Too LITTLE calories??? Help

xheatherwright

I don't think I'm netting enough, some day's i don't even net 900! But don't understand how upping my calorie intake/re-eating the calories i've burnt could help me lose weight??? Whereas not eating enough could make me not not lose weight or put on weight?? So confused! Help please!!!!!

tiffanyraylene

Yup. WAY too little calories.

Go here to calculate your body fat percentage:
http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/mbf/

then use that to go here and calculate your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) using the Katch-McCardle method:
http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/

I'd suggest calculating the following:

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) - this is the absolute minimum you should be eating. your body would burn this if you did nothing but lay around all day

Select your activity level - this is how many calories you need daily to maintain your weight at your current activity level. You don't want to eat more than this number.

Now. subtract 20% from your TDEE, this creates your calorie deficit and gives you your magic number of calories per day to lose weight

tiffanyraylene

If you follow TDEE-20% you do NOT eat back your exercise cals, btw

PepperWorm

Beat me to it.

Follow the above tutorial. Lose weight the healthy way.

Good luck!

GameOfPounds

My advice would be to up your calories. Don't worry,you'll lose weight if you burn more than you eat. Your body just to stay alive burns all these 900 calories and more!

If you feel full and don't want more food but want to up your calorie intake,use olive oil in your salads and when cooking food. In that way,you'll get healthy fats that boost your heart-health and of course you'll up your calories without even noticing. Be portion wise though.

You can also add protein to your diet. Lean meats,greek yogurt,fish if you like.. Protein will help you build your muscle tissues since in such a low calorie diet, you're probably losing more muscle tissue than fat.

Tell me if I'm wrong,I am not an expert in nutrition or so and sorry for my english. I am not an english speaker either.

j6o4

If you dont eat enough you will screw up your metabolism, which will result in you gaining weight by not eating much because your body will get used to the calorie you feed it. A damaged metabolism will take time to recover and it is caused by undereating! Too much of anything is not good, especially too much of a caloric deficit.

grimendale

You need to make sure you eat enough. It seems counterintuitive, but eating too few calories will hinder fat loss. When you enter all of your vital statistics into MFP, it comes up with a total number of calories you should be eating. This number includes a healthy deficit below what you would need to eat to maintain, so you should try to get as close to that number as possible. When you burn calories, your body pulls both from fat reserves and muscle tissue, but the ratio of the two can change. When you eat at a small deficit and exercise, your body will tend to pull from fat reserves since they are easier to access and your muscles are being used. When the deficit grows too large for too long, your body will start to shift towards burning muscle tissue rather than fat. Muscle tissue requires more calories to maintain than fat cells, so when your body expects to not get enough food for an extended period, it will hoard fat cells to try to maintain an energy reserve for future use. You will still lose weight, but most of that weight will be muscle, not fat. As long as your deficit is small, your body isn't worried about getting enough food and will be comfortable burning through the fat reserves.

When you exercise, MFP expects you to eat back any calories you burn to ensure that you total deficit does not grow too large (see above). This also seems counterintuitive, since it seems like you are undoing the benefits of the exercise, but this is not the case. The more muscle you build and the better shape you get into, the more calories your body will require to maintain itself, so you will eventually be able to eat more without gaining weight. Exercising without eating enough calories can easily result in burning muscle rather than fat.

A lot of people default to the 1200 value since it is the minimum that MFP will allow, but it is honestly too low for many people. Look at the information entered into MFP and make sure that you have been realistic so that you don't shortchange yourself. Eating less does not necessarily mean better results. Hope this helps.

paulperryman

I feel your pain atm going by MFP i should be eating under my average BMR which is not good but also i workout 6 days a week which pushed it even further, i have alot to lose body fat wise so it's a toss up and am still rarely hungry even eating "too little" so i'm torn. I have semi-stalled for the 3rd time in 5Kg's, which is ok my workouts are vigorous and probabl retaing water to repair those muscles and build them up a bit but would be nice to be more consistant considering in the visual weight falling off in terms of cms on the tape measure and weight according to a biometric scale, It was so much easier 20Kgs ago when i was on a consistant 1Kg a week

recalculated to eat more and see how it goes, take the advice you were given with IIFYM.com at the very least it doesn't work and in a few weeks you could try something new.

paulperryman

You need to make sure you eat enough. It seems counterintuitive, but eating too few calories will hinder fat loss. When you enter all of your vital statistics into MFP, it comes up with a total number of calories you should be eating. This number includes a healthy deficit below what you would need to eat to maintain, so you should try to get as close to that number as possible. When you burn calories, your body pulls both from fat reserves and muscle tissue, but the ratio of the two can change. When you eat at a small deficit and exercise, your body will tend to pull from fat reserves since they are easier to access and your muscles are being used. When the deficit grows too large for too long, your body will start to shift towards burning muscle tissue rather than fat. Muscle tissue requires more calories to maintain than fat cells, so when your body expects to not get enough food for an extended period, it will hoard fat cells to try to maintain an energy reserve for future use. You will still lose weight, but most of that weight will be muscle, not fat. As long as your deficit is small, your body isn't worried about getting enough food and will be comfortable burning through the fat reserves.

When you exercise, MFP expects you to eat back any calories you burn to ensure that you total deficit does not grow too large (see above). This also seems counterintuitive, since it seems like you are undoing the benefits of the exercise, but this is not the case. The more muscle you build and the better shape you get into, the more calories your body will require to maintain itself, so you will eventually be able to eat more without gaining weight. Exercising without eating enough calories can easily result in burning muscle rather than fat.

A lot of people default to the 1200 value since it is the minimum that MFP will allow, but it is honestly too low for many people. Look at the information entered into MFP and make sure that you have been realistic so that you don't shortchange yourself. Eating less does not necessarily mean better results. Hope this helps.

Burning muscle is a 50/50 myth depending on what you read, Endomorphs (large boned people) gain/retain muscle easier but fat aswell, wheras the other body types need to replenish or they will lose it I can speak from first hand experience being an Endomorph that with a moderate effort i have increased the muscle mass in my arms and legs and no doubt stomach aswell. Those areas have increased in size but are more toned so it's not just fat loss but my stomach is retaining all the flab. Sure if you are in a low fat range already or all you did was Cardio you'd burn muscle eventually but the body is gonna go to the easiest source first which is the last thing that went into your body then simple carbs and fats and lastly protein thats also apparently a proven fact. Deide for yourself what seems more logical, the rest of what you said is correct in my eyes too, eating too little is logical but the body thinks otherwise.