"You are not eating enough"

Fedup23

I have to ask this question of people that have been here a long time. I see in thread after thread. Poster says they are gaining weight.. but only eat 1200 cals a day (or some other variation of low calories). Then we get a run of people telling them they arent eating enough. Is this truly a symptom of not eating enough?.. you GAIN weight? I guess I cant wrap my head around it.

I suppose I can see in a few extreme cases where if you have eaten 800 calories for a year THEN move to 1200 , you might gain weight initially, but I am seeing overweight people "diagnosed" with not eating enough. I can see cautioning people that eventually not eating enough will cause them weight loss problems.. but I would think those cases are few and far between..and it would take a prolonged lack of calories to even produces this kind of phenomenon... am I missing something?

What gives..

Please dont bombard me with snarky comments.. Im really trying to understand the prevalence of "not eating enough". :-)

HOPEPATRICK74

My basic knowledge of this comes from my son. He has told me that if I am not eating enough my metobolism will stop working and I will stop losing weight and start gaining weight. So With my exercise, which granted isn't a lot. I have usually about 1400 - 1500 calories a day alotted to me, of which I eat about 1250. So I have some calories "banked". I have found in the past that as long as I am eating small meals during the day, I feel better and have more energy and I have lost more.

So basically I guess, you have to eat to lose. I hope this helps a little bit.

Hildy_J

I think it's two separate issues:

Poster says they are gaining weight.. but only eat 1200 cals a day (or some other variation of low calories).

Those people are usually in denial about their food intake (don't log, log incorrectly).

Then we get a run of people telling them they arent eating enough. Is this truly a symptom of not eating enough?.. you GAIN weight?

That's for people who are having WAY too few calories for their systems, be it 1200 or whatever, and are struggling. They're going to either quit and give in to the cravings or (if it's a VLCD) become ill. You need a deficit to lose but it doesn't have to be huge. Small deficit much better.

I have checked through my post for snark. I can't see any - but I usually slip some into the sub-text, so I apologise in advance.

samammay

Basically you have a BMR - the amount of calories a day your body needs to live. If you consume less than your BMR, your body will start conserving energy thus lowering your BMR (and damaging your body in the process). At that point, the same calories you were consuming becomes less of a defict and can actually become a positive number.

In a nutshell.

alisonlynn1976

Sometimes when people eat too little, they don't have the energy to exercise much or at all. When they begin eating enough to fuel harder workouts, the overall calorie deficit including diet and exercise increases.

Sometimes people on low-calorie diets can't take it anymore and binge. When this happens enough times, it creates an overall calorie surplus leading to weight gain even when they're sticking to low calories some days. If they increase their calories to a more reasonable level that is still at a small deficit, they will no longer feel compelled to binge, will really stick to the recommended calories every day, and will gradually lose weight.

I think those are the most common reasons that eating more works. The stuff about screwing up your metabolism by not eating enough is largely overblown, unless people are literally starving themselves for days in a row.

jessicaallen1996

you have to eat to suit your body and movemnet levels. for me i am lightly active because i am a student and i have a part time job. i am supposed to eat 1810 calories a day, i find that pretty hard to eat that many calories. the reason you need to eat lets say 1200 + calories a day is so your metabolism doesnt shut down it goes into starvation mode and then the food you eat gets turned into fat so that the metabolism can be protected.

auddii

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1071202-why-you-gain-weight-if-you-eat-more-than-your-cut

Fedup23

I have checked through my post for snark. I can't see any - but I usually slip some into the sub-text, so I apologise in advance.

haha.. I guess I should have left that line out.. Ive seen some people get lambasted for simple questions.. I felt no "snark".

SideSteel

Here is my current opinion.

I believe the majority of times that someone claims to eat very little and they are not losing weight, the following things may be occurring:

1) They aren't tracking accurately.
2) They aren't using a food scale which relates to 1).
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/872212-you-re-probably-eating-more-than-you-think

3) Fluid weight may be masking fat loss whether it's due to stress or due to them recently beginning a resistance training program concurrent with the energy deficit.

4) Also relating to tracking, they may have poor adherence.

Finally I think that in some cases, typically with smaller females (especially ones who lost a bunch of weight already), they just have much lower energy requirements so the deficit they are attempting to create is small to begin with. Minor errors in tracking energy intake (or energy expenditure) can easily erase this deficit.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

jacksonpt

I think it's two separate issues:

Poster says they are gaining weight.. but only eat 1200 cals a day (or some other variation of low calories).

Those people are usually in denial about their food intake (don't log, log incorrectly).

Then we get a run of people telling them they arent eating enough. Is this truly a symptom of not eating enough?.. you GAIN weight?

That's for people who are having WAY too few calories. They're going to either quit and give in to the cravings or become ill. You need a deficit to lose but it doesn't have to be huge. Small deficit much better.

I have checked through my post for snark. I can't see any - but I usually slip some into the sub-text, so I apologise in advance.

Agreed.

With the first point, people are either A) ignorant about how much they are actually eating because they eat out a lot and/or don't weight/measure food, or restricting themselves so much that they binge, and the binging results in a calorie surplus.

With the second point, WAY too few cals AND too few cals for a LONG time. As in months.

jacksonpt

Here is my current opinion.

I believe the majority of times that someone claims to eat very little and they are not losing weight, the following things may be occurring:

1) They aren't tracking accurately.
2) They aren't using a food scale which relates to 1).
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/872212-you-re-probably-eating-more-than-you-think

3) Fluid weight may be masking fat loss whether it's due to stress or due to them recently beginning a resistance training program concurrent with the energy deficit.

4) Also relating to tracking, they may have poor adherence.

Finally I think that in some cases, typically with smaller females (especially ones who lost a bunch of weight already), they just have much lower energy requirements so the deficit they are attempting to create is small to begin with.

Also agreed.

SailorKnightWing

Eating fewer calories than your body needs to function (1200 is the general number given) will cause your body to use it's existing calories more stingily, slowing- but not stopping- your weight loss. This is one definition of the often misused term "starvation mode." Weight gain happens at this point when you've trained your body to use it's own calories not just from fat but also muscle and bone, but then suddenly eat more than it's used to (usually from miscalculating calorie intake). The body goes "OMG FOOD FINALLY better store that stuff NOW before it's too late!" Bodies can be such drama queens.

This is only the case when you've been eating too few calories for a long time, though. Like, months.

Hildy_J

I felt no "snark".

Then you obviously didn't deserve any! Only the snarky get the snark. They don't take it very well, I find.

SoDamnHungry

I believe your metabolism will slow if you eat very low amounts for a long period of time. I don't, however, believe that you'll gain weight unless, like you said, you've been eating so low for such a long time that finally eating a normal amount causes you to gain.

TeaBea

I think it's two separate issues:

Poster says they are gaining weight.. but only eat 1200 cals a day (or some other variation of low calories).

Those people are usually in denial about their food intake (don't log, log incorrectly).

Then we get a run of people telling them they arent eating enough. Is this truly a symptom of not eating enough?.. you GAIN weight?

That's for people who are having WAY too few calories. They're going to either quit and give in to the cravings or become ill. You need a deficit to lose but it doesn't have to be huge. Small deficit much better.

I have checked through my post for snark. I can't see any - but I usually slip some into the sub-text, so I apologise in advance.

Agreed.

With the first point, people are either A) ignorant about how much they are actually eating because they eat out a lot and/or don't weight/measure food, or restricting themselves so much that they binge, and the binging results in a calorie surplus.

With the second point, WAY too few cals AND too few cals for a LONG time. As in months.

I agree with this completely, but want to add - sometimes when people think eating 1500 calories "makes them gain weight" .... it's 1 weigh-in.... which could have any number of reasons (sodium, TOM, whatever) ..... or the reverse "I can't lose anything unless I'm at or below 1000" ...... often the weight loss is not zero .... it's just as big a number as they want to see.....well, close to goal, it's not going to be a big number.

bcattoes

Is this truly a symptom of not eating enough?.. you GAIN weight? I guess I cant wrap my head around it.

It's a symptom of LONG TERM undereating. Your metabolic rate will slow so because it's not getting enough calories to run at the level it was. People refer to this as "starvation mode" but "survival mode" might be a better term. Your body is leanring to survive on too few calories.

IF this has happened, you should expect to gain weight when you eat more until your body has readjusted your metabolic rate.

The problem comes from people saying silly things like "your deficit is too large for weight loss" or "you are gaining because you are eating below your BMR". And, obviously, those things are impossible. If, indeed, you have really been eating too little, your body has adjusted your BMR because you were eating too little is what really happened.

But, as someone above said, often it is overeating. Either by not logging correctly, or neglecting to log the 8000 calorie weekend binge.

TINAHUNTER1969

You may have noticed when you fill in your food diary if you don't eat enough calories it tells you at the bottom of the page that you are not eating enough and that your body could go into starvation mode which slows the weight loss down.

MFP works out your calories based on your weight, the type of job you do i.e. how active you are throughout the day and the amount of exercise you do each week. It takes all this information and adds it to how much you say you want to lose each week. It then works your calories out for you.

I have been sticking to MPF calories and eat back most of my exercise calories and losing weight.

There is no quick fix to losing weight (not healthily anyway). If you want to lose slow and steady follow what MFP tells you.

Good luck x

JessiMae8106

There could be a couple reasons... 1. They don't spread there meals out. You need to eat about 5-6 times a day. 3 meals and 2 or 3 snacks. If you wait to eat until you're hungry, you're body goes into starvation mode and with keep everything and store it as fat because it thinks that its not going to eat again for awhile. If that makes any sense 2. Exercise! Just because you are on a low calorie diet, doesn't mean you are automatically going to lose weight. If you don't get up and move you're metabolism is going to stay low and not burn any fat. If you eat throughout the whole day, healthy!, and go for a walk or something, I don't see any reason someone should be gaining weight. I hope this helped and I did't bebble too much lol

bcattoes

There could be a couple reasons... 1. They don't spread there meals out. You need to eat about 5-6 times a day. 3 meals and 2 or 3 snacks. If you wait to eat until you're hungry, you're body goes into starvation mode and with keep everything and store it as fat because it thinks that its not going to eat again for awhile. If that makes any sense 2. Exercise! Just because you are on a low calorie diet, doesn't mean you are automatically going to lose weight. If you don't get up and move you're metabolism is going to stay low and not burn any fat. If you eat throughout the whole day, healthy!, and go for a walk or something, I don't see any reason someone should be gaining weight. I hope this helped and I did't bebble too much lol

Nope, none of that is true. But you should still exercise!!

KeairaSedai

Let me add, just on a separate notion to all of the above.. 1200 calories is generally the minimum you need to eat to get enough nutritients your body needs. So not just carbs, proteins, and fats but also the vitamins and minerals. If you, and only if you consistently for a longer period of time eat largely below 1200 calories you usually don't get all the vitamins and minerals you need which can greatly mess with physical processes, some of which may be related to weight loss.

However, I think in most cases on here, it truly is just a problem of false logging, just to hit the 1200 mark. Whilst if the mark was say 1400 - 1500, they don't feel the need to cheat, log more accurately and thus lose weight, instead of secretly eating 16-1700 or more..

TeaBea

There could be a couple reasons... 1. They don't spread there meals out. You need to eat about 5-6 times a day. 3 meals and 2 or 3 snacks. If you wait to eat until you're hungry, you're body goes into starvation mode and with keep everything and store it as fat because it thinks that its not going to eat again for awhile. If that makes any sense 2. Exercise! Just because you are on a low calorie diet, doesn't mean you are automatically going to lose weight. If you don't get up and move you're metabolism is going to stay low and not burn any fat. If you eat throughout the whole day, healthy!, and go for a walk or something, I don't see any reason someone should be gaining weight. I hope this helped and I did't bebble too much lol

1. No ...1 meal, 5 meals ... it doesn't matter. Starvation mode .....waaaaay over blown (several months, sure I believe it's possible, 1 day ...no way). But you are right, if you wait too long and are famished, there might be a tendency to over eat

2. No ..... a low calorie diet is all you need to lose weight. Exercise is for FITNESS. Everyone who is capable (of exercise) should exercise while dieting. Resistance training will help you maintain muscle mass.

KeairaSedai

There could be a couple reasons... 1. They don't spread there meals out. You need to eat about 5-6 times a day. 3 meals and 2 or 3 snacks. If you wait to eat until you're hungry, you're body goes into starvation mode and with keep everything and store it as fat because it thinks that its not going to eat again for awhile. If that makes any sense 2. Exercise! Just because you are on a low calorie diet, doesn't mean you are automatically going to lose weight. If you don't get up and move you're metabolism is going to stay low and not burn any fat. If you eat throughout the whole day, healthy!, and go for a walk or something, I don't see any reason someone should be gaining weight. I hope this helped and I did't bebble too much lol

Nope, none of that is true. But you should still exercise!!

Agreed. It's good advise to eat regularly and exercise, but the above is not necessarily true. Because if you spread your meals out, you are likely to be less hungry, and less likely to suddenly eat too much. Not being hungry helps in weight loss! Exercising either slightly increases your deficit or allows you to eat that bit extra. Or, if you cheat in your logging, it may be just the calories you need to keep the original deficit.

But.. even if you were to eat just once a day (and manage that somehow) and never exercise, but still keep to the calorie goal / deficit. You will still lose weight. Eating once a day does not put you in starvation mode.

ladynocturne

The main problem is really that when you start to eat below your BMR, your brain cannot convert fat stores into energy, and it uses a lot of calories everyday. So where does it get it's energy from? Your lean muscle mass.

While losing *some* muscle is normal in the weight loss process, under feeding can lead to a large amount lost. When you lose a lot of lean muscle mass, your metabolism suffers, you then maintain your new weight on much fewer calories than a normal person of the same height and weight.

Just be aware that just because the scale says you're losing weight, it doesn't mean it's fat.

It's really heartbreaking when people have to come back for support after reaching their goal weights from starving themselves, only to have to put weight back on to repair their poor bodies.

1princesswarrior

The term starvation mode should be crossed out and replaced with adaptive thermogenisis. Which has already been defined here, occurs when your body holds onto everything it gets due to long periods of time on not enough calories. I can't define how long the periods of time are or what is not enough calories because there are too many variables for each individual - sex, age, weight, height, history, etc.

I can speak from personal experience where I didn't gain at 1200 calories but I quit losing and had some other unpleasant side effects because my body couldn't keep up with the demands I was putting on it. Over a couple of months I slowly added calories and the weight started dropping off again. I also religiously weigh and measure all of my food, even when I do occassionally binge I count that. But since I started eating right for me I haven't had any binging issues either.

Fedup23

There could be a couple reasons... 1. They don't spread there meals out. You need to eat about 5-6 times a day. 3 meals and 2 or 3 snacks. If you wait to eat until you're hungry, you're body goes into starvation mode and with keep everything and store it as fat because it thinks that its not going to eat again for awhile. If that makes any sense

My original post was kind of pointed at advice like this.. Starvation mode by just waiting until you are hungry to eat? Even in my limited knowledge , I KNOW this is way off base. Sorry if this sounds bad, but just throwing out misinformation like this without any merit behind it is the worst part about trying to slogging thru the information around here.

Im really sorry, but I dont want people freaking out over having a hunger pang. I know your heart is in the right place, but please try to give advice from a strong base of knowledge.

I think this is where the "You arent eating enough" brigade comes from after a poster has gained 1 pound last week. Too much misinformation being passed without understanding it or verifying fact from myth.

I know everyone wants to help each other.. but I wish there was a way to pinpoint the really knowledgeable people from the people just repeating what they might have read once.

By the way.. YES.. exercise is good.. I think we all know that one to be a fact. (as long as you arent medically restricted from it)

MelRC117

There could be a couple reasons... 1. They don't spread there meals out. You need to eat about 5-6 times a day. 3 meals and 2 or 3 snacks. If you wait to eat until you're hungry, you're body goes into starvation mode and with keep everything and store it as fat because it thinks that its not going to eat again for awhile. If that makes any sense 2. Exercise! Just because you are on a low calorie diet, doesn't mean you are automatically going to lose weight. If you don't get up and move you're metabolism is going to stay low and not burn any fat. If you eat throughout the whole day, healthy!, and go for a walk or something, I don't see any reason someone should be gaining weight. I hope this helped and I did't bebble too much lol

Incorrect. Especially "Just because you are on a low calorie diet, doesn't mean you are automatically going to lose weight". Yes, actually if you eat less calories than you need to maintain your weight, you will lose. Exercise enhances weight loss and shapes your body.
(Points down to ticker) I didn't do much exercise to lose that weight. Let's be honest...ZERO. I was able to get outside more during summer but a majority of that weight loss was actually BEFORE spring came this year.

cingle87

There could be a couple reasons... 1. They don't spread there meals out. You need to eat about 5-6 times a day. 3 meals and 2 or 3 snacks. If you wait to eat until you're hungry, you're body goes into starvation mode and with keep everything and store it as fat because it thinks that its not going to eat again for awhile. If that makes any sense 2. Exercise! Just because you are on a low calorie diet, doesn't mean you are automatically going to lose weight. If you don't get up and move you're metabolism is going to stay low and not burn any fat. If you eat throughout the whole day, healthy!, and go for a walk or something, I don't see any reason someone should be gaining weight. I hope this helped and I did't bebble too much lol

So much wrong it hurts to read, meal timings have zero affect on weight lost, I could have all my 1900 calories in one meal if I wanted to and I would still lose the same. The only advantage of eating regularly for SOME people it avoids them from being hungry all the time so they will less likely grab something that doesn't fit into their allowence of calories. You're body will not go into starvation mode after a few hours of not eating, if that was true every time we went to sleep we would all be in starvation mode.

You can lose weight without doing any exercise whats so ever, exercise is fitness, increase strength, endurance etc.

SezxyStef

There could be a couple reasons... 1. They don't spread there meals out. You need to eat about 5-6 times a day. 3 meals and 2 or 3 snacks. If you wait to eat until you're hungry, you're body goes into starvation mode and with keep everything and store it as fat because it thinks that its not going to eat again for awhile. If that makes any sense

My original post was kind of pointed at advice like this.. Starvation mode by just waiting until you are hungry to eat? Even in my limited knowledge , I KNOW this is way off base. Sorry if this sounds bad, but just throwing out misinformation like this without any merit behind it is the worst part about trying to slogging thru the information around here.

Im really sorry, but I dont want people freaking out over having a hunger pang. I know your heart is in the right place, but please try to give advice from a strong base of knowledge.

I think this is where the "You arent eating enough" brigade comes from after a poster has gained 1 pound last week. Too much misinformation being passed without understanding it or verifying fact from myth.

I know everyone wants to help each other.. but I wish there was a way to pinpoint the really knowledgeable people from the people just repeating what they might have read once.

By the way.. YES.. exercise is good.. I think we all know that one to be a fact. (as long as you arent medically restricted from it)

Agreed...I saw a post where the OP was complaining about not losing and one of the responses was no fats/oil limit protien etc...I was like really????? The misinformation here is rampant and I like you have limited knowledge myself but have friend people and join groups who do have the knowledge and I listen to them...ie Sara and Sidesteel...who posted here anyway.

Angie2822

Your BMR - the amount of calories a day your body needs to live. If you consume less than your BMR, your body will start conserving energy thus lowering your BMR (and damaging your body in the process). At that point, the same calories you were consuming becomes less of a defict and can actually become a positive number.

Fedup23

Your BMR - the amount of calories a day your body needs to live. If you consume less than your BMR, your body will start conserving energy thus lowering your BMR (and damaging your body in the process). At that point, the same calories you were consuming becomes less of a defict and can actually become a positive number.

I understand that to be the LONG term danger.. but people who havent lost weight in 2 weeks are certainly not all in this "starvation mode" , they cant be, it doesnt make sense.. but sure as the sun rises.. everyone that posts that they have gained weight last week while eating at a deficit are bombarded by "you arent eating enough".

I just wanted to be clear in my mind that this wasnt the case.

I guess what I have learned is that ANY question will be bombarded by misinformation. LOL.. oh well.