Is it bad to be over calorie if the calories are from extra veggies?

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alexknyde
alexknyde Posts: 36 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I just don't know if It's more important to focus on nutrients or calories in this case.

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  • caroldavison332
    caroldavison332 Posts: 864 Member
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    eat nutrients first. You have to eat an awful lot of veggies to go over calorie.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,876 Member
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    calories are a unit of energy...weight management is about energy balance...nutrition is another matter. it doesn't matter if you go over your calories with veggies or something else...over-consuming energy is over-consuming energy.

    that said, your calorie target is already a pretty big deficit from your maintenance calories...if you go over, you're still in a deficit.
  • AnnikaViking
    AnnikaViking Posts: 7 Member
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    Depends what your aim is. If you are looking to loose weight/fat and want to eat a specific amount of kcal per day, then a kcal is a kcal whether it is from chocolate or carrots.
    Saying that, if you were to go over your goal; vegetables got to be the best way of doing it. Overall, doing it regularily will slow you down from reaching your goal, but it's difficult to each hundreds of kcal in veg alone so I dont think it would have a big impact.
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,575 Member
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    I eat hundreds of calories worth of veggies every day. They are logged, weighed, and counted like calories in any food.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    edited August 2015
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    Both are important.

    Nutrients are about overall health.
    Calories are about energy and weight loss/gain.

    Going over your maintenance calories, regardless of what they are from, will eventually lead to weight gain. Going over your MFP goal *may* be alright depending on how far over you go and how big the deficit MFP has calculated for you.
  • EmmaFitzwilliam
    EmmaFitzwilliam Posts: 482 Member
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    jacksonpt wrote: »
    Both are important.

    Nutrients are about overall health.
    Calories are about energy and weight loss/gain.

    Going over your maintenance calories, regardless of what they are from, will eventually lead to weight gain. Going over your MFP goal *may* be alright depending on how far over you go and how big the deficit MFP has calculated for you.

    ^^^^^This.

  • sheermomentum
    sheermomentum Posts: 827 Member
    edited August 2015
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    Your diary has you 41 calories over your goal today. I would not even bat an eyelash. On the other hand, one day last week you were about 300 calories under. The main point is that some days you will be over and other days under, and that's just plain normal. It would be quite a trick to exactly hit the same number of calories every single day. If you don't lose or if you're worried about it, add up all your logged calories for a week and divide by 7 to get an average. If its pretty close to your goal, you're doing it right.
  • Steve_ApexNC
    Steve_ApexNC Posts: 210 Member
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    alexknyde wrote: »
    I just don't know if It's more important to focus on nutrients or calories in this case.

    What others have said about calorie/energy balance is correct for weight loss. However, I took a look at your diary and see that you are 41calories over budget today. I don't know that I would worry about 41cal overage for one day. I don't know what your daily deficit is, but if you are eating at deficit already, I'd bet those 41 cals aren't taking you out of deficit for the day. If they do and you are worried, take a nice long walk tonight and call it a day.

    As to nutrition - one day up or down isn't significant either. Keep a regular balanced diet (i.e., close to your macros) and you should be fine from a nutrients perspective. If you are high on protien one day but low the next it isn't a big deal...it should even out over time.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    Far more likely to go over your calorie goal taking an extra doughnut than from going over on veggies. But going over is going over.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited August 2015
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    I don't limit vegetables, but I also log them all (and they can add up) and attempt to not go over calories (and was much more rigid about that when I was actively trying to lose). There's generally something else I can cut a bit without cutting down on the vegetables.

    That said, I wouldn't worry about a few calories over unless you have a really tiny deficit. I may go a bit over one day and a bit under the next and really focus more on the week as a whole.

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