My theory on why people fall under their calories

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  • Silvervixen79
    Silvervixen79 Posts: 116 Member
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    I have grown a fear of eating any junk food to be honest. I will not eat a chocolate bar or a bag of crisps etc even if I am 600 calories under what I should be. I dont want to eat it because I am truthfully afraid of gaining weight and/or getting back into my bad habits of eating. MFP tells me that to maintain weight I should have 2800 calories, I genuinly believe that I would gain 2-3 pounds every week if I did this!.

    I have got to a stage where I would rather take the hit on eating under my calories then eat what I consider to be "unhealthy" food.

    This!
  • laceysowards
    laceysowards Posts: 9
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    I love peanut butter....I miss it.
  • bobf279
    bobf279 Posts: 342 Member
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    I really dont understand you people... I eat realatively healthy (keeping added sugar, sodium, cholesterol below recommended), and at 3000 cal a day i am hungry all the time. Imagining, how someone can eat below 2000 cal, and STRUGGLE to get it, even using dirty foods, is mindblowing. All your daily calories are like a half a chocolate bar...

    As one of the "you" people I understand "us" but don't understand you
  • NutellaAddict
    NutellaAddict Posts: 1,258 Member
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    Give me your chocolate.
  • ljmiller11
    ljmiller11 Posts: 67 Member
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    I am reading this topic with interest as I am confused as to why so many of you need to be on a calorie counting website if you find it so hard to eat enough food?? Surely, your love of food (or too much of it) is what bought you here so why all of a sudden have you lost your appetities? I eat between 1,500 and 1,600 daily (sometimes 2,000+ on a weekend) and I am never so full I can't possible eat anymore! I eat 5 x 300-400 calorie meals a day and hitting my target is easy, it's staying under it that's hard, I love food!

    I get that you don't want to eat junk food but what about changing from skimmed to full fat milk, add cheese to your salad, add butter to your bread - not all fats are bad fats! Even just cooking with a little oil can add 100 cals to a meal. Then there's things like grains, pulses and other complex carbs that actually give you energy! How do you people find the strength to work out whilst eating lettuce leaves?? That is just not sustainable. Eat in a way that you can do (and enjoy!) going forward, this should not be a faddy diet, it just won't last.

    Good luck to all!
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    I love peanut butter....I miss it.

    If its natural peanut butter, why wouldnt you eat it?
  • JakeBrownVB
    JakeBrownVB Posts: 399 Member
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    It is not that we have lost apetites, it is that we are trying to eat healthy and are fairly new to it (9 weeks for me). Because of that I, and I am sure many others, are afraid of eating things like cheese or butter or full fat milk as they sound... well fattening.
    It may well be that many people like myself dedicate themselves to dieting and over dedicate to it, leaving us under our calorie targets. However I think that this is by far better then under dedicated yoyo dieting that many people do as I know I will stay dedicated to mine and eventually find my perfect balance of healthy food to calorie consumption.
  • amyniceneasy
    amyniceneasy Posts: 143 Member
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    I am reading this topic with interest as I am confused as to why so many of you need to be on a calorie counting website if you find it so hard to eat enough food?? Surely, your love of food (or too much of it) is what bought you here so why all of a sudden have you lost your appetities? I eat between 1,500 and 1,600 daily (sometimes 2,000+ on a weekend) and I am never so full I can't possible eat anymore! I eat 5 x 300-400 calorie meals a day and hitting my target is easy, it's staying under it that's hard, I love food!

    I get that you don't want to eat junk food but what about changing from skimmed to full fat milk, add cheese to your salad, add butter to your bread - not all fats are bad fats! Even just cooking with a little oil can add 100 cals to a meal. Then there's things like grains, pulses and other complex carbs that actually give you energy! How do you people find the strength to work out whilst eating lettuce leaves?? That is just not sustainable. Eat in a way that you can do (and enjoy!) going forward, this should not be a faddy diet, it just won't last.

    Good luck to all!


    This!!!
    I WISH I was one who had trouble meeting calorie goals. I eat healthy 90% of the time and I still have issues with not going over.
  • mathjulz
    mathjulz Posts: 5,514 Member
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    However if I try and meet that 600 calories in chicken and veg, I would have to eat 3-4 large pieces of chicken breast and a MASSIVE plate of veg. Not only that but it would be more expensive, take longer to prepare and I would be full after eating this.

    \


    Confused…

    According to the MFP database, 1/2 chicken breast without skin is 142 calories. (This is not a user-entered amount). So 2 whole chicken breasts by themselves would be nearly 600 calories. Vegetables are low calories, but one 2/3 cup serving of my frozen steamed mixed veggies would easily bring it up to 600 calories. Granted, I would not want to eat 2 whole chicken breasts (I usually only eat 1/2), but add in some brown rice or a medium baked potato, and a bit of sauce/gravy, and the 500-600 calories mark is easily reached.
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
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    I also have trouble getting to my 1500 a day that MFP says I need to be at. Actually, just today I decided to add 3 eggs to my breakfast. Before today, I had just been eating fruit for breakfast normally, a flat bread sandwich for lunch, and usually a healthy dinner of some sort. This would leave me at literally like 900 calories.

    This weekend I am going to start adding Whole Raw Milk from my buddy's farm so that should help as well and give me some added nutrients and brown fats.
  • toaster6
    toaster6 Posts: 703 Member
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    I agree with you. For me though, it's not even just that the healthier foods tend to be filling at a low calorie count. For me, it can be a struggle because I never ate that many calories in the first place, I drank them. Before I started changing my diet, I would eat about a 1000-1200 calories worth of food in a day and drink well over a thousand calories worth of sodas and sugary drinks like lemonade-- I drank sodas like I drink water now. If I wanted something sweet, I'd always chose a huge bottle of soda over actual food.
  • CM9178
    CM9178 Posts: 1,265 Member
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    I dont usually struggle with this, but sometimes if I have lots of calories left and think I should eat I'm just stumped as to what I could spend those calories on.

    All the 'usual' go to snacks like crisps and chocolate I don't really want anymore, and everything else I could have as a snack I've probably already eaten that day, and don't want to have again because I like to have a lot of variety.

    I have found this happening to me lately. I'll be left with like 400 calories at the end of the day, and can't find anything I want to snack on that is that many calories, because chances are I've already eaten it that day.
  • sammyf147
    sammyf147 Posts: 5
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    No was on a 1200 calorie diet trying to up it to 1500 - 1600 and will eat back most of the Insantiy calories on top of that, might be a bit bonkers and uninformed in the nutrition stakes but also understand that I need to have enough energy to get out of bed in the mornings :-)
  • CM9178
    CM9178 Posts: 1,265 Member
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    I also have trouble getting to my 1500 a day that MFP says I need to be at. Actually, just today I decided to add 3 eggs to my breakfast. Before today, I had just been eating fruit for breakfast normally, a flat bread sandwich for lunch, and usually a healthy dinner of some sort. This would leave me at literally like 900 calories.

    This weekend I am going to start adding Whole Raw Milk from my buddy's farm so that should help as well and give me some added nutrients and brown fats.
    If you are only eating 3 meals and that's it - then try adding in small snacks throughout the day. a 200 calorie snack, 3 times per day, would give you another 600 calories.
  • escort9580
    escort9580 Posts: 23 Member
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    I love nutella so I don't buy it because i dip into it with dried veggies and before you know it, I'm full and the jar is empty...
  • mathjulz
    mathjulz Posts: 5,514 Member
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    I have grown a fear of eating any junk food to be honest. I will not eat a chocolate bar or a bag of crisps etc even if I am 600 calories under what I should be. I dont want to eat it because I am truthfully afraid of gaining weight and/or getting back into my bad habits of eating. MFP tells me that to maintain weight I should have 2800 calories, I genuinly believe that I would gain 2-3 pounds every week if I did this!.

    I have got to a stage where I would rather take the hit on eating under my calories then eat what I consider to be "unhealthy" food.

    I'm not trying to be picky or mean, but thought I'd offer some suggestions for when you are under your goal by hundreds of calories and don't want to eat "unhealthy"

    How about bread with peanut butter? Even 1/2 Tb of pb and, with the bread, you can get 150 calories (whole grain bread isn't bad for you!). A handful of almonds (1/4 cup) is nearly 200 calories. Avocado is delicious and has the healthy, unsaturated oils; 1/2 medium avocado is about 150 calories. A glass of skim milk is 80 calories; stir in some protein powder for an additional 50-200 calories (depending on the brand). Cheese is ~ 100 calories per oz, you can even drizzle it on your vegetables.

    My problem is that I like too much of these calorie dense foods, and I'm learning to be moderate to keep my calories down. But, they aren't bad for you, and if you need those extra calories, they are great, tasty ways to get them in without reaching for the crisps.
  • TeachTheGirl
    TeachTheGirl Posts: 2,091 Member
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    I find the puzzle is sometimes a pain. I don't eat a lot for breakfast one day because I'm not hungry, but then it comes to lunch and I gauge my calories based on what I usually eat and then by the end of the day, I have calories left over because I was 'saving' them for dinner and found myself not hungry. So then the next day I overcompensate.

    It's a balancing act and unless I eat the same thing every day, I'm always up and down on my macros.
  • bumblebums
    bumblebums Posts: 2,181 Member
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    Dunno what you are talking about. If I need to eat more, a good handful of nuts or an avocado usually takes care of those calories for me.

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