Not eating enough calories

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crjohnston12
crjohnston12 Posts: 76 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Would someone please explain to me how eating not enough calories can actually make you GAIN weight? I mean, all you ever hear is if you want to lose weight, burn more calories than you take in....so, on days when I'm not super active, I take in less calories. Physiologically, eating more in order to lose weight just doesn't make sense to me.

My Diary is open - feel free to make your comments. But, I am not always hungry enough as to eat 1,600 calories on exercise days. Do I need to "force" myself to? HELP!!!

p.s. since I've been doing MFP, I have had the best outcome on my yearly physical blood tests...all my numbers (cholesterol, etc.) are the best they have been in 10 years!
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Replies

  • deevatude
    deevatude Posts: 322 Member
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    ur body just holds on to everything u eat for safety reasons
  • dimps084
    dimps084 Posts: 2 Member
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    Your body needs a certain number of calories (based on your BMR) to function, i.e. just to breathe and go through the day and night. Calories are nothing but a measure of energy stored by your body. If you eat less than the number your body needs to function, OR you are creating a BIG calorie deficit by working out and not eating 1600 calories, your body thinks it is in a starvation mode. Thus, it will use less calories for daily function, you might feel tired and lethargic, AND it will store the remaining calories as fat for 'FURTHER USE' (think about how bears store fat during hibernation). Hope this helps.
  • ladynocturne
    ladynocturne Posts: 865 Member
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    It isn't so much "gain weight" and "hold onto fat".

    Eating less than your organs need to function if you were completely bed ridden will eventually lead to serious medical problems and even death.

    Eventually your body will eat away muscle (including your heart) to get proper nutrition.

    The estimated medical recommendations for basic calorie intake (if you were to lay in bed all day) for adult(18+) men is 1500 and 1200 for women. This is before exercise, when you burn extra calories, you need more for your body to run.

    If you've lost weight, then you use to be able to eat calories in abundance, right? There are many foods that can boost calorie intake that are good for you.
  • BarackMeLikeAHurricane
    BarackMeLikeAHurricane Posts: 3,400 Member
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    Under eating doesn't cause you to gain weight, it just causes your rate of loss to slow down. If you ate at a 50% deficit you might see a reduction of BMR by about 10% but that's still a 40% deficit.
  • monty619
    monty619 Posts: 1,308 Member
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    ultimately having the body you desire requires manipulating the metabolism correctly and efficiently.. this is actually the main goal anyone here should have.

    how people mess up this process is the reason people can get morbidly obese without even trying.. basically drastically cutting calories, doing excessive cardio and creating a gigantic energy deficit will greatly damage the metabolism. after they do this they find that any "cheat" day they have or if they go back to eating "normal" they have greater fat gain results because of the damaged metabolism.

    facts are that any energy deficit will result in slowing the metabolism if dieting for an extended period of time.. and eating more food (particularly more carbohydrates and lesser extent protein) will increase the metabolism. so basically everyone who is trying to lose weight on this site is gradually slowing their metabolism.

    what people need to understand is that they also need to do some sort of 'reverse dieting' (important google it if you dont know what it is already) along with strength training to create a better environment for losing body fat.. and having higher carbohydrate days while dieting can also help metabolic rate as well...

    BMR and TDEE are moving targets depending on tons of variables so the biggest thing to monitor is just your caloric/macronutrient/micronutrient intake.
  • Greenrun99
    Greenrun99 Posts: 2,065 Member
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    My Diary is open - feel free to make your comments. But, I am not always hungry enough as to eat 1,600 calories on exercise days. Do I need to "force" myself to? HELP!!!

    Just from looking at a few days you are creating too big of a deficit for yourself.. sure you will lose weight doing that, but it maybe more muscle than fat and slow your metabolism.

    Being hungry isn't an indicator that your body is being underfed, its a basic function that you can suppress overtime from under eating, it is not an indicator that you are hurting yourself.

    Figure out your numbers and eat correctly, you didn't gain weight by eating 1600 calories, you did it by eating 3000+.. your not going to gain weight eating more to change your lifestyle.

    And read Monty619's post, great info.
  • CrazyTrackLady
    CrazyTrackLady Posts: 1,337 Member
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    It's basic biothermal dynamics -- your body is like a furnace. If you feed it less coal, it will eventually begin to slow down and less energy will be produced. It will begin to hold onto whatever scrap pieces of coal is left, in order to keep from burning out.

    However, if you feed it more coal and fan the flames (healthy food and exercise), your furnace will begin to burn the fuel more efficiently, using MORE of the fuel you give it to burn. That's weight loss.

    By the way, just to eliminate any further confusion: a pound of muscle and a pound of fat weigh the same, but take up different volumes. And fat NEVER can turn into muscle. They are two separate things. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise.
  • crjohnston12
    crjohnston12 Posts: 76 Member
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    Under eating doesn't cause you to gain weight, it just causes your rate of loss to slow down. If you ate at a 50% deficit you might see a reduction of BMR by about 10% but that's still a 40% deficit.

    Well, something caused me to gain weight. I had to put 2 pair of pants away because they no longer fit right, but no weight loss.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
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    Here is a decent post on the topic, although this one has to do with lots of cardio and low calorie intake
    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    Under eating doesn't cause you to gain weight, it just causes your rate of loss to slow down. If you ate at a 50% deficit you might see a reduction of BMR by about 10% but that's still a 40% deficit.

    This.

    Yes, there are some people who eat too little and should be eating more to lose more... but generally speaking the "you need to eat more" response is abused on this site.
  • MonicaT1972
    MonicaT1972 Posts: 512
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    If you run too large of a deficit your body will go into starvation mode and hold onto weight instead of shedding it. It happened to me and it took 6 months to reset my metabolism and level off so I could start losing again. Some may say it's a myth, I just know that that was how my body reacted and I really wish I hadn't ended up in that situation.

    I now eat clean and don't count calories. I find it's much simpler and I never overeat and I'm losing again!
  • fightininggirl
    fightininggirl Posts: 792 Member
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    I can explain this totally. your body when not getting enough calories takes what you eat and stores it as fat. it thinks it will not be fed properly. I have underate in calories for a long time between 1,000 -1100 calories and I gained a lot of weight.

    basicially I eat now 3 meals, 2 snacks period and it helps me stay on track with my calories.
  • marycmeadows
    marycmeadows Posts: 1,691 Member
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    i'm quite sure you're eating below your bmr, which is not healthy. that is the amount of calories your body would use if you were in a coma all day, which I'm sure you're not. so you need more calories than that. You should NOT eat below bmr, ever.
    secondly, you need to concentrate on the quality of food you're putting in your body. you're not eating nearly enough protein. and I'm seeing lots of processed foods. low calorie doesn't mean healthy or good for you or your body.
  • akaMrsmojo
    akaMrsmojo Posts: 764 Member
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    Your body also holds onto water. Unless you ate over 3500 of what you burned in a day including BMR, you are not going to gain a pound.

    Food is not the enemy.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    I can explain this totally. your body when not getting enough calories takes what you eat and stores it as fat. it thinks it will not be fed properly. I have underate in calories for a long time between 1,000 -1100 calories and I gained a lot of weight.

    basicially I eat now 3 meals, 2 snacks period and it helps me stay on track with my calories.

    If it's storing what you eat as fat, where is the energy coming from to do everything you do over the course of the day?
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    Under eating doesn't cause you to gain weight, it just causes your rate of loss to slow down. If you ate at a 50% deficit you might see a reduction of BMR by about 10% but that's still a 40% deficit.

    This, but if you binge, your body will store the excess cals as fat as a survival mechanism. but if you are constantly in a deficit, you will just lose less than you expect as your metabolism slows down which shrinks the deficit from what you think it is.
  • cominupmilhouse
    cominupmilhouse Posts: 257 Member
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    In my own experience, there is nothing wrong with a big deficit as long as you are exercising!!!

    I was always super confused about the whole eating more to lose weight thing. When I had a super labor intensive job, sometimes I struggled to net above zero for the day, and during that time I lost a TON of weight! I went from 165 lbs to 135 in 2.5 months.

    I think the thing is that your metabolism WILL slow down if you are simply starving yourself. However, if you are eating and getting all your macros and nutrients (I was eating about 1600-1800 cals, burning 1500-2000 so netting extremely low even though I was eating lots) then your metabolism won't slow down, no 'starvation mode'. I was able to maintain my weight for almost 4 months after I was laid off, without intensive exercise. I gained back my weight on a 6-week vacation :(

    Anyways, ive never had any metabolic issues as a result of netting very low, as long as I've kept up exercise.

    Hope this helps, good luck ;)
  • xxnellie146xx
    xxnellie146xx Posts: 996 Member
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    bump to read later
  • FranksRumHam
    FranksRumHam Posts: 198 Member
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    I can explain this totally. your body when not getting enough calories takes what you eat and stores it as fat. it thinks it will not be fed properly. I have underate in calories for a long time between 1,000 -1100 calories and I gained a lot of weight.

    basicially I eat now 3 meals, 2 snacks period and it helps me stay on track with my calories.

    you gained a lot of weight?
    your body made something from nothing?

    quite curious.
  • ajewellmom
    ajewellmom Posts: 186 Member
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    I really have a hard time believing the 1200 calorie thing to be true as a person who is going to undergo bariatric surgery is actually put on several weeks of a liquid diet at 900 calories per day. This is doctor supervised, but if it were medically dangerous, I can't see it happening. They say that the 8 - 12 weeks of the "optifast" helps you to break all your bad habits and retrain your body with good eating habits thereafter.

    I am certainly not supporting a diet of under 1200 calories daily, but I also think there is a fair amount of fear mongering out there.

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