How do you deal with exceeding your calorie limit?

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  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    gceinca wrote: »
    I would suggest NOT eating your exercise calories. If you are set to "active" AND logging/ eating your exercise calories, you may be "double dipping". For example, if you didn't run, would you consider yourself active? Do you spend most if the day in a job that requires you to be on your feet all day and/or doing physical labor all day. If running is the reason you consider yourself active, you definitely need to not eat your exercise calories.

    Myself, I am set up in MFP to lose one lb. a week and list myself as "not very active". With that said, I am at 1323 calories a day. Without careful planning, it is easy to go over that amount. I do a one hour fitness class 3x a week and walk for 45 minutes almost every day. I do NOT eat (or even log) my exercise calories. That being said, I am only losing about 1/2 lb. a week. But, I got myself in a frame of mind that that's OK. I am looking at this as a lifetime commitment (I think I will always have to log calories). I feel it is better to not be in a hurry and eat an amount that is doable for the long term.

    Also, I think MFP overestimates the number of calories burned during exercise. Another reason not to eat them!

    I've never really understood the argument that since MFP overestimates calories burned through exercise, you should assume you're burning 0 calories. That's the one estimate we KNOW is wrong, so if you're worried about incorrect estimates . . .

    I think it makes more sense for active people to be aware of the possibility of over- or underestimation and then monitor their results and make appropriate adjustments.

    In your case, since you're losing half a pound a week so your process is working for you. I don't think that means that OP, who runs 3-10 miles a day, should eat just 1,200 calories.

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