so full with 800+ calorie deficiency

unmitigatedbadassery

How many calories are you on?

my number is 2,000.

crewellademel

The way I get around this is a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack (for me 200 calories each). Since I work out in the PM if I don't get most of my calories into me by 4pm I'm doomed. I agree, I'm NOT hungry but I eat anyway since that is the only way to get the wt to come off. If I deficet that much routinely my wt loss slows. Protien shakes and yogurt are my go toos.

bookwormie

I'm honestly confused - as usual - and I've really given up trying to understand how this all works, and so have been going with 1200 and exercising as much as possible.

The "Goal" setting tells me there's no way I can lose more than 0.7 lbs/ week no matter how high/ often I change the exercise amounts. That seems to be correct: I'm not losing weight regardless of exercising every day. I think it's because I'm under 5 feet and I have a desk job. But I have no idea if I'm not eating enough. And my maintenance would be 1530. So how much do you suppose an extremely overweight short woman with an office job is supposed to be eating? Thanks for any ideas...

TAWoody

Well without you opening your Diary we can't see what you've been eating. DON'T eat low fat ANYTHING. Not only will everything taste better but you'll get more calories and not have to do a darn thing.

ruststar

I'm honestly confused - as usual - and I've really given up trying to understand how this all works, and so have been going with 1200 and exercising as much as possible.

The "Goal" setting tells me there's no way I can lose more than 0.7 lbs/ week no matter how high/ often I change the exercise amounts. That seems to be correct: I'm not losing weight regardless of exercising every day. I think it's because I'm under 5 feet and I have a desk job. But I have no idea if I'm not eating enough. And my maintenance would be 1530. So how much do you suppose an extremely overweight short woman with an office job is supposed to be eating? Thanks for any ideas...

The guided mode gives you a goal number based off your daily activity level. So it gives you 1200 for a sedentary lifestyle/job. If you also exercise and you enter that into MFP your goal will adjust to reflect the additional calories you burned. Your maintenance calories are 1530 then 1200 gives you a calorie deficit of 330, which is around a safe .5-.7 pound a week loss and appropriate for someone who's only hoping to lose 30 pounds (I'm going off your signature). MFP doesn't assume you'll actually do the exercise you plan to when you set your goals, so exercise doesn't change your goal until you actually enter it on a particular day. The point of all this is not to quickly lose weight but to change your lifestyle to the thinner person you want to be. Play around with the "guided" goal setting and see what the maintenance calories are for your goal weight. That's a safe amount to be eating right now because when you get to your goal you'll be eating that amount for the rest of your life. The more you exercise the more you get to eat, which is my number one reason to exercise! Besides the fact that I like it, of course .

bookwormie

Thanks! I would never have thought to look up my "new" maintenance number (feels really inspiring, actually - it's been too long since I was healthy). Next step will be to try and figure out how on earth to actually eat that much, since I'm a vegetarian strongly leaning toward veganism... I don't really want to be filling up on bread.

bookwormie

Argh. My "new" weight's maintenance setting is only 1370. So I guess once I've done all this work for months and months and lost all this weight, I'll be able to eat one extra serving of nuts a day without worrying about gaining weight. I hate my genes. :ohwell:

coopahson

I completely disagree with "eating your excercise calories". It may sound harsh, but I believe that that is taking the easy way out. The only real science is calories in vs. calories out. There is no reason to eat more than you need to, period. Eating more than you need to gets you into the spot that we are all in currently. My advice, don't eat the exercise calories! You will reach your goal a lot quicker AND you won't be having to force yourself to eat.

You'll also kick your body into starvation mode and wake up one morning twenty pounds heavier, with no clue what happened.

coopahson

I completely disagree with "eating your excercise calories". It may sound harsh, but I believe that that is taking the easy way out. The only real science is calories in vs. calories out. There is no reason to eat more than you need to, period. Eating more than you need to gets you into the spot that we are all in currently. My advice, don't eat the exercise calories! You will reach your goal a lot quicker AND you won't be having to force yourself to eat.

That's what I thought we were supposed to do... I'm so confused now. I always have a daily calorie deficit and it's usually quite significant. I may have to start up a new thread to address this new concern I have lol

I had never heard of this concept of eating back the cals burned through exercise until now. It makes sense but I do not agree with your statement, at least based on my experience. I was 260 lbs about. 3 months ago and now down to 230 I eat about 1700 cals a day but burn of 1000 or so 5 days a week with exercise. This essentially leaves me plus 700 cals daily for those 5 days. I do not feel hungry, if I do a banana does the job. Perhaps my weight loss will slow down and I will need to eat more to avoid starvation mode. Interesting thread.

DonPendergraft

800+ is too much. But I regularly leave about 500. Sounds about right for good weight loss. Just add a few handfuls of almonds and call it good!