Do I have to eat over 1200 calories a day?
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That was the smartest thing I've seen anyone post to someone asking for help. Will you look through my diary and tell me what I'm doing wrong?!
Great advice for anyone wondering about that stuff. I'm just stuck. I've been eating at a defecit and not budging the scale and it fluctuates way more now than in the summer when I was walking all the time. Just bought a treadmill to help with that. OK, comments on your diary:
1) Your protein goal is very low and you are consistently under. Protein goals should be treated as absolute minimums; your goal should be approximately 1.1 - 1.4 grams of protein per lb of lean body mass. That probably puts you somewhere around 110-140 grams of protein per day.
2) Your fat goal is also low. Science shows that people should be eating about 0.3 to 0.35 grams of fat per pound of body weight per day for optimal hormone and neurological function. That puts your fat goal around 56-65 grams of fat per day. This should also be treated as a minimum.
3) You pretty much never hit 1200 calories, let alone the 1420 that represents your actual goal.
4) Your diet includes few vegetables or fruits, and contains a lot of carb-heavy snacks like crackers and granola bars.
Recommendations:
1) Significantly increase your protein and fat intake. You have many days where you eat extremely low fat and low protein. This is counterproductive.
2) Try to limit the carb-heavy snacks and focus on eating more balanced meals.
3) You must eat more vegetables and fruits. Find some vegetables you enjoy and make a concerted effort to work them into 2 meals a day.
4) In general try to focus your meals around meat and vegetables.
5) Hit your calorie goal. Consider any day where you end more than 75 calories away from your goal, in either direction, as a mistake. Hunger is misleading and often nonexistent. If you're "not hungry" but have not yet met your nutrient and calorie goals for the day eat anyway.
6) Buy a food scale. You don't appear to be weighing food and, believe me, this is critical. There is simply no way to accurately estimate portion size and calorie intake without a food scale. A good digital one is only about $15.
Long story short: eat more calories, and try to limit the carb-heavy snacks. Focus on getting more meat and more vegetables at every meal. Hit your calorie goal consistently.0 -
When I started I sought fitness and nutritional advice from an expert - they told me to limit the refined sugar to help with fat loss, and stick to sugars from natural, wholesome foods, such as fruit and veg. I followed the advice...I'm sure you can guess what I'm going to say.
You were advised to eliminate refined sugar to create a calorie deficit without sacrificing nutrients. Once your nutritional needs are met, you can include refined sugar, still lose fat (provided you are still in a caloric deficit) and be perfectly healthy.0 -
we're in pretty much the same boat. same height, almost the same weight, and i average in about 900 cal a day. I eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack a day >.< yesterday i made sure i got up to 1,000 cal (a little over) and felt so sick and over fed.
I'm no expert by any means, i havent been doing this that long and im still learning a lot. but my body tells me what i need, and when a doctor has tried to control my diet every thing went terribly wrong. im still in the process of speeding up my metabolism, one day i'll eat more. today is not that day.
Here is what im doing for it:
waking up earlier (this helps with eating breakfast sooner and working out earlier)
drinking more water
Drinking natural teas (green tea, helps me get nutrients i may not be getting from food)
Taking vitamins (to fill in some gaps)
I know someone here is going to disagree with me, but as i said, my body tells me what i need.
You are not eating enough, and you are promoting unhealthy eating practices in violation of the OP.
Please eat more.0 -
That was the smartest thing I've seen anyone post to someone asking for help. Will you look through my diary and tell me what I'm doing wrong?! Great advice for anyone wondering about that stuff. I'm just stuck. I've been eating at a defecit and not budging the scale and it fluctuates way more now than in the summer when I was walking all the time. Just bought a treadmill to help with that.
Please start a new thread and I will answer your questions, as will many others.0 -
OK, comments on your diary:
1) Your protein goal is very low and you are consistently under. Protein goals should be treated as absolute minimums; your goal should be approximately 1.1 - 1.4 grams of protein per lb of lean body mass. That probably puts you somewhere around 110-140 grams of protein per day.
2) Your fat goal is also low. Science shows that people should be eating about 0.3 to 0.35 grams of fat per pound of body weight per day for optimal hormone and neurological function. That puts your fat goal around 56-65 grams of fat per day. This should also be treated as a minimum.
3) You pretty much never hit 1200 calories, let alone the 1420 that represents your actual goal.
4) Your diet includes few vegetables or fruits, and contains a lot of carb-heavy snacks like crackers and granola bars.
Recommendations:
1) Significantly increase your protein and fat intake. You have many days where you eat extremely low fat and low protein. This is counterproductive.
2) Try to limit the carb-heavy snacks and focus on eating more balanced meals.
3) You must eat more vegetables and fruits. Find some vegetables you enjoy and make a concerted effort to work them into 2 meals a day.
4) In general try to focus your meals around meat and vegetables.
5) Hit your calorie goal. Consider any day where you end more than 75 calories away from your goal, in either direction, as a mistake. Hunger is misleading and often nonexistent. If you're "not hungry" but have not yet met your nutrient and calorie goals for the day eat anyway.
6) Buy a food scale. You don't appear to be weighing food and, believe me, this is critical. There is simply no way to accurately estimate portion size and calorie intake without a food scale. A good digital one is only about $15.
Long story short: eat more calories, and try to limit the carb-heavy snacks. Focus on getting more meat and more vegetables at every meal. Hit your calorie goal consistently.
^^This^^0 -
we're in pretty much the same boat. same height, almost the same weight, and i average in about 900 cal a day. I eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack a day >.< yesterday i made sure i got up to 1,000 cal (a little over) and felt so sick and over fed.
I'm no expert by any means, i havent been doing this that long and im still learning a lot. but my body tells me what i need, and when a doctor has tried to control my diet every thing went terribly wrong. im still in the process of speeding up my metabolism, one day i'll eat more. today is not that day.
Here is what im doing for it:
waking up earlier (this helps with eating breakfast sooner and working out earlier)
drinking more water
Drinking natural teas (green tea, helps me get nutrients i may not be getting from food)
Taking vitamins (to fill in some gaps)
I know someone here is going to disagree with me, but as i said, my body tells me what i need.
MOST people will disagree with your post.....not "someone."
900 calories a day? Oh - but you ARE taking vitamins.......so your existing muscle mass should be protected......not!!
Under a doctor's care......this might be ok for the very OBESE pateint....but OP is not under a doctor's care, or very obese.
Here's what happens to people who are merely overweight (and on 900 calories)...............your heart, lungs, kidneys, brain need fuel everyday (fuel = calories, not vitamins).......fat stores cannot provide 100% of that fuel. So your body will have to make choices..... heart or existing muscle tissue......lungs or existing muscle tissue......kidneys or the hair on your head......you can guess what your body is going to choose to fuel.
If you want the same body fat % that you had before dieting.............900 calories (is dangerous) ......but you can become a smaller person and still be fat.0 -
I know someone here is going to disagree with me, but as i said, my body tells me what i need.
We have to be careful and be sure to listen to our bodies and not our minds. Sometime the mind can play tricks on us and the body unfortunately pays the price...0 -
When I started I sought fitness and nutritional advice from an expert - they told me to limit the refined sugar to help with fat loss, and stick to sugars from natural, wholesome foods, such as fruit and veg. I followed the advice...I'm sure you can guess what I'm going to say.
You were advised to eliminate refined sugar to create a calorie deficit without sacrificing nutrients. Once your nutritional needs are met, you can include refined sugar, still lose fat (provided you are still in a caloric deficit) and be perfectly healthy.
Just so you are aware, what you added, is NOT what experts say. My doctor just two weeks ago told me to not eat sugar. It's being ingrained in everyone. And, I think there has been recent research saying that sugar is bad. Of corse, they overdose the rats with it, but, still, I think evidence is beginning to suggest that there are actual problems with sugar consumption.
Personally, I feel it's not a problem at all. The real problem is that most people eat too much sugar, so the default for doctor, dietitians, et al, is to just say, "cut back on sugar" without even thinking. Think about it, you could probably say that to 90% of the people you know and it would be solid advice.
The real problem is when someone eats refined sugar at the expense of key nutrients.0 -
Congrats on your weight loss w/out a food scale. Just please don't go telling people how many calories you ate or averaged b/c you don't have a clue.
I state my intake as an approximation (always have) and will continue to do so...0 -
Hon, weighing your food won't take more than 5 minutes out of your day. If you want to succeed at fat loss, don't make excuses. If you're not measuring your food intake, who knows how many calories you're really eating? If you don't know that, why does it matter what MFP says?
The above list of advice will help you lose fat healthfully and meet your goals. If you have the time to interact on a forum, you've got the time to measure foods, or make healthful choices.
It already consumes me. I don't know any other way to put it other than the more I use my measuring cups, the more I hate food.
It gets easier as you get better at it. Weighing is actually easier than measuring cups, btw.
Weighing is TONS easier than measuring. Stick your plate on the scale and turn it on. Put your first item on, grab the weight, hit tare. Repeat as many times as needed. And no measuring cups to wash! That's a big plus for me. The best purchase I have made towards my weight loss is my food scale.0 -
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Based on information provided your BMR is about 1582 (http://iifym.com/bmr-calculator) so my personal advice is to eat around that number if you aren't doing any exercise. That will see you lose weight slowly and sustainably, with a deficit arising on any day you aren't comatose in bed. And I assume that is most days LOL!
If you find it difficult to eat during the morning then I suggest setting reminders/alarms on your phone. You could even try splitting the day in half and eating 700 calories in the first half of the day and then the remainder in the second half. Or some other split that you feel comfortable with. And if you aren't using a food scale then you should probably assume a margin of error that overestimates about 100-300 calories per day (that's what I found mine to be when I started weighing everything).
Of course, the most accurate method involves taking one approach and monitoring results. If you aren't getting what you want then revise intake up or down as necessary. Good luck :-)
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Yeah, most days I'm not comatose in bed. That would be a fair assumption.
Setting reminders is a really great idea and one that I don't think has been mentioned yet. Thank you. This morning my partner called to remind me to eat some breakfast, so he is being a big help to me right now.
See.. everyone tells me to overestimate calories, and this is what that means for me. It's easy to stay over 1200. It's easy to stay under 1420, but for me, for some damn reason, it is awfully difficult for me to do both at the same time because of that margin of error you are talking about. I could over OR underestimate things and I guess my day is wasted. I will probably end up getting a scale. I just really really really really hate to. Lol.
Thanks for your help.0 -
What the hell was the point of this if you refuse to make any changes and don't want to lose weight in a healthy way?
This isn't the place for you if you aren't going to accept people's advice when you ask for it.
Well, I think the issue is that people aren't actually reading my original question and trying to offer advice that wasn't asked for. The original question, I thought, would be easily answered with a simple yes or no. Do I have to eat 1200 calories a day if I'm full? Yes or no. Simple you'd think. I wasn't asking about scales, other nutrients, or anything else. People have taken it upon themselves to instruct me in everything from A-Z.
If we're talking every once in awhile, no you don't. If we're talking more than a few times a month, then yeah, you do. 1200 is already lower than what you should be eating anyway. But here's the thing....if you start eating up to 1200 or even better, up to 1400 or whatever you should be eating, you have no way of knowing if that's what you're actually eating. You could end today logging 900 calories and you have no idea if you actually ate 900 calories. It could be 600 calories or it could be 1800 calories.
You didn't ask for the advice about weighing food but it's really, really good advice. And you might just find that it helps you. I promise it will help you with your weight loss goals, but it might help you mentally as well. It did for me, anyway. Wanna know why? Because once I knew that I was actually logging what I was actually eating, I didn't have to stress every time the scale stayed still or only moved half a pound. I knew that I wasn't playing guessing games and that weight loss isn't linear. I knew that I was doing everything right and that even though the scale didn't reflect it this week, it would the next, or the next after that. And it has.
^I think that right there would be huge for you. You're SO worried about every little calorie and you don't need to be. I'm having a hard time figuring out the best way to explain what I'm trying to say. :sigh: Basically, if I'm just guessing with my logging, which is basically what you're doing, and then I gain weight or I don't lose, I'm going to freak out. I might even be so stressed and frustrated that I decide to just stay fat b/c this just isn't working for me, like everything else I've ever done. But if I'm accurately logging my food, I'm going to see results. Maybe not every week, but I won't be as stressed b/c I know I'm doing everything right and maybe I'm just retaining water this week, or it's normal to go a week or two without much of a loss. It's even normal to go up occasionally depending on what's happening.
And the other great thing about tracking accurately is that I feel far less guilty when I go over. I dunno, maybe that's a bad thing.:laugh: But really, when I go over occasionally, I can see that it didn't make a huge difference in the grand scheme. I'm not talking about every weekend or anything, but special occasions, etc. And when I go over more than occasionally, I can see that it DID make a huge difference in the grand scheme, and I know what I need to do to change things. When you have no idea how many calories you're actually eating, you can't see these things and learn from them. So while I get how you feel, or at least I think I do, I also think it might be cathartic for you to look at things from a different perspective and try something different.
And I absolutely understand what you're saying about not being able to handle the nutritional content on top of measuring and logging and the thought of weighing. I get it b/c I felt the same way about macros (protein, fat and carbs) when I started here. I still feel that way about micros (vitamins, etc); it stresses me out just thinking about trying to hit my calorie target AND macros AND micros. Plus I have no idea how anyone could possibly hit their iron goal on the daily. Anyway, start small. Just start looking at your totals and seeing where your protein is coming from and where your carbs are coming from. Once you feel comfortable start making changes. But it will be easier to make those changes if you start paying attention to those things now.
Take baby steps and don't give up. Eating at a deficit has overwhelmed me several times and several times, I've kept logging and just started eating more. Haven't put back on the weight I've lost; I've just stopped losing. Then I pick back up when I'm ready and start losing again. I don't consider these instances failures. They're huge successes. Being able to maintain my weight while I take a break and then start losing again. Baby steps!
Thank you so much for your response. I get what you are saying about how it could be cathartic for me.. weighing the food. And you actually have a very good point. It just seems like an awful lot of work and I haven't reached a plateau. I was hoping to just get this calorie counting thing down pat first, and then try to take in more of this information. I'm really not trying to be a jerk, but I guess that's how I'm coming off to people. I am just extremely overwhelmed by everything right now.0 -
Thanks for sharing. This is exactly what I had planned to do. For right now, I'm almost in tears if I can't find the correct calorie count for something that I can't imagine adding other stressors to the equation. I will eventually I'm sure.
OP, I obviously don't know what else might be going on in your life, but I want to point out that this kind of emotional reaction can be a sign that you're not eating enough. It absolutely can cause moodiness, depression, excess stress, etc. Hunger is not the only sign that you're getting enough to eat. You have to look at all the cues. Mood, concentration, energy levels, etc.
My mood and concentration levels will be the same regardless of what I eat. I've dealt with depression and anxiety for most of my life, and the amount of food I eat has never changed the situation. I get what you are saying, though. For some people, their moodiness and such comes strictly from a lack of food. I get ya.0 -
I agree with a couple of the other posters on here. OP, from what you've said and your diary, it sounds like you have a very unhealthy relationship with food. You're overwhelmed by the enormity of counting or weighing your intake, yet thought and planning for food consumes your day. You're nearly in tears because you can't find the correct calories, but changing your routine would add such stressors as to completely ruin the one part of your day you seem to enjoy (food). You're emotionally exhausted from talking about it and just want a simple answer (which sounds more like wanting affirmation more than anything), yet when offered the simple answer (yes you need to eat 1200) you keep making reasons why it's not something you can actually do. You're over-apologetic for "wasting" peoples time, yet are fixated on your way of doing things so much that suggestions to try otherwise are ignored or dismissed as too stressful. Basically you sound like you're wound as tight as a top and want someone to affirm that you're doing the right thing by possibly over-restricting, and anything else is too much stress to deal with.
To be honest, your posts don't feel like they're really about the actual food, they seem to be hinting at a larger problem underlying your eating that needs to be addressed. Maybe it's just normal job or kid stress that's gotten a little overboard, or maybe it's more.Honestly, I would definitely suggest you look into local sliding scale clinics. A talk therapist can more accurately help you identify what exactly you hope to accomplish with weight loss and food control, and help you identify healthy drives from unhealthy ones, and some clinics will lower rates down to $5 or even $0 per session depending on income and situation. Proper nutrition is highly important, and the effects of disordered eating can be devastating on both the mind and the body, and certainly don't do anything to actually help an already stressful situation, aside from giving an illusion of control. Make it a priority to take care of yourself, REAL care, that takes into account your mental and physical needs as a functioning body and mind, and think about the calories after that's been addressed.
It's more than a little discouraging to hear that I shouldn't try to address my physical needs until my mental needs have been taken care of. I find it hard to breathe when I'm walking through the mall. I can't play on the floor with my daughter. I'm 39 years old, just hoping to live long enough to see her graduate high school. My physical needs are important to me. My mental needs are also important, but I'm thinking if I can go something to feel better about myself and be healthier at the same time, my mentality should shift.. at least a little. The depression I've dealt with for a long time. I could be dealing with it for the rest of my life. Does that mean I should not do anything to try to better my physical body because my mind is not right?0 -
Id say yes, you need to hit the 1200 calories at least per day. If time isnt your friend, i highly recommend meal prepping your week so that your meals are already measured and all the nutrition points are properly hit. Granola bars are a great time saver but can be jam packed with non healthy ingredients and mostly carbs. As an alternative, consider a quest bar for protein and of course fruit like bananas and apples can nicely get shoved in your bag with no need for refrigeration. If you eat late, id definitely have a light mid afternoon snack. Its just a good idea to fill your fridge with healthy food cause then youre kinda forced to consume healthy food. Undereating is never good either. Keep your chin up, it takes a while to find a rhythm that works for you. When you want it bad enough, these stuggles wont stop you from getting what you want. Good Luck!0
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I personally don't see a problem with cereal/granola bars but you MUST be careful of the added sugar - many of these snacks are laden with sugar. Perhaps try alternatives like Nakd bars or a low fat protein bar.
Completely understand where you're coming from with not having the time to weigh everything, but if you have time to log, surely you have time to weigh? I use the MFP app when I cook so I weigh and log as I go, and it doesn't take much more time than normal. If you're really serious about losing weight you need to monitor your intake with as much accuracy as possible, or you run the risk of over/under eating.
Regarding your intake - it's hard to eat if your body is telling you it's not hungry, but meeting your calorie goals is vital for weight loss. Based on your age, height and weight your BMR is 1576kcal (http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/). You should not be eating less than this, and that's before any exercise is taken into account.
The hardest thing about losing weight is coming round to the idea that sometimes you need to eat more to lose more. Once you've come to terms with this your weight loss will be much more successful.
I wish you all the luck!!
Yes, I will probably be getting a scale although I really hate to.
Well, I figured my BMR when I was starting at 200 pounds. Perhaps that's why MFP has my target set at 1420 calories a day. Could that be the reason?0 -
we're in pretty much the same boat. same height, almost the same weight, and i average in about 900 cal a day. I eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack a day >.< yesterday i made sure i got up to 1,000 cal (a little over) and felt so sick and over fed.
I'm no expert by any means, i havent been doing this that long and im still learning a lot. but my body tells me what i need, and when a doctor has tried to control my diet every thing went terribly wrong. im still in the process of speeding up my metabolism, one day i'll eat more. today is not that day.
Here is what im doing for it:
waking up earlier (this helps with eating breakfast sooner and working out earlier)
drinking more water
Drinking natural teas (green tea, helps me get nutrients i may not be getting from food)
Taking vitamins (to fill in some gaps)
I know someone here is going to disagree with me, but as i said, my body tells me what i need.
You aren't going to speed up your metabolism on 900 calories a day.0
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