cant manage to eat all my calories!

nikki2609

hi, ive been given a goal of 1200 calories a day and im finding that most days im eating much more than i used to and still having 200-300 calories left. When i exercise this obviously increases and leaves me with a higher margin. How can i lose weight if im eating more?
Only been logging my meals for a week but im concerned already.

Monisfit4life

Try adding snacks with protein like an apple and peanut butter, pineapple with cottage cheese or yogurt, or hummus with wheat pita bread. One of these snacks will add about 200 calories to your diet.

Mindful_Trent

hi, ive been given a goal of 1200 calories a day and im finding that most days im eating much more than i used to and still having 200-300 calories left.

Try to eat calorie-dense but healthy foods: meat, beans, avocado, nuts, barley, quinoa, yams/sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, oatmeal, etc. Foods like these are healthy, but higher in calories. There's no need to get all your calories from low-calorie foods.

How can i lose weight if im eating more?
Only been logging my meals for a week but im concerned already.

I posted this on another thread where someone asked about eating exercise calories and thought this may help you...

MFP is designed around the idea of having a set calorie deficit. So if you're trying to lose 2 lbs/week, that's 1000 calorie deficit per day. MFP builds that deficit into your eating goals BEFORE any exercise is considered. So, to keep that same deficit, you are supposed to eat the additional calories earned through exercise.

Example:

Person A normally burns 2500 calories per day based on their height/weight/age/gender and normal daily activity level
So to lose 2 lbs/week, they need to eat 1500 calories/day (2500 - 1000 = 1500)

If they workout and burn 500 calories, then they've burned 2500 + 500 = 3000 calories. If they only eat 1500, their deficit will now be 1500 instead of the 1000 that is planned.

You may be thinking that a higher deficit is better, but that's not really the case. Slower weight loss is better - it is more likely to stay off, and it can ward off health problems from losing weight too fast. 2 lbs/week (1000 calorie deficit per day) is the highest amount recommended unless you're under doctor supervision.

So - yes, you're supposed to eat those extra exercise calories, especially if you're only on a lower number of regular calories per day. You need to keep your net calories (calories eaten minus exercise calories) at a high enough level to keep your metabolism from slowing down. If you eat low net calories for a long period of time consistently, then you will lower your metabolism and weight loss will be difficult.

That said, one day of not eating them won't hurt - just try not to do it regularly. When you know you'll be working out, plan ahead and eat a heavier lunch or breakfast. Also, you don't necessarily need to eat ALL of them - it's very easy to overestimate exercise calories (I find MFP tends to be pretty high estimates), and if you eat all of them, that can slow weight loss because you're decreasing your deficit. I aim to eat 50-75% of mine.

kmtetour

It's possible that the reason you weren't losing weight before is because you weren't eating enough. I know that sounds counter-intuitive, but it's true. Your body needs a certain amount of calories to survive. If it doesn't get them, it goes into starvation mode, which causes you to gain weight. Keep trying for a few weeks, and see what happens. Good luck!

pilotgirl2007

Its a hard concept to wrap your head around but you have to keep in mind that when you don't eat enough for your body to survive it decides that it needs to conserve what it can get so instead of using the food to supply yourself with energy it holds on to it so it can run the basic functions that need to be run.

I kept cutting calories everytime I wouldn't lose weight and ended up not eating enough and I kept gaining... since then I have started eating more and I have managed to start the scale in the other direction.

cflorkie

IM in the same boat, unless i eat junk Im nowhere near. Yesterday i was 900 calories behind :huh: the only days i have gotten over were new years when i ate crap snack food and about a week before Christmas when my friend and i drank 4 bottles of wine between us lol.

That thing always yells at me and tells me ill be 85 pounds. I'll believe it when I see it lol.

Mindful_Trent

IM in the same boat, unless i eat junk Im nowhere near. Yesterday i was 900 calories behind :huh: the only days i have gotten over were new years when i ate crap snack food and about a week before Christmas when my friend and i drank 4 bottles of wine between us lol.

That thing always yells at me and tells me ill be 85 pounds. I'll believe it when I see it lol.

You may lose weight for a little while, but if your net calories (what you eat minus exercise calories) is too low over an extended period of time, you're going to slow down your metabolism and make it very difficult to continue losing weight. Generally, 1200 is considered the low-end of what is safe to have as net calories.

There are plenty of higher calorie healthy foods you can eat. From my post above: meat, beans, avocado, nuts, barley, quinoa, yams/sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, oatmeal, some fruit, etc.

piquilter

Your body needs fuel to replenish what you burn exercising. I'm eating more calories also but still losing 2 pounds most weeks. I do try to leave 200-300 unused just to allow for discrepancies in food logging or calories burned. One of many things I like about MFP is that it won't let you finalize a day's food diary if under the minimum calories allotment as well as warning about starvation mode. I found it scary at first eating that many calories, but when they are the right ones & you see scale drop you'll know it is worth it. Fear not

lutzsher

Yes, it does seem strange but in fact it is SO true . . . eat more ("clean" healthy food) to lose more.

When I started on MFP I realized that I was not eating enough, by quite a bit actually, and would get the majority of my calories in the evening. I now eat the majority of my calories during the day, stop eating at least 2 hours before bed, and my weight loss has been consistent weekly since I made this change.

I find some calorie rich items to help pad this up, natural peanut butter, nuts, and avacado are a few items I add as I eat very "clean" so it can be hard to get up to your 1200. I also almost never eat my exercise calories unless Im really hungry and it seems to have worked for me. I am finding that it is getting harder as I get closer to my goal so I may have to reevaluate everything again soon as what works for now does not continue to work as you lose.

nikki2609

thanks for all your ideas, i was beginning to think i was going mad (more so than usual!). will take all your ideas on board, especially the nuts part as i love them but thought i shouldnt eat to many or often for some stupid reason!
today is another day so lets see how i manage.

casseh

I'm in the same boat of struggling to eat my calories but just as suggested have tried things like adding 1/8 of an advocado to a salad sandwich for lunch, a small handfull of nuts as a snack in the afternoon, a glass of low fat milk in the morning. I have found that not only does it make reaching my daily calories easier each day but i have also found it help stops the cravings for junk food as a) im eating enough to not be hungry and b) im allowing myself what I consider to be a healthier 'extra'.

lemmyhead

hmmm reading this has been very helpful...i think I might be making that same mistake...time to buy some natural peanut butter! Woohoo!