Do you force yourself to eat all of your calories?

Emily3907

Let me explain. I am doing more of a moderate carb situation and getting about 60-75 g of carbs per day. (Technically I am set at a 25% carb ratio which comes out to about 88 g, but I have yet to meet that.) When I started this a few days ago, I planned on eating 5 times a day in order to keep hunger at bay. However, I am starting to notice when it comes time for a mini meal, I am not all that hungry. Last night, I was not even hungry for my 8 PM snack, which would have left me about 200 calories under my goal.

I feel like so much of what I have always known to be "healthy" is being turned upside down on me now, so I am questioning if I really need to be eating all my calories everyday, or if some days are low, if that is okay? Logically, my thought is to eat when I am hungry and leave it at that, but some days that may go against the whole "you must eat 1200 calories a day" rule.

KnitOrMiss

Some days I eat 1200 calories, some days I eat 3000 calories. Forcing yourself to eat when you are not hungry is as bad for your body as not eating when you are hungry. Your body is talking to you, and you're attempting to ignore it. In fact, I rarely "snack" anymore, unless it's while preparing a meal...

Look at your calories as more of an ebb and flow. Take a look at the bigger picture. A week's worth of calorie fluctuations will likely hit closer to your expected average, if you follow the hungry...

And calories goals are so arbitrary anyway, unless you've had biometric and hydrostatic testing. Add to that the allowed 25% errors of food labels, and you might as well be playing Russian roulette. Do the best you can, listen to your body, and reevaluate after 6-12 weeks if you stop progressing...

Also, make sure the calculator you are using is more realistic: http://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/

anglyn1

On days I'm barely hungry I don't force myself to hit 1200. I figure in the end it evens out as sometimes I have a higher calorie day. If every single day I was really, really low I would probably just up my fats to up my calories!

Emily3907

That calculator is awesome!

deksgrl

I used to HAVE to eat regularly or I would have a "crash". Headache, fuzzy thinking, shaky, weak, ill feeling. I would have told you then, yes, of course make yourself eat all of your calories. However, since changing to this woe, now everything is different. I'm eating a similar carb level as you. Now, I have days where I am just really not hungry which never would have happened before unless I was sick or upset. I don't force myself to eat if I'm not hungry. But I find that usually the next day I am more hungry so I eat a little bit more. I normally don't snack, but if it is a day after I didn't eat as much, I will go ahead and have a snack of nuts or cheese or something if I am more hungry. If you find that the snacks are becoming not really necessary, maybe just add a little bit more fat to your regular meals and skip the snacks. I don't have a rule or anything that I can't snack, it just isn't usually necessary.

KnitOrMiss

Here's another one that helps you check the distribution of your macros, but it's more Keto geared.

http://www.flexibleketogenic.com/

There was one our doctor friend posted not long ago that was very educational. If he doesn't post it, I'll dig through my email and find where I saved it.

Sunny_Bunny_

I sort of thought I had to teach a minimum when I started too and quickly learned that it was silly to force myself to eat.
Some days I go over calories, some days I am under, some days I fast and am waaaay under. It all works out as long as you also listen to your body when it's asking for more too.
The "eat 3 meals and 3 snacks" idea is based off of the carb crash that happens with the typical high carb diet.
My daughter got this sheet from her diabetes nurse with instructions to eat every 4 hours. Mind you, that means another blood glucose test before and 2 hours after eating along with an insulin injection to cover the carbs and possibly a correction injection at that 2 hour bg test. Sounds fun huh?
You can see how the carbs fall off after 2 hours? That's why some find it hard to not be grazing all day long.

DianaElena76

Nope, I eat when I'm hungry and don't eat when I'm not. Great advice above.

Unknown

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nicintime

In a word - No.

daylitemag

Most days I am not hungry enough to eat my calories, so I don't. I would rather take the deficit than eat just for the sake of eating. There are some days when I may exceed my calorie count for the day, but I try to make sure that is not more than once per week. It is usually linked to some sort of social or business function.

The best thing about LCHF way of eating is the lack of hunger. IMHO. I've never experienced anything like this in 30 years of struggling with my weight.

KarlaYP

I'm with the general consensus. There are days I reach calories and other days that I don't. I don't snack anymore either, at this point.

Every diet I've ever attempted left me starving before every meal! We are so brainwashed that we expect that to be the case with this woe too. It's wonderfully surprising to experience no hunger with this woe. Even though we read about it before beginning, I think that we feel it won't happen for us (we've been hungry, forever, right?!). The many benefits of this woe continue to reveal themselves too!

Hang in there and enjoy!

norcogrrl

I never force myself to eat when I'm not hungry (anymore), or when I'm not doing anything that might require my body to have additional fuel.

I have been well under 1200 on some days. But, it has also been quite a bit over on some days. Part of developing a healthy relationship with food (which I'm guessing most of us do not have, or we probably wouldn't be here) is learning to eat to fuel our bodies: not out of boredom or when we are looking for comfort.

I'm now so confident in my ability to manage my caloric consumption that I've now set my calories as what my TDEE (on a lazy day) should be at goal weight. I don't care how many calories I consume in a day: providing I'm not averaging over what my maintenance will be.

Dragonwolf

KnitOrMiss wrote: »

Some days I eat 1200 calories, some days I eat 3000 calories. Forcing yourself to eat when you are not hungry is as bad for your body as not eating when you are hungry. Your body is talking to you, and you're attempting to ignore it. In fact, I rarely "snack" anymore, unless it's while preparing a meal...

Look at your calories as more of an ebb and flow. Take a look at the bigger picture. A week's worth of calorie fluctuations will likely hit closer to your expected average, if you follow the hungry...

And calories goals are so arbitrary anyway, unless you've had biometric and hydrostatic testing. Add to that the allowed 25% errors of food labels, and you might as well be playing Russian roulette. Do the best you can, listen to your body, and reevaluate after 6-12 weeks if you stop progressing...

Also, make sure the calculator you are using is more realistic: http://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/

This (and everything else above). I would add a bit of a caveat, though -- if you find yourself going a week or more way low, you might want to re-evaluate what you're eating and make sure to get some more calorie dense foods in. Eating only 800 calories when you should be eating 1600 (for example) isn't really good in general and you risk crashing from that. A day or two here and there, though? Don't worry about it, as long as you also don't worry about going over on hungry days. This is key, because those "way over" days are the balancing factor of those "way under" days. At the end of a week or two, those days should pretty much balance themselves out.

Also, as you're finding, you don't need to eat 5 times a day. Eat when you're hungry, stop when you're full. Odds are very good that you'll start falling into a 1-3 meal pattern, and that's perfectly fine. In fact, that's actually our more optimal way of eating. The body needs time in between meals to do other things, like repair damaged tissue or burn fat. If we ate all the time, our body would be spending all its time digesting food and not really getting much else done.

You'll also find that the hunger signals themselves change (and you might actually want to try going long enough to experience this, so you know what it is). It will no longer be the "OMG, MUST EAT NOW! GETTING DIZZY AND LIGHT-HEADED!" "hunger" you get with a sugar crash, but more of a "*tap, tap* hey, this is your stomach, if you could get us some food when you get a chance, that'd be awesome. Don't worry if you're busy, though, just whenever you get around to it."

Emily3907

Thanks everyone! This makes me feel better. It is just so weird....to not be hungry. LOL It is kind of a freeing feeling.

KarlaYP

Very liberating @Emily3907!

Sunny_Bunny_

I love @Dragonwolf comparison between the way hunger used to feel to the way it feels now. It's perfect!

blacktie347

I'm in the minority here, but I force myself to eat when I'm not hungry. I know, this is weird, but it works for me. I'm just sharing my own experience, and I'm happy that not eating when not hungry works out for others Logically, what they're doing makes sense; eating when not hungry just works better in my own situation.

Merrysix

My calorie macro is 1500 and I try to eat close to it most days. I find as an older person, I have less room to wobble if I want to lose weight. I sometimes eat a little under, but mostly since I eat 5 smaller meals per day, it works out for me pretty closely. I need to eat close to that to exercise the way I like to and also to not get to hungry which used to lead to binges. But if I'm in the 1300's and OK, I don't force myself to eat.

Sunny_Bunny_

blacktie347 wrote: »

I'm in the minority here, but I force myself to eat when I'm not hungry. I know, this is weird, but it works for me. I'm just sharing my own experience, and I'm happy that not eating when not hungry works out for others Logically, what they're doing makes sense; eating when not hungry just works better in my own situation.

That's what it all comes down to in the end. Trying things out and finding what works for each of us.

esaucier17

No I do not.