too little calories?

hairstylist91687

is it terrible to not eat the max amount of calories...frankly, its too much food!

sevangelista

Stay above 1200 or so or your metabolis, slows and you justbwork against yourself. Add a little exercise to reduce you net if you want

hairstylist91687

ok awesome...i ususally stay about 1200-1400...and work out moderatley thank you.

Egger29

What is your Daily requirement set at? How many meals a day are you eating?

It's not terrible to be under as generally a small deficit from a combination of reduced calories and increased exercise is what results in weight loss overall.

If you're under by more than 500 calories a day however, you may not be meeting your basic nutritional needs.

As well, if you're way under, your metabolism slows down to preserve fat (energy) stores which is undesirable as well.

Keep your body fueled and metabolism revving by eating smaller meals 5-6 times a day.

ckehoe89

I find that on the days I work out I lose so many calories, and I have a hard time eating them back up, I just get so full =[ but I feel like its important to exercise regularly, so what do I do?

lindalee0315

I, too, stay in the 1200-1400 calorie range. I figure that even though I'm pretty careful, I may not be properly measuring or may be underestimating how much I'm eating. For example, I went to subway today and had turkey with chipolte sauce. I'm not sure if they put one or two tablespoons of that stuff on my sandwich, and the difference is nearly 100 calories. I recently read that even those people who carefully and diligently record calories underestimate by as much as 30%. I'm pretty close to my goal weight, so the weight comes off more slowly. I try to ask myself if I'm really hungry or am I eating for some other reason such as stress(the 10 second rule). If after asking myself that question the answer is truly a "yes" I figure I've not gotten enough to eat and grab a snack.

kewkdb

is it terrible to not eat the max amount of calories...frankly, its too much food!

I eat roughly 750-1000 calories a day. That is split between 5 meals during the day. I have a detailed breakdown of my schedule here: http://patrickbowman.com/first-weightloss-post/ On this plan I also burn roughly 1000-2000 calories a day running 5-10 miles a day.

I'm not saying everyone should do my plan. Just saying this is what I have planned out and it is working for me. A lot of "facts" on the MFP forum are less "fact" and more forum gossip with a bit of fact sprinkled on top of it. So I decided to find out what best worked for me based on my personal knowledge and what I have read on this forum (and others).

I am happy and feel better than ever. I don't lack energy but I can't say I have more energy. I definitely sleep better and it takes WAY less to make me feel full now.