Under the calorie limit?

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JESSJAME5
JESSJAME5 Posts: 7
in Health and Weight Loss
So it recommends me to have 1200 calories per day, but I just can't get that many.. I don't do any exercise either. Anyways, Yesterday and today I'm about 200 calories away from reaching the 1200. So does this mean my body goes into starvation mode?? Cause I basically eat the same stuff every day. Cereal for breakfast, salad or fruit and stuff for lunch, and then for dinner I have veggies with melted cheese, one or two fried eggs, and a veggie sausage.. Even adding in some more fruit or a granola bar as a snack, I'm still the 200 calories under. I've basically been eating like this for several weeks now.. ?

Replies

  • wolverinefactor
    wolverinefactor Posts: 38
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    Are you losing weight or no? It's ideal to be around your limit pre-workout and if you're aiming to lose weight, you might want to work out some, it really helps out.
  • JESSJAME5
    JESSJAME5 Posts: 7
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    eventually I'd like to lose weight, but right now I think I just want to make sure I'm eating properly and what not. I go unicycling once a week for over an hour.. that's about it for my working out at the moment haha. I'm not even sure if I'm losing weight, I don't own scales.. I've just moved to Canada lol, still trying to sort all that out. But I don't feel like I've lost anything..
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
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    a lot depends on your current weight, height, activity level, and age. I know you're 18 but we don't know any of the other stuff so it would be very hard to tell how much of an issue this is. 200 below 1200 if you're 95 lbs isn't that bad, but 200 below 1200 if you're 190 might be a problem in the long run if you are consistent (these are examples only, not measures or "hard" limits).
  • aippolito1
    aippolito1 Posts: 4,894 Member
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    It's easy to eat up calories. 2 tbsp of natural peanut butter is about 170 calories. A medium banana about 7" is 108 calories. Add the two together for a delicious, healthy snack and you've already eaten 278 calories! Add some honey and bread...ooh wee.
  • JESSJAME5
    JESSJAME5 Posts: 7
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    I'm only about 67-68kgs. I don't know what it is in lbs..
  • JESSJAME5
    JESSJAME5 Posts: 7
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    Ohh! I forgot about peanut butter.. I think I might go add that to my banana soon... Mmm. We don't have any bread in the house though.. my friend I live with insists that bread is bad. So is pasta and anything of the sort..
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
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    2.2 lbs/kg

    so you are about 148 lbs

    but what about your height and activity level?
  • Michellerw1
    Michellerw1 Posts: 367
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    I had a huge problem eating all of my calories when I started exercising alot. So basically I just elimated "light" or "fat free products." (Disclaimer, I do not eat alot of packaged foods). The few extra calories I got from eating regular instead of fat free yogurt, etc, helped me get closer to my goal without eating a ton more food.
  • TheMaidOfAstolat
    TheMaidOfAstolat Posts: 3,222 Member
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    Ohh! I forgot about peanut butter.. I think I might go add that to my banana soon... Mmm. We don't have any bread in the house though.. my friend I live with insists that bread is bad. So is pasta and anything of the sort..

    First off, carbs are not bad for you. It's all about choosing the good kind, whole grains, whole wheat pastas, no added sugars, ect.
    My food diary is public if you want to take a look.

    PS: Listen to Boss, he knows what he's talking about.
  • JESSJAME5
    JESSJAME5 Posts: 7
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    My height is about 165cms, and my activity level is hardly anything.. I only work one or two days a week, and I work at a carnival so that's 6-8 hours on my feet setting up, walking around, standing up etc. And I go unicycling once a week for about 90 minutes. Other than that I'm at home studying online, looking for jobs etc. So at the moment my activity level is pretty poor.
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
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    Ohh! I forgot about peanut butter.. I think I might go add that to my banana soon... Mmm. We don't have any bread in the house though.. my friend I live with insists that bread is bad. So is pasta and anything of the sort..

    first, pasta, bread, rice, potatoes, et all is NOT bad.

    now, that doesn't mean you can go out and wolf down tons of the stuff. Carbs are a food group, just like the others. I would recommend trying to do as much whole wheat as possible if you're going to eat these things, and stay away from white flour for the most part (although the occasional white flour or enriched product won't kill ya).

    I would recommend you disregard "friend" advice and go out there and really do the research. If you go look up all the facts you'll see that, aside from having specific medical conditions, allergies, or food intolerances, there is no reason not to have carbohydrates in your diet, just try to make them good carbs when ever possible.

    Don't believe the hype out there, always consider the source, if they are benefiting from saying something in some way (with money or status...etc.) then take their advice with a huge grain of salt. Always make sure you find two INDEPENDENT sources on a topic before you "belive" it, and always try to check the credentials of the source before you tell others about it.

    I see all kinds of magazine and news paper posts that are re-posted on here (MFP) and most of them are written by free-lance journalists, who have as much nutritional knowledge as my nephew (and he's 5, and to my horror eats processed chicken nuggets 4 times a week for dinner). Sorry, bit of a tangent there. Anyway, the moral is, do the research and always ask why!
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
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    so you're 18, sedentary, 148 lbs and 5 foot 4. Unless you have a metabolic condition, I seriously doubt you should be averaging 1000 calories a day, that's way low. Assuming normal metabolic function your maintenance calories should be somewhere around 1800 calories, and you shouldn't be trying to lose more than 1 lb per week, which would put you at 1300 calories. This is my humble opinion based on very very limited information, but it is what it is.
  • arewethereyet
    arewethereyet Posts: 18,702 Member
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    Ohh! I forgot about peanut butter.. I think I might go add that to my banana soon... Mmm. We don't have any bread in the house though.. my friend I live with insists that bread is bad. So is pasta and anything of the sort..

    First off, carbs are not bad for you. It's all about choosing the good kind, whole grains, whole wheat pastas, no added sugars, ect.
    My food diary is public if you want to take a look.

    PS: Listen to Boss, he knows what he's talking about.

    Agree....
  • JESSJAME5
    JESSJAME5 Posts: 7
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    I just checked my settings and noticed it was set at 2lbs a week. I didn't mean to put it on that.. I've changed it now to 1lb a week and it's taken my daily calories up to 1,310 calories per day. But even adding on as much as I eat most normal days, it's still going to be far off reaching that amount. Even with trying to eat a bit more. I don't feel like anything else.. ? Now I feel like I have to go and try and eat more even though right now I feel really full?
  • TheMaidOfAstolat
    TheMaidOfAstolat Posts: 3,222 Member
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    I just checked my settings and noticed it was set at 2lbs a week. I didn't mean to put it on that.. I've changed it now to 1lb a week and it's taken my daily calories up to 1,310 calories per day. But even adding on as much as I eat most normal days, it's still going to be far off reaching that amount. Even with trying to eat a bit more. I don't feel like anything else.. ? Now I feel like I have to go and try and eat more even though right now I feel really full?

    Is your food diary public? It might help us out to find out what you are eating. Trust me, eating whole, nutritious foods can quickly add the cals. Do you factor in the oils and butter you use when cooking? Are you accurately measuring your food? A normal PB sammie for me is almost 200 cals (I use a whole grain bread and 1 full tablespoon of natural peanut butter).
  • JESSJAME5
    JESSJAME5 Posts: 7
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    It's public now, but I've only done one and a half days of entry lol. But dinner tonight will be steamed broccoli, cauliflower & carrot, with melted cheese on top.. and then a fried egg & a "Yves veggie cuisine, veggie dog" cause I'm vegetarian.. possibly even two fried eggs depending how hungry i feel later haha. and then maybe some more cantaloupe after dinner if I'm still hungry?
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
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    part of the process is learning your foods. Some foods have higher calorie content than others, that's not a bad thing. Nuts for instance, relatively unfilling, and small portion sizes, huge on very good calories. A hand full of almonds is over 160 calories. That's just an example, there are plenty of other things similar.

    Just do a little looking around on places like calorieking.com and such, you'll find plenty of food that will pack lots of calories without having to fill you up.

    Trust me, with 2800 calories a day to hit my maintenance (without exercise cals) I need to know what can add those cals. It get's easier if you put in the time.
  • TheMaidOfAstolat
    TheMaidOfAstolat Posts: 3,222 Member
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    It's public now, but I've only done one and a half days of entry lol. But dinner tonight will be steamed broccoli, cauliflower & carrot, with melted cheese on top.. and then a fried egg & a "Yves veggie cuisine, veggie dog" cause I'm vegetarian.. possibly even two fried eggs depending how hungry i feel later haha. and then maybe some more cantaloupe after dinner if I'm still hungry?


    Please look at my food diary. I'm also a vegetarian (have been for all of my 25 years). I am more than willing to talk to you any time. PM me if you have any questions.

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