Do you actually hold yourself to your caloric goal, or ...

I eat what mfp gives me, and what my fitbit adds to that. Some people find that eating under the mfp calorie goal is the only way they lose weight. It's probably not that they aren't set to the right goal, and more likely that they are logging inaccurately so they need the buffer of not meeting that number, but as long as they are maintaining weight loss and not feeling deprived, good on them. I'm excited when I'm under goal, and upset when I'm over. I try not to concern myself much with the in between scenarios.

I eat every delicious calorie I can, and then some.

I noticed that I tend to go by my appetite. My goal is 1370, and I exercise daily on top of that so about 1670 total that I should eat. If I'm hungry enough I eat all of them. When I'm not that hungry I just eat the minimum 1200.

I aim for close but not over. That being said if I have 119 left and want something at 120 I'm eating it

I am set up to lose 1 lb per week, which is 1400 per day sedentary for me. Lately I have been under my calorie goal by 300 calories or so per day once I add in Fitbit calories, and actually eating around 1300 or so. I am only 10 lbs away from my first goal of "normal" BMI and am anxious to get there, so I like being under. Once I reach normal BMI in 10 lbs I will probably set my goal to .5 lbs per week and eat all my calories.

are you kidding, i eat all my calories.

id eat all yours too, if i could.

LOLOLOL

I try to reach my goal as close as possible. If I go over a bit it doesn't phase me because I know that overall I'll still be in a deficit.

oolou wrote: »

I aim for close to the goal and if I am under by a couple hundred, it tends to get banked and put forward/back to another day when I go/went over my goal. As long as it all balances out in the end, I'm happy.

The number turning red is discouraging, and may be it would be better if there was an amber zone for the first 50 cals over and under, with red also being used if someone goes far under too?

That's not a bad idea (the color thing).

I try to be 100-200 below my goal (which includes fitbit adjustments) and then I eat those extras on Saturdays. So, I eat to my goal as a weekly average. I don't have a very active feed; especially since the whole annoying "like" thing was implemented. Despite the fact that has been around for a while now, it still annoys me. It's actually made me far, far less active on my feed. I almost never look at it. But I digress.

I do see people in the forums post about always trying to be under their goal, and it seems to be like they are excited about it (or desperate because they "always" eat under their goal and aren't losing weight - usually a logging issue). I think a lot of people don't really understand how their goal relates to their deficit and maintenance calories.

I eat over my base goal of 1200 but I don't always eat my exercise calories back, mostly because I'm not hungry and don't trust those are the actual calories burned.

cbelc2 wrote: »

I try hard not to use my exercise calories. I stick with my goal. If I should go over by a few, I work on not stressing over it.

But, your goal includes those calories. So, you're eating under your MFP goal.

I try to stay within 50 calories of my goal (up or down). I don't want to leave 150 calories sitting there! But I don't really worry if I have like 23 calories left...

That's not a bad idea (the color thing).

I like that too...maybe as a percentage, so within X percent amber, then over X percent red.

I try to at least get 1200, or close. Had to eat extra figs and popcorn last night.

OTOH, if I have a hungry day and I'm a little on the high side I don't sweat it too much, because I know I have the "not hungry" days too.

Damn right I eat my exercise calories too, it's how MFP is designed. I will never inderstand someone with a net goal of 1200, who doesn't eat their exercise and doesn't somehow pass out after a week. If I eat too low for a couple of days I feel it immediately. I want to feel in full on beast mode as often as possible when I workout and the only way to do that is to eat a good portion of my exercise calories (which I use an HRM and gym specific app on my smart watch to track so shouldn't be overly inflated).

I have though, manually changed my net calorie goal down from 1400 to 1300 to allow for overestimations of burns and underestimations of food intake. I've only recently done this so am tracking my data to make alterations in a month or so if needs be.

I also like the amber idea. So many people misunderstand how MFP works, why there's a minimum intake of 1200 and why it's really important to fuel your workouts if you are using the MFP method in its truest form. There should be compulsory reading or something when someone starts to address all of that.

I do my own thing. Officially I'm set to maintenance, but I like a bit of a deficit (200-300) during the week. Then I tend to use them on the weekend.

And for many, when it comes to exercise calories, people err on the side of caution and don't eat them all. That is a way to try & avoid overestimating the burn as its hard to really know. So if exercise calories are added, its not unusual to see calories remaining I think.

But in general, it does become a mind set of trying to stay under I think.

kettiecat wrote: »

I eat over my base goal of 1200 but I don't always eat my exercise calories back, mostly because I'm not hungry and don't trust those are the actual calories burned.

I worry about the exercise calorie estimation too. So I input that it burns half the calories of what MFP says. So if I do a 30 minute moderate walk for 111 calories, I log it as 55 calories burned.

Set at 1lb a week, I'm only allotted 1200 calories (very short here). I quickly found I was able to stay within it, but the whole "diet" mentality was so much better after I started eating half my exercise calories back. It allows for social meals and very occasional indulgences. Otherwise, 1200 calories is extremely strict. Now, I don't get too stressed if we have a staff lunch or if I have a larger dinner with friends. It blew my mind the first time I had a 1000 calorie dinner - and still stayed within my goal for the day. I had been so stressed before that meal. But planning for it, banking calories from the week before, and using my exercise calories all made a ton of difference.

I don't want to burn too much and then burn out. This is a permanent change for me!