Eating under 1000 cals a day

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Tats1000
Tats1000 Posts: 36 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Every day this week I have eaten under 1000 cals, not on purpose but that's what my breakfast, lunch and tea have totalled every day. Is this a problem? I have lost 2lbs this week so I'm obviously pleased at the result of it but is it good for me? I aim for 1200 but just don't always reach it. If I wanted to make it reach 1200 I could but would be eating for the sake. I am full normally so don't need to eat cos I have to. Advice welcome x
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  • blossomnu
    blossomnu Posts: 65 Member
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    What kind of things are you eating?
  • Tats1000
    Tats1000 Posts: 36 Member
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    Cereal bar or Yoghurt for breakfast, soup and bread for lunch and something lk chicken stirfry or healthy micro meal for tea.
  • babydiego87
    babydiego87 Posts: 905 Member
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    Why don't you try adding a little more calories over the space of the day? For example, having more milk in cereal, adding it into otherwise black coffee...Maybe have a latte? Full fat coke? Peanut butter is also around 100 calories a tablespoon.
  • sagreenious
    sagreenious Posts: 64 Member
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    Could you use low fat stuff in any of your meals? You could try using high fat stuff instead. Or have a chocolate bar or something. Or perhaps look at your nutritional intake and if you are low on certain vitamins etc eat something high in those vits. If you are really not hungry after eating 1000 cals I'd be more concerned about getting enough nutrients.
  • babydiego87
    babydiego87 Posts: 905 Member
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    Cereal bar or Yoghurt for breakfast, soup and bread for lunch and something lk chicken stirfry or healthy micro meal for tea.
    a cereal bar isn't really healthy. why don't you swap it for real cereal like fruit and fibre, bran flakes or wheetabix? oat so simple is another good one that takes 2 mins to make and is about 250 calories with semi skimmed milk.
  • Pepper2185
    Pepper2185 Posts: 994 Member
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    What happened to dinner?
  • sagreenious
    sagreenious Posts: 64 Member
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    Oh just seen your reply.
    I'm amazed that a yogurt bar or yogurt would fill anyoen up in the morning as I'm always starving first thing!
    Perhaps switch to cereal or porridge for breakfast? My porridge (28grams oats, 200 ml of semi skimmed goast milk, 28grams of raisin or apricots and a tablespoon of honey) give sme about 250 calories so that would take you to 1200 cals.
  • Tats1000
    Tats1000 Posts: 36 Member
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    I have thought about changing to porridge for breakfast cos I eat breakfast when I'm in work and I could make that. Think that would help things?
    I've called dinner "tea" lol. Must be a welsh term ha x
  • sunshineaims
    sunshineaims Posts: 13 Member
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    Tea- a term in some parts of the UK for Dinner! I say it and my London other half thinks I'm strange
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
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    What's your height, weight and what are your goals?

    Are you logging your food correctly?

    less than 1000 cals/day is not enough for pretty much anyone, even a tiny baby as about 500 cals/day....!!

    Is something taking your appetite away, e.g. stress, illness? This is not a good situation, because you're still undereating even if you don't feel hungry. this happened to me when i had PTSD... I had no appetite a lot of the time due to the stress, but I still got fat because I was in a cycle of undereating for a long time, then my appetite would come back when I was less stressed, then I'd end up overeating to compensate, and if you alternate under and overeating, what you overeat on will be stored as pure fat. This was happening without me realising it, I wasn't tracking or anything. It wasn't until I started tracking my nutrition that I realised that undereating was more of a problem than overeating was, and I lost the weight by making sure I ate enough on days when I felt too stressed to eat. I've been fat and lost weight a few times in the past (not any more though, my weight's stable this time with very little effort), the first time I got fat it was from plain and simple overeating and being sedentary, but the PTSD fat came from undereating, and the way I fixed it was by avoiding undereating. If I ate enough calories every day regardless of whether I was actually hungry, the rebound overeating didn't happen and the fat came off steadily and like I said, I'm maintaining my new healthy body fat percentage without difficulty (striving to improve it a little though)

    My advice from that is, do not undereat, even if you're not feeling hungry. Undereating backfires sooner or later. And yes, i know how hard it can be to eat enough when you're not actually hungry, but trust me it's worth it.

    The other possibility is that you're actually eating more than you think you are. If you're just guessing portion sizes your numbers could be out by as much as 50% either way. If that's the case then your less than 1000 cals/day could actually be more like 1400-1500 cals/day which is a reasonable amount for losing fat for most women (although it's too low for very active women, or for tall, large framed women).

    My advice from that is to weigh all your food (weight is more accurate than volume) and be sure that you're being accurate, and then see how much you're actually eating.... if it's really is less than 1000 cals/day you need to ask yourself why you're appetite is suppressed and make yourself eat enough otherwise you're still going to get problems associated with undereating like loss of bone density, rebound overeating, etc.
  • ladyraven68
    ladyraven68 Posts: 2,003 Member
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    Every day this week I have eaten under 1000 cals, not on purpose but that's what my breakfast, lunch and tea have totalled every day. Is this a problem? I have lost 2lbs this week so I'm obviously pleased at the result of it but is it good for me? I aim for 1200 but just don't always reach it. If I wanted to make it reach 1200 I could but would be eating for the sake. I am full normally so don't need to eat cos I have to. Advice welcome x

    You just need to plan a bit better - it looks as though you are just eating as low calorie as possible for each individual meal, without an eye on your overall daily calories.

    If you log it the night before, or in the morning, you can see how much extra you need, and can tweak it to get closer to your goals.
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
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    Tea- a term in some parts of the UK for Dinner! I say it and my London other half thinks I'm strange

    When l lived near to London, people there said tea. Was a town just about 30 miles from London. Now you mention it I can't remember if anyone used that term when I lived in London... but it's not just Wales or the North.... definitely heard it a lot down south too.
  • Pepper2185
    Pepper2185 Posts: 994 Member
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    I saw "tea" and assumed it was a cup of afternoon tea or a little snack...

    OP, it's great to see the scale drop and I would have been happy with a two pound drop as well,

    But,

    You need to make sure your body is chock full of important vitamins and all of the other building blocks of healthiness.

    Could you try incorporating higher calorie foods? You have the space for them.

    Do a little research into the effects of under eating on your body. You may not have a hungry growling stomach, but you don't want to under-fuel yourself.
  • maegmez
    maegmez Posts: 341 Member
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    You definitely need a more substantial breakfast. If you want to feel full but lower calorie, try 55 grams of porridge, 1-2 teaspoons of agave syrup and 120 ml of unsweetened almond milk. There is the same amount of calcium in unsweetened almond milk as regular milk without the sugar. Comes out to 248 calories, 40 carbs, 7 sugars, and5 fat. It fills me up for the whole morning and just taste so yummy. You can add nuts, fresh or dried fruits too.

    Regular cereals have so much sugar in them. Bite size shredded wheat is about the only one that doesn't add junk. Again, you can add what you like to up the taste.

    Then have your yogurt as a snack!
  • Nutella91
    Nutella91 Posts: 624 Member
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    dude that's gonna get you skinny-fat body. when i started eating more is when i got muscle ;)
  • maegmez
    maegmez Posts: 341 Member
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    I'm in the midlands and tea is commonly used here and dinner is commonly used for lunch. I'm American and sometimes I use both terms.
  • shinkalork
    shinkalork Posts: 815 Member
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    Don't think it's healthy.
    Under 1200 cal a day...you're body pumps everything harder to pull juice from everywhere possible to feed your muscles etc to make you go forward.... Yes, you will lose in some ways but....not super healthy and safe way.

    I use to eat low cal...and with training everyday etc I've raised my calories and now..I eat between 2200 - 2600 cal a day and I'm shrinking like non-sense and can't gain weight lol.... Just because i eat more frequently and small shots each time etc...
    My body use it like mega fuel ....

    Not saying to eat that much here... Just to try maybe to raise it a bit more to be safe.

    Anyway, just my opinion.

    Take care
  • Tats1000
    Tats1000 Posts: 36 Member
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    I am 5ft 6, I was 192lbs at start of jan, as of yesterday I am 171. So lost a stone and a half in 2 months. Is that too fast?
    I am initially aiming for 154 but would LOVE to be 140 as I have never been that slim before.

    Everything I eat I scan the barcode of so its always accurate, if its veg and stuff I scan it and weigh it so I'm pretty sure I'm doing that right.

    I wouldn't say I'm stressed or anything. I'm very dedicated this time to lose the weight so many I'm being too harsh with food I eat x
  • Tats1000
    Tats1000 Posts: 36 Member
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    dude that's gonna get you skinny-fat body. when i started eating more is when i got muscle ;)

    @Nutella91 what you mean by Skinny-fat body hun? well you look amazing so I wanna know what your doing :)
  • jenilla1
    jenilla1 Posts: 11,118 Member
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    If you don't feed it, your body's gonna eat itself. It'll suck nutrients out of your muscles and bones, not just from your fat stores. I agree with the poster who says to look back over your diary and find out which nutrients you are not getting enough of and just add in foods with some of those. There are almost 200 calories in an ounce of walnuts if you need a quick snack to fill in your cals at the end of the day. :flowerforyou:

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