Calorie goal too aggressive?

stryder77

I'm a big guy and trying to lose weight. I've lost about 20 lbs and I think i'm doing good but my calorie goal is 2370 a day. On the days I don't work out I usually hit or exceed that goal by about 100 calories. I'm eating healthish. I do try to enjoy a coke here or a few pieces of chocolate there. But i've started eating tons more carrots, broccoli, and such so I know i'm eating less empty calories and more stuff that is better for me. I've also cut my coke and milk consumption down from a 32 oz coke a day and about 2 large glasses of milk a day to 12 oz of coke a day and 1 small cup of milk at dinner and add tons more water and ice to my drink consumption.

I absolutely crush my calorie goals on the days I run and lift by at least 1000 calories from running on the elliptical and weight lifting.

Does anyone have any suggestions about this number and trying to be below it each day? I've cut my calories back from almost 4000 day before I started to roughly eat about 2400 and I've seen some good rewards from that. I seem to be just struggling to to eat less than that on the days off i take from working out.

I hope I'm not rambling and this makes sense. Thank you to anyone that can help me with this.

TavistockToad

did you work out your numbers from MFP or TDEE?

if you use MFP you can eat more on your workout days - you should NET your goal

if you use TDEE then you would eat that amount regardless of whether you workout as the exercise should be included.

stryder77

You'll have to forgive my Noobness but I believe I'm using MFP and banking my net. I usually maintain about 3500 under my calorie goal for the week. I did almost hit 4100 under my net goal last week which made me quite proud.

editorgrrl

I'm eating healthish. I do try to enjoy a coke here or a few pieces of chocolate there.

Eat "healthy" (whatever that means to you) 80% of the time. Fit yummy, portion-controlled treats into your calorie goal. Deprivation can lead to bingeing.

As for calories, everybody's different, and it takes a whole lot of trial & error to find what works for you. The closer you are to goal, the more slowly you lose. That's just how the human body works. With only 35 calories to go, set your goal to 1 lb. per week and be patient.

Your MFP calorie goal has your deficit built in (500 calories per lb.), so you must eat back at least a portion of your exercise calories. The calorie counts & burns are only estimates, so some people reduce the margin of error by eating back half their exercise calories.

Read this: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

Your goal should be to find the maximum number of calories at which you lose weight, not the minimum. A reasonable deficit will help you transition to maintenance.

TavistockToad

You'll have to forgive my Noobness but I believe I'm using MFP and banking my net. I usually maintain about 3500 under my calorie goal for the week. I did almost hit 4100 under my net goal last week which made me quite proud.

MFP already gives you a deficit, so there is no need to 'bank' your exercise cals.

i noticed on your ticker that you only have around 30lb to lose? so you dont need such a large deficit. losing 1lb per week is a good rate of loss if you dont think you can eat all the extra calories that you're burning then ease up on the cardio. you need to fuel your workouts so that you are maintaining muscle and you dont burn out.

TavistockToad

also, you can look at your weekly goal and weekly average, so if you dont eat all your exercise calories on the day you work out, you can eat more on your rest days.