Low carb + eating enough calories

mightysparks

I lost about 20kg a few years ago from counting calories/exercising, but I put about half of it back on over the last 2 years after a change in circumstance. I'm female, 5'7", 88kg. As I eat a lot of bread and snacks, I decided watching my carbs was the best way to cut out food that I might over-indulge on or eat instead of healthy food. I'm only on my third day, however I'm not eating much more than 1200 calories a day. I'm just trying to stay below 100g carbs - hitting about 70-80g a day so far - so I'm not trying to do keto or anything. My goal was 1400-1500 calories a day, but I'm also only eating when I'm hungry. But I'm just not getting hungry. I know that I shouldn't be eating so few calories, but should I really force myself to eat if I'm not hungry? I haven't been exercising yet as I'm not sure I should if I'm already not eating much, but it may make me want to eat more.

AlabasterVerve

That's normal when you first start tracking your calories -- low carb or not. Give it a week or two and your appetite will return.

Ruatine

I had this same problem when I changed my diet this past summer. Here's what I was told: Your body goes through a period of adjustment when you make radical changes to your diet. You will often find that you don't feel hungry even though you know you've been under eating your calories. In time your body will adjust to the new way of eating, and your hunger signals will come back into equilibrium.

Of course, the other issue could be a matter of your logging not being entirely accurate. If you're not using a scale to weigh all solid foods and measuring cups to weigh liquids, it's difficult to be accurate in your calorie counts. That said, if you feel that your logging is as close to accurate as it can be, it could be the same issue I had when I first started. Hope this helps!

beccarockslife

Up the fats in your diet, nuts, avocado, etc..

Yi5hedr3

You sound like you are on the right path, just keep going!

mightysparks

I never noticed it last few times I started counting calories - I was hungry for weeks and struggled to keep it under and now I'm having the opposite reaction! I'm eating a decent amount of fat, I hate avocado and can't eat it but I'm eating cheese and nuts for snacks. I'll give it a couple of weeks and see how I go.