Calories: How much "over" is okay?

collectingblues wrote: »

newheavensearth wrote: »

MegaMooseEsq wrote: »

newheavensearth wrote: »

When people say not eating over maintenance does that include the addition of exercise calories? Sometimes when I add my exercise calories back in I am over maintenance. Way over.

I'm not sure I follow. Your exercise calories should ideally come out to be a neutral if you're following the MFP system precisely - your deficit is built in before any exercise calories are subtracted or eaten back. And if you've already eaten up to maintenance or over your goal for the day (assuming you're trying to lose weight) you wouldn't want or need to eat more for your exercise calories, right?

I was one of the people above who mentioned averaging by week - in that case, I just subtract my total exercise calories for the week from my total consumed for the week, divide by 7, and that's my daily average.

ETA: I just saw your edit, but I'm not sure it helped. "Adding exercise calories" to me just means eating more to compensate for calories you burned in exercise. If you've already eaten up to maintenance, you don't have to eat even more if your net is at or around where you want it.

I'm sorry. I am extremely confused by this.

I don't want to derail this thread. Thanks.

It may make it easier to think of it this way.

If you're telling MFP that you want to eat at maintenance, that means that no deficit is built into the goal it gives you. Therefore: Telling MFP that you want maintenance = Follow the goal MFP gives.

• MFP will "give" you exercise calories, because the MFP goal does not consider your exercise level or activities.With that condition, if you tell MFP that you want to eat at maintenance, follow the goal that MFP gives *and* eat the extra calories from exercise.

If you're telling MFP that you want to lose weight, that means that an appropriate deficit is built into your goal. Generally, unless you are already slim, that'll mean sedentary maintenance minus 250 calories (for half a pound), 500 calories (for a pound), or 750 calories (for 1.5 pounds) or 1000 calories (two pounds). The caveat here: It will not let you go below 1200 calories if you are female, or 1500 calories if you are male.

• To determine your sedentary maintenance, if your goals are above 1200 or 1500 already: Add the deficit calories back to that calorie goal.
• If your goal is at 1200 or 1500, look and see what deficit you're asking it to give you. For the sake of this exercise, then change your goal to half a pound to see the true sedentary goal, and change it back (if you really want; I feel like if you're hitting that basement without your true goal being reflected, that you're being too aggressive)
• Again, MFP will give you exercise calories on top of that goal, because MFP does not consider exercise when determining your deficit. To find true maintenance if you exercise, add the exercise calories + deficit calories + your MFP goal.

MegaMooseEsq wrote: »

Lounmoun wrote: »

krebscabbage wrote: »

Hi Everyone! My calories goal is 1760 per day, but of course no one ever hits their mark exactly.
So.. how much over/under is still considered a good day? If I log 1800, I know that's close enough. But, 1850? 1900?

That is a personal judgement call on what you feel okay with and how accurate you are.

Every calorie over your goal will slightly decrease your deficit. If you have a 250 calorie deficit and don't use a food scale and maybe overestimate your activity level a bit then what you think is just 50 calories over every day might wipe out your deficit. You may not lose the way you want. If you have a larger deficit, you go under a few days, log really accurately, etc then you might still lose close to the rate you wanted.

I think 10-20 calories under or over here and there is going to be okay for most people. 50-100 calories over or under might be okay for some people but not others. Eating more than 100 calories over or under your goal consistantly means you probably should re-evaluate your goal and your plan.

Although I don't disagree with anything you posted, I do think it's important to reiterate that none of us can hope to be all that accurate anyhow. There are so many variables that we're trying to estimate and so many ways that your counting could be off, that I suspect most people are regularly off 50-100 calories one way or another. I genuinely think this is reassuring, though: the key isn't precision (because that's impossible) but consistency.