Too many or too few calories

ChelseaJewell
ChelseaJewell Posts: 21 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Does anyone else struggle with getting their calories in for the day in the sense that it's always way under your goal or you go over a little? I find myself eating junk food on days that I need 400 or 500 extra calories because I'm not hungry enough for anything moderate in calories that's healthy. Just wanted to poke around for some opinions/tips/similar stories.

Replies

  • drmerc
    drmerc Posts: 2,603 Member
    It's does not need to be exact and it looks like you are always pretty close

    Great job
  • ChelseaJewell
    ChelseaJewell Posts: 21 Member
    Thanks! It feels like a struggle to get them all in, especially if you just feel full. I try to keep low fat chocolate milk for days that I'm short on calories and especially strength days.
  • IbiH
    IbiH Posts: 250 Member
    I eat nuts, dates, frozen yoghuts etc to bump up my calories on days I'm not anywhere near my allowance. This doesn't happen too often though.

    Junk food is a no go as you'll only go back to your old bad habits. This is a new lifesyle not a diet.

    Go for it.
  • Unknown
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  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    On days that you are short, there are many nutrient dense foods like peanut butter, avocados, greek yogurt that are also calorie dense. There is no "need" to eat junk food to meet caloric goals.
  • ChelseaJewell
    ChelseaJewell Posts: 21 Member
    Agreed on the bad habits part to some extent but I don't think anything in moderation is a problem. I've tried very restrictive diets before and I couldn't stick to them because I was always craving something. I lost about 15 pounds before joining MFP and 4 pounds since by counting my calories and being more conscious of what I eat/how much I eat (and cardio and strength training of course.) My problem is that most of our snacks are 100 calories or less so when I'm 600 calories off but I've been eating protein all day I'm not hungry enough for really super filling stuff, which is most healthy moderately high calorie stuff that I've encountered (I'm sure there are some things that I just don't know about which was one reason to post this forum.) We don't fry stuff anymore in our house and we don't eat out unless family drops by with it, the only indulgence I keep in my house occasionally are sweets and those are eaten in moderation. I probably should have said sweets rather than junk, I know that they fall into the junk category but it's a more accurate description of what I mean. No chips or soda or anything like that for us, but I do keep a cake mix or two. I have to really want it to go to the trouble of baking it and then I can limit myself to one cupcake on days that I need extra calories and I feel much more optimistic about these being long term changes than I ever did telling myself I could never eat a cupcake again.
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
    I can see being short at the end of the day occasionally, but it really shouldn't happen that often. Unless each day is a total surprise to you, you should be able to plan it out to end up close enough.

    That said, being aware of the problem and making efforts to address it are probably more important than whether or not you actually figure out the ideal solution. Keep up the good work.
  • ChelseaJewell
    ChelseaJewell Posts: 21 Member
    you could always use those days where you don't meet the cals and even out the week with a nice splurge day... you don't have the throw junk into your day just to meet the cal goal. as long as you aren't under by 400-500 cals EVERY day, it's not going to hurt you.

    eta: I just skimmed through your diary for the last couple weeks or so. you need more protein (don't be afraid of that number going in the red) and less trips to fast food restaurants more than you need to worry about not eating enough cals. add some cottage cheese, nuts, greek yogurt, eggs, etc into your routine. plus, the sodium from those meals out will make you retain water.

    I should also add that my husband lost his job two weeks ago and my family has been bringing fast food to us because they know we're struggling. This hasn't been super normal for us and I was raised on the whole "beggars can't be choosers" philosophy. Whatever they bring I usually only eat a portion and make sure it falls into my calories for the day. When we're buying for ourselves we treat ourselves to fast food maybe once a week but as a rule we try to not overdo it, luckily he starts his new job tomorrow and I get paid Friday so we'll have more yogurt and low fat cheese snacks and such in our house. I do appreciate all the advice! (For the record I've had much less of a hard time getting those calories with the fast food but it's not the kind of calories I want.)
  • _stephanie0
    _stephanie0 Posts: 708 Member
    see my thread :flowerforyou:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/804985-this-is-how-hard-it-is-to-reach-1200-calories
  • ChelseaJewell
    ChelseaJewell Posts: 21 Member
    see my thread :flowerforyou:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/804985-this-is-how-hard-it-is-to-reach-1200-calories
    Thank you, I've combed through it at my desk but will go over it in depth when I get home! :happy:
  • tsimmons1123
    tsimmons1123 Posts: 2
    I have just joined but yes so far that has happened to me as well and another friend of mine that has been on here for a few months struggles with the same thing however she has lost appx 10 pounds.
  • ChelseaJewell
    ChelseaJewell Posts: 21 Member
    you could always use those days where you don't meet the cals and even out the week with a nice splurge day... you don't have the throw junk into your day just to meet the cal goal. as long as you aren't under by 400-500 cals EVERY day, it's not going to hurt you.

    eta: I just skimmed through your diary for the last couple weeks or so. you need more protein (don't be afraid of that number going in the red) and less trips to fast food restaurants more than you need to worry about not eating enough cals. add some cottage cheese, nuts, greek yogurt, eggs, etc into your routine. plus, the sodium from those meals out will make you retain water.

    I should also add that my husband lost his job two weeks ago and my family has been bringing fast food to us because they know we're struggling. This hasn't been super normal for us and I was raised on the whole "beggars can't be choosers" philosophy. Whatever they bring I usually only eat a portion and make sure it falls into my calories for the day. When we're buying for ourselves we treat ourselves to fast food maybe once a week but as a rule we try to not overdo it, luckily he starts his new job tomorrow and I get paid Friday so we'll have more yogurt and low fat cheese snacks and such in our house. I do appreciate all the advice! (For the record I've had much less of a hard time getting those calories with the fast food but it's not the kind of calories I want.)

    I didn't want this to sound defensive either so I'm terribly sorry if it did, I have a personal trainer and a dietician and the trainer checks over my diary every other day. I wasn't going to mention the whole situation with not-choice food being brought over because it hadn't seemed relevant but with everything going back to normal I will be choosing the food that comes into the house again and it will be much lower calorie stuff and before the last couple of weeks without picking I was struggling a good bit to get them all in. I am excited but also looking again for foods that aren't super filling but will get those missing calories in when I have a big deficit. I'm leaving my desk now and excited to look over the thread left in the comments
  • neeq79
    neeq79 Posts: 3
    I have that problem as well, but usually my cals are under between 30-100...usually I just ignore it. If your cals are under by 400 or 500 then better food planning needs to happen. Add in more fruit as filler foods...It's also easier to plan ahead in the morning and type in what you'd like to eat for the whole day then see how many cals you have left over. If you have cals left over, then figure in more food.
    If you add in at the end of the day, you may come up short cals or over, which is what happened to me in the beginning...It just takes planning and you'll make up those cals!
  • leeleeloulou
    leeleeloulou Posts: 31
    if u pop ur foods in before u eat them (not necessarily in the morning, just minutes before works) and u fall short adjust ur portion size perhaps?
    hth xxxx
  • ChelseaJewell
    ChelseaJewell Posts: 21 Member
    you could always use those days where you don't meet the cals and even out the week with a nice splurge day... you don't have the throw junk into your day just to meet the cal goal. as long as you aren't under by 400-500 cals EVERY day, it's not going to hurt you.

    eta: I just skimmed through your diary for the last couple weeks or so. you need more protein (don't be afraid of that number going in the red) and less trips to fast food restaurants more than you need to worry about not eating enough cals. add some cottage cheese, nuts, greek yogurt, eggs, etc into your routine. plus, the sodium from those meals out will make you retain water.

    I lied. I am a bit defensive over this...

    I couldn't figure out why this bothered me a little and it felt like I was coming off as defensive.... but I figured it out. It's because in a two week span, 14 days (that's 42 meals and 14 snacks) there are 5 (count them) 5 fast food meals. Granted, that's not a great number but it's REALLY not high for 42 meals and 14 snacks. And in the 27 days of November in my food diary there were 8 fast food meals in 27 days.... or of course 81 meals and 27 snacks. As of tomorrow it has been three weeks since my husband has been out of work and my family has brought us food some nights. And on top of that, I didn't post this thread and ask what I could eat instead of some things I do eat. I don't like nuts and cottage cheese and if someone brings me food because I'm struggling, I'm not going to turn it down, you didn't know that much at the time of your comment though so that can be excused. What I really am not fond of in this answer is that this is not at all what my registered nutritionist/dietician told me and it is not what I asked. I didn't ask if I should worry about less fast food trips than my lack of calories some days. We have healthy food in our house again because I went to the store myself and when I'm buying my own food I am generally short almost every day a decent bit. I needed legit answers about getting basically empty calories in things that maybe weren't soda or something similar, not a judgement on the stuff you looked back at for two whole weeks. My nutritionist has told me... more than once... fast food is not choice, it's not the very best option but that what it all REALLY comes down to is calories and that anything in moderation is not a problem. She taught me that researchers have done studies with candy bar diets and as long as people ate the recommended amount of calories and exercised they lost weight. Not everyone subscribes to restricting themselves and to eating things that they don't enjoy just to get skinnier. I'm not in this for some fad diet and if I eat things I don't like, that's exactly what this will be. I appreciate the thought because I really imagine you thought you were being helpful... but I believe I'll just take my advice from my nutritionist and all the people who actually answered my question in the first place.
  • Chikipiwi
    Chikipiwi Posts: 117 Member
    What has worked for me is planning my food intake the night before...

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