Eating all my calories
Alycyn1980
Posts: 62 Member
Hi all
I have just noticed a small comment when completing my food diary saying that I am not eating enough of my calories. Problem is that I am not hungry and dont want to eat for the sake of eating as thats what got me the way I am today. Any ideas on how I can improve on this? I am not starving myself and I am making proper meals at dinner time.
Views and comments greatly appreciated
I have just noticed a small comment when completing my food diary saying that I am not eating enough of my calories. Problem is that I am not hungry and dont want to eat for the sake of eating as thats what got me the way I am today. Any ideas on how I can improve on this? I am not starving myself and I am making proper meals at dinner time.
Views and comments greatly appreciated
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Replies
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MFP is probably just worried that you'll be putting your body into starvation mode if you don't hit a certain number of calories. Since you're not really hungry, what about enjoying a glass of orange juice or milk? Something that's good for you that's packed with vitamins so you're getting those calories in without feeling like you're snacking or going off track.
Congrats on you 8 pounds!0 -
i find that even if i eat all my calories it tells me this because of the exercise i do. it adds it unto the calories that you eat.
if this is the same case with you i wouldnt worry about it too much.0 -
I have the same problem, I'm full, I'm not hungry and it is too late at night, IMHO, to be eating, but I'm down by 400 calories!! I did this for about a week straight, while doing a lot of running and cycling and you know what...? I did not lose any weight, and I was honestly tired. My solution is to not eat three meals a day, I now try to eat five times a day, and a few small snacks tossed in, all good healthy food. My go to snack right now is bananas, and watermelon, sometimes stick cheese, and the results after a week, down four pounds! :happy:
Funny thing isn't it, counter intuitive, you have to eat more to lose weight, now this is still staying well within my daily calorie limits, and I usually don't eat my exercise calories, sometimes, like after a huge bike ride, I'll eat extra protein, usually in the form of chicken, meat only no skin.
I recently posted about this and quoted a good article that "Banks" wrote on the MFP Cycling thread.......I hit a platuea a recently, I was stunned, as I was working out a lot and eating not so much, consistently under my calorie goals every day, I should eat about 1850 cal a day, and often I was only eating 1400 or less, and not eating any of my exercise calories, I though "Huh?" what is going on.
I then read about the "Starvation Mode" problem, where you are eating too little food, over a long period of time, and your body starts to horde the fat, and cannibalize muscle :noway:
Here is a post that "Banks" wrote, lots of great info...I still see many people that are confused or "question" the idea of eating your exercise calories. I wanted to try (as futile as this may turn out to be) to explain the concept in no uncertain terms. I'll save the question of "eating your exercise calories" for the end because I want people to understand WHY we say to do this.
NOTE: I'm not going to use a lot of citation in this, but I don't want people thinking this is my opinion, I have put much careful research into it, most of which is very complicated and took a long time for me to sift through and summarize, and thanks to my chemical engineering backgroud I have the tools to read clinical studies and translate them (somewhat) into more human terms. Some of this information comes from sources I can't forward because they are from pay sites (like New England Journal of Medicine), so you can ask for anything, but I may or may not be able to readilly provide it for you (I can always tell you where to go if you want to though).
I'll break it down into 3 sections.
Section 1 will be our metabolic lifecycle or what happens when we eat and how our body burns fuel.
Section 2 will be what happens when we receive too much, too little, or the wrong kind of fuel.
Section 3 will be the steps needed to bring the body to a healthy state and how the body "thinks" on a sympathetic level (the automatic things our body does like digestion, and energy distribution).
Section 1:
Metabolism, in "layman's" terms, is the process of taking in food, breaking it down into it's components, using the food as fuel and building blocks, and the disposal of the poisons and waste that we ingest as part of it. Metabolism has three overall factors, genetics, nutrition, and environment. So who we are, what we eat, and how we live all contribute to how our metabolism works. You can control 2 of these 3 factors (nutrition, environment).
When you eat food, it is broken down into it's component parts. Protein, vitamins and minerals are transported to the cells that need them to build new cells or repair existing cells. Fats(fatty acid molecules) and carbohydrates are processed (by 2 different means) and either immediately burned or stored for energy. Because the body doesn't store food in a pre-digested state, if you eat more carbs and fat then you need immediately, the body will save them for later in human fat cells (adipose tissue). This is important to realize because even if you eat the correct number of calories in a 24 hour period, if you eat in large quantities infrequently (more then you can burn during the digestion process), your body will still store the extra as fat and eliminate some of the nutrients. (Side note: this is why simple or processed carbs are worse for you compared with complex carbs)
Section 2:
The human body has a set metabolic rate (based on the criteria stated above), this rate can be changed by overall nutritional intake over a period of time, or by increasing activity levels also over a period of time (the exact amount of time for sustained increase in metabolic rates is the subject of some debate, but all studies agree that any increase in activity level will increse the metabolism).
It is important to note that obesity does not drasticly change the level of metabolic process, that means that if you become obese, you don't burn a higher fat percentage just because you have more to burn.
The balance of incomming fuel vs the amount of fuel the body uses is called maintenance calories, or the amount of calories it takes to run your body during a normal day (not including exercise or an extremely lethargic day). The metabolism is a sympathetic process, this means it will utilize lower brain function to control it's level, it also means it can actively "learn" how a body is fitness wise, and knows approximately how much energy it needs to function correctly. It also means automatic reactions will happen when too much or too little fuel is taken in. Too much fuel triggers fat storage, adipose tissue expands and fat is deposited, also free "fat" cells (triglycerides) will circulate in the blood stream (HDL and LDL cholesterol). Too little fuel (again, over an extended period) triggers a survival mode instinct, where the body recognizes the lack of fuel comming in and attempts to minimize body function (slowing down of non-essential organ function) and the maximization of fat storage. It's important to note that this isn't a "switch", the body does this as an ongoing analysis and will adjust the levels of this as needed (there is no "line" between normal and survival mode.).
When you're activity level increases, the human body will perform multiple functions, first, readily available carbohydrates and fats are broken down into fuel, oxydized, and sent directly to the areas that need fuel, next adipose (body) fat is retreived, oxydized, and transported to the areas it is needed for additional fuel, 3rd (and this is important), if fat stores are not easilly reachable (as in people with a healthy BMI where adipose fat is much more scarce), muscle is broken down and used for energy. What people must realize is that the metabolism is an efficiency engine, it will take the best available source of energy, if fat stores are too far away from the systems that need them or too dense to break down quickly, then it won't wait for the slower transfer, it will start breaking down muscle (while still breaking down some of that dense fat as well).
Section 3:
The wonderful part of the human metabolic system is it's ability to adapt and change. Just because your body has entered a certain state, doesn't mean it will stay that way. The downfall to this is that if organs go unused over a long period, they can lose functionality and can take years to fully recover(and sometimes never).
As long as there is no permenant damage to organ function, most people can "re-train" their metabolism to be more efficient by essentially showing it (with the intake of the proper levels and nutritional elements) that it will always have the right amount and types of fuel. This is also known as a healthy nutritional intake.
Going to the extreme one way or the other with fuel consumption will cause the metabolism to react, the more drastic the swing, the more drastic the metabolism reacts to this (for example, a diet that limits fat or cabohydrate intake to very low levels). In general terms, the metabolism will react with predictable results if fuel levels remain in a range it associates with normal fuel levels. If you raise these fuel levels it will react by storing more fat, if you lower these fuel levels, it will react by shutting down processes and storing fat for the "upcomming" famine levels. The most prominent immediate issues (in no particular order) with caloric levels below normal are reduced muscle function, reduction of muscle size and density, liver and kidney failures, increase in LDL (bad) cholesterol levels, and gallstones .
Now onto the question of "Eating your exercise calories"
As I have hinted to throughout this summary of metabolic process, the body has a "range" in which it feels it is receiving the right amount of fuel. The range (as most doctors and research scientists agree) is somewhere between 500 calories above your maintenance calories and 1000 calories below your maintenance calories. This means that the metabolism won't drastically change it's functionality in this range, with that said, this is not exact, it is a range based on averages, you may have a larger or smaller range based on the 3 factors of metabolism stated at the top.
On our website (MyFitnessPal), when you enter your goals, there is a prebuilt deficit designed to keep you in the "normal" metabolic functionality while still burning more calories then you take in. This goal DOES NOT INCLUDE exercise until you enter it. If you enter exercise into your daily plan, the site automatically adjusts your total caloric needs to stay within that normal range (in other words, just put your exercise in, don't worry about doing any additional calculations). Not eating exercise calories can bring you outside that range and (if done over an extended period of days or weeks) will gradually send your body into survival mode, making it harder (but not impossible) to continue to lose weight. The important thing to understand is (and this is REALLY important) the closer you are to your overall healthy weight (again, your metabolism views this a a range, not a specific number) the more prominant the survival mode becomes (remember, we talked about efficiency). This is because as fat becomes scarce, muscle is easier to break down and transport. And thus, the reason why it's harder to lose that "Last 10 pounds".
I really hope this puts a lot of questions to bed. I know people struggle with this issue and I want to make sure they have the straight facts of why we all harp on eating your exercise calories.
-Regards,
Banks
I hope this helps.0 -
You may not think you are starving yourself but your body may think differently. If you eat too few calories your body will hold on to the fat. Not only that when you go back to maintaining your weight after you reach your goal your body is likely to start storing fat again for the next time you starve it.. there are times I am not hungry but do sit down and eat to make my calories for the day. Once I start eating I find out I AM actually hungry after all. I agree with above post drink something with nutrition for more calories.0
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I read somewhere that starvation mode is eating less then half the calories your body needs to function.....So admittedly I don't all my exercise calories but I doi eat more then half my total.......You will se if you try that eating the right kind of calories makes your burn work better to burn fat....If you don't think you are hungry it is only that that is what your body is used to...it doesn't mean that that is what is best for your body....just ry it for a week or two you will be amazed at how much better you will feel.0
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This topic is very difficult to absorb as it goes against what we think should happen.0
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StuAblett is totally right. I have a friend who was watching her calories and exercising routinely, and was barely losing weight. She upped her calories a bit (I think she went from 1400 to 1600), with the same amount of exercise, and she started losing weight at a much faster rate. You have to find that sweet spot of calories that your body likes.0
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great thread, and awsome info on metabolisim!0
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Long story short, I lived in starvation mode for years. My body stopped telling me that it was hungry so I didn't eat. I gained weight. And gained, and gained. I am now trying to re-set my body by eatting healthy every 4 hours...even when it doesn't tell me it's hungry. I can't trust what my body is telling me, or not telling me. I am slowly getting back into regular cardo and resistance exercising. I feel better, am sleeping better and I don't feel like I need oxygen when I climb stairs. Somewhere down the road I will be able to trust my bodys signals again, but until then it is every 4 hours if I feel like it or not. I have lost 15 pounds in 4 weeks by eatting MORE in a day than I have in years.0
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Thanks everyone, I will try and eat more and have a look back at the weeks that I lost a bot more than this week and see what the differences were. Think I will invest in some orange juice or something as not that keen on fresh fruit!!!0
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Thanks for this thread! It explains a lot about why I've not lost what I thought I would with all of the daily exercise I've added into my life this month! Can't wait to see what changes this week will bring!0
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