UNDEREATING FRIEND. Should I speak up?

mmwerner

What should we do if it seems to be that one of our My Fitness Pal friends is chronically undereating according to their food diary? And by undereating I do not mean just a few calories but by 500 calories under or more!!

Should we try to encourage them to eat more, or just mind our own business and let people live their own lives?

What would YOU do?

SONIA820

For me, I would probably fit your description of under eating....I don't do it intentionally. I am changing the way I eat, I am adding more fruits and vegetables and eating less breads and cookies and MILK for sure...

I have never had a problem losing, I think because I am eating so well..... I think each person has to find what works for them, too often there are too many people who are chomping at the bit trying to tell them what they are doing wrong. Not everyone fits into the Eat More camp...I don't. IF you absolutely feel the need to poke your head in and say something, then PLEASE for the love of god do it nicely and politely. If they are losing consistently and are not complaining of being hungry or tired or whatever, then it probably doesn't bother them and therefore shouldn't bother you. If you feel you truly can not be supportive of whatever choices they make for themselves, then simply remove them from your friends list.

Get_Me_Fit1

I'd say something. Its really not good for them to be doing that! They're damaging their body more than they think!

yarwell

What would YOU do?

Inadequate data, Captain.

500 calories under what ? How much are they actually eating, and is it a varied healthy intake. Are they overweight / obese / dangerously underweight.

If someone was underweight and eating only 200g of carbs per day and very little else I would comment on that. They are only an MFP friend and if they don't like it the worst outcome is they unfriend you. Would that be a big deal ?

Dave198lbs

just ask them...dude..whats up with the low calorie thing? maybe they dont log everything....maybe they got a damn good reason....just ask....stop the drama rama

jimmie25

i delete people who undereat on daily basis. like someone said, they're only MFP's, I couldn't help them anyway.

99clmsntgr

500 calories under what ?

Yep, need more data. Not just content, but 500 calories under what goal? If their daily calorie goal is 1200 calories and they're regularly 500 calories under that, yeah, I'd say something. If their daily calorie goal was 2500 calories (not unheard of in maintenance or for those who actually want to gain), I probably wouldn't unless their macros were way out of whack.

But I've been known to leave a few "Wow, just be really careful if you're going to let your net be that low..." comments in my time here. And there have been a handful of times that the person just went through the day, ate when hungry, and didn't realize their count was that low until they added it all up at the end of the day. It happens.

BandedTriaRN

Maybe they are on a special diet? Maybe they don't log everything? Maybe just ask them? I'm on a supervised (by a Dr and dietitian) diet with lap band surgery. According to MFP, I under eat. Geez, it is really hard to eat 1200 calories without eating crap when you can only eat 1 cup (at most) every meal and ONLY 3 meals a day. I put that in my profile tho so people won't freak out but amazingly I have an occasional person telling me to eat more or eat my exercise calories back, etc. Honestly, I pay $90/month or more to see my Bariatric surgeon (plus more for the lap band surgery), why would I not follow his orders?

There might be more to it tho, maybe they are doing the "starvation" diet? You can ask politely. I really don't think anyone should be deleting a friend because they don't eat what YOU think they should unless it seems they are horribly anorexic or doing something truly dangerous?

thankyou4thevenom

I am also going with the 500 cals under what? I have my goal set at maintenance, despite being on a 'diet', so I'm often 1000 cals under goal. On some days it's much more depending on my fitbit adjustment.