Trouble Meeting Calorie Goal

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MikaMica888
MikaMica888 Posts: 6
in Health and Weight Loss
Let me start off by saying that I don't find time to log my food and exercise as much as I'd like to, but I am very routine. I eat more or less the same amount of calories every day and the same amount of exercise. I run 5km 3 days a week and do strength training on Tuesday and Thursday. On top of that, I'm also the person in my home who is in charge of the yard work such as mowing the lawn (it's a push mower) and trimming plants/trees.

As well, I walk to work every day which is about 30 minutes each way. Working a high paced service job, I am never sure whether to count that as exercise or not because on mfp I find that sometimes the amount of calories burned on certain tasks are over estimated. However, I know I must be burning some calories because of what I do. I work at a deli so I am constantly slicing heavy meats on the slicer, carrying the meats (which sometimes weigh as much as 9 lbs!), and cleaning out the cooler which means taking apart all the heavy pieces and then cleaning them.

With all that said, I usually end up with about 500-600 calories left over, without even considering what I do at work. And at times, I will feel bad if I get within 200 calories of my goal. It's as if the 1200 is the absolute maximum I can consume, and anything more that that, even a little, makes me feel extremely guilty. I'm not sure what this means, or what I am supposed to do about it...any one have any words of advice for me?

Side note: I could use some friends on here for motivation...any one interested? :)

Replies

  • AZKristi
    AZKristi Posts: 1,801 Member
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    If you told MFP that you are "active" you probably don't need to worry about eating exercise calories. They already figure in calories burned by the kinds of activity you have described. 1200 is a minimum guideline, not a maximum. If you are here to loose weight, clearly you were able to eat at a caloric surplus in order to gain. Try to add a few calorie dense healthy foods (nuts, avocados, etc) to get closer to your goal.
  • DixiedoesMFP
    DixiedoesMFP Posts: 935 Member
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    Anytime "feeling guilty" is associated with eating, there's a slippery slope to an unhealthy obsession with food. You may need professional help for that.

    What is your calorie goal? It's somewhat simple to add a handful of nuts, a tbsp of peanut butter, a tsp of olive oil to your cooking, etc. to up your calories in a healthy way, but if the number itself is freaking you out, you may need to stop tracking for a bit.
  • lauraniwa
    lauraniwa Posts: 131 Member
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    Hi there. I have the same problem, I race triathlons and find that on high volume days especially mfp gives we (what seems like) an insame number of calories to eat after the fact. I also have a very active job (physio) and cycle commute...but I ended up putting of 15 extra pounds over that last three years anyway so clearly I missed the point somewhere :P

    I think you need to look at 1) are you reaching your weekly goals in terms of loss ? 2) how are you feeling (energy, hunger level, mood) as those can be key questions to figuring out if your eating enough and 3) what the long term plan in terms of maintanance? Can you sustain this once you reach your goal? Maybe take a look at the amount of calories needed to maintain your goal weight so that you know what you'll be aiming for in the end?

    Also, if you don't eat enough your body will slow down its metabolism to preferentiate storage as it thinks that you're starving, so coming in too far under your daily goal (1200? Sounds like we're in the same boat) can hurt your progress long term. My undergrad is in sports performance so I can dig up a reference if you need it.

    Anyway, that's some things that I'm trying to help reframe the fear of actually meeting my daily intake. You can add me if you like :)
    Laura
  • tweiss9910
    tweiss9910 Posts: 4 Member
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    When you set MFP to active, it will take into account you're work, so there is no need to try to account work yourself in the diary. But the walk to work however should still be logged
  • MikaMica888
    MikaMica888 Posts: 6
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    Thanks for the advice guys! I definitely need to rethink how I feel about food I think. I do eat healthy foods, but I suppose I need to stop being so afraid of the amount of calories in things. I might just change my activity level and see if that helps! I just felt weird about listing myself as active for some reason
  • mcarter99
    mcarter99 Posts: 1,666 Member
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    Are you positive that you're only eating around 1200/day? I only ask because you said you don't always log but you eat the same most days. It doesn't seem like you'd be content at that level with your activity level. Are you hungry? Are you losing weight? If you truly are content at 1200 I think that's fine to eat at that level.

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