Going over/under the calories count. How much is too much?

Genetic_tea_drinker
Genetic_tea_drinker Posts: 125
in Food and Nutrition
Hey,

I was wondering, as you can consume exactly 1800 calories at a time. So I was wondering, how many calories is it okay to be over and under by?

Replies

  • JenCatwalk
    JenCatwalk Posts: 285 Member
    Good question! Well in my experience... I've gone as much as 3000 calories over my usual 1800 daily calories. But I dnt do it often. Once or twice a year mabie. And a few times a year I go on a 24 hour fast.. just water for a whole day. Consuming 1800 + 3000 calories in a day never hurt me because I don't do it often enough, same for the fasting. I'm still losing weight and inches.

    Also its just normal for me to go over my daily calorie intake by 200-400 when dining out.. and I usually just go under my intake by 200-400 the next day. That happens about once a week for me.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    It depends on what your deficit is. 1 Lb per week is roughly 500 calories deficit from your maintenance calories as per your NEAT (MFP is a NEAT method calculator). So, you could go over your calorie goal by 500 calories and theoretically you would only be at maintenance. It sounds like your NEAT maintenance is around 2,300 and you're shooting for 1 Lb per week loss.

    Also, bare in mind that MFP is a NEAT method (Non Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) calculator as noted above. What this means is that when you set your activity level, you're NOT supposed to include exercise. Thus, exercise becomes extra activity and when you log it, your calorie goal is increased to fuel that EXTRA activity, allowing you to eat a bit more. I always ate back roughly 70% of my exercise calories to account for estimation error. I always made sure I ate back at least 50% of them to avoid under-nourishment and to keep my energy levels up to sustain those workouts. Being under from time to time, even by a lot is no big deal...being substantially under on a routine basis isn't really healthy.

    The NEAT method is common and beneficial for those that need a little extra motivation to get off the couch...they get rewarded with a few more calories to eat.
  • K_Serz
    K_Serz Posts: 1,299 Member
    I was wondering, as you can consume exactly 1800 calories at a time.

    Exactly! Excellent question! Bumping for answers here.
  • Catlady87
    Catlady87 Posts: 302 Member
    I generally look at the weekly total. If I'm less than 500 calories over at the end of the week I'm fie with that. But to be fair when I go over I have either planned it in (ie I know I'm going out for a meal on Friday night) so eat less duri g the day to limit the damage or I balance t out by eating slightly less for the rest of the week.
  • LavenderBouquet
    LavenderBouquet Posts: 736 Member
    It really depends on what you're trying to do and how fast you'd like to do it. If you want to lose weight, you should try your best to not go over at all, and being maybe 100-200 calories under is not a big deal. If you go 100-200 over, you can still lose weight, it will just be a slower loss. If you're maintaining, you can easily have slightly lower days and slightly higher days, or even the occasionally really off day and it shouldn't affect your weight in the long term.
  • conniemaxwell5
    conniemaxwell5 Posts: 943 Member
    I watch my calories over longer periods of time and try to average my target instead of trying to hit it every day, keeping in mind that if I go over by an excessive number of calories on one day I have to make up for it over the rest of the week.
  • mattvandyk
    mattvandyk Posts: 50 Member
    I watch the weekly average. My target is 1660/day, and probably once or twice a month, I have a day where I'm in the 5000 range. In those weeks, I generally "make up for it" more or less, but end up slightly over the target for the week on a per-day average basis (when you consume 3 days worth of calories in a single day, it's really tough to make up for that over the 6 remaining days in the week). I still usually lose weight after those weeks since I'm still in a deficit over that week (just not quite as big of a deficit as I would be if I had met the target), but it's substantially smaller.

    In a more typical week, however, I'll usually have one day where I'm significantly (~1000 or so) over and 1-2 days where I'm slightly over (200-300); but 4-5 days where I'm under to significantly under the target; so I usually end those weeks right around or right under the target and the scale shows a loss of at least what I was expecting.

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