Am I eating enough?

fawntyre
fawntyre Posts: 7 Member
in Food and Nutrition
So I'm not really sure how much I really weigh because I have multiple scales from home and at school that tell me how much I weigh. If I had to take a guess I'd say about 118-119ish (based off of doctor's office and working with the difference between the scale in my dorm room) and I'm 5'1. I've been getting around 1300-1400 calories a day, but that's an overestimate (I usually end up adding about 10% to what I eat and/or round up to the nearest 50). How do I know if my body is in starvation mode? I usually eat when I'm hungry so hunger isn't really an indicator for me.

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Edit:
It's commonly said not to go below 1200 calories, but I never know what that really means. Does that mean 1200 calories assuming that I'm a sloth and do absolutely nothing, or 1200 calories after I factor in my walking to classes and stuff? I'm a little confused :(

Replies

  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    Your body isn't in "starvation mode".

    Your diary isn't visible, but if you eat a variety of foods and get the essential proteins and fats then you'll be fine. Let's say a minimum of 40 grams of protein.

    Nutrition isn't about exercise, if you eat your food and get what you need it doesn't disappear if you exercise. The 1200 calorie thing is 1200 calories of stuff you eat.
  • SuperCrsa
    SuperCrsa Posts: 790 Member
    Nutrition isn't about exercise, if you eat your food and get what you need it doesn't disappear if you exercise.

    Just to clarify, when you exercise you do burn calories so that is where your nett calories comes in...?
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    Just to clarify, when you exercise you do burn calories so that is where your nett calories comes in...?

    yes if you like to think of net calories that is true.

    It doesn't remove the protein, magnesium, etc etc that you ate though.

    So MFP's "net calories" don't relate to nutrition other than the calorie energy balance.
  • fawntyre
    fawntyre Posts: 7 Member
    Okay, I just unhid my food diary. I haven't really been keeping up with it as much as I have been just writing it down in a notebook so for yesterday it's not very specific :(

    I updated for today, and it's pretty typical of what I usually eat per day (except for the persimmons, since I have a lot of those in my fridge and I need to finish them before I head home tonight).

    So to clarify a little more, am I supposed to be netting at least 1200 or intaking at least 1200 calories?
  • fawntyre
    fawntyre Posts: 7 Member
    I set my thingy to "moderately active" which puts me around 1640 calories per day(?) If I'm eating about 1300 and and walk 3 miles a day to get to classes and such (according to http://walking.about.com/library/cal/uccalc1.htm I'm burning about 150 calories doing that?) would that mean I am netting 1150, or was that already factored into my TDEE?

    I'm new to this and I guess you could say I have no idea what I'm doing ;__;
  • HartJames
    HartJames Posts: 789 Member
    Your net should return to your calorie goal after exercise- so you should eat more.

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