Help me eat more

stephdeeable

Looking for some tips on meeting my calorie goal more consistently. Without exercise my goal is 1950, that I can meet no problem, but I walk/jog for an hour every morning, and on days I work it adds another hour of walking to and from work. I aim to eat at least half of my exercise calories because my deficit is already 950 a day. But some days my calorie goal is 2500, 2600..plus.

I'm not afraid of eating these calories, bring 'em on, I'm just having trouble getting there consistently. My diary is open, and as you can see I eat quite a bit, all day long, but still come short on my calories everyday...some days I only net 1600, which is too low for me. I know adding things like more nuts, oil, nut butter, etc will up my calories but then I always go way over on my fat.

Just looking for some tips on balancing this out better. Thanks guys

stephdeeable

I should add, the reason this worries me is that I'm now concerned about doing active things throughout the day after my workout because I don't want my deficit to be even larger.

ladypenel

Well done on coming back determined! I'm no expert but would love to help if I can Looked at your diary and noticed you eat a lot of fruit (love pineapple etc) but I now track my sugar as its loaded with sugar, since doing so I've lost consistently. Hope you don't mind me commenting. Good luck, add me as a friend if you want.

stephdeeable

Thanks! I'm not really worried about changing my food to lose more weight, I'm still losing 2/3 pounds a week which is exactly what I want. I'm just worried about my caloric deficit getting too large, and how to balance my days to eat more calories without going way over on my fat.

Mokey41

If you have a lot to lose I wouldn't worry about making up the exercise calories. At 2000 calories you should be able to get in all the nutrition your body needs with ease.

stephdeeable

If you have a lot to lose I wouldn't worry about making up the exercise calories. At 2000 calories you should be able to get in all the nutrition your body needs with ease.

Thank you. I am still nearly 300 pounds so I do have a lot more to lose, just worried if I could do harm if my daily deficit goes up to 1500 or so from exercise.

crimsoncat

Three words: Chocolate almond butter

If that doesn't get your calorie amount up then try having a protein bar or protein shake.

stephdeeable

It just confuses me because people go apesh!t on people with super high deficits about how much harm they're doing to their body that way. Is it just bottom line - the fatter you are the higher a deficit you can handle? haha

JasonDetwiler

Carlson's fish oil, 3 TBSP with each meal.

JasonDetwiler

It just confuses me because people go apesh!t on people with super high deficits about how much harm they're doing to their body that way. Is it just bottom line - the fatter you are the higher a deficit you can handle? haha

John Schaefer, AKA "Johnny Pain" of Greyskull Barbell offers some Bro-Science that makes some sense. When it comes to cutting, use your belly fat as what makes up for your calorie deficit. Another way of saying what you did.

Mokey41

If you were near goal and eating 1200 or less a day then I'd say it's time to make up that difference. If you are 300 lbs and eating 2,000 calories you're fine. You don't need to feed the fat. BMR calculations don't work well when you get outside of the "normal" boundaries so I wouldn't put a lot of stock in that number being right either.

stephdeeable

If you were near goal and eating 1200 or less a day then I'd say it's time to make up that difference. If you are 300 lbs and eating 2,000 calories you're fine. You don't need to feed the fat. BMR calculations don't work well when you get outside of the "normal" boundaries so I wouldn't put a lot of stock in that number being right either.

Thank you! It makes a lot more sense to me now.

LorinaLynn

At this stage of the game, a large deficit isn't all that bad, but if you want to eat more, check your diary. Check where things are missing. Low in fat? Add olive oil to your cooking, skip low fat or no fat dairy items or dressings in favor of the full fat versions, nibble on a slice of cheese now and then or a spoon of peanut butter. Low in protein? Add a slightly larger serving of whatever meat you're having (ie, 6 oz of chicken instead of 4 oz) or consider a protein shake or bar. Not getting enough fruits and vegetables? Add more there.

And overall, it's just a matter of planning out your days and adding a little bit here and there rather than trying to make up for a bunch of calories at night. If you have a breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner and evening snack, it's a lot easier to add 100 calories to each of those than it is to add 600 calories at 9pm.

ash8184

Way to go on your weight loss so far!

I'd definitely echo the protein powder/shake ideas. You can get some great nutrition from shakes, with protein powder or not. If you do use pro powder, add some fruit or veggies in with it to add some well-spent calories (ie berry powder - add fresh berries). Also, I LOVE peanut butter... you can get a chocolate flavored one if you want, but 1T goes a long way toward meeting calorie goals and providing some protein and healthy fats.

invisibubble

Looking at your diary I'd say not to take MFPs calorie estimates on your burns as truth. They're often very overestimated for most people and activities. Not that they're always wrong, but I think it's probably better to find your TDEE and subtract 20-25% from that, or measure your burns accurately with an HRM.

stephdeeable

Looking at your diary I'd say not to take MFPs calorie estimates on your burns as truth. They're often very overestimated for most people and activities. Not that they're always wrong, but I think it's probably better to find your TDEE and subtract 20-25% from that, or measure your burns accurately with an HRM.

Thank you. A HRM is on my Christmas list, but I've heard that the calorie estimates here can be over a lot of the time, which is why I only try to eat half of them back.

I've thought finding my TDEE might be better for me...but to be honest, I'm finding it extremely confusing...maybe it's all the math. haha

invisibubble

Yeah, I feel you there. This whole thing is confusing, there are so many methods, algorithms and contradictions it's information overload. Personally, I finally settled on using my TDEE from Scooby Workshop calorie calculator. You just plug in your data and goals and it helps you out, and it seems to work for me, at least. Takes a lot of the math out.
I still use an HRM for cardio, log the calories as 1 burned and note the actual calorie burn in my notes because I'm interested.

WendyTerry420

If you were near goal and eating 1200 or less a day then I'd say it's time to make up that difference. If you are 300 lbs and eating 2,000 calories you're fine. You don't need to feed the fat. BMR calculations don't work well when you get outside of the "normal" boundaries so I wouldn't put a lot of stock in that number being right either.

Thank you! It makes a lot more sense to me now.

I agree! You know, you can also indulge in a dessert once in a while to add some calories. A Hostess snack will cut a 950 calories deficit in half. A large slice of cake will cut it by 2/3.

Honestly, dessert is one of the reasons that I keep my deficit smaller than most folks.

stephdeeable

Haha, I will look into the desserts. I do want to keep my 950 deficit though, I was just worried because most days it can be 1500+