Are You Eating the Right Number of Calories??

PhiliciousCurves

Since joining MFP, I've been eating approximately 1,200 calories per day. Some days, I eat more and some days I eat less! However lately, I've been feeling extremely tired, :yawn: plus I find that I'm getting more headaches than normal. Of course, one thing may have nothing to do with the other. Right? Right! My headaches could be brought on by stress! Hmmmm…….maybe, but I don’t agree with that! I’m the type of person that steers from any types of stress, and it doesn’t matter if its work related or home related! My philosophy is based on if I can’t control the situation; I accept it, because it is what it is, so “que sera sera,” so I don’t think stress has much to do with my frequent headaches. I’ve concluded that maybe I’m not eating enough!

I'm not certain, but it seems that 1,200 calories per day is the norm, but I've checked ten different websites that offers some form of calculating the number of calories an individual should be eating per day, and based on my sex, age, weight, height, weight goal, and my level of exercise (I entered lightly active), I got 10 different numbers! Only one website (www.caloriecount.about.com) gave me 1,200 calories, another one indicated that I should be eating over 2,000 calories, while the others provided me with an average of 1,533 calories. Of course none of this is completely accurate, but based on the way I've been feeling lately, I just thought I would check it out; maybe you should also!

zml_mom

i was eating 1200 a day and burning 600-900 a day and kept feeling hungry and tired so I upped my calories to around 1500 daily and have noticed a huge difference and they scale is starting to go down again as well

christinar2008

If I don't get enough water I get headaches. You may try changing your goal to lose 1 lb a week and if you exercise you don't have to worry about eating back those calories. Mine was at 1200 for 2 lbs a week. At 1 lb a week it was 1340. I seem to do better at the 1340 when I exercise. By the end of the day I am close to 1200 cals after exercise and I get to eat more throughout the day.

emmaNEEDSskinny

yes this is mosrt likely the reason
ive checked other websotes to and it says i should be eating wayyyy more then i do

Annette_rose

Like you, I never know if I am eating the right amount either. I have mine set at 1,200 also and started at 165 and have only lost 10 lbs and even that fluxuates daily it seems. I am very fatigued also. The whole calorie thing is very confusing to me also as I told my daughter that many of the "skinny" people I know don't eat a whole lot of calories.

Soulbird81

1200 is the MINIMUM amount you should be consuming a day. You should eat more than this when you work out. If you are working out and still only consuming 1200 or less that is why you're tired and getting headaches, you're not replenishing the calories that you've burned off by working out.

This could also explain why some sites are telling you to get over 2000 a day. These sites are most likely taking into consideration how active you inputed that you are, thus giving you all of the calories you need in a day to maintain proper nutrition. Obviously on the days you're not working out you need to stick as close to 1200 as possible (reaching but not going much over) since you won't be burning anything outside of normal movement for that day.

When you add activity, especially activity that burns a lot of calorie, you need to feed your body what it burned off.

mrsvatitagain

All of those are possible reasons, you have to get enough nutrients. But I get headaches if I dont drink enough water and I eat 1500 calories a day.

meli_medina

1,200 is not enough, especially if you are working out on top of the dieting. Even sometimes at 1500 per day, I get really tired and fatigued, especially following a super active day where getting enough calories was my challenge of the day.

I would suggest lowering your loss even so far as .5 per week. You might find that it makes you feel better, even if you don't lose as fast. Good luck! All the flibberty gibberty with calories is definitely a challenge!

Pam3

if you are not feeling well( headaches, tired ect) definitely look into eating more calories...maybe you need more protein, carbs, fiber, not enough vitamins ,, check a multi vitamin.....check the report section to see how many grams of these different foods you are getting.....

feel better:flowerforyou: