercise.

lemurcat2

Dilvish wrote: »

I personally ignore the amount of calories I can eat back from exercise because it is never accurate. Just like the "if every day were like today..." when you complete a daily entry...the weight they project in 5 weeks is never accurate.

If you exercise regularly and eat healthy and eat when you are hungry, the rest will take care of itself.

If you have been doing the same exercises over and over for a long period of time then it's time to switch it up. The body gets used to the routine so it becomes less effective. Try adding swimming...it's great exercise for maintenance.

She's trying to recomp. This is pretty bad advice for someone trying to recomp.

cwolfman13

erinjleslie wrote: »

I currently have MFP set to maintenance, and am working/hoping for recomp. I’m doing BBG (3 resistance sessions per week plus 3-5 cardio). MFP gives me 1670 calories per day, but I have my Fitbit connected and almost always get over 10,000 steps so it’s adding on 300+ calories.
Sometimes after dinner I realize MFP is saying I can have 2000 or more calories, and I’ve only eaten 1200 so far. I don’t want to under-eat, but at the same time, the foods I gravitate to after dinner are never the healthiest.
What to do when I unintentionally have a huge surplus of calories left over at the end of the day?

If this is pretty normal day to day, plan better and eat more earlier. I know that on the regular I need around 2800-3000 calories per day to maintain...so I plan accordingly.

erinjleslie

Thanks so much everyone, this has been very helpful! I am going to try tweaking my goals on MFP, and to add some extra (healthy) calories earlier in the day, so I’m not tempted to eat crap with what I’ve got left in the evening. 👍

KNoceros

I sync my FitBit multiple times through the day so there aren’t too many surprises.
If I get to the end of the day and have spare calories I tend to do one of two things:
“Bank” them for going out later in the week
Spend them on cheese or chocolates or a glass of wine as a mini treat.

What you eat really is t that great a deal, it’s how much that upsets the scales.

amy19355

erinjleslie wrote: »

lemurcat2 wrote: »

Maybe save them for the next day and then use them more thoughtfully? I often find I'm hungrier the day after an activity than the day of, so flex calories through the week.

Another thought is that if your activity is pretty consistent through a week putting yourself as active and allowing negative adjustments with the Fitbit so the extra calories are not a surprise and you can plan meals accordingly.

Yes, good idea to change up the settings so that I start out with a higher calorie number and can plan for it, rather than having a bunch of surprise calories at the end of the day! I would have to be careful on less active days though.

rheddmobile wrote: »

Are you losing weight? If you are leaving a bunch of calories often and not losing weight over three weeks or more, it seems likely your logging is off.

In order to recomp you need enough protein to allow for muscle growth.

Hmm good thinking, I stopped losing and have maintained since Jan.31. So I guess either my logging is off, or MFP/Fitbit is allowing too many calories. Maybe I should disconnect my Fitbit from the app and add workouts manually?

I’ve seen this on other posts and my own experience agrees with others , in that, I’m choosing to eat back only about 50% of the calories because of the variables that affect how Fitbit counts stuff and how MFP works it into their system figuring.

My hunger levels seem to coincide with that as well, and I’m losing weight. Maybe that helps you somehow.
Good luck.