Daily calorie intake

apetty21

I know there are a lot of threads discussing daily calorie intake and how important it is to not go below your daily goal. My daily goal is 1200. I, however, almost always go below. Maybe around 1050ish a day. Not in an attempt to lose weight faster. All year I've been dieting and I lose about, oh, .8lbs a week. I'm just not hungry enough to eat all those calories. I eat exactly what I want until I'm full. I understand you all aren't doctors and what not but should I be forcing myself to eat more? Or am I probably fine? Like, my body knows what it wants and right now it wants around 1000 calories? I do not exercise (I should, I know ,I know) and I'm very short. I dunno. I do take a daily multi-vitamin to help.

potluck965

Personally, I think what you are doing sounds fine. You are losing weight steadily at a very desirable rate. That type of weight loss is much smarter than faster, crash type weight loss.

I'm not sure why you are so worried about numbers. You feel full, you are losing weight healthily.

The biggest probem I see is that you will never be truly healthy unless you get some muscle tone and exercise.

Naomi91

I have that same problem. And I am also very short.... Only I run a ton. about 3-5 miles a day.
But still can only eat like 1100 calories because I am just not hungry enough!
Any tips on some high calorie healthy food I could eat to help this?
My doctor said that I am not eating enough and something about keytones.... not too sure haha

alantin

I think you should try to get the 1200 to be on the safe side. Otherwice there shouldn't be too much to worry about.
Try to get more energy dense products to fill the gap. For example, no fat free milk. Regular! One good way that I have used on occasion is to drink olive oil to get some more calories. Healthy fats! You need them anyway! A friend of mine takes a spoon full every morning. Add it to food if you don't like to drink it from a spoon.

Naomi91

Thats a great idea! I try to get all my fats from eating a lot of almonds but still cant always get to it.
I am a vegetarian and have a very hard time getting all my calories!

AlyssaC2010

Nooo your body needs the energy! Eating that little won't be good in the long run. You definitely need to force yourself to eat at least to the 1200 mark...if not a little more. Just eat a couple more snacks throughout the day...a couple of servings of fruit or some almonds or veggies or something...that way you can get your recommended calories a day.

apetty21

Personally, I think what you are doing sounds fine. You are losing weight steadily at a very desirable rate. That type of weight loss is much smarter than faster, crash type weight loss.

I'm not sure why you are so worried about numbers. You feel full, you are losing weight healthily.

The biggest probem I see is that you will never be truly healthy unless you get some muscle tone and exercise.

I started to excercise about a month ago (walking) but stopped because it is now dark when I get home from work. I think my goal for 2011 is to exercise and stop making excuses - I'm tired, not enough time, it's dark, no gyms nearby, blah blah blah. My previous excuse was I wanted to lose X amount of weight first. Then I lost it and started walking. I did notice when I was walking I was much hungrier.

Madre2

I know there are a lot of threads discussing daily calorie intake and how important it is to not go below your daily goal. My daily goal is 1200. I, however, almost always go below. Maybe around 1050ish a day. Not in an attempt to lose weight faster. All year I've been dieting and I lose about, oh, .8lbs a week. I'm just not hungry enough to eat all those calories. I eat exactly what I want until I'm full. I understand you all aren't doctors and what not but should I be forcing myself to eat more? Or am I probably fine? Like, my body knows what it wants and right now it wants around 1000 calories? I do not exercise (I should, I know ,I know) and I'm very short. I dunno. I do take a daily multi-vitamin to help.

I'm not a doctor, but I'm much older than you are, and I've read about fitness and nutrition for years. I've always heard that it is akin to starvation to consume fewer than 1,200 calories a day. You have to be careful that you aren't flirting with a food disorder by consuming too few calories.

chilli

I know there are a lot of threads discussing daily calorie intake and how important it is to not go below your daily goal. My daily goal is 1200. I, however, almost always go below. Maybe around 1050ish a day. Not in an attempt to lose weight faster. All year I've been dieting and I lose about, oh, .8lbs a week. I'm just not hungry enough to eat all those calories. I eat exactly what I want until I'm full. I understand you all aren't doctors and what not but should I be forcing myself to eat more? Or am I probably fine? Like, my body knows what it wants and right now it wants around 1000 calories? I do not exercise (I should, I know ,I know) and I'm very short. I dunno. I do take a daily multi-vitamin to help.

I'm not a doctor, but I'm much older than you are, and I've read about fitness and nutrition for years. I've always heard that it is akin to starvation to consume fewer than 1,200 calories a day. You have to be careful that you aren't flirting with a food disorder by consuming too few calories.

I agree .. you have to be very careful.

rai8759

I know there are a lot of threads discussing daily calorie intake and how important it is to not go below your daily goal. My daily goal is 1200. I, however, almost always go below. Maybe around 1050ish a day. Not in an attempt to lose weight faster. All year I've been dieting and I lose about, oh, .8lbs a week. I'm just not hungry enough to eat all those calories. I eat exactly what I want until I'm full. I understand you all aren't doctors and what not but should I be forcing myself to eat more? Or am I probably fine? Like, my body knows what it wants and right now it wants around 1000 calories? I do not exercise (I should, I know ,I know) and I'm very short. I dunno. I do take a daily multi-vitamin to help.

I'm not a doctor, but I'm much older than you are, and I've read about fitness and nutrition for years. I've always heard that it is akin to starvation to consume fewer than 1,200 calories a day. You have to be careful that you aren't flirting with a food disorder by consuming too few calories.

I agree. Your body needs at least 1200 calories a day or it goes into starvation mode. You can eat the same amount of food but choose calorie dense but nutritious foods like avocado, nuts, beans, whole milk, eggs, whole wheat bread (not the low calorie kind), regular yogurt, hummus etc. Try bruschetta. Delicious with olive oil drizzled over it and totally vegetarian friendly.

Your body starts to break down your muscles when it doesn't have enough fuel. So that a) reduces your muscle mass which tears down your metabolism b) reduces your brain function because your brain needs simple sugars to run. That may be part of the reason you don't feel very motivated to exercise.

You can do exercise at home as well. I've recently been looking into body weight circuits that you don't need any equipment for and you can do in your home. Just type it into google and free programs come up. Also, try getting a couple exercise videos. Turbo Jam is super fun. Try something new to get yourself moving. You can probably get exercise videos for free at your library.

apetty21

I'm not a doctor, but I'm much older than you are, and I've read about fitness and nutrition for years. I've always heard that it is akin to starvation to consume fewer than 1,200 calories a day. You have to be careful that you aren't flirting with a food disorder by consuming too few calories.

I don't think I'm "flirting with a food disorder". I'm not keeping myself hungry so I can loose more weight. My point is I'm not hungry but I'm also not eating my 1200 daily calories. I thought that was ok at first until I saw all the posts with people being scolded for not eating their calories and began to worry, "Should I be forcing food when I'm not hungry?". My BMR calculator says 1272 calories. I consume, on average, 10-15% less than that - not on purpose.

I did take rai's advice and added yogurt to my lunch and switched my sandwich bread from Nature's Own low calorie to Nature's Own double fiber wheat. That added about 130 calories to my meal. I, however, got full and couldn't eat all of my apple. I can't win for losing. :grumble:

KATNOV2010

I am fairly new to the tracking everything I eat, and MFP. I know what you mean, I have been under all week. I m thinking I have to subconciously eat more and add more mini meals in or I am under my calorie intake.( without counting excercise calories burned) I have decided I need to add more into my breakfast am intake. Trouble eating cooked veggies get really bored and picky meat eater " lean chicken turkey only limited fish ( the bad kind only battered baked or fried is fine). I certainly dont want to under eat. But need to keep my MBR up to effectively get to my goal of 120-125. ( 10 - 15Lbs to loose) I do eat and dedicated to my daily routine of 30-60 minutes of yoga for weight loss and walking. I guess I need more info aswell to eat my 1200 cals and ......to eat or not to eat my excercise calories on top of this too. ??? A fine line of discipline and awareness needs be dealt with, I know that the more often you eat the more you loose, its alot of work to eat right so maybe I choose to do less of it so I don't get it wrong and go overbored? Or may be I need better menu Ideas. Is it wrong not to eat enough? it goes against the concept of what I thought you need to do excercise more then the intake of calories to burn and loose the weight.