Help me understand...

sharmonesq

Ok, I did a really good job of counting my calories for a while. MFP tells me to eat 1200 cals. I manually set my goal at 1100, not because I want to go under 1200, but because I am terrible with portions and while I try to weigh at home, there are usually times during the day that I can't (like at work or eating out) and I'm sure that I am underestimating. Basically, I believe that I was eating right at or a little over 1200 cals per day. Anyway, about a week ago I started feeling really hungry and craving food all the time. I also wasn't loosing weight. I basically just gave in (not really bad foods all the time, just larger portions and a few splurges) and was going over my calories (pretty substantially) for about a week. I didn't log it all in because I was so frustrated, but trust me, I KNOW I went over. Anyway, I expected to have gained a lot of weight this morning when I weighed in, but I was exactly the same. Today I wasn't hungry and went back to my better habits, but my question is this...does this indicate that I need to up my calories? I mean, I started a workout program today so I am upping my calories a little anyway to account for the exercise program, but should I also up my base?

andreahanlon

I can't totally answer your question, but from my weight loss experience, I know this: give your body what it needs and you will succeed. If you are hungry, that's a sign that your body needs to eat! Starving yourself is one of the worst things you can do. You did the right thing by eating when you were hungry. I would shoot for at least 1200 and if you find that you haven't eaten all your calories, but you feel satistied, then maybe you did have more calories than you thought, and you could choose not to eat those extra calories. If you have eaten all of your calories, but are really hungry, by all means eat! Listen to your body.

GiGi76

You should never go below 1200 calories... you can put your body into stravation mode this way!!! Are you working out??? If so you need to be eating more than 1200 calories!!! I have about 1400-1600 calories a day and have been losing about 1lb a week!!!

Dawn_2013

Agreed, if I have a hungry day or so (and dont eat a bit extra) I stall with weight loss, but if I eat just a bit more (150 - 200 cals) I start losing weight again. This is about listening to your body! If you had not eaten substantially over, you would likely have seen weight loss...this has been true for me :flowerforyou:

KimSchnizleinWECHANGED

I customized my base after talking to my Dr. and doing some research on calculating the BMR. I ended up at just over 1500 cals (Dr. said 1800), and that's based on my LBM number not my BMI. Anyway ... This works for me. MFP had also set my cals/day at 1200 based on how much weight I said I wanted to lose/wk. I usually never eat my exercise cals. So I guess my answer would be that you might want to calculate how many cals you should be eating based on a better method ... Then decide if that's what you want. If you need help just send me a message.

G_in_Austin

One week of a few splurges and some larger portions isn't going to add on a lot of weight, especially if you're baseline was only 1200 cals. One pound of body fat is about 3500 calories. You'd have to overeat 3500 calories in one week to gain just one pound of body fat. That's a lot for one week. Speaking for myself, the pounds I gained were from over-eating for months.

And remember that your body weight is going to vary throughout the day by maybe even a couple pounds. Although I'm tempted to weigh-in every day (and sometimes I do), I try to weigh-in only once a week (at roughly the same time of day) to avoid the daily rollercoaster of watching the scale.

I'm not a nutritionist, but I think if you kept yourself under 1200 cals a day, you may have put yourself into starvation mode and significantly lowered your metabolism. In starvation mode, the calories you burn at rest are reduced, making it tougher to lose weight. My own MFP target is 1580 cals a day, with a goal of losing one pound a week, and it's working. Teaching me patience as well.

Welcome back to better habits!