myfitnesspal daily allowance?

Magatame

So myfitnesspal is saying I should only eat 1200 calories per day and I have entered that I will be excercising 4 days a week for 1 hour at a time, but this is one of my days off so I'm finding it hard to only eat 1200 calories, so far today I have only had a bowel of cereal and after my dinner of Beans and Toast and Scrambled eggs I will only have 400 calories or so left.. I probably won't end up using all the 400 calories but I really havn't ate much today and I'm already down so much on my daily calories allowance..

Also it seems I'm already over the limit for sugars and dietary fiber. and for some reason Cholesterol and sodium are in the red even though I have had no cholesterol and only 500mg of sodium?

Sorry if I'm being silly or am doing/saying something wrong :P Just trying to get a better understanding of all this.

liscar

if you are having a hard time reaching your calories, try finding a good protein shake you can add in.

EmRN06

Eggs are packed full of good nutrients for your body. Unfortunately they also have a TON of cholesterol in them, which is why some people try not to eat eggs and opt for egg whites or an egg substitute.

potluck965

It isn't easy, but it works. When just starting out I wouldn't pay that much attention to the daily allowances other than calories. You will learn which are the better foods that give you more food for the amount of calories so you don't feel quite so deprived.

But you should be aware of the allowances in that they help you decide which are the better foods.

For instance, you state that you have eaten no cholesterol, but you had scrambled eggs. Know what you are eating.

strandedeyes

I am not sure of your daily intake of the kinds of food, but try to have something different. I know I can have a spinach salad with tomatoes and some vingerette dressing and feel full but barely have spent 100 calories. Switch it up. If you need more recipes, one cookbook I love and recommend to anyone are the Hungry Girl Cookbooks. The author has written one thats called 200 under 200 (basically 200 recipes under 200 cals). There are some great filling foods in there that will help you stay within 1200 cals.

Now if you feel that MFP is off and you should be eating more, just change your goals (under goal settings) and customize it to what you feel is best for your body. Not everyone needs to be on a 1200 cal diet. Also remember, you will get more cals added to your diet as the cals from your exercise will work with you. There are some debates on whether or not to eat those calories and that is up to you, but I have felt stronger every since I started eating back those calories and have been pushing myself more at the gym. Maybe its related, maybe not, who knows.

Good luck and add me if you need any more fun recipes to help you!

flukes9

I know what you mean...mine says 1200 also and it's really difficult to stay at or under...really makes me realize how many calories I must've been eating when I wasn't keeping track! The good news is that you can go a bit over once in awhile and you might not lose as much, but you will at least maintain what you have. It's a guideline and it's not perfect....I have lost more than a pound in a week, which means that I could've eaten more than 1200 in a day and still lost. My best advice is to drink water before each meal to fill you up a bit and also to spread out your food. It's better for your body if you eat something small every few hours than eat 3 big meals...I do 3 small meals and a few snacks. Hope this helps!

pyro13g

whoops read it wrong

glassyo

Your problem is you're a 19 year old male trying to eat a 98 year old woman who can't get out of bed's calories. What are your stats and how much weight are you trying to lose each week? Generally, it's not healthy to lose more than 1% of your weight a week so if you're 150 lbs, you'd go for 1.5 lbs a week, 200 would be 2 lbs, etc.

As for the cholesterol, unless you already have high cholesterol and talked to your doctor, don't worry about the cholesterol in eggs. I've actually read accounts that eating more eggs lowered people's overall cholesterol.

Magatame

I see what you mean now, I'm 169lbs and I entered that I wanted to lose 2lbs a week.
Thanks for clearing that up