Net calories is in the minus

Hey guys.

So it’s nearly bedtime and my net calories is -75. I have eaten 598 calories today, burned 673 calories (Walked 16.5km, 21k steps).

This isn’t enough food for one day is it? What can I eat now that would be substantial?

Replies

  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
    edited January 2019
    Assuming you are female, you should be eating at least 1200 calories after exercise. You are seriously undereating and going to have some serious repercussions eventually.

    As for what you could eat now - ice cream or peanut butter come to mind.
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  • MileHigh4Wheeler
    MileHigh4Wheeler Posts: 67 Member
    1200 calories, as already stated, is the normal minimum for a woman but a lot also depends on your body type and vitals. For example, MFP recommends at least 2,200 calories for me but I've found that even with weight training 4-5 days a week that is too much and I'll gain so my dietitian has modified that number based on ALL the factors that go into determining minimum calorie requirements. Now my calorie needs change greatly depending on which activity I'm doing.

    All that being said, 600 calories seems like starvation. Your body will respond kindly at first and you'll lose weight but then your body, a highly efficient machine, will adapt quickly (and hopefully before you do any damage) and then you'll start bouncing around on weight all over the place over the course of a week.

    Once I found my ideal numbers through my own experience and the advice of professionals I have completely stabilized and no longer bounce around weight more than a pound here or there due to water weight.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    nicdddd wrote: »
    Hey guys.

    So it’s nearly bedtime and my net calories is -75. I have eaten 598 calories today, burned 673 calories (Walked 16.5km, 21k steps).

    This isn’t enough food for one day is it? What can I eat now that would be substantial?

    No, not even close.

  • Teabythesea_
    Teabythesea_ Posts: 559 Member
    As others have stated, you need to eat more. What does MFP give you when you input your stats? You should be eating at least that, eating back exercise calories, and adjusting as needed after assessing your progress for a few weeks.
  • concordancia
    concordancia Posts: 5,320 Member
    nicdddd wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    One day isn't a big deal, but that's nowhere near enough calories...that would basically be the same thing as you eating nothing at all. You need to plan your days better. At minimum you should be getting 1200 calories (assuming you're female), and that is for sedentary. If you're exercising, you need more. If you're regularly getting in 21K steps, you need to be eating way more...

    1200 calories plus the 590 calories I’ve already eaten?

    1200 calories plus those you burned in exercise.
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
    nicdddd wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    One day isn't a big deal, but that's nowhere near enough calories...that would basically be the same thing as you eating nothing at all. You need to plan your days better. At minimum you should be getting 1200 calories (assuming you're female), and that is for sedentary. If you're exercising, you need more. If you're regularly getting in 21K steps, you need to be eating way more...

    1200 calories plus the 590 calories I’ve already eaten?

    1200 + the 673 cals you said you burned during exercise.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    nicdddd wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    One day isn't a big deal, but that's nowhere near enough calories...that would basically be the same thing as you eating nothing at all. You need to plan your days better. At minimum you should be getting 1200 calories (assuming you're female), and that is for sedentary. If you're exercising, you need more. If you're regularly getting in 21K steps, you need to be eating way more...

    1200 calories plus the 590 calories I’ve already eaten?

    If you're regularly getting in 21K steps, you should probably be more like 1600-1800 total calories. 1200 net calories is the minimum recommendation for a female and would assume a sedentary lifestyle...ie eat 1200 calories with no exercise and you'd still lose weight. MFP is designed to give you additional calories to consume to account for exercise after you log it...so 1200 + 673 = 1,873 total calories to eat...though I would leave some margin for estimation error in exercise calories and logging errors.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    Peanut butter is your friend
  • Crafty_camper123
    Crafty_camper123 Posts: 1,440 Member
    nicdddd wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    One day isn't a big deal, but that's nowhere near enough calories...that would basically be the same thing as you eating nothing at all. You need to plan your days better. At minimum you should be getting 1200 calories (assuming you're female), and that is for sedentary. If you're exercising, you need more. If you're regularly getting in 21K steps, you need to be eating way more...

    1200 calories plus the 590 calories I’ve already eaten?

    You want to eat a minumum of 1200 to start with. Then, if you excercise you will want to eat some of those back. Some people eat it all back, some people eat half back. (Depending on thier hunger levels and rate of loss) So, if you ate 1200 calories and earned 600 through excersise calories, your new food goal would be 1800 total if you eat them all. But your net intake would be 1200.

    I'm hoping this wasn't intentional to eat this low? I have accidentally netted low before myself. When this happens I usually reach for a spoon full of peanut butter, or a bowl of ice cream. Basically it's a great excuse to treat myself. lol. One or two low net days wont hurt. But if it becomes a frequent occurance, bad things will happen to your body. Things like hair loss, low energy, poor concentration and memory, loss of period are just a few of the things I can think of off the top of my head.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    If you are regularly getting in 21K steps, you would want to redo your profile and say you are active.

    How did you only eat 600 calories? No big deal for today, but is it something you are doing regularly?
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    Doing this for one day isn't going to hurt you very much, but you should absolutely not continue eating so few calories. You have effectively not given your body any energy to carry out its necessary metabolic processes. This is not a healthy way to lose weight. You may feel tired, hungry, or unwell tomorrow from not eating enough today.

    You need to eat a minimum of 1200 calories a day plus whatever you burned in exercise. Depending on your stats, 1200 may still be too low for you. Set MFP for a pace of weight loss that's reasonable for your stats and goals, and eat that number of calories each day.