My daily calories is that a minimum

My daily calories is set at 2900 do I eat the 2900 even if I don't burn 2900 calories some days

Replies

  • rosebarnalice
    rosebarnalice Posts: 3,488 Member
    Your calorie goal is a maximum. You should try to to exceed it.
  • HylesGallii
    HylesGallii Posts: 41 Member
    It's intended to be a maximum. Try to get close to it, but not to go over.

    I think rosebarnalice typo'd and wrote "not" as an extra "to".
  • goal06082021
    goal06082021 Posts: 2,130 Member
    No, your calorie goal is a limit. If you're using MFP as intended, in order for your weight to change in the direction you want it to, at the rate you want it to (that you indicated when you went through the guided setup), you should eat approximately that many calories each day.
  • swervin89
    swervin89 Posts: 3 Member
    No, your calorie goal is a limit. If you're using MFP as intended, in order for your weight to change in the direction you want it to, at the rate you want it to (that you indicated when you went through the guided setup), you should eat approximately that many calories each day.

    I may be misunderstanding you here I almost always blow by my calories by burning a lot more then I eat at the 2900 but for instance today at 9.:21 tonight I'm only at 2500 calories burned do I eat 400 more or not I'm not really looking to lose more weight as I'm down like 275 lbsif anything I would like to gain a few lbs
  • KNoceros
    KNoceros Posts: 324 Member
    Was yesterday a “weird” day? Were you unusually inactive?
    If yes, ignore, keep doing your thing and try to get as close to your goal as possible.

    To maintain your current weight you need to keep calories in as close as possible to Calories out. To gain (which you said you wouldn’t mind) , CI needs to be bigger than CO

    Also, don’t forget that if you’re using a tracker, you only get the day’s ACTUAL Co on your device at 23:59 - you still have 1/8th of the day left at 21:00…. MFP will show you their calculation for the end of day situation from the get-go - the two numbers will only really “agree” at midnight.

    That’s probably as clear as mud. It’s early morning here and I’m not fully caffeinated yet. Shout if I’ve confused you!
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,329 Member
    Ok, this thread is very, very confusing. @svervin98 I think we need some more information from you.

    What is this 2900 calories?
    * Do you get them every day?
    * Do you have a fitness tracker linked to your account that gives you additional calories?
    * Or do you log exercises, and if so what kind of exercise, what duration did you log and how many extra calories did you get?
    * also, it would be good to know a bit more about you. How heavy are you, size, age and gender? What rate of loss did you set?

    Once we know all those things we'll be able to give better answers.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,393 Member
    Now I am confused because there exists posts I didn't see before when I was writing my response.

    Have you been tracking on MFP for a long time? If you have, then you should use your own data to estimate how many calories you need to eat to maintain. If you're consistently above that you will gain weight. If you're consistently below you will lose some.

    If you are just starting to track food on MFP and you want to maintain then set the guided setup to maintenance and try to eat relatively close to that amount most of the time. Then accumulate data and adjust your goals based on the results you obtain over a time period of 4 to 6 weeks.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
    It's neither a maximum or a minimum limit on any one particular day.

    It's a goal (2,900 + exercise calories) to try to get reasonably close to, on average, to achieve whatever you are trying to do with your weight trend.

    If you are using some linked device or other site to set your calorie goal you need to tell people otherwise assumptions about what you are asking and what you are actually doing may not match.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,879 Member
    swervin89 wrote: »
    My daily calories is set at 2900 do I eat the 2900 even if I don't burn 2900 calories some days

    Your set calories are your target. I'm not sure what you mean by not burning that some days...do you have a linked device? What activity level did you set with MFP? Does it accurately reflect what most days look like?

    Or are you using the TDEE method for determining calories? With the TDEE method you have the same calorie target daily, and the numbers average out over the course of a week...so some days you can be in a bigger deficit, smaller deficit, no deficit, or surplus...but at the end of the week it should average out to whatever you have selected as your rate of loss...ie 3500 calories deficit for the week to lose 1 Lb per week.

    I personally use the TDEE method rather than the MFP (NEAT) method because my activity and exercise is pretty regular and consistent and I don't really have big swings either way in what I'm doing and what my average TDEE is. Here and there I might have a day that's a big outlier in terms of energy expenditure...like a big all day hike on the weekend or something...or a day that I am unusually very in-active...but these aren't really the norm and immaterial to the big picture.

    The NEAT method that MFP uses is beneficial for people who aren't necessarily regular in their exercise and/or they have a more erratic exercise regimen because you can account for each days exercise separate from other daily activity. An example of a more erratic exercise regimen might be an endurance athlete who may have days with long work that burns a ton of calories and days with less work that burns relatively few calories, and days that are complete rest and recovery that burn even fewer calories.
  • Walkywalkerson
    Walkywalkerson Posts: 453 Member
    This wins tge prize for the most confusing thread ever 🤣
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,329 Member
    Lets hope TO comes back and answers a few questions asked here. Then we can really help.
  • swervin89
    swervin89 Posts: 3 Member
    yirara wrote: »
    Ok, this thread is very, very confusing. @svervin98 I think we need some more information from you.

    What is this 2900 calories?
    * Do you get them every day?
    * Do you have a fitness tracker linked to your account that gives you additional calories?
    * Or do you log exercises, and if so what kind of exercise, what duration did you log and how many extra calories did you get?
    * also, it would be good to know a bit more about you. How heavy are you, size, age and gender? What rate of loss did you set?

    Once we know all those things we'll be able to give better answers.

    The 2900 calories are the calories MFP set for me to eat

    Yes it's everyday I usually burn way more

    My Samsung health is linked I don't know if it's adding calories or is MFP is adding the calories

    I don't usually add exercise my steps and cardio exercises link themselves

    I am male 44 6 foot 4 inches tall and I started my weight tracking at 460lbs and am now down to 184 my problem is now trying to maintain at least and I would like to gain a few pounds but I don't want to stop my routine

    I just wanted to know if I should eat the 2900 calories on the rare day I don't burn the 2900 calories

    Fort example today I will blow by my calories I'm already over 30,000 steps and 2700 calories burned as of 4pm
  • BarbaraHelen2013
    BarbaraHelen2013 Posts: 1,940 Member
    edited February 2022
    yirara wrote: »
    Super good advice. I only take offense at this:
    PAV8888 wrote: »

    As a male you may want to:
    --start a spreadsheet, google sheets should be available to you if nothing else
    --grab 2-3-4 weeks of TOTAL DAILY BURNS from your Samsung and enter them there
    --grab 2-3-4 weeks of TOTAL CALORIES EATEN from whichever logging app you use to log your intake (presumably MFP) and enter them
    --put in the corresponding values from Libra for android for each of those days and calculate the weight difference over the time periods
    --assume that each 1lb of weight change is 3500 Calories

    Women like spreadsheets too! Spreadsheets are cool. Though true, as a woman the data should be collected for a longer time to account for at least a whole cycle.

    I totally took it to mean ‘as a male 2-3-4 weeks’ was sufficient data to see a trend. Not that it was suggesting our tiny lady brains couldn’t handle spreadsheets! 😂
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,329 Member
    yirara wrote: »
    Super good advice. I only take offense at this:
    PAV8888 wrote: »

    As a male you may want to:
    --start a spreadsheet, google sheets should be available to you if nothing else
    --grab 2-3-4 weeks of TOTAL DAILY BURNS from your Samsung and enter them there
    --grab 2-3-4 weeks of TOTAL CALORIES EATEN from whichever logging app you use to log your intake (presumably MFP) and enter them
    --put in the corresponding values from Libra for android for each of those days and calculate the weight difference over the time periods
    --assume that each 1lb of weight change is 3500 Calories

    Women like spreadsheets too! Spreadsheets are cool. Though true, as a woman the data should be collected for a longer time to account for at least a whole cycle.

    I totally took it to mean ‘as a male 2-3-4 weeks’ was sufficient data to see a trend. Not that it was suggesting our tiny lady brains couldn’t handle spreadsheets! 😂

    Yes, I think so as well to be honest. It is very possible though that my brain indeed can't handle spreadsheets, because I keep on making new ones. Need Moar Spreadsheets!
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,393 Member
    edited February 2022
    @yirara I tend to ask ladies for spreadsheet help! As correctly mentioned by @BarbaraHelen2013 the male bits have to do with the suggested time scales which are shortened from the 4-6-8 weeks I might have suggested otherwise :wink:

    If you want an unnecessarily complicated spreadsheet... here's one for you! :lol:
    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VDmqNpLPu7sbQSochUJNXdp2F7AN15AGgkvS3zLw1GU/edit?usp=sharing

    In reality, all you really need is the caloric difference from day 1 to 28 and the trending weight difference and you would derive meaningful results... but hey, the more complicated the more fun spreadsheets can be, right?!?!?! :lol:
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,329 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »

    In reality, all you really need is the caloric difference from day 1 to 28 and the trending weight difference and you would derive meaningful results... but hey, the more complicated the more fun spreadsheets can be, right?!?!?! :lol:

    Total spreadsheed love! No worries ducky, I know you well enough. Just thought I mention it on case someone else gets triggered. And to tease you :D