Too low calorie intake?

Could you make your food diary public for a bit so everyone can see what you're doing and make suggestions?

Eat more calorie dense foods that are still good for you. Nuts, PB, olive oil, avocados, brown rice. If you add these into your diet, you should be able to reach your calorie goal easily without feeling like your stomach is going to explode.

Eat more calorie dense foods that are still good for you. Nuts, PB, olive oil, avocados, brown rice. If you add these into your diet, you should be able to reach your calorie goal easily without feeling like your stomach is going to explode.

This.

This question is asked by a LOT of new people. I was the same way, I cut out junk, and all the sudden I couldn't eat enough calories to hit my goal, I was full...

It took a while to sink it, but that's how short people like me got overweight, we were eating moderate volumes of high calorie foods. When we switch to high volumes of low cal foods, all the sudden, we worry about things like starvation mode and stuff like that.

Your profile says you have 30 pounds to lose. bear in mind that if you're average height for a woman, TDEE -20% will take a while. If you maintain weight eating at 1500 calories, a 20% cut is 300 calories, or a daily goal of 1200.

well it takes -3500 calories to lose a pound, roughly, or 12 days for that 1500 calorie maintainer, cutting at 20%, to see a pound lost. To put that in perspective, it would take a -20% TDEE eater 35 days to lose 3 pounds, to go from 170 to 167.

I'm not that patient. I think we should cut while we have the motivation, and maintain when we don't.

And just as a reference, if you're active, and maintain weight at say, 2000 calories a day, a 20% cut would take 9 days to see a pound lost, or 26 days to see a 3 pound lost.

For you to lose 30 pounds going -20%, it would take you 350 days to lose that weight. If you maintain at 1500 calories.

If you're at all curious about how it works, you just take your TDEE and cut 20% of that, and divide it by 3500 calories to get the number of days it will take to cut a pound..

I just think that it's way too slow. Get there, get it done, switch to maintenance, and do something fun afterwards.

So you're eating 1000 calories and doing daily exercise? I think the P90X is about 500 cals per workout? So you're giving your body 500 calories a day to do all the things it needs. It's not gonna happen.

I think you're mixing two different methods of calorie accounting.

The really, really simple thing is this: Set MFP to a weight loss goal of 0 lbs. Eat that much food every day. Don't eat back exercise calories. Since you don't log them anyway this might work great for you.

As to getting enough food, don't attack it all at once. When I have to make changes I set small, easily accomplished goals to get where I need. For example, drink a protein shake first thing in the morning every day this week. Bang, +100 calories. Next week, see about adding a small handful of nuts right after the workout. That's another 100 calories. I would keep doing this until I was where I needed.

PS: During the Minnesota Starvation Experiment to starve the subjects their meals were cut to a little over 1500 calories a day. You can read more about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Starvation_Experiment

There's just no way 500 net calories is enough for your body. One of the things that happens is your body stops producing the hormones that cause the hunger feeling. This is a survival mechanism that allows you to focus on finding food instead of being distracted by hunger. Not being hungry while eating at extremely low calorie levels is a sure sign you aren't eating enough.

Yes, that's right. I would try and go for a 1 or 1 1/2lb a week goal. Try and keep yourself above that 1200cal mark if at all possible.
And change your Macros so you have 1g of protein for each lb of Lean Body Mass, .35 g of fat for each lb of lbm, then let the remainder go to carbs. Try and keep your carbs eaten as complex carbs as much as possible also.

If you are doing a beachbody program, you really want to follow their nutritional calculator. I would suggest using the link below to figure out your caloric needs. Then set you macro's to 40% carbs, 40% protein and 20% fats. At this point, you are significantly under eating for a program like that and your protein is almost nothing. If you want a lean and tight body, you want to maintain your lean body mass and it's hard to do that if you don't get enough protein or enough calories. Ideally, your goal should be fat loss, not weight loss. When you lose lean body mass, it takes longer to reach a good body weight to have a tight body.


http://www.teambeachbody.com/eat-smart/nutrition-tools/caloric-needs

The other thing you could do is drink more of your calories rather than trying to jump straight on the heavy solid food bandwagon. If you keep fruit juice (not fruit drink, actual fruit juice not just sugar) on hand and have a few cups a day that's another couple of hundred calories. The brain doesn't really register calories we drink as real food so it doesn't feel like your forcing yourself to eat. Plus breakfast juice or tropical juice are tasty.

Have you thought about very nutrient-dense foods? Try to add things like oil oil, peanut butter, avocado, and almonds to your meals. Works wonders!

You all are awesome for trying to help out. Just one more question!
What about eating back my exercise calories? Like, set a net goal for 1200, burn around 500 calories during P90X, causing a total intake of 1700 calories.

Would that be ok?

Please use the link I posted to figure out your true calorie goal. Do not follow the MFP way of doing things. This is the area where I see the most failure in the programs. This will then allow you to set up a custom profile and you will not need to do NET calories, only total daily calories. Also this allows you to eat the same amount of calories daily.

You all are awesome for trying to help out. Just one more question!
What about eating back my exercise calories? Like, set a net goal for 1200, burn around 500 calories during P90X, causing a total intake of 1700 calories.

Would that be ok?

Please use the link I posted to figure out your true calorie goal. Do not follow the MFP way of doing things. This is the area where I see the most failure in the programs. This will then allow you to set up a custom profile and you will not need to do NET calories, only total daily calories. Also this allows you to eat the same amount of calories daily.

I did use the calculator, which put me at what I originally calculated - an intake around 1500 calories. I would just really like to lose closer to 2 lbs a week.

I have a feeling the reason it gives you 1500 is because the option you chose. Did you choose "lose a lot of weight"?

I would suggest your expectations are too high. We would all like to get ripped and fit as quick as possible, but it's not realistic. Fast weight loss equates to muscle loss. If you want any kind of definition or muscle, then you want to minimize muscle loss. If you just care about some erroneous number on a scale, then you make that decision. But the scale doesn't always tell the whole picture. Look at the below link.. would you rather look like the 120 lb staci or the 140 lb staci

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/