Getting Started/Learning Curve

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tlbaddie
tlbaddie Posts: 5 Member
in Getting Started
Hi! I've been transitioning to healthier eating for the last couple of weeks, in readiness to start food journalling today. It's a process with lots of learning curves! One thing I'm not sure I understand correctly is the daily caloric intake goal. Am I supposed to meet it or stay under it? I'd love any input those with more experience than I have can offer-- thank you!

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  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,028 Member
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    You're supposed to meet it, but there's no need to obsess over hitting it exactly every day. A lot of people use a weekly goal -- that is, they aim to have their weekly net calories consumed be reasonably close to 7 X their daily goal.

    What "reasonably" means depends on how large a deficit -- or surplus, for those trying to gain weight -- your goal represents, how accurate and consistent you are in your logging, and your attitude/patience/ambition/flexibility regarding your goal. Personally after the first few months and achieving my initial health-based goal, I shifted to more of a "everything is OK so long as I'm at or under maintenance most of the time."
  • tlbaddie
    tlbaddie Posts: 5 Member
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    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    You're supposed to meet it, but there's no need to obsess over hitting it exactly every day. A lot of people use a weekly goal -- that is, they aim to have their weekly net calories consumed be reasonably close to 7 X their daily goal.

    What "reasonably" means depends on how large a deficit -- or surplus, for those trying to gain weight -- your goal represents, how accurate and consistent you are in your logging, and your attitude/patience/ambition/flexibility regarding your goal. Personally after the first few months and achieving my initial health-based goal, I shifted to more of a "everything is OK so long as I'm at or under maintenance most of the time."

    I appreciate your comment, thanks! My deficit today is almost half of the caloric goal MFP set for me. I'm assuming that's not reasonable (eek, lol), so I'll have to tweak things. Would a reasonable deficit be within a couple of hundred calories?
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,907 Member
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    tlbaddie wrote: »
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    You're supposed to meet it, but there's no need to obsess over hitting it exactly every day. A lot of people use a weekly goal -- that is, they aim to have their weekly net calories consumed be reasonably close to 7 X their daily goal.

    What "reasonably" means depends on how large a deficit -- or surplus, for those trying to gain weight -- your goal represents, how accurate and consistent you are in your logging, and your attitude/patience/ambition/flexibility regarding your goal. Personally after the first few months and achieving my initial health-based goal, I shifted to more of a "everything is OK so long as I'm at or under maintenance most of the time."

    I appreciate your comment, thanks! My deficit today is almost half of the caloric goal MFP set for me. I'm assuming that's not reasonable (eek, lol), so I'll have to tweak things. Would a reasonable deficit be within a couple of hundred calories?

    Since you seem to want a specific number: Aim for being within maybe 50 calories, over or under goal. It's fine for that to be averaged over a week.

    Losing too fast (too low calories, big deficit) increases health risks, makes it hard to stick with it long enough to lose a meaningful amount of weight. Losing too slowly is frustrating, increases chances of giving up because of feeling unsuccessful. Find a happy medium.

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