Does anyone not track their calories? I'm an on and off again tracker. What I've noticed is when I track my calories throughout the day, I obsess a d eat my max calorie allowance. If I don't track throughout the day, I'll do it before bed because I'm curious. But I notice I only eat like 600-700 calories. My mind likes to play evil tricks on me! Thoughts?

I just have followed MFP suggested cal range to lose 1 1/2 pounds a week' date=' and of course I didn't lose anywhere near that much... maybe a couple in months, but adding the two fast days to that has done the trick. I also eat most of my exercise cals back which takes my intake from 1200 a day up to 1300 or even more some days (1550) which is enough to not be hungry. I followed the TDEE plan for a while, gained 5 pounds and chickened out... I know that is normal for that plan, but I just didn't have the guts to go there. I did however LOVE eating more! I was never hungry on that plan.[/quote']

Same for me. I track food on MFP and it automatically dropped me from 1300 to 1200 after I lost some pounds. As to how do we eat low cal. My high calorie days were JUNK I found out after I started this plan. I get super full on LESS than 1000 most days or 1100 and that's with snacks!!! Thank you, Sleeve! Now I KNOW I was overeating carbs and sliders!

I think I've unconsciously been doing the TDEE eating, even though I never calculated it or did it deliberately. Having read a bit more about it by now, it totally makes intuitive sense to me. Either way, quite low cal eating is never going to be my path to success, so I'll take whatever works, and I kind of trust myself (when I'm not blinded by hunger lol) over most formulas or plans.

What is TDEE?

What is TDEE?

Total daily enery expenditure. Like how many calories you really need

My high calorie days were JUNK I found out after I started this plan. I get super full on LESS than 1000 most days or 1100 and that's with snacks!!! Thank you, Sleeve! Now I KNOW I was overeating carbs and sliders!

YES! Not that I eat/keep a lot of junk around. But just being distracted by life and doing what everyone around me does I was eating upwards of 1,800 calories a day. Not gaining on it, no, but definitely not losing.

Now that I'm tracking in loss I'm focusing on Protein again and feel quite full many days well before 1,200 calories. Many nights I need a snack to pad my calories! I definitely get carried away with mindless eating and can easily consume an extra eight hundred calories in a day that way.

~Cheri

Everyone has a different TDEE and it depends on a number of different factors from weight to height to activity level. Laura has a link to a good calculator she likes to post. Please repost Laura. For example, my TDEE is 2054. I end up eating between 1600-1900 calories daily.

I am going to my band doctor's office to be hooked up to a machine to find out my true TDEE.

I never used to track. The sleeve was such a big help, I didn't need to. Now, I can eat way more than I should. I have a book Connie Netzger's complete food guide. I count calories out of there. I find MFP to be tedious. If I entered all my food in there, it would get easier, but I've never done that.

I suggest tracking at least for a few days or you will gain weight, after you're sleeved a few years.