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

arditarose wrote: »

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

Yassss

Use it as more of an estimate especially now that I'm on a cut. I don't need it but there's days where I know I don't get enough protein

I am technically doing TDEE-20%. I think MFP is set for me to lose .5 lb or 1 lb a week and it just so happens that number is about what I want, 1520. Sometimes I'll go weeks where I'm eating 1600 a day and I don't sweat it. I don't 'eat back' exercise calories because I want to see how this TDEE thing works. I just aim for consistent exercise on a week by week basis. I tend to have problems eating at or slightly above maintenance on the weekends, so even though 1520 might be my goal my actual average over the last 3 weeks has been 1700. I think that is where a lot of people trip up, they say "oh I'm only eating 1200 a day" but forget two days where they binged to 2200 or whatever, and that will up your average. The numbers seem to be working for me. I'm as accurate in logging what I eat and what I burn as I can be. If I stop losing or the math doesn't add up anymore I'll start with 1) making sure my logging is still accurate 2) make sure I'm being honest and working hard with exercise and then 3) consider changing something up like eating less or working out more.

I do my best to eat all my allotted calories. Sometimes I fail, but I'm much better at it now than I was a couple of months ago. I generally don't eat back exercise calories if they're less than 500. However, I'm now allowed to bank calories over the week, so I can make up a really low day or even out a high day. For a year, I was day-to-day. It's taking me some time to get my head wrapped around week-to-week. I think I'm still too strict with myself, but I'm trying!

I never close out my day. I don't need to see the in 5 weeks nonsense and I don't need comments on if I am over or under because I don't need that reinforcement. I know what I'm doing and why.

As others have said, I also never like or comment on others closed diary posts. I have a fair few people, men and women, netting way below minimums even if only allowing for 50% eating back of activity. I find that alarming and don't want to reinforce the behaviour. And soon I'll be deleting them, some have asked advice in the past and ignored it, if you ask again and ignore it again then poof! It worries me too much to see it.

And as for the "but yay extra losses if I'm way under my goal" crowd. Nope.

1300 no matter what I've added in exercise - I only go over if it's a special occasion. Like tomorrow night is a friend's birthday party. I will be well over 1300

juggernaut1974 wrote: »

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

The "winner" is the person who can eat the most delicious food and still meet his/her goals.

I'm a winner!!!

My calorie limit is what my doctor and I decided on and admittedly it is less than what MFP would give me. I use it as a guide but I don't go over it. Also, I NEVER eat the added calories that my exercise gives me. I do the exercises to burn off some of what I am eating daily. I just like it that way for me.

i dont go over by more than 50 cal.

I eat to maintain macros, but allow myself a little leeway. Tonight, for example, we went out to eat unexpectedly. I logged my meal and am slightly over in fat, so I will stay lower on carbs. I consider it a win if I'm within 5 grams of my macro goals. The one thing I'm super-diligent about is protein. I may flex out carbs and fat a little here and there, but protein numbers I always want to be meet.

It would be great if user definable bands were green, yellow/orange and red. I would suggest that -250/+250 is orange and -100/+100 is red depending on your TDEE, goals, and accuracy of your logging.

Appropriate goal setting is part of your weight management journey.

Blindly going for the max the app allows without having a clue as to what you are doing to your body feeds into the perpetual cycle of yo-yo dieting and various eating disorders.

I don't have a food scale yet, and I don't prepare about a fifth of my meals (I live with my folks, and I eat dinner with them frequently) so I have to guess for those meals. Because of this, I try to keep a 200-300 calorie buffer below my goal during the week. That being said, if I am particularly hungry one day, I'll eat an extra snack, and at the end of the week I will indulge a little if I have the extra weekly calories.

Eventually I want to get a food scale and a Fitbit HR to have a better idea of my daily CICO and get closer to my goal, but right now I'm satisfied and losing weight.

I use the calorie goal as a maximum, and try to eat a deficit every day to bank some calories for anything unexpected or for those days when old habits come back to bite me (not so much any more). I think whats important to consider is hunger - if eating to goal controls your hunger, then great - do that. But for me, if I am in a deficit, but not hungry, then I dont eat. I think the relationship we have with food is sometimes more important than meeting an actual food goal, and for me, the emotional/psychological component is the demon I deal with, not the nutrition etc. I can make an obsession out of virtually anything.

For the most part but I don't beat myself up if I go over by 20 or something.

When I was in a deficit, I would look at the calorie goal as a maximum that I'd try my best to not exceed. Now that I'm in maintenance, I have to look at MFP's goal as a minimum or I'll keep losing, which is not going to be productive towards my ideal body composition goal.