Does anyone else use a "reserve"

sgmomma

I log my food and my exercise. Food I log on my fibit page because I prefer the way it logs to MFP. Anyway I try to everyday keep it saying I have about 100 calories left, to compensate for error in cals burned or consumed. I don't have a HRM...trying to save for one.

Does anyone else do this? Is this a dumb idea?

mfpcopine

I log my food and my exercise. Food I log on my fibit page because I prefer the way it logs to MFP. Anyway I try to everyday keep it saying I have about 100 calories left, to compensate for error in cals burned or consumed. I don't have a HRM...trying to save for one.

Does anyone else do this? Is this a dumb idea?

First of all, HRMs are not reliable estimates for burned calories. They give you great feedback on how hard you're working, whether you should push yourself or slow down, how quickly you recover after exertion, and so forth. They tend to overestimate caloric expenditure.


I think it's an excellent idea. The possibility of underestimating the number of calories you eat is very high, even if you measure every single thing you put in your mouth. On a Fitbit board, just yesterday, a member said that to account for this she inputs a larger quantity than what she's eaten.

Obviously, if you start dropping weight in an unhealthy way, you can always adjust.

ElizabethRoad

I don't do that because I figure I'm overestimating some things and underestimating others. Of course if that stopped working, I'd reconsider. I don't think it's dumb to stay under by 100, but if I were doing that every day I'd prefer to just lower my calorie goal by 100.

marcf2001

I use also MFP and Fitbit, but I log my food on MFP as it has more pre-defined foods, even if the interface is simpler.

Even if I try to be accurate, I think I am under-estimating the volume of each item and yes, I agree with the others post, the number of calories burned might be over estimated.

I lower a bit my goal as the current one was suppose to make me lose 1 lb /week and was not at all :-)

In practice, I am not really looking at the calories detail, just an overall view to be sure I stay on track

auroranflash

I do probably over-estimate some of my food and under-estimate some of my calories burned, they're all just estimates anyway, but here's a little story that may or may not have any relevance to your original question. I'm feeling rambly today.

I thought it was smart for a long time to net under by 200 calories or so every day (goal was 1400/day) during the week to save them for the weekend, but as it turns out, I was eating too little, and so when I would eat at or around maintenance on the weekend, my body tended to store it more because it was like "Oh hell, another week of this nonsense, better hold on to this"

Now I'm netting 1500 daily and intend to increase my calories another 100 so I can try to recover from the stupidity of having gotten used to eating 1200, which is a good 400 calories below my BMR, before I knew any better.

So no... for me, personally, having a reserve doesn't work. My body likes being fed on the regular.

sgmomma

Thanks all of your responses helped greatly. No I just wish that I wouldn't have forgotten to weigh in this morning before eating breakfast. Downfalls of mommy brain lol.

To one of the pp...I just prefer the input of how I can input my own foods into fitbit...I cook a lot at home so its more user friendly for me.

melbot24

I do probably over-estimate some of my food and under-estimate some of my calories burned, they're all just estimates anyway, but here's a little story that may or may not have any relevance to your original question. I'm feeling rambly today.

I thought it was smart for a long time to net under by 200 calories or so every day (goal was 1400/day) during the week to save them for the weekend, but as it turns out, I was eating too little, and so when I would eat at or around maintenance on the weekend, my body tended to store it more because it was like "Oh hell, another week of this nonsense, better hold on to this"

Now I'm netting 1500 daily and intend to increase my calories another 100 so I can try to recover from the stupidity of having gotten used to eating 1200, which is a good 400 calories below my BMR, before I knew any better.

So no... for me, personally, having a reserve doesn't work. My body likes being fed on the regular.

I agree with this ^^
I too am currently trying to get myself out of this vicious cycle of going too low on the weekdays and blowing it on weekends.

The whole "flex calories" idea just does not work, in my opinion.

ElizabethRoad

I agree with this ^^
I too am currently trying to get myself out of this vicious cycle of going too low on the weekdays and blowing it on weekends.

The whole "flex calories" idea just does not work, in my opinion.

Doesn't work for you. It works perfectly well for me.

melbot24

I agree with this ^^
I too am currently trying to get myself out of this vicious cycle of going too low on the weekdays and blowing it on weekends.

The whole "flex calories" idea just does not work, in my opinion.

Doesn't work for you. It works perfectly well for me.

Hey, I'm glad it works for you.
Again, I was sharing my opinion.

mfaine

Yes, I purposely always eat under if at all possible since I know as a human I'm likely to underestimate what I eat and overestimate my exercise. Not consciously, but still. This is primarily the cause for the complaints on this site about eating very few calories and still not losing weight.