Not eating enough calories...

ShaoTrommashere

This is bizarre...wonder if this has ever happened to anyone else.

I'm trying to lose 20-30lbs. I looked at MFP and it says I should be eating 1200 calories a day just because of my job (waitress at a busy sports bar for at least 8-10 hours combined with 2.5 if not more hours per day of dedicated cardio exercise.) The first few days of doing food entry, I was going over by 100-400 calories. Now, I am constantly under by at least 200 calories. I'm not really stopping myself from eating anything...I'm just not eating bad things.

I cannot eat while at work outside of stuff I can buy directly from them. I usually don't eat until about 10-11pm and it's something very quick like a few wings or not even half of a small portion of potato wedges or fries with a bit of melted cheese. I'm allowed to bring in a water bottle filled with water only, but I'm allowed to get garnishes (lemon, limes, oranges) from the bar to flavor the water.

I've found good, healthy, and filling snacks (2.5 C of popcorn FTW as well as a huge bowl of corn flakes with raisins) and I only eat to satiate hunger...but now I'm under my calorie limit by a lot. Can I still lose weight on less than 1200 calories a day, or will my body naturally kick in and keep my weight loss to a minimum due to "starvation mode"?

Qski

You can try adding healthy high calorie and good fat foods to up your calories - like nuts and avocado.
Also try to swap anything that you have been having that is a low fat version with a full fat one. (Especially if there are things you are having you don't like too much)
If you have sandwiches or wraps add extra toppings that are higher in calories than fresh salad vegetables.

Re-assess, what you are thinking of as 'bad things' that you have stopped eating some of it may not be as bad as you think.

Azurite27

Pretty much what Qski said. I'm also at a 1200 goal. If i'm a little under my goal for the day I grab 1/4 cup of unsalted sunflower seeds. Its an easy and delicious 190 calories but not too filling. Adding cheeses has helped me too.

lucan07

You can certainly lose weight on less than 1200 nett calories a day I have been and continue to lose around 3lbs a week on less than 1200 calories nett per day 30lb in ten weeks, it depends on the individual, when I went to low my body let me know and I decreased the exercise my average nett is 1000 calories and no starvation mode!

rahlpn

You said "I'm just not eating bad things" then continued to the next paragraph saying "I eat a couple wings or some potato wedges with melted cheese" :huh: I'm cofused. Why not pre plan your food and bring a quick bite to work. I'm not gonna lecture you about eating less than 1200cals a day like a lot of people do on here but I will say that's probably not enough. I am a nurse and work at a busy clinic but I eat about 1500 cals a day (I tried going up to 16-1700 but my weight loss stalled) and I'm able to get in quick snacks here and there. I usually have a packet of oatmeal and a hard boiled egg for breakfast (I pre make the eggs and refrigerate them so I can just grab them in the morning). for snacks I have bananas, nutri grain bars or granola bars (protein bars are usually decent calorie and really quick to eat) and greek yogurt, for lunch it's either a Smart Ones meal or Progresso Lite soup or a salad or leftovers I brought, you could also do sandwiches or wraps. It's very easy for me to reach 1500 calories a day, if not I tweak my portions, I'll have 1.5 cups milk in my protein shake vs 1 cup or increase my veggies or use toppings like lite salad dressing or sour cream on my food to add extra calories. Nuts are also a good calories packed snack that you can just eat by the handful and easily get up to your limit.

leemchisholm

It takes 36+ hours for your body to go into starvation mode so I very much doubt you'll ever go into it.

On the contrary, eating less than 1200 is very dangerous. It's literally crash dieting and will do all sorts of bad things to your metabolism. Please research 'Metabolic Damage', and please make sure to eat more than 1200.

You could just have one meal a day. Meal timing isn't important (on the whole). Just make sure you get your calories in for the day, in one shape or another.

ShaoTrommashere

You said "I'm just not eating bad things" then continued to the next paragraph saying "I eat a couple wings or some potato wedges with melted cheese" :huh: I'm cofused. Why not pre plan your food and bring a quick bite to work. I'm not gonna lecture you about eating less than 1200cals a day like a lot of people do on here but I will say that's probably not enough. I am a nurse and work at a busy clinic but I eat about 1500 cals a day (I tried going up to 16-1700 but my weight loss stalled) and I'm able to get in quick snacks here and there. I usually have a packet of oatmeal and a hard boiled egg for breakfast (I pre make the eggs and refrigerate them so I can just grab them in the morning). for snacks I have bananas, nutri grain bars or granola bars (protein bars are usually decent calorie and really quick to eat) and greek yogurt, for lunch it's either a Smart Ones meal or Progresso Lite soup or a salad or leftovers I brought, you could also do sandwiches or wraps. It's very easy for me to reach 1500 calories a day, if not I tweak my portions, I'll have 1.5 cups milk in my protein shake vs 1 cup or increase my veggies or use toppings like lite salad dressing or sour cream on my food to add extra calories. Nuts are also a good calories packed snack that you can just eat by the handful and easily get up to your limit.

I meant that by I'm not maxing out my calories by gorging on chocolate and fried foods all day. The salads (Grilled chicken w/o crutons and dressing is 430 calories) have more calories in them than 5 plain wings without sauce (330 calories) or a half portion of potato wedges with cheese (195 calories). A full regular portion of PWs w/ cheese is 390 calories.

As I said before, I cannot bring in any outside food; I'm not even allowed to bring a purse in as there's nowhere to put it. I can't even sneak out to my car for a "smoke break" because we aren't allowed to smoke while at work and we have no built in breaks. Even if I sneak in small things, a couple of granola bars aren't going to give me enough calories to make it to 1200.

I've started to eat "Ants on a Log" to give me a calorie bump as well as subbing out my afternoon PB&J for a grilled cheese. I'm much closer; I'm only 50-125 calories off from 1200, but I've purged my house of high calorie foods, so it looks like I might have to have some good cheeses and some full fat snacks hanging around.