Is it OK to be under your calorie goal by say... 1000?

I'm usually under by 200 - 600... But today and other days before that I was under by alot. Is that bad?
And also I ate a 900 calorie burger yesterday and I feel so guilty about it... Never again... Was not worth that amount of calories.
I have an open diary btw.

Replies

  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    Over-restricting yourself usually leads to a crash-and-burn, and you'll probably end up gaining back everything you've lost and then some.

    The idea is to eat as much as possible close to your calorie limit but not over. This goes for losing AND maintaining weight.

    You want to eat sustainably for the rest of your life, starting now.

    The idea is not to deprive yourself and binge to catch up.

  • andygvr96
    andygvr96 Posts: 26 Member
    What if I'm not hungry?
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    You sound disordered ...undereating and guilt over a food choice?

    If you are constantly under eating you will burn through your LBM at a much higher rate not to mention reducing your chance of hitting your macro and micro nutrient requirements

    If you have saved 200 calories for a few days you've got a 900 calorie burger over and above your standard eating easily

    How much should you be eating

    Eating too little is as bad, probably worse, for your health as eating too much
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    Your diary is awful

    I imagine you're trolling for fun but in case anybody else is reading ..

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1
  • Mapalicious
    Mapalicious Posts: 412 Member
    I entirely disagree with rabbitjb. Guilt over a food choice isn't 'disordered' at all. It's not fun, and if it's not positive or working for you, you may want to rethink it as a reaction! I do not support pathologizing people's feelings on internet forums.

    Undereating when you've over-eaten the day before is a fine balancing practice, IMO, as long as it's within reason.

    What is your starting weight and daily calorie goal, @andygvr96 ?

  • erinc5
    erinc5 Posts: 329 Member
    Are you logging everything you eat? If you are logging everything you eat, then you are not eating enough at all. You are going to lose so much muscle mass, including very important muscles like your heart. You are a 19 yo male. You should be eating minimum 1500 per day. I am a 5'7" female almost in her 30's and I eat about 1400 or 1500 and I am losing weight. Please see a doctor if you mentally cannot eat more than you are now or else you will be visiting a doctor in a few months when your body is wasting away.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    edited February 2016
    I entirely disagree with rabbitjb. Guilt over a food choice isn't 'disordered' at all. It's not fun, and if it's not positive or working for you, you may want to rethink it as a reaction! I do not support pathologizing people's feelings on internet forums.

    Undereating when you've over-eaten the day before is a fine balancing practice, IMO, as long as it's within reason.

    What is your starting weight and daily calorie goal, @andygvr96 ?
    You want to look at his diary before you disagree with me

    Guilt over a food choice when he is eating 600 calories regularly is disordered

  • Mapalicious
    Mapalicious Posts: 412 Member
    OK...after snooping your diary I take a lot of what I posted above back.

    OP, you appear to be starving yourself. You've been eating way too few calories (if your diary reflects everything you've eaten).

    Additionally, the calories you DO eat are not balanced and nutritive.

    I think getting started on reading some good blogs on healthy weightloss. I really liked livestrong.com as a start.
  • Mapalicious
    Mapalicious Posts: 412 Member
    rabbitjb wrote: »
    I entirely disagree with rabbitjb. Guilt over a food choice isn't 'disordered' at all. It's not fun, and if it's not positive or working for you, you may want to rethink it as a reaction! I do not support pathologizing people's feelings on internet forums.

    Undereating when you've over-eaten the day before is a fine balancing practice, IMO, as long as it's within reason.

    What is your starting weight and daily calorie goal, @andygvr96 ?
    You want to look at his diary before you disagree with me

    Guilt over a food choice when he is eating 600 calories regularly is disordered

    I revise after looking at his diary. You didn't post that information, and I still disagree with calling someone's actions/emotions 'disordered' in an internet forum. But that's beside the point here, aye?
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    edited February 2016
    rabbitjb wrote: »
    I entirely disagree with rabbitjb. Guilt over a food choice isn't 'disordered' at all. It's not fun, and if it's not positive or working for you, you may want to rethink it as a reaction! I do not support pathologizing people's feelings on internet forums.

    Undereating when you've over-eaten the day before is a fine balancing practice, IMO, as long as it's within reason.

    What is your starting weight and daily calorie goal, @andygvr96 ?
    You want to look at his diary before you disagree with me

    Guilt over a food choice when he is eating 600 calories regularly is disordered

    I revise after looking at his diary. You didn't post that information, and I still disagree with calling someone's actions/emotions 'disordered' in an internet forum. But that's beside the point here, aye?

    Disordered isn't an insult ..it's a descriptor

    But fair enough if you have issues with the word

    Edit to revise....actually it was insulting, I realise I called him and not his eating pattern disordered...that was a grammatical error caused by lack of morning coffee and I apologise. However if I had written what I meant that his actions were disordered I would have stood by it

    Describing the behaviour as disordered is appropriate but not describing the person

    Slaps self

  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    There were some blank days before about a week ago.

    How long have you been eating the way you've been logging?
  • ROBOTFOOD
    ROBOTFOOD Posts: 5,527 Member
    716cal today. Seriously?

    NO. Eat.
  • andygvr96
    andygvr96 Posts: 26 Member
    Seriously tho its not like I'm starving myself... I just get full pretty easily. Yesterday i couldnt even finish a donut... I just assumed that working out made you less hungry.. I lift weights every morning and drink protein so losing muscle mass shouldn't be a problem should it? I just took a week break to let my new tattoo heal. But I'm going to the gym again.
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    If it's just for one week, you'll be fine.

  • ROBOTFOOD
    ROBOTFOOD Posts: 5,527 Member
    edited February 2016
    andygvr96 wrote: »
    Seriously tho its not like I'm starving myself... I just get full pretty easily. Yesterday i couldnt even finish a donut... I just assumed that working out made you less hungry.. I lift weights every morning and drink protein so losing muscle mass shouldn't be a problem should it? I just took a week break to let my new tattoo heal. But I'm going to the gym again.

    Personally I cannot fathom eating below 3k/day. If you ate 716 today but eat 2000 tomorrow, then sure it would be ok. But 700 everyday, no dude. That's no where near sustainable long term. Especially for a 19yr old kid.

    And that's with very little activity.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    andygvr96 wrote: »
    Seriously tho its not like I'm starving myself... I just get full pretty easily. Yesterday i couldnt even finish a donut... I just assumed that working out made you less hungry.. I lift weights every morning and drink protein so losing muscle mass shouldn't be a problem should it? I just took a week break to let my new tattoo heal. But I'm going to the gym again.

    You haven't logged any protein shakes

    Yes losing muscle mass will be an issue

    And no it's not OK - not even for a week

  • andygvr96
    andygvr96 Posts: 26 Member
    I only drink shakes when I workout and since I haven't gone this past week I haven't. But yesterday I did....
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    I entirely disagree with rabbitjb. Guilt over a food choice isn't 'disordered' at all. It's not fun, and if it's not positive or working for you, you may want to rethink it as a reaction! I do not support pathologizing people's feelings on internet forums.

    Undereating when you've over-eaten the day before is a fine balancing practice, IMO, as long as it's within reason.

    What is your starting weight and daily calorie goal, @andygvr96 ?

    look at the diary.

    and have guilt over food IS disordered. you eat too much one day, you log it and move on to the next. its one thing to think ' man i shouldnt have eaten that. oh well.' and another to fixate on it and routinely undereat. OP ate a burger, didn't drive a school bus of children over a cliff..... no guilt is needed.
  • zoeysasha37
    zoeysasha37 Posts: 7,088 Member
    Orphia wrote: »
    Over-restricting yourself usually leads to a crash-and-burn, and you'll probably end up gaining back everything you've lost and then some.

    The idea is to eat as much as possible close to your calorie limit but not over. This goes for losing AND maintaining weight.

    You want to eat sustainably for the rest of your life, starting now.

    The idea is not to deprive yourself and binge to catch up.

    This
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
    andygvr96 wrote: »
    Seriously tho its not like I'm starving myself... I just get full pretty easily. Yesterday i couldnt even finish a donut... I just assumed that working out made you less hungry.. I lift weights every morning and drink protein so losing muscle mass shouldn't be a problem should it? I just took a week break to let my new tattoo heal. But I'm going to the gym again.

    No, you are seriously starving yourself. Your diary indicates disordered behaviors. Nothing in your diary shows a healthy pattern ... nothing.
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
    Unless he's just not posting stuff in his diary and is trolling. ;)
  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
    andygvr96 wrote: »
    Seriously tho its not like I'm starving myself... I just get full pretty easily. Yesterday i couldnt even finish a donut... I just assumed that working out made you less hungry.. I lift weights every morning and drink protein so losing muscle mass shouldn't be a problem should it? I just took a week break to let my new tattoo heal. But I'm going to the gym again.

    If you eat too few calories all the strength training and protein shakes won't help you, at some point your body has no other options but to burn muscle to keep yourself alive.

    You shouldn't be 1000 below goal. You really shouldn't even be regularly 200 below goal unless you're balancing it with days above goal. You should aim to be as close to your goal as possible - I always get within 60 calories of my goal because 60 calories is my lowest calorie common snack.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    Unless he's just not posting stuff in his diary and is trolling. ;)

    could well be, but then we all know we have legit people who think this is okay and may stumble upon it, and need the 'education' ....
  • ARGriffy
    ARGriffy Posts: 1,002 Member
    I mean. .. someone on a FITNESS ap with smoking in their profile pic, eating nothing but saturated fat and protein shakes COULD be legit and just reeeeally in need of help. Or a troll. Meh
  • snickerscharlie
    snickerscharlie Posts: 8,578 Member
    edited February 2016
    ARGriffy wrote: »
    I mean. .. someone on a FITNESS ap with smoking in their profile pic, eating nothing but saturated fat and protein shakes COULD be legit and just reeeeally in need of help. Or a troll. Meh

    +1

    But I agree that proper information is needed for the lurkers. :)

    Edited to add: Pretty sure that's not a cigarette he's puffing on, either. <eye rolly>

  • shans34
    shans34 Posts: 535 Member
    There are days when eating way under your calorie goal is just what it is because of a busy schedule or poor planning. I have that problem somedays too. I eat way too little to be what I should be eating. However, it happens. It should not be a regular thing. The ultimate idea in theory is to plan and make room for the right amount of calories.
  • yourhiddengem
    yourhiddengem Posts: 171 Member
    rabbitjb wrote: »
    I entirely disagree with rabbitjb. Guilt over a food choice isn't 'disordered' at all. It's not fun, and if it's not positive or working for you, you may want to rethink it as a reaction! I do not support pathologizing people's feelings on internet forums.

    Undereating when you've over-eaten the day before is a fine balancing practice, IMO, as long as it's within reason.

    What is your starting weight and daily calorie goal, @andygvr96 ?
    You want to look at his diary before you disagree with me

    Guilt over a food choice when he is eating 600 calories regularly is disordered


    It's true.

    If the OP's diary is actually correct then my heart hurts for him because that's very eating disordered.
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
    edited February 2016
    Dude. Don't feel guilty over a burger. Did you like it? If yes, then good. Log it and work around it. Eat whatever you freakin' want just as long as you log correctly. I used to feel guilty about what I ate, until I had a crappy week and ate so called 'bad food' but stuck to my calories. And guess what? I lost weight that week. Eat what you like, log with precision and you'll be fine. Trust me.

    I just ate some left over cheesecake for breakfast with my coffee. Am I going to freak over it? Nooooooope. Not worth it. If I stress over something like that, I am sure to derail.

    Relax.

    Think about food as being fuel for your body. There are no good or bad foods, just food. A calorie is a calorie. Just EAT. I eat far more than you, and am 5'3.5" and lose around 1lb a week. This is not a race, do you lift? If not, get on it! It's SO worth it.
    rabbitjb wrote: »
    I entirely disagree with rabbitjb. Guilt over a food choice isn't 'disordered' at all. It's not fun, and if it's not positive or working for you, you may want to rethink it as a reaction! I do not support pathologizing people's feelings on internet forums.

    Undereating when you've over-eaten the day before is a fine balancing practice, IMO, as long as it's within reason.

    What is your starting weight and daily calorie goal, @andygvr96 ?
    You want to look at his diary before you disagree with me

    Guilt over a food choice when he is eating 600 calories regularly is disordered
    Agreed 100000000000%
    I trust @rabbitjb posts. She knows what she's talking about.

  • The only time I've been under by that much is when I had the stomach flu and all of my liquids equaled a very low calorie intake. That never happens when I'm well. Like NEVER.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Dude, you're a dude...not a 90 year old 4' nothing granny....