Am I eating too little?

corbmonster

Last night MFP warned me saying I wasn't eating enough, and I could put my body in starvation mode. But I don't feel like I'm starving myself... I'm usually under my calorie goal by a little bit. But I'm sure I mis-estimate somethings when entering quantities, so I feel like it balances out. Thoughts?

Bloopers123

What are you eating on a daily basis, exactly?

edit; oops sorry, didn't know we can view people's diary!

RodaRose

If it truly balances by the end of the week, then you are o.k. Otherwise, plan. You could track your calories a day a ahead of time.

my_2_cents

I had a brief look at your diary. It looks to me like you're doing fine, but yesterday you were 432 calories under what MFP said you should eat. I believe their threshold for eating too little is likely around 400 calories under goal etc. remember, its an automated system and doesn't actually consider your whole lifestyle. I'd say based on the couple of days that I looked at that your calorie intake is pretty good based on your numbers.

I would strongly suggest weighing and measuring everything so you know you're being accurate with the logging, this will give you an accurate picture of what you're putting in and you won't have these fears.

corbmonster

Thanks for the input guys. Ya I haven't weighed or measured in a week or so. And probably won't till next week. I'm taking physics 2 in the summer and this proff is killing us. He's just ridiculous. Making my A from physics 1 look like garbage.

SLLRunner

Last night MFP warned me saying I wasn't eating enough, and I could put my body in starvation mode. But I don't feel like I'm starving myself... I'm usually under my calorie goal by a little bit. But I'm sure I mis-estimate somethings when entering quantities, so I feel like it balances out. Thoughts?

You might not be under your calorie goal by as much as you think because, to me, your exercise burns look overestimated. Where do you get your estimates from? MFP and machines generally tend to provide inflated numbers Other than this, it looks like you are eating well. It's the end week balance that counts. Everything is trial and error.

MargaretSobers

According to your daily intake it seems that your diet is fine. And at the end of the week, if your daily target is balanced then you are having a perfect diet. just give some care about your calorie deficit.

rawstrongchick

You are potentially eating too little if any of the following apply:

1. You are feeling unwell, weak or excessively tired. Longer term this can look like thinning hair, poor quality skin/nails, suffering with recurrent infections etc.
2. You are losing much more than 1% of your body weight weekly (assuming you have a reasonable amount of weight to lose, as you near goal that figure needs to reduce).
3. You are finding with your exercise/workout that you are struggling to progress (weights or cardio). If you are slower to hit 5k on a run as an example, or you are needing to drop/reduce resistance work (including weights) then that's your body's way of indicating you are cutting back too hard.

There is nothing wrong with varying your calorie intake if it suits you. If you wanted to lose 1lb per week some people do best to stay 500 calories per day under, others do better if they restrict by staying 700 calories under 5 days per week then "splashing out" and eating at maintenance at the weekends. What ever works for you, but for most people who have splash out days sticking to maintenance calories rather than scoffing well over maintenance helps to keep appetite levels reasonable and doesn't leave you with too wilder drop during the week.

126siany

Last night MFP warned me saying I wasn't eating enough, and I could put my body in starvation mode. But I don't feel like I'm starving myself... I'm usually under my calorie goal by a little bit. But I'm sure I mis-estimate somethings when entering quantities, so I feel like it balances out. Thoughts?

If you are under 1200 NET calories a day for a woman or 1400-1500 NET for a man, MFP will give you that message. (Sorry, I forget what the cut-off is for men on MFP.)

Just randomly going through a couple of days on your diary, it seems like you usually get around 2000 calories and that should be fine. When MFP subtracts your exercise calories, sometime your NET gets below 1500, but MFP generally overestimates calorie burns through exercise.

Consider picking up a food scale--there's really no need to be estimating what you're eating unless you're eating at a restaurant.

Go_Deskercise

Not sure where you are or how you are estimating your calories burned, but they seem WAY off