Anyone else feel guilty about eating all their daily calorie

jessbb23

MFP says I should be eating 1210 to lose 1lb a week. I have been eating between 900-1050. If I hit 1100 I feel like I am going to gain weight and if I eat 1200 I feel like I feel off the wagon. Is it normal to feel like this? Some days I am hungry and could eat more, but other days I'm just not hungry and have to make myself eat to get to 900. I have 60-70 lbs more to lose. Down 12 since Jan 1st. I'm hoping this isn't going to get worse as time goes on.

Rays_Wife

Sounds like you have the same evil voices in your head that I do. Not only do I eat my calorie allowance now, I eat back most of my exercise calories. And I feel IMMENSE guilt. But you know what? That is just the result of years of bad dieting advice that has been ingrained in my head. Everyone always told me you need to eat less to lose weight. Well that is true to some extent. But you also have to remember your body needs fuel to function and stay healthy. You should be eating at least 1200 a day to maintain basic healthy function, more if you are exercising. I know it's hard (trust me, I had issues eating over 1200 cals a day too at first) but just have faith that this works, because it does. Every time those voices tell me "OMG you are eating too much!" I just shut them up by reminding myself that I am losing weight EVERY. WEEK. eating all of my allotted calories.

You can do this! If you continue to have issues eating the proper amount of food I would recommend seeing a therapist maybe? I know I have food issues, and it sounds like you may too. Just a thought. I definitely know how you feel though. Feeling guilt over eating is a hard thing to overcome, trust me I know. Just try it and see. You will be amazed by the results

jessbb23

Thanks for your insight and encouragement! I guess maybe I do have some distorted views on food/weight loss. It helps to know I'm not the only one who struggles with this.

LorinaLynn

It's "common" to feel that way, but it's not normal or healthy.

Your body NEEDS fuel. 1200 calories is the minimum anyone should eat. You should probably be eating more than that, not less. If you only get 1200 calories to lose 1# a week, you probably should aim to lose a half pound a week instead.

The sad truth of it is that if you continue to eat under 1000 calories a day, you're going to screw up your metabolism so bad that you WILL only be able to eat 1200. Don't do that to yourself.

Guilt is a powerful emotion. It should be reserved for times when you really did something wrong. Eating food is not something to feel guilty about. Ever. Unless you ate someone else's lunch.

purpleipod

Eating 1200 calories is not even close to falling off the wagon -_-

So no, I do not feel like that.

Pebble321

Perhaps you need to look at the numbers in a different way, here's an exercise that night help:
Set up your goals again, but this time set your activity level to include exercise (you might choose active, for example) and your weight loss goal to maintenance.
This will show you how many calories a day you need to eat to stay the same weight... And I'm betting it will be significantly higher than 1100. If you take 500 cals away from the total you will see how many calories you can eat and still lose around a pound a week.

jrock317

I do, I do, I do! I feel guilty if I eat my daily calories or even come pretty close (even if I'm slightly under). I know I have an unhealthy relationship with food. I shouldn't view it as evil or good, I should view it as fuel and make sure my "tank" is never on empty.

It's going to take years for us to undo our bad habits. I'm with you on this one!

PBmaria

Hell no. I eat EVERY SINGLE ONE of my calories. I earned them, didn't I?

Hernandeak11

I know exactly what you mean..but then I remember how much weight I've lost so far, and how much healthier I feel and I realize it's just nonsense.

Therdigh

Yesterday I was able to avoid eating out and ate all day long. I still had over 100 calories left at the end of the day due to exercise calories. I woke up feeling so guilty today. This is my 2nd week and I am not fully trusting the process yet. I guess I will find out when I way on Friday.

jhardenbergh

I feel guilty 6 out of 7 days a week eating all my calories, they one day I don't per week is usally on weigh in day, cause I know I can get the work in to burn it before next weigh in day. I never eat all of my exercise calories back either. Only on special occassions like birthdays, weddings, etc... I am messed up I know.

Coyla

Feeling guilty for eating means you have a bad relationship with food. It's likely what caused you to overeat in the first place, and it could lead to a lot of trouble in the future. Those of us who struggle with food can do one extreme or the other. We can starve ourselves or gorge ourselves, because both make us miserable. And we like misery. It's moderation we can't handle.

I think you need to work on your relationship with food first, before you start to diet. Either that or increase your calorie intake to 1800/1900, reminding yourself every time you've eaten to the point of satisfaction that this is exactly how a healthy person should feel.

Sometimes we get too busy obsessing over the numbers, the calories we've eaten, the weight we've lost, and we forget the important thing. If we don't learn to have a healthy relationship with food first, then we're not treating the problem, just the symptom.

bjwbmw

i took someone else's advice and eat net 1200. This seems to be working.

PuliGT

Sadly I never even come close.

Tashaney

Listen to your body and stay active. Toss the guilt out the window.

Nana_Booboo

It's "common" to feel that way, but it's not normal or healthy.

Your body NEEDS fuel. 1200 calories is the minimum anyone should eat. You should probably be eating more than that, not less. If you only get 1200 calories to lose 1# a week, you probably should aim to lose a half pound a week instead.

The sad truth of it is that if you continue to eat under 1000 calories a day, you're going to screw up your metabolism so bad that you WILL only be able to eat 1200. Don't do that to yourself.

Guilt is a powerful emotion. It should be reserved for times when you really did something wrong. Eating food is not something to feel guilty about. Ever. Unless you ate someone else's lunch.

What she said!!!

Please learn this, that this needs to be a life style change to keep the changes you make. Can you live on 1200 cal? I sure can't. Nana eats.

Please eat.

hubkal

I went to see a dietitian today, it was nice to have this log to show her (lucky also that I work in a hospital and got this advice for free) she told me that I was not eating enough, I was in the minus for too long and that YES I should eat back my earned calories in general, but try not to go over 1400 calories a day while trying to cut weight (I am 5'10 and active) That made me feel better. She also explained that terrible "Sugar" that always seems to turn red on me in the minus column. Get rid of it! if you have a product that has 19g of sugar, see where it comes from, if sugar is not on the ingredient list than you are in the clear, the sugar comes from another more healthy form and not white table sugar. What a relief, I have been fighting that one for two weeks! So I took it off of my list of "seen" or "followed" items in nutrients and replaced it with carbs. I DO stay under my carbs. We can do this folks! we can pull this together and be strong and healthy, all of us are in different places with our weight and brains. But getting healthy for ourselves and the people around us should be in the forefront of our brains. one step at a time...literally!

BrendaLee

If I'm doing well, haven't gone over my calories for a few days and am losing weight steadily, I'm okay with eating up to my limit. When the weight stops coming off, though, I start to feel desperate and want to save every calorie I can.

junyr

I feel perfectly fine, and even if I'm a touch over some days it's ok too.

zorbaru

i dont even feel guilty if i go over my daily calories. as long as i dont go more than 500 over im pretty happy.

the longer this takes the better i think. as long as i trend down in the long run all is good. the longer it takes the easier it will be to maintain.

froeschli

I don't exactly fel guilty, but when I get close to my calorie limit, I start bargaining with myself:" 30 mins of exercise for that piece of dessert"...

familytime

If there is guilt to be found, I will "sniff it out" and make it mine. I feel more comfortable "emotionally" if I leave myself a buffer between what I actually eat and what I should eat. I know, it's not good, and I appreciate reading other's posts to help me get my head on straight. I don't have a hard time hitting my limit when I dine out, and funny thing, I don't feel guilty about those calories. But when I eat at home, which is most of the time, I struggle to eat enough calories and feel like I don't deserve them. Odd, I know.

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Rays_Wife

i took someone else's advice and eat net 1200. This seems to be working.

This is what works for me too. Today I was allowed 2017 cals, earned 617 from exercise. I ate 1832 cals, had 185 left over cause I wasn't hungry anymore so I netted 1215. I've steadily been losing at a healthy rate every week (1-3 pounds).

41degsouth

My height (and I guess being male) means my target to lose 1lb/week is to eat 2140 calories net. That'll sound like a lot to someone who is smaller in stature, and it does help in some ways as one cupcake (or whatever) is a smaller percentage of my daily target.

Net of exercise I have often come in 150-250 calories under this, and I'm quite comfortable with that, as I'd quite like to lose 700g/week rather than the 450g/1lb of the target. I don't let it go further than this though. I've had days where a by-chance smaller breakfast and dinner may leave me with over 900 net calories outstanding (“Oh! No wonder I'm so hungry!") and I'll then reduce the deficit to about 250 by eating something else.

The lifestyle argument is the key thing. Trust the target as being what is needed to lead to weight loss, but also eat something that is close enough to your future maintenance intake that you're actually training yourself about what you'll need to eat in the long term. When you have big deficits, you're learning to diet. When you eat at or close to target, you're learning to eat...