God help me, I'm starving

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13

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  • cansmith80
    cansmith80 Posts: 67
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    OMG, someone get this girl a burrito. Sweetpea, don't let yourself feel like you're starving. EVER. I started on MFP at 1200 calories. And within a month, I had skyrocketed in terms of my anxiety levels, my b!tchiness, and all-around misery. Now I'm reading The New Rules of Lifting for Women, I'm eating 1700 calories a day, and I'm a much nicer person and am STILL SEEING RESULTS. There's a ton of back-and-forth on MFP about this, but I will NEVER do a 1200 calorie diet again. I've learned that it puts my body into starvation mode and I stall in terms of progress and I come dangerously close to committing homicide on my husband. Eat your exercise calories!

    ^^^^YESSSS!!!
  • Angiechastain
    Angiechastain Posts: 18
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    And make sure you are getting your fiber and water in. That'll help with the hunger! You can do it!:heart:
  • kokaneesailor
    kokaneesailor Posts: 337 Member
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    Eat them up, yum!:smile:
  • silkandsugar
    silkandsugar Posts: 125
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    No no no no!! 1200 NET. Eat them back before you faint.
  • LordBezoar
    LordBezoar Posts: 625 Member
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    OMG, someone get this girl a burrito.

    I giggled when I read this...

    Seriously, though, you should never feel like you are STARVING. A little hunger is OK, but that feeling of Starving leads to Binges, Binges lead to Frustration and Frustration leads to the Dark Side... er... you get what I mean.
  • Jade17694
    Jade17694 Posts: 584 Member
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    EAT

    This.
    I thought you would have noticed that people eat at least some of their exercise calories back. If you didnt: you do now. Eat! :)
  • Sabresgal63
    Sabresgal63 Posts: 641 Member
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    Eat more food:bigsmile: and eat back your exercise calories. You will feel better and will still lose weight. MFP had me on the 1200 calorie thing....ugh.....too hungry. I am at 1390 cals and I eat back my exercise calories. Also, up your protein intake. Good luck!
  • hollyberry2012
    hollyberry2012 Posts: 253
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    God did help you. He gave you common sense right? So if you are starving eat a banana girl! If you are still 'starving' give it twenty minutes and then see how you feel....you're body KNOWS what it is doing but as with all of us, we let our minds tell us how and what to eat and our minds are SCREWED UP from years of doing the wrong things for whatever reason, pleasure, misery, anger, you name it.....

    There is no better time to start than today, letting the mind and body reorganize and sift thru the nonsense to get meaningful messages from your body about it's needs.
  • butterfly10398
    butterfly10398 Posts: 176
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    If you ask 100 different people this question you will no doubt get 100 different answers.... the truth is, you have to find what is right for you. listen to your body... if it is screaming at you that you need more food, then eat more food...
  • RockaholicMama
    RockaholicMama Posts: 786 Member
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    Eat your exercise calories! They are fuel!

    This! :)
  • MandaJean83
    MandaJean83 Posts: 677 Member
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    I think you should eat at least half of your exercise cals! For one, you're active...so you're netting lower than your BMR, most likely! This can stall weight loss. Second of all, you're in the home stretch of your weight loss...so upping your cals for a slower loss will be beneficial in easing into maintenance mode. Third of all, you're hungry for more food, which probably means your body is not getting enough fuel!

    I say go for it, wait a few weeks, and see what happens!
  • sjv1966
    sjv1966 Posts: 121 Member
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    Short answer -- yes, eat your exercise calories.

    Long answer/question -- how do people not see the BIG GREEN NUMBER on your home page or the smaller green number on the bottom of your food diary that is your calories remaining INCLUDING exercise calories? If you are logging your excercise the goal number on the bottom of your food diary will NOT be 1200.

    I wonder this every time someone says "MFP has me eating 1200 calories" but then also says that they are logging exercise. How is that possible? How are they not seeing that big green number?
  • leannems
    leannems Posts: 516 Member
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    Great job on switching your loss to 0.5lb per week - that'll give you more calories. And you really should consider eating at least 1/2 your exercise calories back.

    Just remember - on days you don't work out - there's no point in leaving calories behind. MFP sets your calorie goal so you lose even without exercising - so eat all of them. On days you do work out - you should eat some of your exercise calories on top of your normal calorie goal. A lot of people suggest eating at least 1/2 of your exercise calories back (since MFP may overestimate), but if you're hungry, eat as many back as you need and just see how it works for you.
  • theprettyone1010
    theprettyone1010 Posts: 408 Member
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    EAT YOUR EXERCISE CALORIES. Only eating 1200 cal a day and burning 500 cals is why you're so hungry. Your body doesn't have enough energy to get through the day.
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
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    Okay, okay. Rookie mistake!
    I just adjusted my weight loss goal from 1.5/week to .5/week which increased my calorie goal. If I'm still hungry, I'll tap into those exercise calories without feeling guilty!


    Cool! Now your on the right track. Getting too agressive has a counter productive effect. Keep working out and eat enough to fuel that. If your within 10 lbs, fitness might want to be your goal and not weight loss. What if I told you you would weigh the same but your body fat would be a better % and you'd look smokin' in everything you put on? Would you take that deal? Strength train and forget the scale!!

    PS: I still would not hold off, eat the exercise cals!!
  • sdrawkcabynot
    sdrawkcabynot Posts: 466 Member
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    Say what!? Maybe I don't understand this whole diary thing.... Today shows me a goal of 1200 calories. If I look at yesterday's entry, here's what I see:

    Totals: 1212
    Your Daily Goal: 1743
    Remaining: 531

    But yesterday's exercise was 543 calories. So, apparently it added my day's exercise calories back to my goal... which could cause me to eat them. Yes?

    You want your net to be as close to your Goal amount as possible. You should eat back your exercise calories.

    It started me off at 1200 calories when I first started... and found out that is not a good thing for a guy... I also lowered how much weight i wanted to lose weekly... 2lbs is for people that have a lot of weight to lose... I changed my to 1lb a week and it afforded me 2100 calories a day. When I exercise - i try to at least net 1600 calories.
  • Nikki_42
    Nikki_42 Posts: 298 Member
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    Say what!? Maybe I don't understand this whole diary thing.... Today shows me a goal of 1200 calories. If I look at yesterday's entry, here's what I see:

    Totals: 1212
    Your Daily Goal: 1743
    Remaining: 531

    But yesterday's exercise was 543 calories. So, apparently it added my day's exercise calories back to my goal... which could cause me to eat them. Yes?

    You're definitely supposed to be eating your exercise calories. The reason you're starving is because you ARE starving your body. Ie> If you goal said 1200, you exercised off 500, you're only getting 700 a day.

    Eat what you exercise off. Even if you don't eat all of those calories back (and you can), eat most of them.
  • scmcgee
    scmcgee Posts: 165
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    OMG, someone get this girl a burrito. Sweetpea, don't let yourself feel like you're starving. EVER. I started on MFP at 1200 calories. And within a month, I had skyrocketed in terms of my anxiety levels, my b!tchiness, and all-around misery. Now I'm reading The New Rules of Lifting for Women, I'm eating 1700 calories a day, and I'm a much nicer person and am STILL SEEING RESULTS. There's a ton of back-and-forth on MFP about this, but I will NEVER do a 1200 calorie diet again. I've learned that it puts my body into starvation mode and I stall in terms of progress and I come dangerously close to committing homicide on my husband. Eat your exercise calories!

    ^^^^This is true! You need to up your calories to 1600 or 1700 AND eat your calories back from exercises.....Listen to your body and don't starve yourself. Make good choices with your eating - limit processed foods and eat REAL food so you don't starve yourself.
  • TeslaJoule
    TeslaJoule Posts: 62 Member
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    Just wanted to say that this comment:

    "here is a guide for setting weekly wight loss goals:
    If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal,
    If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal,
    If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal,
    If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal, and
    If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal."

    really helped me when I was complaining of the same thing as OP, so THANKS to whoever posted that! Turns out I had lost enough that my BMR was HIGHER...so I was burning more calories at rest. So by switching to the .5lb a week, I was at my new BMR. I feel SO much better eating a higher base of cals and eating back my exercise cals. And now my 5 mile runs aren't nearly as brutal! :) got to fat2fit.com and look to see what yours really should be! You'll be glad you did! :)
  • LivingHealthyLovingLife
    LivingHealthyLovingLife Posts: 56
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    Net calories work differently on different people, me personally they have little meaning cause anything I eat over 1500 calories = a weight gain for me, no matter the amount of exercise I get, but I do know people who have to eat their bonus calories. Try to keep a net calorie of 1200 for a while and see how that works for you. I have learned through smart eating that you can have 1200 or so gross calories and still not feel hungry. For an example, send me a friends request and then take a look at my diary for today.
    Good luck and remember it's old school thinking to believe you have to be hungry to lose weight.

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