Protein and Calories

amityblightthetopstudent
amityblightthetopstudent Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Guys if I’m eating like 20 calories over my limit but the meal is 40g of protein should I still eat or should I opt for something with little protein but low calories?

Answers

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 35,148 Member
    I wouldn't worry about 20 calories over goal. I'd eat the protein, personally.

    I don't really understand the math in your question, though: 40 grams of pure protein would be 160 calories. You're 20 calories over limit, which is about 5 grams of protein. Being 5 grams under your protein goal one day isn't a huge big deal, either. (Being persistently way low on protein most days is worth trying to improve.)

    Maybe I'm misreading between the lines, but I'm concerned that you're over-stressed about this. Such small differences aren't material, especially as an occasional/rare thing. Weight management isn't like a magic spell or incantation where we have to get every detail exact, or bad things happen. Pretty close to goals on average over a few days will work just fine.

    As far as the 20 calories specifically: Most of us are going to be that far off even if we're super meticulous about logging, because packaging can be off by up to 20%, one apple is sweeter than the next, etc. Don't worry about it.

    If you're set up on MFP with a calorie goal to lose weight, even if you actually are 20 calories over goal, you're still way under maintenance calories, and can expect to lose fat. Even at the lowest weight loss rate, half a pound a week, MFP is giving you what it thinks is a 250 calorie deficit daily (250 under maintenance). 20 calories is arithmetically trivial in that context: If it were true, you'd reach goal weight at most a tiny number of minutes later because of one day with 20 extra calories. I dunno about you, but I can't make myself care about reaching goal 1 or 2 or 10 minutes later, y'know?

    Best wishes!
  • sollyn23l2
    sollyn23l2 Posts: 1,851 Member
    I second the "go ahead and eat it".
  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 12,793 Member
    Protein for the win!
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 10,076 Member
    If you ate 20 calories over your goal for one month then your weightloss will be reduced for that month by approximately 0.17lbs. That's nothing and totally in line with individual variations.
  • BCLadybug888
    BCLadybug888 Posts: 1,839 Member
    I personally think it is quite amusing to believe that all of our calorie calculations used to determine our goal, and all of our diary entries are so accurate, that 20 calories is make or break...eat the protein.
  • sollyn23l2
    sollyn23l2 Posts: 1,851 Member
    BCLadybug888 wrote: »
    I personally think it is quite amusing to believe that all of our calorie calculations used to determine our goal, and all of our diary entries are so accurate, that 20 calories is make or break...eat the protein.

    Exactly
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,384 Member
    Math is an exacting task master. How much your actually eating down to the calorie is not reality in any stretch of the imagination. Forgive yourself knowing most people are out hundreds of calories and most of that has to do with the calories out part of that math equation. Breath. :)
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,353 Member
    While math may be exact, calorie amounts in foods are not. The numbers we all work with are averages. Things like growing seasons, geographical location, and more all cause variations in the nutritional amounts in foods. What we work with are the average amount, so 20 calories is far to precise a number to say if you would even be going over or are still under. In short, don't worry about 20 calories.
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 8,978 Member
    neanderthin wrote: »

    Breath. :)


    This^^^

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