Is it okay to not eat all your calories if you don't feel hungry?

gweep

I'm asking because I initially tried to live off 800 calories per day as a pseudo weight loss surgery diet - and my weight loss stalled for around 3 weeks until I raised it up to 1,700.. needless to say, I was pretty annoyed.

Anyway, I'm still very big. About 190+ pounds to lose ~ so my daily recommended calories from the app is around 1,900 but I manually lowered it to 1,700 just to shave off a little extra each week. But, most days I only eat around 1,400-1,600. It's not intentional deprivation, just some days I'm honestly not hungry enough for dinner or a snack.

I've lost 50+ so far over two years but I've really only been serious since May of this year. I started taking antidepressants and actually care about living now.

I kinda feel like I've swapped one eating disorder for another sometimes because I'm that person who meticulously measures everything on a little digital scale and won't eat something if I don't know what's in it. (Which is kinda rude at family gatherings ...)

AliceDark

Yes, it's USUALLY okay, to a point. It's not okay if it puts you at a too-extreme deficit, but if you're aiming for something like 1900 and you sometimes hit 1700, that's probably fine.

However...you mentioned feeling like this is headed toward an eating disorder, which is a huge red flag. If you have a history of restrictive EDs or disordered eating, or even if you feel like things are getting out of control now, it's a sign that you should tread very lightly when it comes to lowering your calories. Plus, hunger isn't always the best metric to go by when it comes to knowing how much you should be eating, because so many factors influence how hungry we feel. Please make sure you're adequately fueling your body.

Have you tried hitting 1900 consistently for a month or two? If that results in an acceptable rate of loss, that would be wonderful. The goal should be to eat as many calories as you can while still losing at a good rate.

You mentioned antidepressants; are you also seeing a therapist? (You don't need to answer publicly, btw. I have seasonal affective disorder and have had a lot of success with both antidepressants and therapy). If you are, please mention some of this to your team. If you're starting to restrict on occasion and are having some food-related stress, that's not a great place to be. If you can start to work through it now rather than later, that would be a good thing.

DebLaBounty

Keep tracking your calories and exercise in MFP. Print out your logs for the past 2 or 3 weeks. Go to your doctor, show him or her your logs, and ask whether what you're doing is okay for you. A lot of people in these forums recommend meticulous food weighing on a scale, but only you and your doctor can decide whether you're becoming obsessed rather than mindfully determined to reach your goals.