Do you have to eat all the calories

arlenemetcalf25
arlenemetcalf25 Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss

Hi! I'm Bev. I'm new here. Do you have to eat all the daily calories ? Looks like I will have leftover ones at the end of the day. What do I do?

Answers

  • briscogun
    briscogun Posts: 1,248 Member

    Hi Bev!

    No, you don't have to eat the calories allotted if you don't want to. If you are hungry go ahead and eat, but you are welcome to eat less (or even more!) if you need to.

    MFP is a guide, not a rule. You are welcome to use the tool as you see fit.

    Generally speaking, the calorie "goal" is to meet whatever weightloss rate you entered, but its more art than science. After a while you will learn how your body reacts to different levels of caloric intake.

    You'll be ok (as long as you aren't severely undereating and starving yourself).

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 37,976 Community Helper

    No, you don't have to eat them. It's fine to be a little below goal now and then.

    But it's generally a bad plan to significantly undercut calorie goal day after day.

    Fast weight loss isn't better weight loss.

    Fast weight loss is more difficult weight loss, more likely to eventually cause deprivation-triggered bouts of over-eating, breaks in the action, or even giving up altogether because it just gets too hard.

    Fast weight loss increases health risks. Is something bad guaranteed to happen? No, but the chances go up. At extremes, there can be immune system suppression, muscle loss, hair loss, gallbladder problems, and more. Those extremes are rare, but why head in their direction?

    Consistently eating too few calories, if that's what results, is assuredly going to mean too little nutrition, no matter what the macro percents are. We need certain absolute minimums of certain nutrients for best health outcomes.

    It's OK to eat under calorie goal occasionally, if not hungry. It's also OK to eat over calorie goal occasionally, if more hungry than usual. A good plan is to choose a moderate weight loss rate, then stick pretty close to calorie goal, looked at as average daily calories over the course of a week. MFP, in the phone/tablet app, will show you average daily calories per week in the Nutrition section, Calories tab, when you set it on week view and net calories.

    I'm not trying to scare you . . . well, not exactly, anyway. I'd love to see you succeed with your goals, because doing that has been a huge quality of life improvement for me, so big that I want that for everyone. Extremes are not the best path.

    Wishing you success!

  • rudyzenreviews
    rudyzenreviews Posts: 74 Member

    Hi Bev, welcome! Great question—this comes up a lot. You don’t have to force yourself to eat every single calorie just to hit the number, especially if you’re feeling satisfied and not hungry. Think of your daily calorie goal as more of a guide than an exact quota.

    If you’re consistently way under though (like a few hundred calories short every day), it can backfire long term—low energy, stalled progress, or feeling deprived. On the other hand, if it’s just 50–150 calories leftover here and there, that’s nothing to stress about.

    Some people like to use those “extras” for a little snack (protein, fruit, yogurt, nuts) or roll them into the next day if they’re tracking weekly averages instead of daily. The key is consistency over time, not hitting the number perfectly every day.

Categories