I know this is dumb, any tips on staying under cal goal

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Replies

  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
    I'm not the best at explaining things... by the end of the day sometimes i stay under my goal. I try to eat dinner before 7 at night. I enter all my calories in and happy that i stayed under! but since i have calories left i find myself looking for snacks to eat.
    Like most of the time if i know I am gonna go over I will fight the urge to eat. it is the opposite when i dont go over, i find things to eat even when im not hungry. Then i go over! if i can just fight the urge i will stay under my calorie goal like i should!

    Well, keep in mind, that if you are using MFP method, your calorie goal is there to meet, not stay under. Assuming that you are not underestimating your food portions or overestimating your calories burned. There is nothing wrong with eating something else to meet the goal if you are not going over. Many people find that this helps them to not binge. Also, if you are set at a low calorie goal, it will help you to meet your nutritional needs by eating all of your allotted calories, not staying under.
  • Jennloella
    Jennloella Posts: 2,286 Member
    you know you shouldn't do it, but you can't help yourself. That's a self control issue and there's no tip to give that will make you decide to control yourself until you're ready. Guess I kinds said what you didn't want to hear/already know. Sorry no magic bullet to make dedication and desire appear out of thin air.
  • pplastics
    pplastics Posts: 135 Member
    why it is when i want to reply to a certain person, it is not putting their caption there so they know im talking to them?

    You have to quote them, not reply


    As for the eating at night only because you are in the green thing , sounds like you are playing mind games with yourself. Unfortunately, you are the only one who can figure out a way to stop doing that.

    Things you might try are:

    ...Begin to associate the green numbers with a small victory, and give yourself small non-food related rewards. Harken back to your kindergarten years and make yourself a sticker book...at the end of the month see how many stickers you collected.

    ...Remind yourself that you are not physically hungry, and only take a bite of something if you truly are.

    ...Understand that the emotional aspect of losing weight is far more difficult to conquer than winning the calorie math is. You have lost a lot of weight already....quit beating yourself up over a few calories!!!! You have obviously found a path that is working.

    ...Convince yourself that you have GERD (as I do) and you will never, ever want to eat close to bedtime. The burning in the middle of the night does not help in getting my beauty sleep!
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    it doesn't help that my fitbit is connected to mfp... it gives me calories for exercising but takes them away later in the evening b/c it is a projected calorie burn and they never get it right... i'm not as active in the afternoon as i am during the day. for ex. my exercise might say +250 but then at bedtime it was say +150. that drives me absolutely crazy. so i also need to save the extra calories for when fitbit/mfp takes them away.

    Check what time zone your fitbit has you in. When I first got mine, it did the same thing and it drove me nuts. Then I saw something mentioning the time zone in the forums, so I checked my setup and it was wrong. Changed it to EST and I never had the problem again. Now that it is right, I start off the day with negative exercise calories, and as I get my steps in it corrects me throughout the day. I forget the reasoning. Hopefully that will help!
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    I think people are not reading or understanding what OP is saying. If I understand correctly, you are asking for tips to stay under your calorie goal, right? You are going over, and you don't want to. Not that she is under her calorie goal and wants advice of how to hit it.

    Secondly, I agree with Psulemon. You have already lost a significant amount of weight (so whoever said it doesn't sound like you want to lose weight - disregard that - you are doing great). You likely need to change your goal as you get closer to maintenance, with less than 10 lbs to lose, you should only have your goal set to lose 0.5 lb/week, which would only be a 250 cal deficit from your maintenance number. You need to start thinking about what maintenance is going to be like for you.

    Lastly, you seem flummoxed by the FitBit. I understand, I have one too. There are a couple of things there... First, with regards to setting your calorie goal - are you using the MFP numbers, or the FitBit numbers? After I got my FitBit, I started looking at the average calories burned over a month, and using that as my TDEE. From there, I changed my goal on MFP accordingly. If you use the 0.5 lb/week recommendation I made above, then you would subtract 250 cals from your average calories burned and then set that as a custom goal in MFP. You will likely find that it gives you a much bigger calorie allowance, which means that you won't be "over" as much, and that may help your overall attitude about this.

    With regards to FitBit subtracting calories at the end of the day, I know, that is so frustrating. What I started doing was paying attention to how much it changes, based on what time I plop down on the couch at the end of the night and what time I go to bed. I know that it is going to subtract anywhere from 100-200 calories those last couple hours of the day, which is very frustrating, but if you know that is going to happen, then you can just sort of mentally disregard those excess calories after dinner. I started leaving 100 or so cals on the table so to speak, just for that very reason, and it made me end up the night much closer to the goal.

    Good luck - you have lost 66 lbs so you definitely know how to do this, don't let the FitBit throw you off. It's a tool to make you more successful, not to hinder your progress.
  • PoesyP
    PoesyP Posts: 37 Member
    I totally get what you mean. This is why I choose not to really log calories. I find it really easy to drive yourself mad with the numbers and the tiny details. And I find obsessing over food can be really counterproductive. I manage OK with doing it a bit more by feel - some days I'm bound to be under my calories, others over, but I don't know the details so I don't worry about them!

    If the scale stops moving then that's when I might go back to logging for a bit to make sure I'm not drifting into being over calories every day. Obviously this is an approach that is generally recommended against so I can see it's not for everyone, but it's what works for me.
  • njitaliana
    njitaliana Posts: 812 Member
    What helps me is to plan out all my food either in the morning or even the evening before. Then I just eat what it says to eat, as it is all spelled out already.
  • angela233Z
    angela233Z Posts: 312 Member
    I think I understand, If I have 100 calories left, I feel like I deserve a snack - but rarely stop at 100 calories.
    What I do now, is finish my diary so it shows what I will weigh in 5 weeks if I everyday is like today. That puts the 100 calories into perspective for me.
  • kat239
    kat239 Posts: 92 Member
    I would eat them :-)
  • scrittrice
    scrittrice Posts: 345 Member
    I still say it's fine to eat them. If you're eating at a deficit and you go over your goal, you'll just lose weight a little more slowly than you would have, which isn't a bad thing. In fact, I'd argue the weight loss will be more sustainable. Also, keep in mind that none of this is perfectly exact. Even weighing and measuring your food, using a heart rate monitor, wearing a FitBit, and doing everything else you can is not ever going to get you an exact number. Your margin of error is probably somewhere around the amount you're over/under your target. If you're losing weight, you're not eating above maintenance; you're eating below it.

    I think one or two sessions with a therapist might be helpful, too. Tracking can definitely bring out some OCD-ish tendencies in people.
  • funnybun1
    funnybun1 Posts: 62 Member
    Hiya!

    One lady I follow pre-logs her food for the next 2 weeks. When I asked her about it - she said doing this
    * lets her plan her grocery shopping
    * allows her to pre plan her meals and snacks
    * and she gets to look forward to eating all that amazing food that she's already planned for.

    I kind of liked the idea of being able to look forward to eating my food lol and I must say it helps me not feel like I have to eat every last calorie that I possibly can - but to enjoy the one's I've planned for.

    hope that helps :)
  • EmbryK128
    EmbryK128 Posts: 18 Member
    I think people are not reading or understanding what OP is saying. If I understand correctly, you are asking for tips to stay under your calorie goal, right? You are going over, and you don't want to. Not that she is under her calorie goal and wants advice of how to hit it.

    Secondly, I agree with Psulemon. You have already lost a significant amount of weight (so whoever said it doesn't sound like you want to lose weight - disregard that - you are doing great). You likely need to change your goal as you get closer to maintenance, with less than 10 lbs to lose, you should only have your goal set to lose 0.5 lb/week, which would only be a 250 cal deficit from your maintenance number. You need to start thinking about what maintenance is going to be like for you.

    Lastly, you seem flummoxed by the FitBit. I understand, I have one too. There are a couple of things there... First, with regards to setting your calorie goal - are you using the MFP numbers, or the FitBit numbers? After I got my FitBit, I started looking at the average calories burned over a month, and using that as my TDEE. From there, I changed my goal on MFP accordingly. If you use the 0.5 lb/week recommendation I made above, then you would subtract 250 cals from your average calories burned and then set that as a custom goal in MFP. You will likely find that it gives you a much bigger calorie allowance, which means that you won't be "over" as much, and that may help your overall attitude about this.

    With regards to FitBit subtracting calories at the end of the day, I know, that is so frustrating. What I started doing was paying attention to how much it changes, based on what time I plop down on the couch at the end of the night and what time I go to bed. I know that it is going to subtract anywhere from 100-200 calories those last couple hours of the day, which is very frustrating, but if you know that is going to happen, then you can just sort of mentally disregard those excess calories after dinner. I started leaving 100 or so cals on the table so to speak, just for that very reason, and it made me end up the night much closer to the goal.

    Good luck - you have lost 66 lbs so you definitely know how to do this, don't let the FitBit throw you off. It's a tool to make you more successful, not to hinder your progress.

    I have my goal set to .5 lb a week, i am so close to my goal that losing and gaining difference is like 200 calories so if i dont be careful i can see weight creeping back up.

    I never thought about using the fitbit stats to help me. I always get online and use the calculators to find my rmr, bmr, and tdee, but all are different and can be misleading. so i will use the fitbit cals burned and figure out my avg for the month to get a base line and start from there, thank you for the tip.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    I think people are not reading or understanding what OP is saying. If I understand correctly, you are asking for tips to stay under your calorie goal, right? You are going over, and you don't want to. Not that she is under her calorie goal and wants advice of how to hit it.

    Secondly, I agree with Psulemon. You have already lost a significant amount of weight (so whoever said it doesn't sound like you want to lose weight - disregard that - you are doing great). You likely need to change your goal as you get closer to maintenance, with less than 10 lbs to lose, you should only have your goal set to lose 0.5 lb/week, which would only be a 250 cal deficit from your maintenance number. You need to start thinking about what maintenance is going to be like for you.

    Lastly, you seem flummoxed by the FitBit. I understand, I have one too. There are a couple of things there... First, with regards to setting your calorie goal - are you using the MFP numbers, or the FitBit numbers? After I got my FitBit, I started looking at the average calories burned over a month, and using that as my TDEE. From there, I changed my goal on MFP accordingly. If you use the 0.5 lb/week recommendation I made above, then you would subtract 250 cals from your average calories burned and then set that as a custom goal in MFP. You will likely find that it gives you a much bigger calorie allowance, which means that you won't be "over" as much, and that may help your overall attitude about this.

    With regards to FitBit subtracting calories at the end of the day, I know, that is so frustrating. What I started doing was paying attention to how much it changes, based on what time I plop down on the couch at the end of the night and what time I go to bed. I know that it is going to subtract anywhere from 100-200 calories those last couple hours of the day, which is very frustrating, but if you know that is going to happen, then you can just sort of mentally disregard those excess calories after dinner. I started leaving 100 or so cals on the table so to speak, just for that very reason, and it made me end up the night much closer to the goal.

    Good luck - you have lost 66 lbs so you definitely know how to do this, don't let the FitBit throw you off. It's a tool to make you more successful, not to hinder your progress.

    I have my goal set to .5 lb a week, i am so close to my goal that losing and gaining difference is like 200 calories so if i dont be careful i can see weight creeping back up.

    I never thought about using the fitbit stats to help me. I always get online and use the calculators to find my rmr, bmr, and tdee, but all are different and can be misleading. so i will use the fitbit cals burned and figure out my avg for the month to get a base line and start from there, thank you for the tip.

    Yes, I feel like FitBit has a much better handle on what I'm actually burning than some estimates that I plug into an online calculator, built off of algorithms and averages. I know FitBit isn't perfect, but I have found it to be relatively accurate and found my weight loss and maintenance much more predictable when I used it for my starting point as far as TDEE, and then adjusted my MFP goals from there.

    I also found things to be much more accurate if I changed my activity settings in MFP. I don't know what your daily exercise/step counts are like - but I originally was set up as Sedentary in MFP per the guidance when I enrolled. Once I got my FitBit, I was getting really big adjustments, and I got good advice on here to up my activity level in MFP so that it was lightly active, and now actually set as active. Now I really do only get an adjustment if I exercise, the baseline estimate in MFP is higher but much more accurate to what I'm actually burning.

    I still think 1200 cals/day is pretty low for having it set at 250 cal deficit. That means your TDEE is less than 1500? At least the one you've been estimating?

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