Am I doing something wrong?

pmd14

I am 5' 4" 230 pounds I checked off lightly active and to lose 2 pounds a week so that gives me 1230 calories for the day.
I try to walk at about 3.5 miles an hour for one hour. That adds 350 calories.
That's a total of 1580 calories.
I EASILY eat that in a day.
I don't understand how some people have written how they can't possibly eat their calories!!!!!!
Am I eating to much or not exercising enough?????

pmd14

I am 5' 4" 230 pounds I checked off lightly active and to lose 2 pounds a week so that gives me 1230 calories for the day.
I try to walk at about 3.5 miles an hour for one hour. That adds 350 calories.
That's a total of 1580 calories.
I EASILY eat that in a day.
I don't understand how some people have written how they can't possibly eat their calories!!!!!!
Am I eating to much or not exercising enough?????

uwhuskygirl

Ever since I started (early march) I've noticed that my body has adjusted to eating 1200 cal (plus any exercise) a day. Some days I can't eat all of my exercise cals.

It'll take a little bit, but your body should adjust to getting less calories. And not to sound mean (but this is why I'm here too), but we all probably started here because we used to be able to eat 1800+ cal without blinking. (Hello, french fries, burger and chocolate shake)

Some of the more experienced MFPers may have a better reason/solution, but I say give it time and your body will adjust.

Helawat

I'm one of the people who has troubles eating her calories. I'm 5'4 and 136 and 1500 is a huge number for me.

I believe that as you continue your new lifestyle change, your body will become more accustomed to eating less calories. How many calories were you consuming before you started to lose the weight? Going from 2000+ calories a day to 1400 is a huge difference. It may take your body awhile to adjust.

You could always exercise more if your physician approves it. I would recommend purchasing a heart rate monitor to see how many calories you really burn as opposed to what MFP suggests. This way you can really gage how many calories you burn during your workout. Polar sells an excellent heart rate monitor (the F6) but I would only advise purchasing it if you're going to use it for a long time.

Good luck!

gabi_ele

Some of us have a lot more to loose so that adds calories, plus I skipped lunch yesterday which didn't help and I was out running around in stores for over 3 hours, so when I came home I had a lot of calories and only dinner to eat them. ( I don't like to eat too late or I get nightmares) So I ate a healthy dinner and even desert:blushing: , but I still had over 500 calories left. If I don't work out I have a hard time with staying below my calories but if I work out a lot I have to plan ahead. I wish we could roll over our calories .... I wouldn't be to worried about a pot luck dinner I'm going to on monday with hubby and the grandkids... I have a hard time saying no to desserts... maybe I'll make a diet soda cake and take it with me, that way we all get to benefit:bigsmile:
There is a website called www.hungrygirl.com that you might want to check out , it makes lean dishes out of calorie and fat laden ones. I wish you luck:flowerforyou:

banks1850

yep, it all depends on what your body is used too. If you have been essentially starving your body for years (It's not as uncommon as you think, and it's not condusive to weight loss either) then bumping up your calories 3 to 500 is actually quite difficult. Add to that the fact that many people really aren't eating their calories correctly (I.E. eating relatively large meals 2 or 3 times a day) then you get the feeling of being "stuffed" even though your body needs that much energy. I have personally had a problem eating the number of calories I need, but for me it is because I am a large person (not fat, not anymore, but I'm 6'2" with an athletic build) and my maintenance cals are somewhere north of 2700, subtract 300 or so (I'm not really trying to lose anymore since I am at a BMI of around 23.5) for equalling out my exercise and I just have a tough time getting enough calories for each meal or snack to balance everything out. I do it, pretty much every day I am right on, but it DOES get a little redundant in my food choices, because unless you have endless pockets, buying enough choices to satisfy that much caloric intake is difficult.

Fab140

I am 5' 4" 230 pounds I checked off lightly active and to lose 2 pounds a week so that gives me 1230 calories for the day.
I try to walk at about 3.5 miles an hour for one hour. That adds 350 calories.
That's a total of 1580 calories.
I EASILY eat that in a day.
I don't understand how some people have written how they can't possibly eat their calories!!!!!!
Am I eating to much or not exercising enough?????

I'm one of those people that can consume twice to three times my allotted calories in a day. Easy. I'm 5'8 and started here at 175. I'm not the most active person, I enjoy my cocktails and I love food. Especially New Mexican cuisine. Needless to say, I work to stay around my allotted, but my main goal right now is to stay below 2000.

You're doing great, darlin'! Keep with it :flowerforyou:

shorerider

yep, it all depends on what your body is used too. If you have been essentially starving your body for years (It's not as uncommon as you think, and it's not condusive to weight loss either) then bumping up your calories 3 to 500 is actually quite difficult. Add to that the fact that many people really aren't eating their calories correctly (I.E. eating relatively large meals 2 or 3 times a day) then you get the feeling of being "stuffed" even though your body needs that much energy. I have personally had a problem eating the number of calories I need, but for me it is because I am a large person (not fat, not anymore, but I'm 6'2" with an athletic build) and my maintenance cals are somewhere north of 2700, subtract 300 or so (I'm not really trying to lose anymore since I am at a BMI of around 23.5) for equalling out my exercise and I just have a tough time getting enough calories for each meal or snack to balance everything out. I do it, pretty much every day I am right on, but it DOES get a little redundant in my food choices, because unless you have endless pockets, buying enough choices to satisfy that much caloric intake is difficult.

WOW!! I wish my maintance calories were going to be 2700! I've already figured it out and looks like I'm in for 1200 a day for life!

Fab140

yep, it all depends on what your body is used too. If you have been essentially starving your body for years (It's not as uncommon as you think, and it's not condusive to weight loss either) then bumping up your calories 3 to 500 is actually quite difficult. Add to that the fact that many people really aren't eating their calories correctly (I.E. eating relatively large meals 2 or 3 times a day) then you get the feeling of being "stuffed" even though your body needs that much energy. I have personally had a problem eating the number of calories I need, but for me it is because I am a large person (not fat, not anymore, but I'm 6'2" with an athletic build) and my maintenance cals are somewhere north of 2700, subtract 300 or so (I'm not really trying to lose anymore since I am at a BMI of around 23.5) for equalling out my exercise and I just have a tough time getting enough calories for each meal or snack to balance everything out. I do it, pretty much every day I am right on, but it DOES get a little redundant in my food choices, because unless you have endless pockets, buying enough choices to satisfy that much caloric intake is difficult.

WOW!! I wish my maintance calories were going to be 2700! I've already figured it out and looks like I'm in for 1200 a day for life!

One day a month you'll have to "maintain" with naughty foods then!! :happy:

TK421NotAtPost

I don't understand how some people have written how they can't possibly eat their calories!!!!!!

Ever since I switched my diet and eliminated all unhealthy foods and ate only nutrient dense foods, eating my daily alotment of 2100 calories has NOT been easy. If you plan your meals and adhere to a 40/30/30 breakdown and eliminate ALL foods with a high glycemic index, you may find that it's not so easy eating even 1500 calories.

For example, my daily target is to eat 840 calories/day in carbs. It isn't easy consuming this when limited to mainly fruit and vegetables and a moderate amount of whole grains. In fact, I try to keep my starch consumption to under 300 calories a day. The remaining 540 calories have to come from fruits and vegetables. Not easy to do at all. I go through mountains of broccoli in a week.

Also, the thought of consuming 630 calories in lean chicken breast, salmon/cod filets, 96% lean ground beef can sometimes take the wind right out of me. I often have to force-feed myself when I don't feel like eating.

I quite honestly don't know how some body-builders eat 3000 calories a day when "bulking" in the offseason.

magdalune

As the above poster said, usually the right kinds of foods have an amazingly low number of calories. My lunch wrap, which is mostly vegetables, is a little less than 400 calories. It's an average size wrap, and the tortilla is 210 on its own. So although the bulk of the wrap is veggies, they comprise the minority of calories. It's amazing how much you can eat while consuming so few calories.