Am I not eating enough calories?

sivankeren

I'm weigh 155 pounds, and by MFP my BMR is 1,563 calories/day. Setting to lose a pound and a half a week, the net calories given to me by the site is 1200. Now, I see a lot of posts hating on that number, saying that it counts starving yourself and the wrong way to lose weight (and a lot of "I won't friend you if you eat onlu 1200").
However, I'm not even starving myself. I even eat pretty much the same stuff I did before, minus the sweets and much less carbs, and I never stay hungry.
So the question is- should I up my calories? Is 1200, even if it is what MFP tells me, not enough?

tsh0ck

personally, I feel like that's just nowhere near enough. at least, for me. shoot, sometimes I hit that with two meals. I'd be sure not to get lower ... and you can always set for 1 lb a week and eat just a bit more.

Jenjaz1910

I'm weigh 155 pounds, and by MFP my BMR is 1,563 calories/day. Setting to lose a pound and a half a week, the net calories given to me by the site is 1200. Now, I see a lot of posts hating on that number, saying that it counts starving yourself and the wrong way to lose weight (and a lot of "I won't friend you if you eat onlu 1200").
However, I'm not even starving myself. I even eat pretty much the same stuff I did before, minus the sweets and much less carbs, and I never stay hungry.
So the question is- should I up my calories? Is 1200, even if it is what MFP tells me, not enough?

My personal opinion is yes you should be eating more! Do you eat back your exercise cals?! At 1,200 cals yes you will lose and probably quite quickly but from my own experience it will go back on x

sivankeren

My personal opinion is yes you should be eating more! Do you eat back your exercise cals?! At 1,200 cals yes you will lose and probably quite quickly but from my own experience it will go back on x

When I exercise, I eat most of the calories back, but I don't exercise everyday

jessie1480

YOu have to listen yo your body. I was feeling very tired and weak at the number of calories mpf gave me, then I platued. I upped my calories to just above my BMR and feel great and am loosing again. If you pay attention to your body it will tell you if your metabolism is starting to slow or not.

salxtai

You're free to make up your mind on this, but just a heads up on the method I found worked well for me to find out how much I should be eating:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/477666-eating-for-future-you-method

Jenjaz1910

How about try upping your cals and seeing how it goes for a month?! I was stuck at 150 for months and upped my cals and lost 2.3lbs!! So it does work, it's a slower process but easier to maintain x

annetterene

I stick to about 1200 to 1400 calories a day even when I am exercising. For a woman, I don't think 1200 is unreasonable. I try to get lots of fresh fruits and vegetables and watch my protein intake. If you are having trouble losing weight though, you might want to increase your calories.

Lesleyannegreenhalgh123

I have only just joined and to lose a steady 1.5 pounds been given 1200 calories , but I'm struggling to eat them

AndMee

I've been told that a 1200 calorie diet is not enough because of the metabolism isn't getting enough to get kicked in the butt to be motivated and that 1300 calorie diet is more preferable.

osualex

I know everyone says it's not enough but I think it's really up to you. Are you losing on 1200? Are you hungry on 1200? If your answers are yes and no, keep doing what you're doing if it's working. I'm way too hungry on 1200, personally, but I do lose on that amount very well.

meshashesha2012

if you're eating back your exercise calories then it should be fine. technically i eat 1200+my exercise calories and noone could ever accuse me of not eating enough :laugh:

ATT949

I'm weigh 155 pounds, and by MFP my BMR is 1,563 calories/day. Setting to lose a pound and a half a week, the net calories given to me by the site is 1200. Now, I see a lot of posts hating on that number, saying that it counts starving yourself and the wrong way to lose weight (and a lot of "I won't friend you if you eat onlu 1200").
However, I'm not even starving myself. I even eat pretty much the same stuff I did before, minus the sweets and much less carbs, and I never stay hungry.
So the question is- should I up my calories? Is 1200, even if it is what MFP tells me, not enough?

Hundreds of thousands of people have lost weight quickly and safely eating 800 to 1000 cals/day. It really doesn't matter that some folks here at MFP get bent out of shape about it.

The moderators have asked me not to use the name of the clinic so I won't reveal it here but the short story is - in business for 40+ years and have 40 clinics today (located in Southern California). Average weight loss, by one study 15 years ago, was 2.3 pounds per week over a 10 week program.

My fiancée runs one of their clinics and, when we met, she shared some success stories, including her own. I spent some time at the clinic, met some people, looked at the before and after pictures, and decided I could do it. I didn't sign up with them, I did it on my own.

http://cbeinfo.net/weight.htm

I rarely ate > 1k net cals and I did tell some folks the "good news" about my diet. Many folks didn't share my joy, to the extent that one poster wanted to have me banned because I was "promoting" a "dangerous diet".

There's a lot of push back if you admit that you go below 1200 cals but if you're feeling good at that calorie level and don't have medical complications that would preclude it, I don't see a reason to not pursue it.

Just read another posting about "gaining the weight back faster". Piffle. You don't gain weight because of how you lost weight. Excluding getting pregnant, people gain weight by taking in more calories than they expend. Blaming a diet for weight gain makes no sense — people gain weight because they start to shovel food in their mouth again, not because of how they lost weight.

rininger85

it isn't the number 1200 that is bad - if thats what it says you need to eat to lose weight then do it, but you should be eating your exercise cals back which it sounds like you should - the bad thing is if people set their goal at 1200 because there is some diet plan that says to eat 1200 calories a day... it doesn't take in to account your BMR, or if you only eat 1200 calories then burn 300 calories you're really at 900 calories for the day which is probably far too low... but if you NET 1200 a day thats fine if you are following what they say to do, and are eating foods that give you the vitamins you need / taking vitamin supplements....

rininger85

 people gain weight because they start to shovel food in their mouth again, not because of how they lost weight.

true, but really the message that isn't getting through is that you have to change your lifestyle. You can't just do this for a few months and lose the weight you want then go back to eating whatever you want (which you've pointed out), really I think the message people are trying to get through by saying not to lose weight too fast is that you have to make a change that you can live with... 800-1000 calories a day probably won't last for the rest of your life... but it can get you to your goal then add a few back in to maintain... its just easier to make a life change slowly than it is quickly...

ATT949

 people gain weight because they start to shovel food in their mouth again, not because of how they lost weight.

true, but really the message that isn't getting through is that you have to change your lifestyle. You can't just do this for a few months and lose the weight you want then go back to eating whatever you want (which you've pointed out), really I think the message people are trying to get through by saying not to lose weight too fast is that you have to make a change that you can live with... 800-1000 calories a day probably won't last for the rest of your life... but it can get you to your goal then add a few back in to maintain... its just easier to make a life change slowly than it is quickly...

I understand why you say that but I do not agree with you.

I don't personally know anyone on MFP (who's ever posted anything) so I have to take people at their word.

The message that people are trying to get through is the message that they are typing in.

The message that's sent repeatedly is that all sorts of bad things will happen if you eat less than 1200 calories per day. I don't recall any exceptions to my assertion — it's a blanket condemnation of a very valuable approach to losing weight that has helped hundreds of thousands of people get healthy and, without question, has saved many people from dying at a young age or living a miserable existence. Yet, because they can type in a user name and password, many folks here feel empowered to condemn it.

A diet has no inherent ability to teach anyone anything. A diet is manifestation of a plan of action, that's it. A diet has no impact on an individual's weight. None, zero, zip, nada.

No, it's the fact that we "follow" a diet that causes us to lose weight and eat less.

If you don't change your relationship with food you can lose weight quickly, slowly, or somewhere in between but it will be all for naught unless you change how you think about food.

The type of diet does not matter for squat when it comes to gaining weight because the diet, itself, doesn't exist — except to be a whipping boy.

One fellow here on MFP blamed his low calorie diet because he'd gained back his weight…3 years later! Sad. Sad 'cause the guy's fat again but it's also sad that he blamed "a diet". And he passes along his ignorance and bias and people eat it up (pardon the pun).


This lady lost 120 pounds and is heartbroken:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/416937-extra-skin

I lost 110 pounds (+/-) and have zero "extra skin" - to bad she used the wrong kind of diet, eh*? ;-)


*completely tongue in cheek, please do understand.

katrabbit

I'm not a doctor; nor am I a dietitian. I'm a 30 year old woman who has always weighed more than she should. My "prime" weight is 155lbs. (This was the weight I was just exiting basic training for the Army, where I can absolutely say it's the best shape I've ever been in my life.)

Recently, I noticed I was gaining weight and it was staying on. My weight fluxes between 165 and 170 normally. When I reached 175 and was creeping up to 180, I knew there was a problem. Add into that, on my 6 month checkup with my doctor - my cholesterol is 1pt away from being high. So I did what I thought was best, which was see a dietitian.

My dietitian asked me to write down everything I ate for a week before our appointment. I did it with MFP (as well as exercise!). When I went in for my appointment, it showed I was eating about 900 calories a day. On exercise days, I was trying eat that back, but I either have a really small stomach, or eat really filling foods - because I could not eat that much.

The dietitian was flabberghasted. I've been tired my entire life - it takes me normally 3+ hours in the "morning" to wake up, I almost always needed a nap in the middle of the day, and I would sleep for 12+ hours every night if I had the chance. I've been to sleep studies, tested for just about every hormone problem in the world including thyroid every six months.

My problem was that simple. I'm not eating enough! I told her I was trying for 1200 calories a day, and she told me that women should be eating at LEAST 1200 calories a day. Due to the fact that I lead a fairly active lifestyle and exercise when I can, I can easily consume 1400 calories a day and still lose weight. She also suggested that I do NOT eat back my calories from exercise, as I don't do it regularly.

As I type this, I feel like I'm going to go into a food coma. I'm full. I've been full all day, and I'm still short 300 calories. However, in a week and a half I've lost 9lbs, and 2 inches.

So.. yeah. I'm convinced that's been my problem this entire time. I'm not eating enough. I suggest you do what the others say - eat when you're hungry (just eat HEALTHY!) and see what your caloric intake is.