Under Calories

yes as long as you are still losing weight and not drastically cutting calories without doctor supervision

Not true. Depending on how much you weigh vs a healthy weight for your height, you want to lose a certain amount per week to be healthy. For instance, if the OP is within 25 lbs of a healthy weight, she should not be losing 2+ lbs a week because that is above a healthy rate for her. If she is within 100+ lbs of a healthy weight, that rate of loss would be fine.

OP, here is a good resource with all kinds of other links for you to check out. This has helped me immensely.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

Thanks for the link. I went ahead and made my diary public.

Ok, yeah you're way to low to be in healthy range especially considering that you work out. What are your height and current weight?

Thanks for the link. I went ahead and made my diary public.

Ok, yeah you're way to low to be in healthy range especially considering that you work out. What are your height and current weight?

I'm around 5'3" and 165 lbs.

Ok, so you are within about 25-30 lbs of your goal weight, I assume? You should probably start trying to lose about a half pound a week at this point. This will increase your calories, but don't fear! You can fill them up by using higher calorie foods if you're feeling too full. You can add things like nuts and beans that are fairly high calorie but nutrient dense.

If you are aiming for a lower weight, say about 35-40 lbs, you can still lose at one pound per week healthily.

I guess your question was more about adding in some calories, so I'll address that too. You can add peanut butter to almost anything, add in some drinks with calories (milk, juice, coffee, etc) and oils and dressings. You really should be eating more to make sure your body is doing what it needs to do.

you don't need to show your diary to anyone if you don't want to. calories are calories and its ok to be under

Please stop. I'm not trying to be mean, and this is not an attack, but your advice can be harmful. You keep telling people it's okay to be under, when you don't know how many calories they are eating at all. If a person was only eating 600 calories a day, then no, it's not okay to be under, because they are already way under eating.

I know you are new and you just want to help.

you don't need to show your diary to anyone if you don't want to. calories are calories and its ok to be under

She asked for our assistance and having her diary open is the best way for us to help assess the situation and offer the best advice available. And it is one thing to be under goal (which is already set well below our TDEE) but within reason. it is also okay to be above TDEE within reason. What you want to do is eat as close to goal as you can, not as low under as you can. Eating too far under goal sets one up to fail because then it is more likely to go on a binge and throw everything off. It is better to eat more and in a sustainable manner than it is to be too restrictive and rebound harshly.

PS. I wouldn't use the scale if your goal is fat loss/muscle gain.. some people weight the same or more but are epic shredded compared to where they were a year ago... I'd use measuring tape and jeans.. I weigh the same as I did 6 months ago, but my workouts are significantly more strenuous and I upped my leg press to 350 lbs.. I LOOK leaner but my weight says otherwise. Just somethin to keep in mind.. scales are evil and can mess with our confidence/brains.

Its not terrible to be under calories, if you're goal is fat loss you should not be eating back your workout calories that get burned.

MFP already sets you at a deficit. Too high of a deficit is a bad thing. Yes, you should eat back some of your exercise calories

I would have a higher calorie day once or twice a week to offset the low calorie days.. maybe up it to a maintenance 1-2 a week the day before a heavy weights day. Just my two cents.. I'm not a trainer or anything, just from my own reading up on said subject.

Or just maintain your reasonable deficit consistently and still lose weight

If you lose weight by creating too large of a deficit, you're losing fat as well as lean body mass. You want to maintain as much lean body mass as possible, which requires a REASONABLE deficit

rm33064 had it right on the nose. listen to YOUR body. if your not hungry you do not need to eat. if you are full you do NOT need to eat more. if you are eating so little that harm will start being done to your body you will feel it. otherwise its silly to eat when you are not hungry

Hunger: still not the best indicator that someone is getting enough to eat.

Why on Earth would you recommend that someone wait until after they're noticing negative effects? The damage has already been done at that point.

It IS ok to be under and I will not stop. I worked with a DIETICIAN. Its fine to be under as long as you are getting the proper calories and nutrients for you. People are going off BASE guidelines. Everyone is different. She needs to see a dietician or doctor because everyone here is going off of generalized information. Im not new either. Ive used mfp on and off. im just back. I will continue to tell people the truth.

Oh, you're not new? Then I take back what I just said, you're just going around giving people terrible advice. In that case, I guess I can just sit back and hope that you get banned from the message boards for advocating dangerous diets.

honey just see a dietician. people freak over 4, 5 and 600 calories when they do NOT know a back story or the persons personal nutritional needs. if you are not hungry don't eat. this board is consistently showing itself to be a place for impersonal generalized advice that really has no bases on each person as an individual. its all numbers numbers numbers. if you feel there is something wrong go see a doc. if you feel full and fine and healthy keep up the good work and don't change what your doing. Good luck

Are you really going to suggest that 400 calories a day is healthy? VLCDs can be fine in very specific cases and while under a doctor's supervision. The original poster does not seem to fit into that category.

400-600 calories a day is not okay for anyone who isn't under a doctor's supervision. It's not possible to get enough nutrients at that level. A day here and there below your calories is fine, but long term eating like this is going to lead to deficiencies and complications.

Again, hunger cues can be suppressed by a variety of factors, including prolonged undereating. It's part of the reason that so many people with eating disorders report not feeling hunger at all. You cannot use hunger as the only sign that you're getting enough to eat.

The lowest I've ever seen MFP recommend, intake-wise, is 1200... it'll prompt a message letting you know that, based on general dietary guidelines, you are undereating. Even if you're only a few calories under, it'll still give you that message.

OP, lets provide some context because obviously you are going to get some misguided information in this thread. At this point, we need to know more information about you to understand how "under" you truly are and make you aware of potential shortcomings based on some peoples recommendations currently. So we know your height, weight and age, but won't don't know your current workout schedule (length and number of days), what you do for a living or your medical conditions (if any).

Since I don't know that information, i will provide some data points to make it easy to understand. This assumes you have a desk job like most of us. If you have an active job or SAHM the deficit you would be currently eating at would larger. This also assumes you are an average person.

Your BMR or basal metabolic rate (the amount of calories you burn if you slept 24 hrs) is around 1571 calories. Using the Harris-Benedict formula, if you were sedentary, you would have an activity multiplier of 1.2, which means your daily TDEE or total daily energy expended (maintenance calories would be:

1571 x 1.2 =1885

Looking at your diary and seeing that you are eating about 1000 calories a day, that would give you a deficit around 885 =/- 200 calories. That is a big aggressive for even a sedentary person. Additionally, the fitness community recommends higher protein % than basic RDA standards (which MFP follows). Given the fact, if you were sedentary and only getting about 50% of the protein you really need, there is a strong chance you will increase the amount of lean body mass (muscle, fibers, bone density, tissue, etc...) during your process. Loss of lean body mass, means a slower metabolic rate; both from a basal and resting standpoint.

Now if you were lightly active your multiplier would be 1.375 (this is 3 to 4 hours a week) and if you were moderately (5 to 6 hours a week) your multiplier would be 1.55. The multipliers are against your BMR.

Currently, we already would suggest increasing protein to around 1g per lb of lean body mass.. roughly 70% of your weight in grams of protein. Next, we would question if you do resistance training. Protein + resistance training will help maintain your metabolic functions and reduce your loss of your lean body mass.

Next, hunger signals. Unfortunately, they are very unreliable to listen to. In fact, based on eating frequency and volume of food, you can modify it. You can see the difference in signals if you compare a person eating 6 meals a day vs interim fasting where they eat all their calories in a 4 hour window.

Listening to your body: this also isn't sound advice. Unfortunately, our bodies are reactive when it comes to issues. What I mean, you generally don't know until it's too late. So that means your body won't tell you are malnourished until it's too late.... i.e - hair falling out, poor skin, brittle nails, exhaustion, etc... Heck, if you want an extreme example of why your body sucks... look how many people get stage 4 cancer before they figure it out. It's one reason you are supposed to get regular checkups. The proactive approach to health and fitness is always better than the lets wait and see crap.