Calories and Net Calories

a0akley
a0akley Posts: 36 Member
edited April 2016 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi again
I have a question about how everyone uses their activity calories. I understand MFP is designed to calculate for you and as long as you stay within what they give then you should lose weight. My question is, I am curious about others' successes/not-so-successes have been with this method. Do you always use all of them? My pattern is self destructive and I am thinking about trying to use them more consistantly. I tend to try to undereat all week, then I blow it on the weekend and find myself starting over every Monday. I wonder if I ate my exercise calories every day if I would not be so tempted to gorge and would have better luck overall. I am always after the quick fix and that has landed me at week 8 weighing the same damn thing. I am 5'3" and I am at 139. My goal is low 120's. If I eat the exercise calories MFP gives me based on my fitbit tracker, that puts me at up to 1600 somedays which is anxiety provoking for me ( though I realize illogical, as I am sporadic about logging on weekends and drink and eat and likely get WAY more than that, just I dont have to see it on the screen in front of me.... !)
thanks in advance, just hoping for some inspiration. I'm tired of feeling hungry all of the time.

Replies

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    When I started, I didn't eat my exercise calories back. My energy was low and I found it hard to resist temptation. Once I learned more about how MFP worked, I began eating back 50-75% of my calories (to avoid the over-estimation factor). I immediately felt better -- I had more energy, my mood improved, and I didn't spend most of the day craving food. Once I got my Fitbit Charge HR, I began eating back all my adjustments and I continued to lose as planned.

    I really think that for most people, it's a great way to go. And it's a good way to prepare to maintain your weight loss because when you're maintaining, you *will* want to eat back your activity calories (otherwise you will continue to lose weight).
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    edited April 2016
    I will sometimes be 50-100 calories under goal during the week, but then use them on the weekend to go out to eat. It all balances out though so that my Net Avg intake for the week is right about what MFP gave me a goal of (you can see your weekly avg in the App under Nutrition). Most of the time though I eat all my allotted calories or end up feeling run down and not able to get through my workouts.

    I think that you probably need to start logging everything you eat on the weekends. Even if you started eating more during the week, without logging on the weekends you could still end up eating enough to undo the deficit you made during the week.
  • a0akley
    a0akley Posts: 36 Member
    edited April 2016
    "I think that you probably need to start logging everything you eat on the weekends. Even if you started eating more during the week, without logging on the weekends you could still end up eating enough to undo the deficit you made during the week."

    Yes, I agree, that's what I mean. I need to start logging every day and try to stay in goal range daily, rather than under all week and go over on weekends. Thanks!
    PS obviously I dont know how to use the quote feature yet... ;)

  • a0akley
    a0akley Posts: 36 Member
    I think about food all day. I'm hungry and have low energy. It's an endless cycle of wanting the weight off but I just can't stand feeling like this and inevitably I end up overeating as a result. It's ridiculous!
  • KimOrley
    KimOrley Posts: 27 Member
    a0akley wrote: »
    I think about food all day. I'm hungry and have low energy. It's an endless cycle of wanting the weight off but I just can't stand feeling like this and inevitably I end up overeating as a result. It's ridiculous!
    I find that constant grazing and increasing my water intake helps with this, I do a desk job and always have a tub of carrot sticks to munch throughout the day and since I started drinking more water, I'm definitely less hungry.

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