I know this is dumb, any tips on staying under cal goal

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  • funnybun1
    funnybun1 Posts: 62 Member
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    Hiya!

    One lady I follow pre-logs her food for the next 2 weeks. When I asked her about it - she said doing this
    * lets her plan her grocery shopping
    * allows her to pre plan her meals and snacks
    * and she gets to look forward to eating all that amazing food that she's already planned for.

    I kind of liked the idea of being able to look forward to eating my food lol and I must say it helps me not feel like I have to eat every last calorie that I possibly can - but to enjoy the one's I've planned for.

    hope that helps :)
  • EmbryK128
    EmbryK128 Posts: 18 Member
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    I think people are not reading or understanding what OP is saying. If I understand correctly, you are asking for tips to stay under your calorie goal, right? You are going over, and you don't want to. Not that she is under her calorie goal and wants advice of how to hit it.

    Secondly, I agree with Psulemon. You have already lost a significant amount of weight (so whoever said it doesn't sound like you want to lose weight - disregard that - you are doing great). You likely need to change your goal as you get closer to maintenance, with less than 10 lbs to lose, you should only have your goal set to lose 0.5 lb/week, which would only be a 250 cal deficit from your maintenance number. You need to start thinking about what maintenance is going to be like for you.

    Lastly, you seem flummoxed by the FitBit. I understand, I have one too. There are a couple of things there... First, with regards to setting your calorie goal - are you using the MFP numbers, or the FitBit numbers? After I got my FitBit, I started looking at the average calories burned over a month, and using that as my TDEE. From there, I changed my goal on MFP accordingly. If you use the 0.5 lb/week recommendation I made above, then you would subtract 250 cals from your average calories burned and then set that as a custom goal in MFP. You will likely find that it gives you a much bigger calorie allowance, which means that you won't be "over" as much, and that may help your overall attitude about this.

    With regards to FitBit subtracting calories at the end of the day, I know, that is so frustrating. What I started doing was paying attention to how much it changes, based on what time I plop down on the couch at the end of the night and what time I go to bed. I know that it is going to subtract anywhere from 100-200 calories those last couple hours of the day, which is very frustrating, but if you know that is going to happen, then you can just sort of mentally disregard those excess calories after dinner. I started leaving 100 or so cals on the table so to speak, just for that very reason, and it made me end up the night much closer to the goal.

    Good luck - you have lost 66 lbs so you definitely know how to do this, don't let the FitBit throw you off. It's a tool to make you more successful, not to hinder your progress.

    I have my goal set to .5 lb a week, i am so close to my goal that losing and gaining difference is like 200 calories so if i dont be careful i can see weight creeping back up.

    I never thought about using the fitbit stats to help me. I always get online and use the calculators to find my rmr, bmr, and tdee, but all are different and can be misleading. so i will use the fitbit cals burned and figure out my avg for the month to get a base line and start from there, thank you for the tip.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
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    I think people are not reading or understanding what OP is saying. If I understand correctly, you are asking for tips to stay under your calorie goal, right? You are going over, and you don't want to. Not that she is under her calorie goal and wants advice of how to hit it.

    Secondly, I agree with Psulemon. You have already lost a significant amount of weight (so whoever said it doesn't sound like you want to lose weight - disregard that - you are doing great). You likely need to change your goal as you get closer to maintenance, with less than 10 lbs to lose, you should only have your goal set to lose 0.5 lb/week, which would only be a 250 cal deficit from your maintenance number. You need to start thinking about what maintenance is going to be like for you.

    Lastly, you seem flummoxed by the FitBit. I understand, I have one too. There are a couple of things there... First, with regards to setting your calorie goal - are you using the MFP numbers, or the FitBit numbers? After I got my FitBit, I started looking at the average calories burned over a month, and using that as my TDEE. From there, I changed my goal on MFP accordingly. If you use the 0.5 lb/week recommendation I made above, then you would subtract 250 cals from your average calories burned and then set that as a custom goal in MFP. You will likely find that it gives you a much bigger calorie allowance, which means that you won't be "over" as much, and that may help your overall attitude about this.

    With regards to FitBit subtracting calories at the end of the day, I know, that is so frustrating. What I started doing was paying attention to how much it changes, based on what time I plop down on the couch at the end of the night and what time I go to bed. I know that it is going to subtract anywhere from 100-200 calories those last couple hours of the day, which is very frustrating, but if you know that is going to happen, then you can just sort of mentally disregard those excess calories after dinner. I started leaving 100 or so cals on the table so to speak, just for that very reason, and it made me end up the night much closer to the goal.

    Good luck - you have lost 66 lbs so you definitely know how to do this, don't let the FitBit throw you off. It's a tool to make you more successful, not to hinder your progress.

    I have my goal set to .5 lb a week, i am so close to my goal that losing and gaining difference is like 200 calories so if i dont be careful i can see weight creeping back up.

    I never thought about using the fitbit stats to help me. I always get online and use the calculators to find my rmr, bmr, and tdee, but all are different and can be misleading. so i will use the fitbit cals burned and figure out my avg for the month to get a base line and start from there, thank you for the tip.

    Yes, I feel like FitBit has a much better handle on what I'm actually burning than some estimates that I plug into an online calculator, built off of algorithms and averages. I know FitBit isn't perfect, but I have found it to be relatively accurate and found my weight loss and maintenance much more predictable when I used it for my starting point as far as TDEE, and then adjusted my MFP goals from there.

    I also found things to be much more accurate if I changed my activity settings in MFP. I don't know what your daily exercise/step counts are like - but I originally was set up as Sedentary in MFP per the guidance when I enrolled. Once I got my FitBit, I was getting really big adjustments, and I got good advice on here to up my activity level in MFP so that it was lightly active, and now actually set as active. Now I really do only get an adjustment if I exercise, the baseline estimate in MFP is higher but much more accurate to what I'm actually burning.

    I still think 1200 cals/day is pretty low for having it set at 250 cal deficit. That means your TDEE is less than 1500? At least the one you've been estimating?

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