How many calories do YOU net a day?

taso42_DELETED

2500 because it's maintenance + 250

Taso, what is your average calorie intake and average calories expended now that you're at goal?
Did you progressively reduce your calorie deficit as you got closer to maintenance, or did you increase the deficit for the last few pounds of weight-loss?
I've heard both experiences... wondering what your experience was.

My average exercise burn is around 250-350/day. Usually 1 rest day. That makes my average calorie intake about 2750-2850. I did reduce my deficit the closer I got to "goal weight".

I've been getting pretty sloppy these past few weeks, eating out several times a week now. And yesterday I even skipped a workout. So if you decide to look in my diary, go back a few weeks for a better picture of my "norm".

solpwr

2500 because it's maintenance + 250

Taso, what is your average calorie intake and average calories expended now that you're at goal?
Did you progressively reduce your calorie deficit as you got closer to maintenance, or did you increase the deficit for the last few pounds of weight-loss?
I've heard both experiences... wondering what your experience was.

My average exercise burn is around 250-350/day. Usually 1 rest day. That makes my average calorie intake about 2750-2850. I did reduce my deficit the closer I got to "goal weight".

I've been getting pretty sloppy these past few weeks, eating out several times a week now. And yesterday I even skipped a workout. So if you decide to look in my diary, go back a few weeks for a better picture of my "norm".

I have been reducing my deficit as well and it seems to be the right thing to do. In some ways it seems like I am seeing more weight-loss this way. It could be that I was trying to maintain too low of a NET number.

I know that my calories expended on commute days is really high, I just can't do it every day, the best I've been able to do is 2 days in a row, so it's always weird for me having the non-exercise days, but it still seems to work fine for me.

In October I'll go to a much more conventional routine.

I think the big thing for maintenance is just continuing the logging process. Even a week or two of "getting pretty sloppy" is a non issue if you're staying accountable by logging. The problem comes when weeks become months... people forget that they need to maintain the calorie "budget", at least that's been my experience in the past.

pnieuw

I eat about 2,000 to 2,200 a day. My target is 1,910 a day to lose 1 lb a week. I exercise 5x a week and burn 450 cals, so on those days, I eat 2,100 or 2,200. When I lose 12 more lbs, I'll go to maintence mode and add those 500 calories a day back to my diet. Probably not all at once, but over a week or two.

taso42_DELETED

I have been reducing my deficit as well and it seems to be the right thing to do. In some ways it seems like I am seeing more weight-loss this way. It could be that I was trying to maintain too low of a NET number.

Ditto. I was losing weight before MFP, and without calorie counting. Ever since joining here, I have increased my calorie intake about 3 or 4 times prior to hitting my target, and every single time it has been the right move in terms of keeping the weigh loss going and keeping me feeling satiated. That's part of the reason why I'm such a loud advocate of EATING!

Right now I am working on growing (muscle), hence my 250 cal surplus. I can afford to be a little bit sloppy (JUST a little bit). I'm just going to have to burn off the sloppiness later on by going into a calorie deficit again. But my diet was virtually flawless when I was losing, and I sort of miss that ruthless discipline.

Crystalchaos72

2200-2800 because mfp has me set too low so if I eat what it tells me I will lose weight too fast........I have been on maintainence eating this much without exercise for 3 weeks, and when I exercise I eat all plus some back. It has my maintainence to be 2030.....I have had my settings higher than what it told me for a month prior to reaching my first goal, and was still losing too fast/too much(was set at .5 loss a week and consistently lost 1#+ a week, even eating more). It is what is working, if I don't get to 2nd goal I am ok with it.

FaithsVegWorkout

It varies. It depends on if I exercise and how much I exercise.

keiraev

1350. It was 1200 (set to lose a pound a week) however, I was angry and starving all the time so I upped it. I'm small though and I only have 8 lbs to lose.

Same here! I only have a couple more lb to lose and 1200 was too hard on the days I don't exercise so I changed to 1350. I sometimes still go slightly over if it's a non exercise day but still lose weight so I'm not really bothered. I think it does your body good to have different intakes during the week as long as you eat below maintenance in theory u will lose- just not as quickly.

1350 supposedly makes me lose 0.7lb a week which works about right - sometimes I lose 0.5 sometimes 2!

Fingers crossed i hit my goal by next week

sugarbone

Usually 900-1200. I am really trying to make that 1200 every day but I have a terrible appetite and don't eat very calorie dense meals. Trying to get better at meeting my minimum every day. Ugh, and when I feel like cardio, I know I'll have to eat a couple hundred more cals x_x My sister's baking a cake right now, but i'm just over my fat & sugar intake so I don't think I'll be using that to gap my last 200 cals today.

Pebble321

Around 1600 NET calories a day. So, that means around 1600 on non-exercise days and anywhere from 1900 - 2500 on exercise days, depending on how much I burn.

TavistockToad

I net 1500, which is about 1700-1800 cals of food minus about 200-300 of exercise cals. i am at my goal weight so working on upping my cals to maintenance so i make sure i always eat all my exercise cals.

Oishii

About 2400 because that seems to be my maintenance calories, and I'm trying to not lose.

I lost on 1200 for a while and dropped weight far too fast... Which makes sense if that was a 1000+ daily deficit!

I don't exercise very much and ALWAYS eat back my exercise calories, if I'm hungry for them (which I normally am!).

Scoobies87

I net between 900-1,100. I have been on here 12 weeks now and found eating all of my exercise calories back doesn't work for me.

purple_tux1

2500-3000/day. I feel that's so high when I see people eating 1200/day. And yet, I'm really hungry trying to keep it at 2500. Argh.

TavistockToad

2500-3000/day. I feel that's so high when I see people eating 1200/day. And yet, I'm really hungry trying to keep it at 2500. Argh.

I started on 1200, and now i wonder how i managed!!

B3Streeter

I net about 800-1000 a day on my exercise days, 1200 on rest days. But I burn around 600-over 1,000 calories 6days/week and I do not eat all of my exercise calories. I like to have some room to spare incase I don't measure things properly.

AimingHighWeighingLow

I am naughty where I eat hardly anything of late! I was under my calories yesterday by 1087 calories because I exercised I did 8 hours of solid cleaning/ironing.

I did go away at the weekend and went over by 200 calories each day but normally I have about 400 calories remaining, my target should be 1200 calories a day, I don't see the point in eating when I am not hungry!

stephyy4632

I net between 800-1200 depends on how much I have exercised that day

I`m set up to loose 1.5/week with a goal of 1230 I am going back and forth on weather I`m ready to change my goal to 1pound per week since I`m within 34pounds of my goal weight and really close to being out of the obese catagory and just considered to be overweight

AKosky585

I NET 800-1000 a day on exercise days and 1200 on non exercise days. I was on here for a year and a half eating back exercise calories and finally tried NOT doing it. And I FINALLY started to lose. Eating them back does not work for me, as I tried it anywhere from 1200-1500 calories NET. With that, I just stayed the same.