What?? Not eating enough!

lizeth004 · February 2010

*Based on your total calories consumed for today, you are eating too few calories. Not only is it difficult to receive adequate nutrition at these calorie levels, but you could also be putting your body into starvation mode. Starvation mode lowers your metabolism and makes weight loss more difficult. We suggest increasing your calorie consumption to 1,200 calories per day minimum.

This is the message I got after I completed my diary for today I don't know what to do and I'm starting to panic because at first too much calories and I honestly feel I eat a lot more now (but healthier or I try to) and I have too many calories remaing according to mfp. Does this happen to anyone else???

I almost can't beleive I could possibly be working out too much. That's never happened in my life lol!! I regularly burn around 400 calories or more if I went by mft settings it always says a lot more than what the machine at the gym said i burned so I go for what I can see. I'm trying to put calories in but I'm less and less hungry for big meals. I had a BBQ Pork Sandwich:embarassed: because I saw that I needed more food..... What should I do? Help please anyone!

DaveyGravy · February 2010

A handful of mixed nuts or almonds or something will bump your calories up a good 350+ cals! Always good to rely on if you are falling short!

mjmather04 · February 2010

I am having the same problem - i am stuck at 4 pounds lost but i am just NOT hungry!!!! one would assume that as soon as i stop eating all those bad foods that the weight would just fall off - but no

i am trying hard to eat AT LEAST 1200 calories a day so that my body dosent go into starvation mode... but i am finding it hard to do that.

xxchicxx · February 2010

Me too. Everyday Im under my calories a day, and when ive done a work out thats even harder. Im not hungry enough to eat so much but I dont want to do any quick fix's by eating something I shouldnt with a high calorific value because its bound to have a high fat content or something. Im the same as you mjmather04, im stuck at a 4 pounds loss and not getting any further but plod on and we will succeed

jaycee76 · February 2010

Try thinking like this.

A womens maintanence level of calories is 2000 (so basically the average women will use these in a day). Anything less will contribute to a deficit (loss of weight over a period of time). If you eat 1200 calories you are 800 down already. If you work out and burn 500 then you are now at 700 calories STARVATION mode.
No offence to anyone here but when people say they can't eat more than this it is rubbish! How did they get overweight in the first place?
Also surely if you can eat more, it makes the 'diet' much easier to keep at and so the long term goals are more achievable?

If you know you are going to work out then add the calories throughout the day so that you are not left with a huge amount at the end of the day.

We are all very quick to congratulate our Friends when they are under there daily goal but why? Its like saying 'YAY your going into a dangerous starvation mode and your weight loss is going to slow down, you will end up hungry, fall off the wagon! CONGRATULATIONS'
I did do this too so I am the same but I think I am going to stop doing this now! Eat your calories xx

Hope this has not upset anyone xx

Tamishumate · February 2010

peanut butter is a good one too. that and nuts, its always my fall back if I am lacking calories.
You are not doing yourself , your body, any good by not eating enough calories, you need to figure out how to eat them. eat first thing in the am, that way you will be hungry in the day sooner, than if you wait a couple of hours after you wake up. I wake up at 7 am, and I am eating my oatmeal by 7:20 am. I am eating again at 9:45 and again at 11:30, you get the picture, I eat OFTEN. :bigsmile: good luck~

monica1515 · February 2010

Under-eatting is unhealthy for many reasons.
#1. If you do not eat enough and don't hit your RMR (the amt of calories it takes for your body to maintain its daily functions without any physical activity involved, as if you were in a coma), your body will start to store anything you eat as fat preparing itself for starvation.
#2. If you are working out and not eatting enough, your body is going to tear down your lean muscle mass to feed itself. Muscle burns three times more calories than fat does, so thats definately not a direction I personally would want to go in.

Please don't think I'm trying to preach in any way! My degree is in exercise physiology and I really "axe" the myth that eatting less is a good thing.

Women have such a misconception that eatting is a bad thing. You are doing fantastic! Just think about little things, like adding fruit in yogurt, or a little peanut butter on toast. Maybe a slice of low fat cheese on a sandwich.

When your body is happy, you are happy

shirk13 · February 2010

I eat six times a day and come real close to my limit in calories before I add in exercise. Even then I am normally only 200 or so calories under. Like others have said before me, eat a handful od nuts or celery and peanut butter. I eat braekfast lunch and dinner with snacks in between meals and after the evening meal. I never get really hungry and if I do I down 16oz of water quickly.

5010 · February 2010

Hey any Extra Cal's pass em over i will take them LOL

dax58 · February 2010

If i am low and dont fancy eating, i normally have a protein shake.

For me i was used to eating very calorie dense foods where as now im eating low calories density foods but the same volume of them.

slm638 · February 2010

Ditto! I find it really challenging to stay within my caloric allowance...I can't even relate to not being able to fit them in.

lizeth004 · February 2010

I understand where your coming from yes we obviously had to eat more than what are body can burn by itself. What you are not understanding is I'm having a hard time eating enough of the healty foods. Sure, if you bring me a cheeseburger I will eat that and boost my calories but it's not healthy right. So my problem comes here.. I don't feel hungry through out the day because I'm eating more times that what I used to and what I eat doesn't contain enough calories and is messing me up. Maybe is more of a mental thing because I know I ate 3 hours ago it's hard to get up and go get a bowl of fruit next. Does this make sense to anyone?

OddSquid · February 2010

It does, and it's BOTH a mental and physical thing. You haven't described what your daily eating pattern is, so any recommendations that are being given here are kinda' just spitballing in random directions.

How often do you try to eat, and when you do, what does it consist of?

nmluna · February 2010

Try thinking like this.

A womens maintanence level of calories is 2000 (so basically the average women will use these in a day). Anything less will contribute to a deficit (loss of weight over a period of time). If you eat 1200 calories you are 800 down already. If you work out and burn 500 then you are now at 700 calories STARVATION mode.
No offence to anyone here but when people say they can't eat more than this it is rubbish! How did they get overweight in the first place?
Also surely if you can eat more, it makes the 'diet' much easier to keep at and so the long term goals are more achievable?

If you know you are going to work out then add the calories throughout the day so that you are not left with a huge amount at the end of the day.

We are all very quick to congratulate our Friends when they are under there daily goal but why? Its like saying 'YAY your going into a dangerous starvation mode and your weight loss is going to slow down, you will end up hungry, fall off the wagon! CONGRATULATIONS'
I did do this too so I am the same but I think I am going to stop doing this now! Eat your calories xx

Hope this has not upset anyone xx

Agreed. It seems kind of confusing when you first start using the site though (i'm a newbie only a little over a week)... because its green when you have calories left.. and red with a big negative sign if you go over.. when really like you said you should get at least what the goal is. can be confusing.

Dom_m · February 2010

Liz, I had exactly this problem.

I used to try to control my calories through guess work. Then I started going to the gym. I was going around 20 hours per week (about 10 2 hour sessions each week). Some of that was just yoga type stuff, but most of it was burning at least 600 calories per hour. I'd say on average at least 400 cal / hour * 20 hours per week = 8000 cal / week = 1,140 / day.

I made a little progress over 5 months. I probably lost about 5-10 pounds.

Then I started tracking my food and found out I was getting about 1000-1200 calories (unless I went to be pub, in which case a short beer session would add an extra 1000 calories).

I started eating twice as much. This was very difficult. I also reduced my exercise by about 1/3 (this was really easy

That was 3 weeks ago and I lost 10 pounds in those three weeks. I'm only 10 pounds from my goal now, so this does work!

The hard part of course is getting enough calories from the healthy food! I started eating a second breakfast (one at 7am, one at 9am). Then I added morning tea at 10.30-11am. Then I added afternoon tea around 3pm. So I was eating at 7am, 9am, 11am, 1pm, 3pm, and 8pm. This took a bit of effort, and each meal is usually only 250-450 calories, but I've started getting my total intake up around 2,000 per day (beer days are of course very easy, but that hardly counts as healthy). Now I find I starve if I miss more than one meal. I still have energy and I don't get grumpy, but my body tells me in no uncertain terms it wants more food. I feel great throughout the day and I'm visibly more healthy - people have even noticed my hair is thicker where it was receding a bit!

Basically, if you've got this problem, rejoice. It takes effort to deal with it, but frankly its not a bad problem to have. And identifying a problem always means there's a solution which will make things better. Eating more tasty healthy food, and doing a bit less exercise is a pretty neat way to get progress on the scales

Dom_m · February 2010

No offence to anyone here but when people say they can't eat more than this it is rubbish! How did they get overweight in the first place?

Largely through over eating of course, but the kicker was eating all the wrong things! Its damn easy to eat a lot of crap. If you stick to healthy foods, it can be very hard to find enough of them! I spend most of the day eating since I started at MFP and the best I come up with is 2000.

Of course in the past I would eat instant noodles (500) korean hot pot (750) with rice (250) a bag of corn chips with a tub of hommus and salsa and an avacado (I can't even imagine), a bag of lollies (1000) and no breakfast. That's easily >3,500 with no exercise and I might have had days like that often. But that amount of food doesn't take any time or effort to eat. Its all so calorie dense. It also creates all the wrong hormones that make eating addictive.

So no offense, but when people say they can't eat more it isn't rubbish. It takes effort to learn to eat right. They say practice makes perfect, but if you spent your whole life practicing the wrong thing, that's what you become good at. Then when you try to change, it isn't necessarily easy.

What?? Not eating enough!

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