Just not that hungry

Boringfakename

I'm on day 10 of my effort to ditch that Quarantine 15 (20 actually!) and after a few days of hunger my body has adjusted to eating less and I'm just not as hungry. As such, I've adjusted my behavior to eat until I'm satiated and then stop.
Yesterday when I closed out my food diary for the day, I got a caution from the website that I'm not eating enough and it wouldn't let me complete the record for the day without some helpful suggestions for ways to come up to a higher calorie count. I'm guessing this is a subtle way to reach out to people with eating disorders? Maybe?
I'm not offended, but at the same time I feel that part of the weight loss paradigm is to retrain myself not eat if I'm not hungry. I have medical conditions that force me to do minimal exercise, so calorie counting is my best bet. I'm being careful to eat very healthy foods and balance my nutrition properly, I'm just having less of it. If I keep eating below my "calorie goal," will the website simply stop recording my food diary?

dralicephd

Ok, someone more experienced around here will certainly chime in with a better answer, but here's my take:

1.The calorie limits are set for your body to have proper functioning, not just to alert people with eating disorders. If you've entered your height, weight, and activity level correctly, it is pretty close to accurate for most people. Do what it says.

2. You need to make sure you are eating enough protein and fat for your body to function properly. All while getting in your 5 servings of fruits/veggies per day. If you are leaving calories "on the table", then you are probably missing something important in your nutrition.

3. In my previous attempts at weight loss, I have done exactly what you are doing and it always backfired. At some point, I would end up with several days where I just have insatiable "munchies" and then I end up overeating and falling back into bad patterns. I've been careful this time to just EAT the calories I've been given (and to eat part or all of my exercise calories back too!), and I'm having much more success than in the past.

Again, my imperfect thoughts. Others will chime in, I'm sure.

Lietchi

To complete the previous post: it's quite common to have a 'honeymoon' period when restricting food intake and /or overhauling the food you eat. Your lack of hunger probably won't stay that way.

Also, hunger isn't always proportionate to our bodies' needs, it's influenced by stress, fiber intake, macro distribution, hormonal fluctuations, activity level, etc. You don't mention your stats (M/F, weight, height, actual calorie intake) but if MFP isn't letting you close your diary your intake is REALLY low. For women the minimum for ensuring adequate nutrition on MFP is 1200, for men 1500 (lowest calorie goal it will give) and not closing your diary means several hundred calories lower than that! I can assure you that your body needs more food, whether you feel hungry or not.

PS: not being able to close your diary for the day doesn't mean it stops recording your food, closing your diary is just a 'gimmick' that gives you a 5 week prediction and posts on your newsfeed.

Boringfakename

Thanks for the good feedback everyone. I agree with you both about the importance of not going too low on the calories, and I've been more careful about that. On the morning of my Day 14 I went back and calculated my daily average for the past two weeks - 1167 per day for a goal of 1200. Not too bad! The chart I used didn't count in the exercise I've done (an average of 60-some calories a day) so there's that too. Also, which report includes the impact of exercise? Total calories or net calories?

I don't own a scale, so I plan to weigh myself at my friend's place this afternoon. Fingers crossed ...

Lietchi

Total calories is how much you ate. Net calories is how much you ate minus your exercise calories.

westrich20940

You shouldn't be eating 'below your calorie goal' though --- it's a goal, not a limit. If you used MFP to calculate your daily calorie goal, and you choose that you wanted to lose weight, it's got a deficit already figured in.

Also, once you feel more comfortable --- I'd also use a TDEE calculator to figure an estimate of your daily calorie needs as well as MFP. Anything you use to calculate how many calories you need will be an estimate and can differ quite a bit and it may take some trial and error to find what you need.

cwolfman13

Generally when people have this issue, eating "healthier" means they've cut out dietary fat to ridiculous levels and are consuming a lot of high volume low calorie foods like lots of vegetables and whatnot. Dietary fat is very essential to your health and can be consumed in low volume with substantial calories. Eat nuts, nut butters, use full fat dressings on your salad, cook with good oils, etc.