I consider myself having a bad day when I eat something I don't need without thought or hunger. When I mindlessly try to fill a fathom void. It could be 50 calories over, or 500 calories over, but if I'm eating for reasons other than hunger I get pretty upset with myself. I worry that my old patterns of morbid obesity are trying to sneak back into my life. If I want to be one of the rare 2% that keep their weight off permanently, I have to keep on top of every calorie in my humble oppenion.

I really do think this thought process is different for those who have suffered from extreme obesity vs. a few pounds overweight....but maybe not always.

Sunni, that's what I do too :D

Generally I don't consider my days good or bad, and instead look at my overall pattern of behavior. Some days I eat more, some days I eat less, but as long as I'm making solid progress I don't worry too much.

OMG girl, no wonder you are having trouble with that scale. You need to eat. I know you have GOT to be burning significantly more than that.....

I aim for 1600 calories a day, but I fluctuate between 1450 and 1750 on a daily basis. My calorie averages for the past 4 weeks are: 1671,1750,1628,1667. So you can see I actually average a little OVER 1600. I could cut that back somewhat but honestly, I like to have a beer or a Skinny Cow once in awhile so as long as I'm losing I'll keep up how I'm doing.

I only consider it a bad day if I go over maintenance, which is 2000 when I don't work out and about 2300 when I do. That's happened maybe twice in 3 months, and I make up for it during the rest of the week. I don't feel too bad about going over since I've been tested a couple of times and know that it's second nature for me to get back on track. Same with going to the gym; I don't sweat it too much if I miss a couple days in a row, because I know I will be back in the gym come Monday for my spin class, and exercise will always be an integral part of my life for as long as my body is able...missing a couple of days doesn't put me in danger of getting out of the habit and never going to the gym again, kwim?

Weight loss is not linear so I figure that since the body is consuming/burning calories, I don't worry about going over by a couple hundred. Now I get really upset with myself if I go several days of going over my limit.

Hey cary - since you have the data, I'd be interested to know if your weight loss so far is in agreement with your calculated calorie deficit since you started? I think it is an interesting topic - I may start doing that to see if my weight loss is comparable to what I think my calorie deficit is. Would certainly help me to know if I am calculating calories burned for exercise, etc. correctly. :yes:

For me, I have a range of 1500-1800. If I go over by 100 or so.. or even reach 2000 on some days I don't worry about it, because even there I am still at a deficit. I'd say about 90% of my days I am around 1600 - 1700. Like forestroad, I only consider it a bad day if I go over what would be maintenance calories.. I tend to beat myself up a bit too much where eating is concerned, so that helps... negative thoughts/beating myself up was why I didn't stay on plan in previous attempts.

well, I give myself a range unless I am zigzagging for a plateau. Though honestly lately I have not been counting just keeping a mental check, but my low carb/high carb method seems to keep me dropping weight. of course higher carb days are higher calories.

1246 is almost too low. but I eat less than that sometimes on low carb days. So I don't think you are in the red at all.

I assume there's a lot of error in calorie calculations. In many cases, especially with any non-whole food, there will be measurement error in the ingredients, formulation updates, yadayadayada. Even with whole foods, the bomb calorimeter readings have a lot of variation sample to sample, so even the laboratory is doing an average. I use a wide range of 1200-1800 and just try not to get into that upper range more than once a week. "Bad day" is exactly what Lori mentioned - anything that isn't part of the plan for the day. I think she's right about the mindset differences too - as much as I hated that extra 20 pounds, I've been completely unwilling to be rigid about losing them. So if I whine about how long it's taking - feel free to smack me, because it's totally my choice. I eat like someone who only wants to lose weight part-time - and my results show it.

I rounded everything I ate to 50 or a 100 anyway, so I never worried about 10 calories. I ate a range, 1400-1600 and tried to stay in my range.

I am a perfectionist, so I didn't want to get bogged down in my own personal calorie counting obsessions, so rounding works best for me. I am at maintenance, but still count my calories everyday - still using the rounding/ballpark method.

I range between 1600-2000 Calories averaging about 1800 per day. I know we are all different but I really can't see myself ever eating below 1400 calories I would get too hungry. I don't usually care too much if I go over if I felt hungry through the day and just needed more food. A bad day is when I just eat too many empty calories and this caused me to go over 2500 calories.

That is exactly what I was going to post :)

This is it exactly - if I am eating well and genuinely hungry then going over my daily calories by even 500-1000 is no big deal, because I'm still within my range for maintenance and satiety is my biggest guiding signal. But if I am eating junk or mindlessly eating over my calories that is when my personal flag goes up.

I generally like to be within the range that helps me lose about two pounds per week (right around 1500, adjusted for activity) but my body is in constant flux, so if I am more hungry I eat more, less hungry I eat less, paying attention to the quality of my nutrition and not sweating planned overages (like my day at the fair yesterday) or 'overeating' because my body is genuinely hungry.

I'm losing slowly, but it works for me. Calorie counting, like the scale, is a tool for me and not the bottom line of my success or failure in weight management.

A bad day for me is eating over maintenance. It's especially bad if I don't exercise (I rarely don't exercise though). A day when I make a lot of bad junky food choices is a bad day too.

Part of the reason I came up with this plan for myself was I can't "win" when I get on a scale. If the number is better than I expected, then I slack off. If it's worse than expected, then I think "what's the use". So I started this plan in April but didn't get on the scale until until July 4 and it was EXACTLY what I had predicted.

I haven't been on a scale since, but I watch that running average every bit as obsessively as those folks that are checking the scale everyday. But I find it easier emotionally to get the average back down than I ever did when scale crept up.

My next weigh in is tomorrow and I suspect the news won't be as good but I expected the rate to slow as I got better at the exercise I do (and hauling around a smaller body) would decrease the actual deficit even with eating the same. I will report in after that weigh in and am also going to make adjustments based on what I see.