What do you do when you're just not hungry?

Oliveciabatta

For the past few days my diary hasn't let me save diary function as it thinks I've eaten too little. Today I'm supposed to have 900 calories left to use up and there is no way I'm hungry enough to eat that amount. I've not underestimated my intake by that much and I'm not losing weight. I just think my body has decided its quite happy on a much lower calorie amount than calculated. Should you force yourself to eat or save up the allowance for a future blow out, maybe a weekend takeaway?

Lietchi

It's okay to save up for high calorie occasions, but I would limit that to concrete plans you have in the near future, not just 'what if'. Chronically undereating is something you want to avoid to avoid health issues, especially since you mentioned in another thread that you have had eating disorder issues in the past.

'Forcing' yourself to eat more sounds very negative, but if you choose some calorie dense foods it should be easy to up your calorie intake without feeling overly full. Nuts and nut butters, full-fat dairy, avocados,... You are overweight, so you must have been eating more than 1200 calories to get to that point, before trying to lose weight. So it should be possible to up your calories to a higher level.

PS: I don't think your body is 'happy' on this low calorie amount, from the limited info I have I think your body might be stressed because you are undereating and holding onto water weight.

janejellyroll

Our bodies can't just "decide" to operate for free. Bodily functions take energy.

How long have you been consuming 900 calories a day and not losing weight? When you say you're not underestimating by "that much," how are you determining how much you ARE underestimating?

Is chronic lack of appetite a new thing for you or did it develop when you began restricting calories?

Oliveciabatta

I've always eaten very little. My partner jokes that I have never ever finished a plate of food in my life. I'm a picky eater with allergies on quite a limited food list. I'm naturally not someone who overeats buf also trained my body hard as an athelete in my younger years. Due to a stressful job and lockdown I'd gotten into a bad habit of grazing this year and with the gyms closed since March I've gained sweets and chocolate and cheese weight over summer.

Today I've had what feels like pretty substantial meals for me a grilled Gosh! veggie sausage, a tomato, a cup of steamed spinach and a poached egg for breakfast. 1 and 1/2 cup lentil soup for lunch. Some herbal teas, and a coke zero. No snacks today as haven't wanted any and my regular lunchtime walk/run route. I'm not intentionally undereating and might have a snack later. But thats not taking me anywhere what MFP thinks i should eat today.

janejellyroll

xtineart wrote: »

I've always eaten very little. My partner jokes that I have never ever finished a plate of food in my life. I'm a picky eater with allergies on quite a limited food list. I'm naturally not someone who overeats buf also trained my body hard as an athelete in my younger years. Due to a stressful job and lockdown I'd gotten into a bad habit of grazing this year and with the gyms closed since March I've gained sweets and chocolate and cheese weight over summer.

Today I've had what feels like pretty substantial meals for me a grilled Gosh! veggie sausage, a tomato, a cup of steamed spinach and a poached egg for breakfast. 1 and 1/2 cup lentil soup for lunch. Some herbal teas, and a coke zero. No snacks today as haven't wanted any and my regular lunchtime walk/run route. I'm not intentionally undereating and might have a snack later. But thats not taking me anywhere what MFP thinks i should eat today.

Well, it's not some goal that MFP somehow pulled out of thin air, it's based on mainstream, evidence-based science on calorie recommendations for general populations based on activity level. That doesn't mean that some people will be under or below it, but to be under by that much would be unusual. Generally I would recommend that anyone who has trouble eating enough to meet their nutritional needs should speak to a doctor about it. It sounds like you're drinking a lot of calorie-free beverages. Some people find these curb their hunger. It may be worth seeing if drinking caloric beverages makes a difference for you. It's impossible to tell exactly what "lentil soup" consists of, but there is also the possibility that your diet is very low fat. Many people find that adding fat to things like vegetables while cooking them helps get more calories in their diet without filling them up too much.

But if you like things like cheese and chocolate and sweets, why not include some of those in your daily plan? Those are all calorie dense foods.

This is all, of course, based on the assumption that you truly are underconsuming. Since you've said you already think you're underestimating your intake to some extent, it's hard to know if this is a real issue or just a perception of underconsumption.

Oliveciabatta

Thanks I'm conscious of adding fat to my diet as that was what made me gain the weight I now want to lose, snacking on cheese was my big weakness. I'm currently bang on the macros set per day by MFP and I'm sure I'm overestimating rather than underestimating as I find i have to put in things like 'one carrot'🥕 when I've actually just grated a little of one over my salad or 'one red pepper ' even though its only a slice of one diced up, so all these little things will add up and like I said above I can never clear a plate, so what I put out i rarely eat in full.

When I say not hungry I do genuinely mean actually not hungry. That looking in the fridge then just thinking nah 🤔 feeling.

Maybe I genuinely ate less than 1200 before I started counting as only really ate when hungry or snacking from boredom and stress.

That said I have just had a bar of chocolate 🍫 just to have something.

AnnPT77

xtineart wrote: »

Thanks I'm conscious of adding fat to my diet as that was what made me gain the weight I now want to lose, snacking on cheese was my big weakness. I'm currently bang on the macros set per day by MFP and I'm sure I'm overestimating rather than underestimating as I find i have to put in things like 'one carrot'🥕 when I've actually just grated a little of one over my salad or 'one red pepper ' even though its only a slice of one diced up, so all these little things will add up and like I said above I can never clear a plate, so what I put out i rarely eat in full.

When I say not hungry I do genuinely mean actually not hungry. That looking in the fridge then just thinking nah 🤔 feeling.

Maybe I genuinely ate less than 1200 before I started counting as only really ate when hungry or snacking from boredom and stress.

That said I have just had a bar of chocolate 🍫 just to have something.

If you're "bang on the macros" but not hitting calories, then I'm thinking you're measuring macro compliance based on hitting the percentages. If that's true, recognize that your real life nutritional needs are not percentage based, the percents are just a way of backing into approximate adequate actual amounts.

For example, imagine that I figure (making up round numbers for examples) I need 100g of protein, and that's 20% of my calorie goal of 2000, but I only eat 1000 calories. Now, 50g of protein is 20% of my calories . . . but my body actually still needs the 100g (which is 40% of the very low calories). Sticking to the percentages, but getting crazy-low calories (not saying you're doing that), can be a quick route to under-nutrition, in that way.

I'm wondering how you're getting to the low calorie number. Are you adding exercise, or synching a fitness tracker? That could be another source of inaccuracy.

But, generally, dramatically underconsuming calories (underfueling), if that's what's actually happening, is a bad plan, in terms of health risks. Weight loss rate is the best indicator of underconsumption (or not), but that's only true when averaged over quite a number of weeks. In shorter spans, water weight can confuse scale results, and odd water retention can be triggered in some people by the stress of undereating. Hunger is not a good guide (something I know from personal negative experience).

If someone's trying to lose weight, but struggling to eat a minimally adequate number of calories (and nutrition), a thing we often wonder around here is how they reached the point of having excess weight in the first place: It requires excess calories to have become overweight. If your calorie needs are dramatically lower than for other people similar to you, then seeing your doctor would be a really good plan. It can happen, but it's . . . unusual, by definition.