I Can't Eat Anymore!!!

Ron6098

OK so I'm 6' 1" and weigh 220. My caloric maintenance is 2500 and my caloric goal is 1500. I'm trying to get back to 200 in the next couple months for my sisters wedding. I eat a tone of food and exercise quite a bit. Almost everything I eat is healthy (chicken, egg whites, broccoli oatmeal etc) and I want to keep it that way. However considering I burn between 900 and 1200 calories each day of exercise (80-90 min of cardio and weights) 6 days per week, I'm having trouble getting to my 1500 goal. My net calories are typically between 500 and 1000. I should probably mention that I keep my protien intake very high and try to keep my carb intake low especially during and after dinner

The thing is, I feel great and don't feel the need to force down more food just to make my 1500 goal. Isn't it safe to just listen to what your body needs? Eat more on the days your body is craving nutrition. I'm kinda at a loss due to the fact that everyone says its not safe and what not. Any thoughts and/or has anyone been in the same boat with negative or positive outcomes?

A couple final things, my calories burned is based off of my heart rate monitor and I record everything I eat into this app.

BarackMeLikeAHurricane

I can go three or four days without feeling hungry. Hunger isn't always the best indicator that you need to eat. Just eat a few spoonfuls of peanut butter until you hit your goal.

weird_me2

Nothing wrong with wanting to keep eating healthy, but if you are eating so many low calorie / low carb / high protein foods that you can't get enough calories in to maintain basic functions, you should try to find a way to eat more calories.

Simple solution - 1 oz walnuts with your oatmeal in the morning, keep the yolks with the eggs, sautee the chicken in a touch of olive oil, drizzle your veggies with olive oil, eat a few nuts as a snack. Doing just a few of those things can add 500 calories to your day but virtually no volume.

ETA: It's really easy to convince yourself that you are "stuffed" or super satisfied when first starting a diet, but if you don't make the effort to truly get enough food, over time you will probably find that you are more likely to end up binging or needing to cheat and you will probably also find that it's harder and harder to stay on plan. You want to lose 20 lbs in 2 months, which means you need about 1000 calorie deficit. Set your goal to lose 2 lbs per week and eat what MFP gives you (the 1500 + the exercise calories) and you should still meet your goal if you are accurate in your activity level and calories burned. You don't have to starve yourself and only eat 1500 calories a day if you are burning 3500. Eating 2000 or 2500 calories a day should give you the results you are hoping for.

JesterMFP

I can go three or four days without feeling hungry. Hunger isn't always the best indicator that you need to eat. Just eat a few spoonfuls of peanut butter until you hit your goal.

^This. Also, nuts, cheese, avocados, olive oil, full fat dairy etc. Whole eggs instead of egg whites. Milk, smoothies, protein shakes... "Healthy" food does not necessarily mean low-calorie food. Get more calories, and you'll likely find that your appetite returns. "Listening to your body" seems to work well for those people who easily maintain their weight over years, without tracking or counting calories. For the rest of us... not so much. People who under-eat are often not very hungry, while people who over-eat are often still hungry despite having eaten lots.

Or... why not cut back on the cardio a bit? There comes a point where you're not actually benefiting by doing more and more, other than the calorie burn. This is especially true of hours and hours of low intensity steady-state. If you can't eat enough to compensate, maybe it would be better to do less cardio?

horseplaypen

My boyfriend has a similar issue, except his goal is 3000 cal/day BEFORE exercise... and he CrossFits, so that's a fair amount of calories burned. We've been tackling his food intake seriously for the past week so he can make some much-desired strength gains. When we first started tracking his normal foods, he was eating 2000/day - NOT net - on a GOOD day!!

You can take a look at his food diary here if it helps:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/dwvet14

He also eats (mostly) primal/slow carb/high protein.

saltedcaramel86

I'm having this problem slightly. I eat full fat dairy, oils, peanut butter, etc but because I'm pescetarian (fish but no other meat) and consume a lot of veggies and fruit which are mostly low cal, I can eat a LOT but still not enough. Add in exercise and I'm netting about 1300 (on maintence so should be at least 1800). I weighed earlier (and bearing in mind it's that time of the month so lots of water retention and bloating) and I seem to have dropped down to just over 9 stone, but I WANT to stay at 9.5. I'm now starting weight lifting so that's going to factor in and my trainer wants to me hit at LEAST 2000 on training days (so most days really, ha!). So, I'm going to get some protein powder/shakes as it can help give me that boost if I'm down some days. Maybe have a look into that?

caspergirl7

OK so I'm 6' 1" and weigh 220. My caloric maintenance is 2500 and my caloric goal is 1500. I'm trying to get back to 200 in the next couple months for my sisters wedding. I eat a tone of food and exercise quite a bit. Almost everything I eat is healthy (chicken, egg whites, broccoli oatmeal etc) and I want to keep it that way. However considering I burn between 900 and 1200 calories each day of exercise (80-90 min of cardio and weights) 6 days per week, I'm having trouble getting to my 1500 goal. My net calories are typically between 500 and 1000. I should probably mention that I keep my protien intake very high and try to keep my carb intake low especially during and after dinner

The thing is, I feel great and don't feel the need to force down more food just to make my 1500 goal. Isn't it safe to just listen to what your body needs? Eat more on the days your body is craving nutrition. I'm kinda at a loss due to the fact that everyone says its not safe and what not. Any thoughts and/or has anyone been in the same boat with negative or positive outcomes?

A couple final things, my calories burned is based off of my heart rate monitor and I record everything I eat into this app.

I agree with you on listening to your body. However I know a lot of people won't agree. I have the same problem with meeting my daily calories but I feel fine. I'm not going to force feed just to reach the calories but that's just my opinion. Maybe speak to your dr about it??

**just want to note that i'm never as far off from my calorie goal as you are now.. maybe you should try changing up the foods you're eating??

Ron6098

Thanks to all for the suggestions! This was my first post on MFP and I'm pleasantly surprised with all of the feed back. I will start to add a few options that are low volume/high calorie to the diet. Also, I just picked up some Optimum Nutrition protein powder that I'll be adding as well. Thanks again!

stephaniemejia1671

Find a plan and try it out for a few days and see how you feel. Keep in mind that it may just take time for you to reach that goal.

mmapags

I agree with you on listening to your body. However I know a lot of people won't agree.

Lol, I ended up 30 lbs overweight listening to my body! My body always says it wants to eat. It lies!