Went well over my calories!

jolmbagpuss

This is my first week and I have already on a couple of days gone well over my daily calories by about 400 or so :-(

I suppose it's all trial and error at the start to see what is good to eat and what is not.

DragonSuzie

If you dont try you'll never succeed anyways, at least you're trying, just start the new day and forget yesterday

SeriousBen

Tip: Write what (and how much) you're going to eat BEFORE eating it. I always plan one day in advance so no surprise. If you still eat too much by doing that, it might be a motivation issue (or you have the wrong goals).

LTGPSA

That's normal in the beginning. Like you said, you're learning. Logging will enable you to learn what foods are not so healthy, etc. and you can choose to make adjustments for the better. All the best to you! :flowerforyou:

Shaky44

Missed by 400 calories? That's nothing. You're probably still eating at a rate at which you will lose weight (assuming you set your goal to lose 1 lb / week or more).

Make sure your goal is attainable and start again tomorrow. No problem.

kitujainen

And that is how people gain weight
It is all the few hundred extra that pile up and suddenly... oops, you eat more and more to keep it up

BernadetteChurch

It's good to spend your first couple of weeks just logging everything you eat and drink and then looking at your food diary to see where you need to make adjustments. Doesn't take too long to get into the habit of making better food choices to allow you to meet your calorie goal.

RC2016

Don't beat yourself up, it's your first week, you'll get the hang of it. I agree with SeriousBen, log before you eat. I do this and sometime make different choices if it looks like the calories won't fit my daily plan or maybe I can add something because it is under what I thought it was. The important thing is that your logging and are aware, so good job.

benefiting

Tip: Write what (and how much) you're going to eat BEFORE eating it. I always plan one day in advance so no surprise. If you still eat too much by doing that, it might be a motivation issue (or you have the wrong goals).

This is really good advice!

Also, don't beat yourself over it. You will get into the swing of things! Just keep going!

flumi_f

Don't worry too much about it, just plan your day before eating ;-)

Planning ahead helps me stay within my limits. After a while of serious logging, you will get a feel for what 'costs' how much ;-)

rfsatar

It's good to spend your first couple of weeks just logging everything you eat and drink and then looking at your food diary to see where you need to make adjustments. Doesn't take too long to get into the habit of making better food choices to allow you to meet your calorie goal.

This. It took me a good two weeks just to get the habit of logging and understanding and now I can pretty much work out what I need with the calories I have.

fleetzz

400 calories is not much---I try to burn off any extra calories that I eat. So when you eat over your calories, just go for a walk and burn that much (don't use MFP to calculate calories, it overestimates, get a heart rate monitor, it is closer). For me, I have to walk 1.35 miles for each 100 calories I go over. I am pretty slow though (and dealing with joint issues, ugh!)


Of course, you could always pre-log your food so you don't have to spend so much time exercising it off! That works too!

jolmbagpuss

Thank you everybody for your support. I will take on your advice. I find weekends are the worst though and forget I am supposed to be logging.

I must say though that having the app on my iPhone is brilliant as I can scan everything and the database is brilliant as it hasn't come up with anything it can't find yet.