Not able to reach the 1,200 calorie goal

rebbekah16

So I've been trying my hardest to stick to healthy eating and an exercise plan. I've noticed that most of the time I'm not reaching the calorie goal and am under by 100-300 calories. I try to boost it up by eating snacks but I don't want to eat just because of the calorie count. If I'm not hungry I'm not going to eat. Is this going to affect anything health wise or is it an estimated calorie count?

kimny72

What is your height and weight? Are you using a food scale or measuring cups? How long have you been logging?

rebbekah16

About 5"7. 13st 4lb. I'll use food scales for cereal, pasta etc. But not for main meals. It's not worth the hassle for me. Only the past two months I've been really serious about lossing weight.

Ninkyou

Your goal is 1200 calories, which is the minimum recommendation for a woman. You're eating up to 300 calories under that. So... 900-1100 calories. You also said "exercise plan", so you're netting even lower than those numbers. Does that sound healthy to you? Yes, it is going to affect you health wise. Yes, you will lose weight, but you will also lose your much needed muscle, your hair, your nails will become brittle, it'll eff with your hormones. Yes, there are real consequences to malnourishing your body. Hunger has little to do with getting proper nutrition.

Eat foods that are more calorie dense. Maybe incorporate a dessert at night. Whatever it takes.

rebbekah16

Its still a couple 100 under the goal when I exercise as well. It tends to make me more hungry when I exercise so I'm eating more.
I used to eat like a pig before I started getting fit. I'm talking like 1,700 approx a day. Been doing the fitness thing approx 2-3 months. Thought it might be to do with my appetite or stomach getting smaller?

Ninkyou

1700 calories is hardly eating like a pig. That's a pretty normal calorie intake.

callsitlikeiseeit

your diary is not open.

i imagine you are eating more than you think you are.

kimny72

rebbekah16 wrote: »

About 5"7. 13st 4lb. I'll use food scales for cereal, pasta etc. But not for main meals. It's not worth the hassle for me. Only the past two months I've been really serious about lossing weight.

I asked about the food scale because you are most likely eating more than you think. 1,000 calories is an incredibly small amount of food, and considering your height and age, there is no way you are not able to reach 1,200 calories. Before I had a food scale and started logging every single thing, I would've bet money I was eating 1,400 cals a day. I found I was eating more like 1,800.

And to add based on your later post - 1,700 is NOT eating like a pig. I am 5'4" 130 lbs, lightly active and 43 yrs old, and I eat 1,800 cals to maintain my weight. And I could eat far more if I wanted to.

yesimpson

rebbekah16 wrote: »

About 5"7. 13st 4lb. I'll use food scales for cereal, pasta etc. But not for main meals. It's not worth the hassle for me. Only the past two months I've been really serious about lossing weight.

If you're not weighing meals, I wouldn't be sure you're under your calorie goal at all with any certainty.
Also I can lose weight eating 1,700, as can lots of other women. I'm not sure that's a 'piggy' intake that would've led to weight gain in the first place, unless you are very very sedentary. The maths isn't adding up somewhere IMO.
If you really are eating on average 1,000 calories a day, that large a deficit is not likely to be good for you in the long term. For lots of people underfuelling yourself to that level can lead to fatigue, unnecessary hunger, and losing a lot of muscle which you want to keep.

size102b

Tbh you didn't get to 13.4 not eating so im positive you can eat 1200
If your worried it's not healthy = no weight loss that's untrue we all need treats or we fall off our lifestyle change
Plus 1200 is way to low
You didn't on weight eating 1700 calories a day I ate 1500 in my after picture lost 71lbs in 10 months , you have to weigh measure EVERYTHING that goes in your mouth and log everything all drinks sauces treats sugar butter etc
Go into healthyeater.com use cal counter you'll see your under eating which is as bad as over eating

mojcakosi88

You are definitely eating more than you think. I had the same problem when I started until I shockingly realized the actual amount of calories in the foods I was eating. MFP is an exceptional tool in this sense because it really gives you a clear idea about the calories in your food. I was shocked to see that only one table spoon of olive oil contains 120 kcal. I usually used two to season my salad! So log everything you eat, literally everything, just to get an idea of how much you really consume. After a while you get used to scaling and eventually you can stop doing it (at least for certain types of food) because you naturally remember how many calories certain foods contain. 1200 kcal is seriously restrictive and you can easily go over it, especially if you workout.

rebbekah16

I am using the bar code scanner for the packages, tins etc I use so that is accurate. But I'll start scaling everything I eat instead of just a few things. Thanks for your advice

cityruss

You aren't logging accurately, so you have no idea how many calories you are consuming.

Until you are logging accurately, no one can give any other advice than to log accurately.

booksandchocolate12

callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »

your diary is not open.

i imagine you are eating more than you think you are.

^^This.

size102b wrote: »

Tbh you didn't get to 13.4 not eating so im positive you can eat 1200.

^^And this.

Using a food scale for all solid food is definitely "worth the hassle" if you want an accurate account of what you're eating.

mojcakosi88

Exactly. Just scale the food and log it in, MFP does the rest of the work so no excuses.

shmulyeng

I'll agree with the others. Chances are you're not tracking correctly.

rileysowner

rebbekah16 wrote: »

I am using the bar code scanner for the packages, tins etc I use so that is accurate. But I'll start scaling everything I eat instead of just a few things. Thanks for your advice

All the bar code is, is a number. It is associated with a database entry, but not always the right one either due to two products in the whole world have the same number, the right product but because of regional differences having different calorie amounts, changes in products that have changed the calories, or because the entry was put in incorrectly by the user who entered it.

In other words, just because you are using the bar code scanner does not mean you don't have to double check if things match up and make sense.

Merkavar

First I would start weighing everything, measuring everything, to get your logging as accurate as possible.

If you are then eating under 1200, if your drinking lite milk, low fat this or that, try the full fat full flavour versions.

If that doesn't work try peanut butter, a small amount is like 100 calories.

cconger2015

yesimpson wrote: »

rebbekah16 wrote: »

About 5"7. 13st 4lb. I'll use food scales for cereal, pasta etc. But not for main meals. It's not worth the hassle for me. Only the past two months I've been really serious about lossing weight.

If you're not weighing meals, I wouldn't be sure you're under your calorie goal at all with any certainty.
Also I can lose weight eating 1,700, as can lots of other women. I'm not sure that's a 'piggy' intake that would've led to weight gain in the first place, unless you are very very sedentary. The maths isn't adding up somewhere IMO.
If you really are eating on average 1,000 calories a day, that large a deficit is not likely to be good for you in the long term. For lots of people underfuelling yourself to that level can lead to fatigue, unnecessary hunger, and losing a lot of muscle which you want to keep.

I agree with this. I'm actually the same weight as you and about an inch taller. I am pretty active, but maintenance for me is about 3000 calories, so an intake of 1700 would have me losing 2-3 pounds a week. Everyone's different obviously, but it's likely that your estimates are undershooting. Even if it's just for a little bit, weighing out everything is really helpful in learning what a certain amount looks like for each food (there are a lot of things that are really easy to underestimate how much you're eating), and how many calories that contains.

Francl27

rebbekah16 wrote: »

Its still a couple 100 under the goal when I exercise as well. It tends to make me more hungry when I exercise so I'm eating more.
I used to eat like a pig before I started getting fit. I'm talking like 1,700 approx a day. Been doing the fitness thing approx 2-3 months. Thought it might be to do with my appetite or stomach getting smaller?

Ok you're eating WAY more than you think. You didn't get to that weight by eating 1700 calories a day. Just nope. That's what I ate to LOSE and I'm not as tall as you (and I was 13 years older too).

rebbekah16

Thanks for all the advice. Just so everyone is clear that was a typo what I put 1,700. was supposed to put 2,700. In MY opinion that was eating like a pig because it was all fatty foods. Thats how I got to my current weight.
I will start using scales and measurements for my foods

Maxematics

Even weigh prepackaged foods because they can be far off with the calorie counts, not to mention the fact that almost all nutrition labels are rounded anyway. Yesterday I ate a fruit and nut bar from Trader Joe's that was 40 grams per serving; the actual bar weighed 50 grams which brought the calorie count up by 50. That's a hell of a difference in calories.

vingogly

rebbekah16 wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice. Just so everyone is clear that was a typo what I put 1,700. was supposed to put 2,700. In MY opinion that was eating like a pig because it was all fatty foods. Thats how I got to my current weight.
I will start using scales and measurements for my foods

If you're avoiding fats, you might want to incorporate healthy fats into your diet like avocados and nuts and fatty fish (tuna, salmon, sardines, etc).

I log everything carefully, and I've found the calorie deficit tracks closely to the amount of weight I lose per week. I find playing around with numbers using the calculator here helpful in understanding the effect of age, activity, and calories on the amount of weight gained/lost:

http://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html

rebbekah16

Okay thank you

ClosetBayesian

rebbekah16 wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice. Just so everyone is clear that was a typo what I put 1,700. was supposed to put 2,700. In MY opinion that was eating like a pig because it was all fatty foods. Thats how I got to my current weight.
I will start using scales and measurements for my foods

So if you can eat 2700 per day, then there's no reason you can't eat 1200.

cerise_noir

Ninkyou wrote: »

1700 calories is hardly eating like a pig. That's a pretty normal calorie intake.

Right?! That's my calorie goal on some days.

I agree with using a scale for everything except liquids (weight oils/dressings, too). Eyeballing portions, or using cups/spoons can cause one to overestimate by approx 400cals. Start weighing all foods, then reassess. If you're still under add calorie dense foods or drinks to eat 1200 NET.

Cynsonya

synacious wrote: »

Even weigh prepackaged foods because they can be far off with the calorie counts, not to mention the fact that almost all nutrition labels are rounded anyway. Yesterday I ate a fruit and nut bar from Trader Joe's that was 40 grams per serving; the actual bar weighed 50 grams which brought the calorie count up by 50. That's a hell of a difference in calories.

^^This too