Help I have trouble eating under 2000 cals a day!

I also went hungry in the beginning because I was used to eat a lot more and my stomach had expanded because of it.
So what you need to do is to:
1. Accept the fact that you'll be hungry in the beginning, maybe the first week.
2. Cut out or minimize sugars as much as possible since they make you crave and think you're hungry.
3. Realize that you're not hungry because you "need" food but because you're used to eating more and maybe eat when you're bored, craving or wanting to fulfill your emotional needs.

These 3 steps at least helped me. Good luck!

Can we all please stop using the word 'normal'. There is no such thing - different people have different needs. I am on 1850 cals a day, and I eat 900 of those for dinner, because I like a big dinner and it stops me picking. Am I abnormal? I've been losing weight just fine doing that.

OP, some tips for you.

Firstly, you should stop quick adding calories. It really helps to see what nutrients you are getting and the different effect they are having on your body. I learnt from here that if I drink a bottle of diet coke, I'd crave sugary things after. I also learnt that after eating something carb-laden, I'd only feel full for an hour or so. Use this as a tool to see what foods work for you.

Fats and protein really do make you fuller. It is not a myth. I know the idea of a salad does not appeal to you much, it didn't to me either, but I now love my salad for lunch. There are plenty of ways to pep up things like chicken so it's not boring. Avocados, nuts, greek yogurt, cottage cheese, are all also good protein sources.

Drinking lots of water really helps. A lot of the time we think we are hungry when we are actually thirsty.

Everyone has different needs when it comes to meals. You need to work out what works for you. Personally, breakfast makes me hungrier. I also like to pick at night, so I save half my cals for dinner. When do you get the most hungry? Work your calories so you can have a larger meal when you need it.

I also have 'normal' foods - I just make them all myself. Burgers, chips, chicken nuggets, kebabs and curries are regular items on our dinner list, but I make them all from scratch with fresh ingredients so they are healthy.

Hope this helps.

i dont follow tdee i dont calculate the cals i lose from my job, one night i wore my hrm and it said i burned over 8,000 cals in a 10 hour shift... even if i cut that in half and say i burn 4000 plus the exercise i do, plus i walk from work most days which i also dont factor in.... the only days i see loss is when i eat under 2000 cals days like today when i ate 2300 i'll get on the scale and see nothing....

I know you two dont understand...

I'm actually wondering if you need to eat more (nutrient dense, healthy foods obviously) - what is your activity level set to?

Over the course of about 2 years I have officially re-taught myself to crave healthy food. I started paying attention to the way I felt after I ate certain things and then started giving things up slowly but surely. I have a huuuuge appetite but I eat a ton of fruits and veggies which adequately fill me and satisfy me. It is about filling bad habits with good ones. Exercise is important too. I can only tell you what I did and do because you are on your own journey and I am on mine. You have to learn your body and try new things till something fits with something you can do for the rest of your life!! Not all of this will be comfortable for you and yes you will be hungry a lot. That is the nature of the beast and you have to decide how badly you want it. I have learned that I actually like being hungry and feeling empty. Especially because I save all my calories to eat one nice and healthy meal in the evening when I am the most hungry. In order to get the rewards of health and fitness, you have to change your mind and realize this is not about getting down to a number on a scale. Health is forever and you only have one body. I love to run and lift weights. Food is my fuel and helps me get the energy I need in order to feel great within my body. For the longest time I separated myself from my body because it was just too painful to be present. Now that I am so close to goal, I see that I will have to work on how I see myself too. I will be a work in progress forever and that is ok with me. There is no end till you aren't on this earth anymore. There is no rush, start with making better decisions and learn how to love fruits and veggies.

also HRM only work properly with cardio when your heartrate is up, they are not meant to be worn for 10 hour shifts and the burn would not be accurate. You didn't get 90 lbs overweight by eating the right types of foods. You will have to do some soul searching and figure out if you are willing to do what it takes to do some of the damage you have done to your body. It won't be easy and that is a fact, but once it starts coming off you can be proud of yourself and that feels better than any other gift in the world.

Breakfast

Cereal \ Porridge for breakfast... in UK we have sachets of Quaker oats... bowl of this with a coffee and a pint of water ... job done till lunch

That's exactly what I have in the morning - sachet of Quaker (or Alpen porridge - it's fantastic), 150ml almond milk, 2 cups of coffee with skimmed milk and a litre of water - 227 cals and will normally fill me up until lunch. Perfect.

Or, you can actually skip breakfast and save more calories for later

i dont follow tdee i dont calculate the cals i lose from my job, one night i wore my hrm and it said i burned over 8,000 cals in a 10 hour shift... even if i cut that in half and say i burn 4000 plus the exercise i do, plus i walk from work most days which i also dont factor in.... the only days i see loss is when i eat under 2000 cals days like today when i ate 2300 i'll get on the scale and see nothing....

I know you two dont understand...

Have you seen a doctor, and discussed your diet, activity and weight-loss with them?

It may be that you have an extremely low metabolism. If so, you will not burn the same amount of calories as other people, no matter how physically active you are. There are several reasons for this, PCOS and hypothyroidism are among the most common in women. You may also have a food sensitivity or intolerance, or some other health issue such as insulin resistance, which causes bloodsugar to be stored as fat rather than used for energy.

If you have an activity level that says you should burn 8000 calories in a day (which, just for comparison, according to some calculators is 7 hours of high impact aerobic for a person weighing 220 pounds), I am really impressed with your job, and it should keep you slim even if you eat immense amounts of food. However, you are here and you are trying to lose weight, so something is obviously off. Either you overestimate how active you are, you eat a lot more than you believe, or you have some other reason why you don't burn those calories, such as the mentioned health issues.

To use myself as an example, even if I don't try to eat 2000 calories a day: In order to maintain my weight, I should eat about 1700 calories a day, when I don't work out. With my regular workouts, according to most calculators, I should be over 2000 pretty regularly. If I do that, I gain weight. I need to stay between 1500 and 1200 in order to maintain, even when I work out quite a bit.

I have hypothyreosis and food intolerances. I need to keep the amount of sugar I eat down, and I can't eat wheat, rye or barley. This means a pretty low-carb diet, where the carbs I eat have a low glycemic index - they are slow carbs. I can't eat bread, pasta or cakes, but I don't have celiac disease, I have an intolerance which gives me some of the irritation and all of the water rentention and low energy. Luckily I don't get as sick as a real celiac sufferer gets. In weight loss terms though, I am a lot healthier and lose weight easier when I manage to avoid these things. I use unpolished (brown) rice, avoid potatoes, and I use a lot of different other vegetables with my meat or fish.

I also avoid alcohol and keep the salt down. Both alcohol and very salty food makes me retain large amounts of water. Last week, despite staying under calorie wise, I gained 4 pounds. I am pretty sure it was due to having a glass or two of wine with dinner every day, because I was travelling, had guests, went out with friends and generally celebrated. This week I am trying to avoid it, and have already lost one of those pounds.

What I am trying to say is this: There is no normal. According to the average calories in vs calories out, I should eat a lot more than I do. I can't, because I am individual, and have unique needs. You need to find what works for you. My best tool for that is by tracking every detail of what I eat and how I work out, because quality is as important as quantity.

Perhaps you don't need to eat less, if you just learn to eat right?

Oh, and don't weight yourself every day, and don't panic until you have a large sample of weigh-ins to compare. Random things can change your weight on any given day, so you need a longer-term sample.

Good luck!

Good one Rotill.

All good advice.

Which is more than can be said for some.

Seriously, you comment on this ladies choice not to come and start a thread with a negative comment, which you HAVE A CHOICE NOT TO POST.

Ironic, indeed, hypocritical, definitely, constructive, never! Best get back to your flirting, high school threads I reckon.

Not the usual MFP supportive style post but here goes....

I think you’re a f'cking idiot... and extremely f*cking rude!! Hence why you are getting a rude response here...

Stop kidding yourself... you eat *kitten*!!... You are lazy with your food and lazy with your diary entries... how will you ever to figure out where it’s going wrong if you can’t even be bothered to log the food you are eating correctly??

Write them down and log later if anything...

What you are doing is clearly not working... so stop getting pi*sy at other people and do something about it... or stop coming on this site and continue as you are... makes zero difference to people in this thread who have made changes to their lives in order to start succeeding... They have shared their advice and ideas... just for you to be a massive d*ck to them!

My diary is not perfect by any means and I don’t eat as cleanly as half of the members on MFP... but what I am doing for ME is working... I stopped logging for a while to see if I could continue loosing without this website... I didn’t gain but I didn’t loose much more... so I’m back using it again...

Ill end with what I found helped ME...

I work 10 - 11 hour shifts... desk job too, making it way too easy to snack, spend some time out on the road too which makes it hard to keep things constant too...


First of all... water... lots of.... yeh I spend more times p*ssing than at my desk but it’s so good for you... and for me... it seems to curb the in-between snacking

Breakfast

Cereal \ Porridge for breakfast... in UK we have sachets of Quaker oats... bowl of this with a coffee and a pint of water ... job done till lunch

Lunch (which was the main cause of my weight gain in the first place)

Soup with crackers (the crackers took away the need to snack on crisps and less cals than two slices of bread)
Fat free yogurt
Fresh Pineapple and mango (this was my godsend.. totally took chocolate out of my lunch at work and I love it)

Snacks

Pack of Salt and vinegar rice cakes

Dinner

Varies... if I have been to the gym... ill pretty much eat what ever I fancy. If I haven’t then I check my cals left and adjust accordingly... sometimes I go over sometimes I don’t...

When I bulk, my breakfast is 1000 calories and I'm as 271lb bodybuilder in the offseason. I'd say think about my needs and yours and think if you need the same as me. I'd hazard a guess as no.

Well if you're on your feet all day you're going to use up more calories.

Personally having a shake has helped me fill up for 2 hours. Not gonna say the brand so I don't start another 10 page thread though... but it's helped me.

Something you can do is eat low fat (like low fat cheese in your burrito). I have no idea how you can get 900 calories in two burritos and a small potato though.

What gets me is that I think you're just using the wrong kinds of food. Even 90% beef has more fat than chicken, for example, and 'fries' (even homemade) and the bun are calories and fat you could have spent on something more filling... like plain yogurt, low fat cheese, chicken etc.

I'm eating about 1400-1500 calories right now and my log is pretty full. For me a normal lunch or dinner is usually around 400 calories and 14g of fat.

For me, I eat Pasta, w/ Fiber.
Eat a serving size, of 2oz as a snack.


Another snack I eat are Beans.
Add Oiions, Mushrooms, pasta sauce
100 Calories, 20 grams of carbs 5 grams of Fiber

Try eating Greek Yogurt

Okay, so basically I need SOME ADVICE from people who have had trouble eating under 2000 cals a day...

I know all the simplistic answers make healthy choices, pack your lunch, stay away from junk etc... but i work long hours on my feet all day and at work i grab the nearest thing around, ive been good these last couple of days about not eating a crazy amount of cals but still i ate way over 1500 and felt like was darn starving myself.. how do you do it? Seriously my stomach grumbles and im having hunger pains.. i dont see how people sustain themselves off salad and a few chunks of chicken breast or fruit and water.. i feel like i ate nothing.. plus who wants to eat two hard boiled eggs for a meal wtf.. you know how it(2 boiled eggs) is on the menu in every restaurant:huh: :indifferent: ... i want to eat like normal.

like for breakfast i had 2 homemade soft tacos and a baked potato and it came out to @ 900 cals for two small tacos and a baked potato...

for lunch a homemade hamburger and fries almost 600 cals.. and it not like im using fatty meat... 90% lean ground beef is 200 for a quarter pound, bread is 100 cals, cheese 100, condiments about 50, potato and ketchup @ 150 cals...

you get my point... is anyone eating like a normal person and losing? I mean at work im gonna grab something convenient if i missed breakfast and am starving and the only thing in my vending machines are junk! chips and cupcakes etc... im not going to be hungry... this seems way more difficult than it should be.. Eat Less Cals, Exercise = Lose Weight.. but Doesnt seem like it works like that for me.. seems like im going to have to be in pain and starve and eat carrots and grass...

I eat 1900-2000 cals a day, and although I get hungry sometimes, I definitely don't feel like I'm starving.

Here's what I had yesterday:

Breakfast - 452 cals (homemade steak & egg burrito, 2 cups of coffee, 4T of creamer)
Lunch - 362 cals (apple & 2T of PB, 2 mini Babybel cheeses)
Dinner - 343 cals (1 baked chicken drumstick with breadcrumb crust, a spinach & red onion salad with dressing)
Snacks - 729 cals (greek yogurt mixed with protein powder and raspberries, 1 oz of nuts, a bowl of Lucky Charms & milk, 1 piece of string cheese, and 4 sugar wafer cookies)

Total calories - 1886

I felt full and satisfied all day. I have to preplan my meals. I take my lunch to work most days, but I have found a lot of meals that I can get at restaurants that meet my intake requirements. I take snacks to work - I keep nuts and rice "chips" at my desk. I read all the labels at the grocery store and buy the brand/option that meets my needs the best (like the lowest calorie string cheese that I can find). It takes some effort, but it's worth it.

I also want to say that you can still eat "normal" foods - you just have to change the way you eat them. I can have tacos that are WAY LESS than 900 calories. I'm just careful about how I make them. Chicken instead of beef (but even lean ground beef isn't that high calorie...you just have to measure it out), lots of salsa, half an ounce of cheese. Hamburgers are the same way.

I eat all the time. I eat all the foods I want. I just don't eat over my calorie intake.

OP - you're being very rude and nonsensical. People are giving you great advice, but you just don't want to hear it. Good luck.

I only read through a few posts because your replies are ridiculous. I have a hard time believing you eat what you think you eat and/or you're as active as you think you are. At your size with that activity level you should be losing weight at 2000 calories so if you're not losing weight, something in your equation is wrong.

But that's only part of your problem. Did you think this was going to be easy? You "can't" eat less than 2000 calories a day? Put on your big girl pants and find some discipline. Yes, you'll be hungry. There's a reason we got so big in the first place. We ate to much. To lose it we have to do the opposite. If it was easy I wouldn't be one of the smaller people in my office even though I'm 30 pounds overweight.