A rather stupid question about calories as a range (tldr question in bold)

kiela64
kiela64 Posts: 1,447 Member
edited December 24 in Health and Weight Loss
Hey, so I've been here a while and I think I've absorbed a good amount of general wisdom from this community! I lost about 45lbs and re-gained 20, lost 10, regained 10, and now I'm hoping to get back down. Thankful to MFP for my initial success, but definitely still need to work on myself and improve my consistency!

One thing I noticed that contributed to being frustrated/upset was to be in a calorie range but not get the "under calorie goal" sort of star of approval from MFP. I didn't understand the math, and thought if I didn't get under my goal, I wouldn't lose (or wouldn't lose as fast). It was just this unknown.

I've since learned that losing 1lb/week is taking about 500cal away from your maintenance. I'm short, 5'2 and currently about 175 (only started re-weighing in daily this week so not enough data). MFP gives me 1380 cal to lose 1lb/week. Due to my height, 2lb/week isn't really feasible, even though I'm obese still and now need to lose about 45-55lbs again to get into a healthy BMI, top of the range is 130lbs.

In my previous work here, I've undereaten and overeaten and I've picked goals all over the map (just stay under maintenance! or just eat enough to complete the day!). The main problem is, I've felt like a "failure" for being maybe 5-30cal (or 100) above my goal, when it's still completely in range/reasonable for the week.

This time I kind of want to pre-emptively work with that fluctuation, while still adhering to a safe "still losing" range. No "I'm over, it's all over for me, in the red" etc. (despite knowing it's true, I still have that emotional reaction!). I'm sure not everyone gets this, and I'm just weird.

TL;DR - My question is just about the concept of a "safe/still losing" range, and whether you would agree/disagree with that plan!

My 1lb/week goal is 1380, and it's the goal I have set right now and I'm trying to hit. However, I've included some other numbers in my range, based on my math, 1630 - 0.5lb/week losing range, 1755 is 0.25lb/week, 1130 - 1.5lb/week. So the "safe losing range" where I'm still solidly losing but I'm also not undereating is: MAX - 1755 - MIN 1130.

I would make myself eat more even if I’m trying to rationalize that I “feel ok” under 1130, and try to be compassionate and just have that reassurance at that line that I’m still losing, still achieving something, still doing the right thing, etc if I’m at least under 1755.

Replies

  • joanthemom8
    joanthemom8 Posts: 375 Member
    I was like you. Now, I don't worry about being over on calories a little here and there. That whole "... in 5 weeks you'd weigh....." drives me nuts because I know I won't eat the same every day for 5 weeks. Some things that I do that have helped me considerably:
    1. I don't count my exercise "calories burned" in the equation. I found that if I did that, I'd eat more and then still be "under" my goal for the day. This way, if I do go over my calorie goal, I know it's not that bad because I've exercised and increased my general movement throughout the day.
    2. I am following a "lower carb" program, called Target 100. Basically, you try to limit your carbs to 100 grams a day, drink 100 ounces of water a day, exercise at least 100 minutes a week, add additional movement of 100 minutes a week, try to get 100 minutes more of sleep a week, etc. Since I've been doing this, I've lost 18 pounds.
    3. It's ok to go over 100 grams of carbs if they are healthy carbs (veggies and fruit). I focus on limiting bread, pasta, rice, processed snacks, etc. I don't "eliminate" them, I just moderate them. If I'm gong to "splurge", I try to pla ahead for it (like a piece of yummy pumpkin pie, lol) Many times I'm over 100g, but usually only by a few to 30g. Just tracking the carbs and keeping an eye on that number has helped me greatly.
    This is a very doable program (it's free) and if your eating lower carbs, your calorie count goes down too.
  • MichelleWithMoxie
    MichelleWithMoxie Posts: 1,817 Member
    I think that sounds legit. Having a range as a goal seems more in line with the realities of life anyway. Plus, if you exercise you can add those calories to your food calorie goal correct?

    I’m 5’1”, so I feel your pain as a fellow short female. But your plan sounds solid and makes sense. Good luck!
  • stephie_nyc
    stephie_nyc Posts: 96 Member
    Sounds like a good way to think about it. I think about people who maintain their weight well naturally. I´m sure over the course of their life or over the years they put on some pounds. Not everyone turns to a calorie counting app and counts the same amount of calories every single damn day.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,458 Member
    Weight loss is not easy, that's for sure.

    I had to keep tabs on it as best I could when I was in weight-loss mode. I just did.

    In maintenance I'm much more relaxed about it, but I do log food. My problem was and still is that I don't go a hundred over, I go 1500 over if I don't watch it. Emotional eating.

    Do what works, that's what we always say. And just know that no matter how accurate you try to be, it's still not a perfect process. When I was losing I tried to account for as many variables as I could, but the numbers are never exactly right. :)
  • kiela64
    kiela64 Posts: 1,447 Member
    MichSmish wrote: »
    I think that sounds legit. Having a range as a goal seems more in line with the realities of life anyway. Plus, if you exercise you can add those calories to your food calorie goal correct?

    I’m 5’1”, so I feel your pain as a fellow short female. But your plan sounds solid and makes sense. Good luck!

    Thank you - and everyone else for the comments! Definitely, I would just add exercise (usually 50% is acceptable here but I’d just keep it as a window/ballpark).
    MikePTY wrote: »
    I think that is generally a healthier way to look at it. It's not normal to eat the same amount of calories everyday, so going over sometimes is healthy and to be expected, since other times you will be under.

    This is where I actually find the "you will weigh X in 5 weeks thing can be helpful". It's not intended to be an accurate prediction, but it can show you that even if you go over your goal, you will still lose weight if you are under maintenance.

    So I think having a healthier outlook towards calories being a range is a good thing. I would just add a couple of points: MFP's calorie goals don't include exercise. If you exercise, you should eat back a reasonable estimation of your exercise calories on top of your range to compensate for that.

    Also, even with your range, it's even okay to have special occasions where you go over maintenance and not best yourself up about it. Sure, it's not a good idea to do regularly, but I lost 40 pounds in a year and half plenty of days during that time where I was over maintenance. I just didn't judge myself and let it spiral into self blame and loathing. I got back and track and saw the weight keep burning off.

    That’s a great way to look at the predictions! Thanks!

    Yes especially with the holidays coming up I’m sure there will be over days. But trying not to spiral and to just take it in stride is the goal.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,617 Member
    I'd add that many of us "calorie bank" during weight loss or balance by the week (there are displays in the app that help with this) instead of by the day. I calorie bank (eat a little below goal most of the time, to eat above goal sometimes), and have been for 4+ years (in maintenance now). Obviously, it's a bad plan to eat way, way under goal very often, but that's not what you're suggesting at all.

    I do close my diary (I don't know why, since MFP's prediction has never been even close for me: I set calories manually based on experience.). The projections just make me laugh, but I like formally closing out the day. It's routine for me to have a mix of red and green totals in MFP: I know what my goals are, and how close I really want to be to them, so if that colorful thing happens, I just pretend it's Christmas. :lol:

    Your plan sound like a sensible thing to try. I hope it works out really well for you!
  • poisonesse
    poisonesse Posts: 573 Member
    well, to me it sounds like a plan that could work. But personally, I went with a 1200 calorie per day diet when I started off. I'm 5'8" tall, and started off a 213, well into the obese catagory. Was it easy to stay at 1200 a day? No. But it did work well. I dropped about 2 pounds a week for a few months, then it was 1.5 pounds for a while... then I hit a wall. At that point, I upped my calories to my current 1300 goal mark. And the weight started coming off at about 1 pound a week. This worked great for me. Right now, I'm still at the 1300 goal per day, and yes, I do eat some of the exercise calories (I NEVER used to touch those, hence the 2lb a week losses). Right now, I'm at 156, with a healthy BMI... but I want to lose a little more so I don't have to worry about going back up to my high BMI rankings again. As for how I got my goal numbers? I set myself as sedentary on the site, said I wanted to lose 1.5 pounds per week, and took their numbers. Now? I manually set my goal at 1300. This works for me. Not everyone is alike, but for me? It works. And for me in the beginning? 1300 would have been too high, I would have become too discouraged at putting all the work in and not losing what I "thought" I should have been losing. Again, this is just me. ;)
  • Freeglerock
    Freeglerock Posts: 2,864 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    I'd add that many of us "calorie bank" during weight loss or balance by the week (there are displays in the app that help with this)

    Where in the app would I find this? Can't seem to find it! Had a couple of days if going over goal and would be interesting to see how the week looks overall.

    Many thanks!

  • Lobsterboxtops
    Lobsterboxtops Posts: 92 Member
    edited November 2019
    I use the nutrition page in the app for this. It’s along the bottom near center slightly to the right . I’ll change the date to yesterday’s date so my current unfinished day doesn’t skew the average. It definitely helps to keep higher calorie days (Thanksgiving I’m looking at you) in perspective

    7q8ntqbqpfhq.jpeg


    Ignore the two low days..I’m usually slightly above my net goal. They were anomalies and not typical.
  • Freeglerock
    Freeglerock Posts: 2,864 Member
    That's really helpful - thank you!
  • lgfrie
    lgfrie Posts: 1,449 Member
    I am a huge fan of this approach. Didn't start out a huge fan but now I am.

    My calorie "quota" is 1725 as determined by MFP, though I started out with 1600. Most days, it's sufficient, I'm not too hungry, and everything's copacetic. For the first three months (I'm on month 7 of my diet), I hit my number right on the nose or came in 20-30 calories under it virtually every day. In fact I was only over it 3 times in 3 months.

    But then the 4th month started and a little diet fatigue set in, and I noticed that I was starting to exceed the number, not everyday, but I could see the self-discipline flagging in the calorie chart and, naturally, my weight loss slowed.

    I also noticed - this is the important part - that when I felt I just couldn't stay under 1600 (and later 1725), a psychology would hit where it was like "this day is shot" and then all bets were off, I'd start really overeating because ... tomorrow's a new day and I'll start over and all that excuse-making rigmarole and bs.

    And so, tl;dr: I set up a second tier to use not everyday but on an as-needed basis - up to 200 calories above my MFP quota - wherein I consider it still a solid, basically compliant day, still losing weight, really not much difference in weight loss between 1725 and 1925, all good, happy.


    This new tier has psychologically made allllll the difference for me. It gives me a couple hundred extra cals of buffer for when I really need a little extra treat, while still having me feel like I'm on plan and working it. And it makes me very determined to stay within the 1925, because that's already the pressure release valve on my diet and I know I have to stay within that tier to feel good about the day.

    Since implementing this (3 months ago), I've only used the tier II calories a handful of times, but it's really kept me from having blow-out days (except for Thanksgiving, which was epic).

    So in sum I'd say I like having an actual number rather than a range to try to hit, but then also having a range over the number I can utilize on days when I'm feeling a little deprived, which does happen now and then.
  • kiela64
    kiela64 Posts: 1,447 Member
    Lobsterboxtops wrote: »
    I use the nutrition page in the app for this. It’s along the bottom near center slightly to the right . I’ll change the date to yesterday’s date so my current unfinished day doesn’t skew the average. It definitely helps to keep higher calorie days (Thanksgiving I’m looking at you) in perspective

    7q8ntqbqpfhq.jpeg


    Ignore the two low days..I’m usually slightly above my net goal. They were anomalies and not typical.

    Oh wow thank you!!! I didn’t know about that!!!
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,307 Member
    edited November 2019
    Approach sounds good.

    Even with approach, there is no reason to have it on your radar that ANY day below net 1200 after including actual exercise calories burned is ok. Set that as your floor.

    Exercise calories from exercise trackers and their whole day tdee estimate are not the same as MFP exercises entered and a higher percentage should probably be eaten back

    A couple of years back I got so ticked about the red issue (I think MFP should have adjustable ranges of green and yellow/orange with red reserved for something actually dangerous) that I decided to desensitize myself to it and have set a permanent lower than maintenance goal.

    I only try to stick to my goal number and up to less than 2-300 over whenever I am trying to slide down.

    But otherwise i know that I can usually be 300 to 500 over plus the occasional blow out and continue to maintain with only small adjustments.

    Any number below TDEE consumes energy reserves. Any number above TDEE adds to the energy reserves.

    Our goal, when trying to lose, is to over several months, reduce the reserves.

    Any one day does not matter and can be over, under, or anywhere in between.

    But the cumulative effect of week over week and month over month does.

  • MichelleWithMoxie
    MichelleWithMoxie Posts: 1,817 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    ...

    Even with approach, there is no reason to have it on your radar that ANY day below net 1200 after including actual exercise calories burned is ok. Set that as your floor.

    ...

    Just FYI - That is not necessarily true for a small, short, sedentary person. 1200 is not a magical floor.


    And before anyone starts jumping down my throat about anything below 1200 being horribly detrimental, please note the italicized.
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