How strict are you w/your calorie goal?

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servingthealiens
servingthealiens Posts: 144 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Just curious how much "wiggle room" people give themselves.

I'm petite and only want to lose a few pounds. I have my goal set to lose 1 pound per week, and I have a sedentary job, so I get 1200 calories per day. I try to stick to exactly that, but if I go up to 50 calories over, I don't lose sleep. I figure I'm not actually in a coma, so the walking I do to and from the parking ramp and normal day to day activities probably make up the difference. More than 50, though, and I try to get a little more active, whether it's formally working out or doing a little extra house work or something similar.

Replies

  • mrmarius
    mrmarius Posts: 1,802 Member
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    i'm pretty loose, some days i may be over by 2 or 3 hundred just as long as it isnt every day
  • just4peachy
    just4peachy Posts: 594 Member
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    I zigzag on purpose. I'm a creature of habit so I figure my metabolism must be too. I have days that I hit 2000 (my goal is 1490) and days that I barely clear 1000- as long as it evens out to under 1500 for the week I'm okay with it.
    I'm very strict about my water though. At LEAST 10 glasses/day.


    edited for spelling.
  • MisdemeanorM
    MisdemeanorM Posts: 3,493 Member
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    If you are petite and only need to lose a couple lbs, odds are your body will refuse 1 per week, at least after the first couple weeks / initial shock of a diet/exercise routine wears off. You're probably better at setting for 1/2 per week. It gets harder and slower the fewer you have to lose. Or, you can take your 1200 and eat over here and there or allow wiggle room. Just know that you probably won't lose 1 lb per week then, but if you're OK with that then that's fine. (be sure you know what deficit it has you set at, it stops at 1200 minimum, so that's not necessarily a 500 cal deficit if your petiteness requires you fewer calories than 1700 to maintain. Ie, say you maintain your weight at 1600 and tell MFP you want to lose 1/wk it will try to subtract 500 but stop at 1200. So you really are set to lose less than 1 lb a week and have about 300 cal wiggle room (so that you are always at least at a slight deficit)). Hope any of that made sense :)
  • Adsnwfld
    Adsnwfld Posts: 262 Member
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    Not quite sure, I always over estimate what I eat, and under estimate calories burned during workouts. I do stress about going over my daily goal
  • amysambora
    amysambora Posts: 219
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    Mine are set at 1200 per day and I can be pretty ridiculously strict about it...it's the OCD in me coming out, lol. But it's working for me so far. I might go over my cals for maybe 1 day a week and often that speeds the weightloss up a little. It definitely seems to pay to mix things up!
  • Mirabilis
    Mirabilis Posts: 312 Member
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    Iirc, I've gone over maybe twice in the 165 days I've been logging my food here. BUT... my calories have been reset over and over as I've lost weight, and I'm sitting at 1300ish to lose 1 lb. per week. I've still got a ways to go, and my plan is to increase exercise over time to keep up the loss.
  • servingthealiens
    servingthealiens Posts: 144 Member
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    If you are petite and only need to lose a couple lbs, odds are your body will refuse 1 per week, at least after the first couple weeks / initial shock of a diet/exercise routine wears off. You're probably better at setting for 1/2 per week. It gets harder and slower the fewer you have to lose. Or, you can take your 1200 and eat over here and there or allow wiggle room. Just know that you probably won't lose 1 lb per week then, but if you're OK with that then that's fine. (be sure you know what deficit it has you set at, it stops at 1200 minimum, so that's not necessarily a 500 cal deficit if your petiteness requires you fewer calories than 1700 to maintain. Ie, say you maintain your weight at 1600 and tell MFP you want to lose 1/wk it will try to subtract 500 but stop at 1200. So you really are set to lose less than 1 lb a week and have about 300 cal wiggle room (so that you are always at least at a slight deficit)). Hope any of that made sense :)

    No, that made perfect sense actually. Like, if for some odd reason, your actual BMR is 1000 calories a day, MFP will still give you no less than 1200 per day. And if your BMR is 1400, MFP won't put you at 900 a day.

    See, it's weird though. This is actually my second go at the site, and the first time around I lost 7 lbs in about 8 weeks. So, it was almost right on. Then I hit a plateau and was actually pretty happy with my weight (HW = 129, GW = 117 ish... give or take about 2 pounds). Well, I got cocky, and gained it all back. :mad:

    I don't NEED to lose a pound a week, but it would be nice. I mean, I know this happens over time, and like I said I don't have much to lose, so I'm OK with that.

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