Am I doing this right? :)

yellingkimber

Hi friends!

I'm mostly just looking for reassurance that I'm not doing anything stupid on accident, so I figured I would post here. I'm 22, F, 5'5, 158 lbs. I'm looking to drop down to 130ish. My daily calorie goal is 1400, which I think was a bump over what MFP told me I should be eating. I don't really have a plan for how quickly I'd like to lose it, 1400 was just a number that's worked for me in the past.

As far as logging, I weigh everything with my handy dandy food scale. I only use a generic listing if I've mathed out something to match the listing (for example, I recently logged a generic pork gravy, but I did the math to make sure it matched what I made). I'm always careful to double-check for accuracy so I'm not getting the wrong idea about how much I'm actually eating compared to logging. I'm confident that the numbers I'm logging are pretty accurate.

However, I've been having a hard time hitting 1400 calories? My breakfast and lunch are really satisfying, so I have a hard time feeling hungry. Some days I'll hover around 800 and snack because I want to taste something, but not because I'm hungry. More realistically, my logs have been between 1200 and 1300, but they would be way lower if I only ate when hungry. Does this happen to anyone else? I feel like I can just eat and eat until I'm sick of chewing on 1400 a day! My MFP today says 1400 GOAL | 1269 FOOD - 331 EXERCISE (fitbit adjustment) = 938 NET - Is this about what I should be aiming for?

For exercise, my Fitbit step goal is 7,000 steps a day. I usually meet this and don't exceed 10,500. Next week, I'm looking to bump it up to 8k a day. Every other day I do 30 minutes of lifting. I don't have access to barbells, so I use 5-10 lb dumb bells and do basic stuff like bicep curls, tricep extensions, squats, rows, chest presses, etc. Fitbit usually estimates these workouts at around 60-70 calories. I'm also on Week 3 Day 2 of Couch 2 10k, which I do after lifting to put me at my 7k step count for the day.

My journal should be public. If you want any of the recipes I've added, just let me know and I'll post them. Basically, I'm just wondering if everything looks right? It's the wrong time-of-the-month to weigh myself, so I don't have any "I've lost this!" or "I'm gaining like crazy!" to give as feedback, but I was just wondering if I have any weird glaring errors? I'm a worrier, if you couldn't tell.

yellingkimber

Gonna give this a little bump because genuinely curious if that's okay?

JeromeBarry1

It appears that you are doing it right and safely. Getting the rest of your 1400 should be simple. A couple of walnuts or a square of 85% or higher cocoa chocolate would get most of those calories.

TavistockToad

Peanut butter

yellingkimber

I usually have 72% dark chocolate and budget room for peanut butter and crackers, but SCORE, that means I'll just eat an extra square or a few more crackers. It sounds silly, but I was like "man, I'm already eating a few calorically dense foods, what else can I do?" annnnnd didn't think to eat a little more of those foods.

toxikon

Everything sounds good to me. Just keep in mind that the calorie counts for exercise can be very exaggerated. If you're only doing light exercise, you don't really need to eat back your calories.

I personally think you shouldn't force yourself to eat if you're not hungry or feeling sick/weak. As long as you're healthy, it's okay to eat below your calorie limit sometimes. If anything, it'll just help you get to your weight goal faster. If I have a not-hungry day, it is almost always followed by a hungry day - so they tend to balance out anyway.