Am I not eating enough?! Help :(

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ashleynne
ashleynne Posts: 11 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi everyone, I have some questions for you. Every day I eat under my calories allowed to me (1340). 5 days a week I work out for an hour and burn roughly at least 400 calories each of those work out days. I have noticed I'm significantly under what my calorie intake goal should be.

For example (today):
Goal: 1340
Food: +830
Exercise: -474
Net: 356

I eat pretty healthy and have put a lot more fiber and protein than I ever had before in my diet. On top of that my medication naturally suppresses my appetite so I don't feel the need to excessively eat like I did before. I feel satisfied with the food I eat during the day. So my question is this, am I screwing up my chances of losing weight successfully? Are there any consequences to the way I've been doing things? I've lost 15 pounds so far. Don't get me wrong, I'm not attempting to starve myself, I just noticed eating healthier has helped me to stop me from doing my food binges that caused me to eat all day long. I don't want to be doing something unsafe with my body so if you could respectfully give me your advice on the situation it would be much appreciated!

Replies

  • dbmata
    dbmata Posts: 12,950 Member
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    I just noticed eating healthier has helped me to stop me from doing my food binges that caused me to eat all day long.

    Did that happen a lot?

    I'd say, you could be a lot better with yourself, but if you're happy with what you're doing now, nothing someone on a website says will change it.

    You could probably do well to eat a little more, but your call bro.
  • AJ_G
    AJ_G Posts: 4,158 Member
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    You're netting under 400 calories? Wow haha. Yes you should absolutely be eating more. Even if you did zero exercise, eating under 900 calories a day is a bad idea. It doesn't matter how hungry you are or aren't, you should really be eating more than that. Add some calorie dense foods into your diet to increase calorie intake (peanut butter, cheese, whole milk, fruit juice, soda, etc).

    To answer your question yes there are consequences. Your metabolism is constantly adapting to your calorie intake (Adaptive Thermogenesis). It is a slow and gradual process but it does happen. If you eat the way you've been eating for a prolonged period, your metabolism will slow to try and bridge the gap you're creating with the calorie deficit. The end result is a lower metabolic capacity which is not desirable.

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