Over weekly calorie goal

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leanitup123
leanitup123 Posts: 489 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
The past few weeks I've been averaging approx. 500 calories OVER my maintenance calorie goal. Starting to get concerned as I can see myself gaining weight as a result. Just don't want to get stuck in the habit of eating over maintenance as I know this will be hard to break (been there!). Grr. Just disappointed.

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  • everher
    everher Posts: 909 Member
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    Best thing is just to take a deep breath, put it behind you, and plan to get back on track tomorrow (if you haven't already).

    Prelog if you have to or plan out your meals. Some people slowly cut back to get back to eating at a deficit, but personally, I find just going right back to it works best for me.
  • leanitup123
    leanitup123 Posts: 489 Member
    edited July 2017
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    If I'm over my weekly goal by ~1,000 calories I won't gain weight, right? Because it takes 3,500 extra to gain a pound??? Genuine question.
  • leanitup123
    leanitup123 Posts: 489 Member
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    everher wrote: »
    Best thing is just to take a deep breath, put it behind you, and plan to get back on track tomorrow (if you haven't already).

    Prelog if you have to or plan out your meals. Some people slowly cut back to get back to eating at a deficit, but personally, I find just going right back to it works best for me.

    Thanks! I prelog too... but have a serious weakness when it comes to late night "snacking" HA
  • MegaMooseEsq
    MegaMooseEsq Posts: 3,118 Member
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    leanitup123 wrote: »
    If I'm over my weekly goal by ~1,000 calories I won't gain weight, right? Because it takes 3,500 extra to gain a pound??? Genuine question.

    You would probably be looking at gaining about a pound a month or so with those numbers. The surplus adds up, just like the deficit. But hey, you're not off by much - if you like late night snacking, go ahead and snack late at night, just think about what you're snacking on and how much.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,971 Member
    edited July 2017
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    How are you calculating your actual TDEE? If you are going by MFP's projection I can tell you that I eat on average 600 calories PER DAY more than MFP's projection. I count all my exercise calories too. I don't gain weight. There are a lot of variables. Keep good records and adjust accordingly.

    It's a very personal thing. If you haven't gained it seems that you may be borrowing trouble. It hasn't happened yet.
  • timtam163
    timtam163 Posts: 500 Member
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    If your issue is late night snacking, have some healthy substitutes on hand. Baby carrots or celery with hummus, clementines, watermelon, grapes. Don't be disappointed, hey maybe your body needed a little break from the routine.
  • vixtris
    vixtris Posts: 688 Member
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    with the late night snacking, you have a few options:
    1 - push your meal schedule back a few hours. Maybe have breakfast 2 hours later than usual, to have lunch and dinner later in the day. Maybe you won't be so temped to snack at night if you're having a later dinner.
    2- I don't know if you're exercising any, but getting some additional movement in every day can easily cut that extra 500 calories per week. I understand you'd like to lose weight, but getting out of the rut of gaining weight is most important right now. Try a brisk 40-60 minute walk after dinner?
  • MegaMooseEsq
    MegaMooseEsq Posts: 3,118 Member
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    timtam163 wrote: »
    If your issue is late night snacking, have some healthy substitutes on hand. Baby carrots or celery with hummus, clementines, watermelon, grapes. Don't be disappointed, hey maybe your body needed a little break from the routine.

    Here here! I am really into cherries right now, and find that it's difficult to eat all that many of them - I can spend most of a weekend morning snacking on a half a cup or so. I also broke down and started buying pre-cut watermelon, which I know is really expensive relatively speaking but means I actually buy and eat it.
  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,521 Member
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    leanitup123 wrote: »
    The past few weeks I've been averaging approx. 500 calories OVER my maintenance calorie goal. Starting to get concerned as I can see myself gaining weight as a result. Just don't want to get stuck in the habit of eating over maintenance as I know this will be hard to break (been there!). Grr. Just disappointed.

    Chuck the worry and guilt. Check the scale. Maybe you haven't gained anything? Burning an extra 500kcals in a week is pretty easy. It's typical to have uncertainty in your net calories that are larger than that in a week.

    Above all: keep logging. Review your eating patterns and think about what was satisfying and what wasn't. I can tell you that the carby restaurant-made turkey club (on thick butter-soaked white bread) that I ate yesterday wasn't worth it. Next time, I'll order a salad or combine the meat from the two halves into one.

    Best of luck to you!

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