Left over calories at the end of the day

kikitlo

I am having a hard time keeping up with my calories. I feel like I eat enough, I am not starving, but yet at the end of the day I have a bunch of calories left over.....hmmmm, anyone else with this dilemma? Maybe I should eat a bigger lunch. That seems to be my where I am lacking.

CMomma23

I've always heard and been told to eat a bigger breakfast because that is your fuel for the day.

chuckyp

Can you give them to me so I can eat them? I like nuts and cheese too much for that to be a problem for me. I think I was some kind of rodent in a past life.

adk88

Can you give them to me so I can eat them? I like nuts and cheese too much for that to be a problem for me. I think I was some kind of rodent in a past life.

Same!

niknak0508

Most of my days I have a ton of leftover calories too. I usually have one or two days that I go over by 100 or so, nothing TOO BAD. It really all depends on how much time you put into exercise and the amount of calories you burn too.

McKayMachina

This has been happening to me this week, too. I'm normally ravenous and tend to over-eat much more often than under-eat so I don't worry if I go under a bit. I've even taking to eating 600-calorie breakfasts in order to get at least halfway to goal by the evening. I'm thinking more calorie-dense foods will help. I'm looking into the whole keto thing (but a way relaxed version) so I have started adding more fats like butter, avocado, nuts, peanut butter, cheese.

swiftd03

First thing to do is to look at your settings and your goals. If you are trying to lose weight perhaps you set too easy of a goal for yourself. It is also very common for people to over estimate their activity level in the settings and/ or counting everyday things as an exercise that is already compensated for by the activity level settings. (I.E. activity setting saying you are on your feet doing physical work all day long and then also entering 8 hours of physical activity everyday). Lastly, some people just have a slower metabolism, in which case you burn less calories than other people during everyday activites. Evaluate your weight and if you have a large amount of calories left over every day but are not losing weight it is likely that something in our settings is not set properly.

Juliealittle

A few questions:
Do you have an appropriate number of recommended calories? Are you using the ones calculated by MFP?
Do you exercise a lot to give you extra calories and those "exercise calories" are the ones you have left over?

If you are eating all of your recommended calories and just have your "exercise calories" leftover, then I don't think it's as much of an issue.

If you aren't eating all of your regular calories, you need to add more food. The recommendations are made to keep your metabolism running strong and if you don't eat enough, your body interprets it as starving and burns calories at a slower rate.

If you are consistently not eating all of your recommended calories, look at adding healthy snacks throughout the day.
Good luck!

AshjMusik

Swift & McKay have the right idea, eating lots of monounsaturated fatty acid foods will help u stay more full for a longer period of time. As McKay listed, avocado, all kinds of nuts, peanut butter, cheese, dark chocolate, olive oil & olives. The book 'The Flat Belly Diet' is a great recipe book for this! Taking the extra time to eat a big breakfast will help!

kristen11joy

You could also add in a couple of snacks, if you find that you really need to eat more calories -- when I have "leftovers" it's usually because my day got really hectic and I missed a snack -- I don't like to eat a whole bunch at the end of the day just to use them up. But it doesn't happen often!

dlyeates

I'm on 1200 calories and almost always under calories to the point that I really have no desire to eat that many calories that late at night so I'm not exercising right now so I'm not so incredibly deficit at night.

Sandyc3838

I don't think I have reached my 1200 calories one time in way over two months, but I do get close. And I always have leftover exercise calories, which, for me, I don't even consider eating. I have lost 16 lbs since being on here, but a total of 22 lbs altogether, and I haven't felt that my body has gone into starvation mode. Maybe it's just me, but once you start eating right (fruits, veggies, lean protein, nuts, etc) it's difficult to get to that calorie level. I find myself low in calories so I make sure and eat apples, plums, pineapple, small salads, whatever I can find to get my calorie count up. I would say that if you are losing weight, exercising, and feeling that you aren't hungry all the time............you're probably fine. :bigsmile:

kikitlo

Thanks all. They are definitely exercise calories. I burn a ton, which is awesome! Yes, I need to add more snacks and a bigger lunch.

kikitlo

Can you give them to me so I can eat them? I like nuts and cheese too much for that to be a problem for me. I think I was some kind of rodent in a past life.

LOL....here ya go!!!! :flowerforyou:

Pebble321

I think its about planning - I work out what I'm going to be having for breakfast, lunch and dinner then add snacks to make up my calorie allowance for the day. If I'm not sure what we're having for dinner I will add 500 or 600 quick add cals so these are accounted for and work the rest of the day around that. If I think I'm going to work out I will plan some snacks or things I can add to my lunch/dinner to increase my cals.
Planning ahead makes it much easier to end the day pretty close to my goal - I aim to be within about 100 cals of my net calorie allowance.
Depending on how much you have to lose I don't think it's the end of the world to leave a few calories uneaten, but in the long term I think it is healthier to eat the calories assigned.