Why do so many people say they can't reach their calorie goal?

try2again

Also, I should add not everyone has their macros set the same. MFP has a default setting, but many prefer less carbs or more protein, for instance.

Christine_72

lizardlipsagain wrote: »

Just curious how many people are eating within their set macros? I recorded earlier that I was new to MFP and have concerns with cholesteral and high blood pressure so I'm trying to eat better choices.

I very rarely hit my macros spot on, plus i have my fitbit synced so they are a constantly moving target. I usually get way more protein, am mostly over in fat and am usually a fair bit under on carbs.

tbramos07

For me, once I started eating more whole grains, veggies, and proteins such as beans, fish, and chicken, I felt satisfied longer and no longer craved. The bad stuff. Exercising also helps keep me focused. When I eat the good stuff in sensible portions, and give it about 10-15 minutes, I realize I no longer feel like eating. Junk makes you continue to crave junk. Also, when you subtract the calories that you burn, it's amazing the calories you have left.

Also, maybe it's the portions some are still in the habit of eating. It's amazing how much less you can survive off of when you eat good healthy food. I eat as little as some grade school kids and I feel totally satisfied. Part of me has fallen out of love with food and in love with health. Don't get me wrong, I still like food, but I don't live to eat like I used to. I eat to live. It could be an issue of the heart.

Neanbean13

What i want to know is why do people get so damn offended so easily on this app?

CattOfTheGarage

Neanbean13 wrote: »

What i want to know is why do people get so damn offended so easily on this app?

How dare you!

leanjogreen18

Normally people we encounter in our lives such as family, friends, coworker and strangers don't talk to us the way folks do on a forum. Other than an argument with a family member or my rebellious teens have I heard some of the talk that goes on in forums between people. I suspect they don't talk like that face to face with most people. New people that come onto forums and haven't been exposed to people calling them out get offended then eventually develop thicker skin then I suppose they start talking like that too. Idk

magicpickles

They probably cut everything out (the good stuff), then just eat things they know are low calorie, and become too scared to add higher calorie items.

kgracesch

Beats me! I just finally accepted I need 2000 calories or up a day! I lose on 2000 and maintain a bit over 2000. Eating is important and so is listening to your body. A nutritionist once told me he never ever put anyone on any # under 1700 calories a day as it isn't healthy for the brain and vital organs in the long term. Eat and exercise for vitality and longevity

emilysusana

I think it's usually folks early on in their journey who have this issue. When I started, I was super motivated, carefully considering whether every piece of food that went into my mouth was "worth" the calorie impact, and perpetually afraid of running out of calories and not being able to have a post-kids-bedtime treat. So some days I would get to the end of the day with 4-500 calories left and would only need a 150 calories snack... haha, I remember those days. Doesn't happen anymore. I'm still motivated, but I want to have energy throughout the day and I know the world won't implode if I have my evening treat over my calorie limit.

When I see posts about this, I just try to remember we're all at different points on our journey.

Maxematics

Now that this thread has been resurrected, I'd like to weigh in on this. I didn't read all of the responses, so I'm sorry if this has been mentioned already. I'm not trying to be rude or offend anyone, but another part of this is because of how high someone's body fat percentage is at the start of their journey. People who join this site with the goal of weight loss normally have a lot of excess body fat which allows them to be able to feel full on such a low amount of calories if they make better food choices. This is why over time as people lose weight, 1200 calories per day becomes harder to continue.

When I first started here, I was able to stick to 1200 calories even WITH daily exercise because I had excess body fat that was sustaining me with that high deficit. Now that it's been a few years and I've completely changed body wise, I can't even imagine eating 1200 calories, even without exercising. I need at least 1800 calories per day to feel okay and normally eat 2000 to 2300 calories per day to maintain.

ejoliver1991

When I am off work and just sitting around home all day, I sometimes struggle to reach that many calories because I am just not hungry. That certainly doesn't happen on days that I am working and more active, but sitting at home on my computer all day doesn't work up much of an appetite.

To answer your question, frequently ordering calorie-heavy (pizza, Chinese, etc.) food and eating when I am not hungry is how I gained weight. Stopping that is how I sometimes come in low in calories.

Annie_01

I have been at this for a while so I know how to count my calories...I can eat them all! I also don't feel as if I get rewards for eating very low calorie. My calories level is 1600.

Yet...recently for health reasons I changed my diet to moderate carbs. I ate 3 meals a day...had a snack...and at the end of the day I had barely eaten 800 calories.

I average 100g of carbs and proteins each which equals 800 calories. The rest SHOULD come from fats but I have never been a high fat eater unless it came along with a bunch of carbs. High fat levels make me feel bad.

So...

Moral of this story is that sometimes when people change their way of eating and they cut out certain foods it takes the a while to adjust and find other ways of meeting their calorie goals. It has taken me almost a week to get up to 1300 which with my activity level is not enough. I don't want to lose my weight that fast.

Therealobi1

Neanbean13 wrote: »

What i want to know is why do people get so damn offended so easily on this app?

It's the hunger and weakness from exercise

Therealobi1

Yes often wondered the same thing OP
I knew straight away 1200 was too small for me. If I had stuck at that number or lower I would have given up long time

In my opinion it's the going from one extreme to the other to get the fat off fast

missteena88

I'm not sure why everyone thinks they need to eat 1200 to lose weight. I know it varies based on starting weight and height but there are a huge number of people with their calories set this low. When I first started MFP at 360ish pounds, I managed to lose 1.5 pounds a week exercising 2 times a week and eating 2000 calories a day (sometimes closer to 2,500).

The way I see it; you can't help everyone and ultimately people are accountable for their own actions.

MeiannaLee

Well in my case, im a vegan and i just cut gluten and refined sugar from my diet. So its pretty managable to eat 1200 calories but i do sometimes go to sleep with a food baby.

Annie_01

missteena88 wrote: »

I'm not sure why everyone thinks they need to eat 1200 to lose weight. I know it varies based on starting weight and height but there are a huge number of people with their calories set this low. When I first started MFP at 360ish pounds, I managed to lose 1.5 pounds a week exercising 2 times a week and eating 2000 calories a day (sometimes closer to 2,500).

The way I see it; you can't help everyone and ultimately people are accountable for their own actions.

To show you the difference...

When I started I weighted 246lb. At my age to lose 1.5lb a week I was given 1250 at sedentary. At 2000 calories I would have just kept gaining.

TonyB0588

edena001 wrote: »

I assume you're on about the post I just created. Before I came on here I wasn't very conscious about working out, and just ate what I wanted.
I assume my weight gain came from the fizzy drinks and simply junk food or take away, and the swap from walking loads daily to living 1 minute away from a uni and city so no walking was required.

When you come on this app you start to think about what you eat, I've cut out half the bad foods I've had and taken to healthier options that fill you up, and if you do that then it is increasingly hard to reach a 1200 goal.

So share your tips. How do you manage to reach your goal? Obviously if your aim is anything but weight loss then it's going to be different for you as the foods that are good for you may not be for others.

There are no good foods and bad foods, just inappropriate portion sizes. You could eat all the same foods you ate before, but reduce the quantities to bring down the amount of calories consumed if necessary.

My daily goal based on MFP's suggestion is 1810, and I'm usually near there. If I go over I try to do a bit of extra exercise to get back in to a deficit for the day.

try2again

missteena88 wrote: »

I'm not sure why everyone thinks they need to eat 1200 to lose weight. I know it varies based on starting weight and height but there are a huge number of people with their calories set this low. When I first started MFP at 360ish pounds, I managed to lose 1.5 pounds a week exercising 2 times a week and eating 2000 calories a day (sometimes closer to 2,500).

The way I see it; you can't help everyone and ultimately people are accountable for their own actions.

It does depend a lot on stats, but often people choose a weekly weight loss goal that is too aggressive for the amount of weight they have to lose. 2 lbs/week generally is too aggressive when you have <50 lbs to lose. Also, some don't go by stats, they just choose 1200 calories because they've heard that number & think it applies to everyone. Even at 5'9" & 240 lbs, I set my goal at 1.5 lbs/week and would have been miserable on any less calories than that. After I lost 30 lbs or so, I changed to 1 lb/week to keep my calories at a reasonable level. The goal should be to eat the most that you can and still lose weight, not the least.

incisron

Silvermist16 wrote: »

I don't know, but I have no problem eating all the calories that I'm allowed in a day! No problem at all, and I usually want more. But then, I have a sweet tooth!

Love your avatar.

CattOfTheGarage

The "good food/bad food" thing is almost always the problem here, imo.

People cut out "junk" and then struggle to meet their calorie goal eating only "good food". So eat a bit of "junk"! It's not junk anyway, it's not bad, it's just calorie dense - so if calories are what you need, it's perfect.

People wail about "oh, but that chocolate bar has no nutrition!". Yes it does. It has energy. If you're under goal, energy is what you need. Eat the chocolate bar already!

Lolalikeslolagets

I have no trouble reaching that number- one meal at a restaurant with a drink or two..? Maybe if you eat rice cakes all day but how fun is that?!

lemurcat12

There are a few different kinds of posts. There is the "oh, oops, I ate all my planned meals and have only 950 calories, should I eat more?" ones, or the related "I am not hungry, do I need to eat more?" ones. This basically happened to me -- I aggressively cut down on carbs and out all extra fat (cheese, added oil) and was choosing lean sources of protein, and when I started logging (after doing it for a little while) was surprised at how low my calories were. I did have an initial thought of "so long as I'm fine, isn't low cal better?" before coming to my senses and adding back in some fat (and increasing portions of other things).

I think related to this is that some have been eating quite unfilling diets so are surprised that they feel fine on low calories, and I also think many assume they will be hungry so interpret the fact they are not as "I should not eat." There's also lots of confusion about how hunger works (and fear of eating when not hungry or eating "bad foods" -- yes, this is a problem often), and a culturally/dieting industry sense that "the lower the better" or that the faster the loss the better (I blame Biggest Loser, in part). Also, often there's a self-punishment or machismo going on -- you've told yourself before starting it would be awful but you would be strong and can take it, losing the weight (sometimes "losing the weight fast") is worth any sacrifice, so there's a resistance to being told it can be easy, fun, and involve some treats, not a super puritanical* disciplined diet.

All this I find quite easy to understand.

But there are also posts where people claim to be SO STUFFED that they cannot manage to eat more than 900 or whatever. Often these people aren't even eating diets that look particularly filling to me (I remember one example that had barely any protein or veg, lots of bread, tiny portions). Usually I read these as ED-related in some way (although I don't say that, since it's wrong to diagnose online) or asking for permission to eat way too little or basically fake -- some kind of performance art or show-offy "look at how little my appetite is!"

However, if the claims in these are true -- if the person really is eating so little and feels physically or mentally incapable of eating more -- I think this really needs a trip to the doctor. It could be a medical problem, it could be thinking they really should be stuffed on so little or (in a few cases) fear to eat "bad foods" that reaches the level of feeling unable to eat them, or it could be that they've eliminated everything they like and feel stuffed because they are trying to force themselves to eat foods they dislike (or prepared in ways they dislike). A good dietitian could help with all of this, as well as a therapist if it's at the level of an ED, but it's all a medical issue, IMO.

*An aside: I watched that show where Sue from British BakeOff and some food critic pretend to eat like they are in different historical periods and in the Restoration one the remaining Puritans seemed to be the only ones who ate a halfway decent diet here, so I want to say I know I'm unfairly slamming Puritans in using "puritanical" in this manner, but I think it fits!

CattOfTheGarage

@lemurcat12 I am not sure if The Biggest Loser is more of a cause or a symptom. Possibly both.

I agree with your point about "self-punishment or machismo". There's a strand of weight loss/health thinking that really has more to do with religious instinct than with actually losing fat or improving body function - themes about cleansing, repentance, ritual purity, atoning for sins.

It was Ben Goldacre that first made me notice this with his comments on detox in "Bad Science" - detox really is old-fashioned ritual cleansing with a thin veil of science draped over it. Since then I see it everywhere. There's so much talk, even on these forums, of guilt, feeling bad, "making up" for overeating, "eating clean", "bad foods" and so on, and I absolutely see the drive to eat as few calories as possible being connected with guilt and self-punishment. Sometimes it feels like a medieval monastery.

I'm not saying spirituality is not crucial, or that food, exercise and health do not have spiritual elements, but that guilt-punishment thing is not at all healthy or constructive to weight loss imo.