under your daily calories

sheneverfails
sheneverfails Posts: 74
edited October 2024 in Food and Nutrition
here's a thing I never quite understand... probably remnants of old WW mantras...

should it be a goal to be UNDER your daily calorie goal, or should you be trying to meet your daily calorie goal?

obviously over should be avoided... :)

Replies

  • Sgriffin2382
    Sgriffin2382 Posts: 360 Member
    My personal advice would be to try and come close to it. But if you go over, don't freak out. Also, if you log exercise, it will give you more calories for that day. That is a hot topic around here. I personally don't eat back my exercise calories, but I also eat if I am hungry. Just listen to your body.
  • sittoojo5
    sittoojo5 Posts: 42 Member
    try to meet your daily calorie goal (a little under won't hurt though) - exercise also helps!
  • meggonkgonk
    meggonkgonk Posts: 2,066 Member
    The way MFP is designed, you should be aiming to meet your calorie goal. I usually give myself about 50 calories on either side of my goal (ie, I'd rather be 20 cals over than 100 or 200 under).
  • sammgibson
    sammgibson Posts: 8
    It will all depend. Are you currently using a fitness routine? If by under you mean under the suggested for any one like 1200 calories you don't want to be under that. You want to be sure that your giving your body what it needs if you don't your body will go into starvation mode and store foods as fat in preparation for the next time it may starve.
  • bry_all01
    bry_all01 Posts: 3,100 Member
    over beats under, kinda, but zero is best
  • Amo_Angelus
    Amo_Angelus Posts: 604 Member
    hrm...my calorie goal is 1500 or something like that, but So long as I'm over 1200 I'm quite happy to be as far under as possible...and I only do net, not total because I eat back my calories.
  • Amy271189
    Amy271189 Posts: 66
    Of what i understand you should be aiming to meet your calorie intake. Obviously being over isn't good and neither is being to much under. I know we all have days where yes we are over or under, however i think normally you should be aiming to reach your calorie intake.

    Hope this helps.

    Take care
  • hockeymom180
    hockeymom180 Posts: 35 Member
    I try to meet it, but I don't force myself to eat at the end of the day if I'm under by 200 or less and am not hungry. If the deficit is greater than 200 I'll have some yogurt or ice cream. :)
  • Homer3D
    Homer3D Posts: 318
    I actually don't look at my daily goals but rather my weekly. I noticed that I feel better and lose more weight if I am about 100 calories over my weekly average. At the weeks that I am under that weekly average I either lose little weight or none at all. Not sure why, but I guess my body is happier when I have a little more per day. My guess is when I try to stick too close to the "limit" my body might be going into starvation mode. Eating just a little more seems to keep it happy.
  • ConfidenceNMe
    ConfidenceNMe Posts: 41
    Here's the thing. If you are below your calories by quite a few- like over 100- I'd say use them up. The more you exercise the more your body NEEDS calories. If you don't eat up those calories ( with HEALTHY food of course ) Your body will go into STARVATION MODE. That's why so many people are having problems and that's what causes so many of us to have Plateaus before losing more weight. So try to get as close to that # as possible, and if you exercise & have even more calories, make sure you eat them too. Eat things like whole grains - oatmeal is a good healthy filler! And tons of veggies are awesome and not alot of calories to get you closer to that daily cal count.
  • HangoverSquare
    HangoverSquare Posts: 128 Member
    My daily goal is 1660, so I try to come as close to that as possible.

    At worst, I've been about 400 below that. That's as low as I'll go.
  • sheneverfails
    sheneverfails Posts: 74
    Thanks for all the tips everyone!! (Especially Homer3D and ConfidenceNMe - your comments really resonated with me.)

    I totally understand the whole avoiding going into starvation mode, I eat relatively healthy (big fan of fruits & veggies & healthy grains) and I have no intention of living off of, you know, one cheese cube a day or whatnot... lol

    Switching from WW to really paying attention to calories just a little bit of a culture shock and I'm just trying to wrap my mind around the best way to do it. :)
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