Help! Under or at my daily calorie goal?

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SageMolokai
SageMolokai Posts: 93 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I assumed that I should keep my daily calorie consumption well under my daily calorie goal. But would it be healthier and even help me lose more weight if I kept it close to my goal? Also should I eat as many calories as I burn in a workout in addition to my usual intake? Any answers will be much appreciated. :)

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  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    If you got your calorie goal from MFP and set your goals/stats properly, the aim is for you to hit it -- not be under it.

    MFP is also designed for you to eat back the calories you burn through exercise. Many people choose to eat 50-75% of these calories to account for potential over-estimation in the calorie burn numbers. Depending on how you measure your calorie burns, you may find you can eat all of them and still lose weight (I did).
  • cross2bear
    cross2bear Posts: 1,106 Member
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    The number of calories that you are given by MFP is the amount you can comfortably eat and lose weight- it already has your deficit built in to the calculation. Common opinion is that you should eat perhaps no more than 50% of exercise calories, to take into account how wildly inaccurate people have found the calorie burns attributed to exercise to be.
  • kgirlhart
    kgirlhart Posts: 5,019 Member
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    As the others said, try to hit your goal not be under it. It is a good rule of thumb to start by eating back 50% of the exercise calories. But after a few weeks reevaluate. If you are losing faster than your expected goal then you know you can eat back more. I usually eat back about 80% of my fitbit adjustment, and honestly I think I could be eating it all.
  • SageMolokai
    SageMolokai Posts: 93 Member
    edited June 2016
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    Thank you guys for your help!
    Do you think I will lose more if I hit my goal
  • SageMolokai
    SageMolokai Posts: 93 Member
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    Sorry, I do not know what happened with the last post. Just kind of trailed off...
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    A goal is something to be achieved...why would it be a "goal" if it wasn't something you were supposed to achieve and hit?
  • BlondeTheHardWay
    BlondeTheHardWay Posts: 48 Member
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    The whole calorie in, calorie out thing is too much for me personally. I get about the same amount of exercise each day and maybe more on weekends. I take in about 1,250 to 1,400 calories and no more (I hope, allowing for mistakes!) Be reasonable with yourself. When we are too strict we just set ourselves up for disaster.
    Good Luck!
  • savithny
    savithny Posts: 1,200 Member
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    Eating back calories depends on how you set up your goal: When MFP asked "How active are you?" did you say "oh, I exercise every day, I must be moderately active!?" If you did that, then your exercise calories are already included in your goal.
  • Panda_Poptarts
    Panda_Poptarts Posts: 971 Member
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    I think the reason many folks are uncomfortable hitting (and perhaps slightly exceeding) the goal on MFP is the stupid red numbers. Red numbers trigger memories of poorly scored homework assignments in grade school haha

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