Am I eating enough

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jaewow
jaewow Posts: 18 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I just realized I'm probably burning way more calories then I though because I chase my one year old around all day plus I carry her for a least a hour or two a day. I never include the fun in my exercise and up until today I didn't include carrying her around. So lately I've been exhausted and honestly I feel like I'm starving myself because I'm always hungry. Could it be that I'm not getting enough calories in my diet to sustain my energy level?

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  • healthygreek
    healthygreek Posts: 2,137 Member
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    It could be you are not eating enough.
    How much do you weigh, what is your height, what is your daily calorie goal?
    Do you eat back exercise calories?
    How much have you been losing per week?
  • jaewow
    jaewow Posts: 18 Member
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    I've been dieting for 2 weeks, average calorie intake is between 1000-1200 calories a day. I do not eat back exercised calories. Today after adding in carrying my daughter around it said I burned over 700 calories. I haven't exercised as of yet which will be 30-60 mins of cardio. My stats are 5'6" 286# and I've lost 8.2# so far.
  • PrincessRina112
    PrincessRina112 Posts: 18 Member
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    You under-eating period. I'm 5'3" 233 and am allotted 1880 calories a day with NO exercise. You need to plug you stats into MFP and follow the calories they allot to you. You shouldn't be going under 1200 at any point. That's why you feel the way you feel.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,996 Member
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    What's your activity level set to? You sound minimally Lightly Active to me.

    I'm a half an inch taller than you, 17 years older than you, weigh less than you, and am losing weight on 1700 calories per day before exercise, and I exercise.

    However, I'm not losing 4.1 pounds per week - that wouldn't be a safe rate for me and sounds like it is not a safe weight for you either. (You may have had an initial big drop due to water weight.)



  • scolaris
    scolaris Posts: 2,145 Member
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    Yes, sounds too low.
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
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    Eat more and experiment with eating back some of your calories. Eat a diet with enough fat and oils. Also lots of low cal veggies: greens, broccoli, yellow squash, cucumbers, green beans, snow peas, . . .
  • Yi5hedr3
    Yi5hedr3 Posts: 2,696 Member
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    Yep - Try adding 200 cals/day, and see how you feel! :)
  • FrankieandSpots
    FrankieandSpots Posts: 446 Member
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    You could try eating an extra 200 calories a day for the next two weeks and if you are still losing a lot of weight (over 2lb/week?) add an extra 200/day and reassess. Slow and steady wins the race.

    I find it useful to think of dramatic changes in terms of a '1 year later' snapshot than a '6 week' snapshot. After all, If I look fabulous a year from now, I won't mind whether I lost the weight in 2 months or in 10 - and the slower version is probably going to be easier to do.

    Best of luck to you :smile:
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    Change your activity level to lightly active and eat back a portion of your exercise calories. Child care falls under normal daily activity so there's no need to count it as exercise, but it does make you more than sedentary.
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,626 Member
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    jaewow wrote: »
    I've been dieting for 2 weeks, average calorie intake is between 1000-1200 calories a day. I do not eat back exercised calories. Today after adding in carrying my daughter around it said I burned over 700 calories. I haven't exercised as of yet which will be 30-60 mins of cardio. My stats are 5'6" 286# and I've lost 8.2# so far.
    We cannot say for certain that it's the diet and the diet only, but you sure are undereating!

    Try to rerun your info through the MFP set up and then follow that calorie goal from now on. Eat your exercise calories! I wouldn't log "Playing with the baby" or "holding the baby", but I would log any an all exercise, like the 30-60 minutes of cardio. When you log the cardio, you'll get some extra calories. Eat them! :)

    The app is designed for you to eat those extra calories. Some people find that they cannot lose when eating all of them, so they eat 75% or half or whatever percentage. But many people eat all the extra calories and lose. FOR SURE you should be eating them all today.

    I think you might consider eating a few hundred extra today, to get you stronger and back in the game after all the under-eating. I know I would!

    You poor thing, no wonder you're so tired, hardly eating and being Mommy to a one year old!!

    I'm on no way attempting to diagnose you or saying that I know the exhaustion is absolutely diet-related only. I do think you should be eating more food, especially today. I bet some more food will do you good!
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    edited October 2015
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    jaewow wrote: »
    I've been dieting for 2 weeks, average calorie intake is between 1000-1200 calories a day. I do not eat back exercised calories. Today after adding in carrying my daughter around it said I burned over 700 calories. I haven't exercised as of yet which will be 30-60 mins of cardio. My stats are 5'6" 286# and I've lost 8.2# so far.

    Congrats on your 8 pound loss! 2 weeks is not long enough to really tell how things are going, so patience is a virtue. :)

    I notice by your ticker you have 121 lbs to go. Did you know at your size you can eat way more and still lose weight?

    1,000 to 1,200 calories is way too aggressive for your body size and the amount you need to lose to be healthy. Here is an excellent calculator to figure out how much you can eat to lose weight.

    I figured out to maintain your weight with little to no exercise, you would have to eat 2471 calories per day. To lose 2 pounds a week you could eat 1981 calories. The caveat is that it's a good idea to weigh food, log everything you eat, and to log only cardio exercise calories only and eat a portion of those back. Unfortunately, carrying your little darling around is considered part of your activity level and would not be logged separately.

    Good luck, you can do this!
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
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    jaewow wrote: »
    I've been dieting for 2 weeks, average calorie intake is between 1000-1200 calories a day. I do not eat back exercised calories. Today after adding in carrying my daughter around it said I burned over 700 calories. I haven't exercised as of yet which will be 30-60 mins of cardio. My stats are 5'6" 286# and I've lost 8.2# so far.

    You are likely eating too low if you are accurately recording your intake and constantly hungry. WIth your stats, and 30-60 minutes of cardio, 1200 is too low.
    That said, I also don't think you should count carrying your daughter. You are not burning an addition 700 calories doing that. Like someone else suggested, change your setting to lightly active and log exercise that you do intentionally, like your cardio.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
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    I don't know why the quote function doesn't always work, so @Frankieandspots, just want to tell you.....excellent advice. :)

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