End of the day and not enough calories?

Your TDEE is 1494? Or your TDEE - 20% is 1494?

Also, why don't you give us a list of things you can't eat for dietary reasons, and then people can make suggestions for ways to add calories to fit within your requirements.

But personally, I am of the "eat what you want if it fits within your goals" camp and am not a fan of arbitrarily restricting foods that one deems not beneficial. so my suggestions are more likely to be along the lines of wine and cookies (since you said ice cream is out).

I don't understand this. I only have 700 more calories left for the day and I'm sad about it.

Me neither. Like I've said on the countless other "I can't eat enough" posts, I work out harder just so I can eat more. x2

Have a bowl of ice cream tonight. Or peanut butter. Or a bowl of cereal...etc. I really don't understand how some people find this to be so hard. It's not.

Or a bowl of vanilla ice cream with peanut butter and granola mixed in

You'll thank me tomorrow!

The answer is planning your meals and logging them ahead of time.

I fall in this trap when I don't plan my meals out. I'll happily eat a salad, a coffee, some fruit and another salad and call it a day. Then when I log after the fact it's like 900 calories, and I have a problem.

If you're having trouble finding calories, start adding back in full fat foods. No reason to eat reduced fat everything.

I'm new here. What is TDEE?

I was in the same boat last night OP. I ate a handful of mixed nuts and a couple of rice cakes as a night snack and still came in 500 calories under. Also I don't like to eat my calories at night. That seems to always make me gain weight. So I am trying to add things to the breakfast cookie I make to make it higher in calories. Also add coconut oil to my smoothies.

Average all of your calories out for the week. If you have to go out to lunch one day, and it puts you over on your calories, that will cancel out the day before or after where you didn't get to eat as much.

I'm not following...OP needed a quick way to add more calories to her diet at the end of the day. My advice was to her.

I wasn't even offering advice, I was just pointing out that I burn more calories than I eat every day and that for me it doesn't make sense to add those calories back into my diet. I personally don't see the point of eating a bunch of food I don't want when I'm not hungry and need to lose some weight.

Some people do like to force feed themselves to lose weight and more power to them, different strokes for different folks is all.

I'm not following your logic here, at all.

Your calorie amount, if you're using MFP, has already calculated a deficit for you (based on your "how much you want to lose" data) and bases that amount on your day to day activity. The calories you get from exercise are meant to be eaten back. Are you suggesting you net negatively? That's. ..not right at all.

It's not a matter of "eating to eat". It's a matter of eating to fuel your body and retain your muscle (including vital organs) and retaining your health....

A lot of people seem to catch issues being able to eat their caloric amount because they start using trivial words like "good" and "bad". Those words are meaningless. Nutrient density is really the focus and doesn't eliminate any foods from a diet. Does it limit? Sure. I certainly couldn't maintain my health on eating nothing but pizza. I also couldn't eating nothing but apples. It's about balance.

Yeah I normally eat between 1700-1900 calories a day and burn between 1000-3000 a day. I ride my bike a few hours a day and keep getting better stronger faster so any ill effects of eating well and getting lots of exercise are taking a while to manifest.

For me, in my situation, if I were to eat back the extra 1000-3000 calories a day, I'm not really sure what the imagined health benefits would be and how they would aid in my weight loss and fitness goals.

I'm not following...OP needed a quick way to add more calories to her diet at the end of the day. My advice was to her.

I wasn't even offering advice, I was just pointing out that I burn more calories than I eat every day and that for me it doesn't make sense to add those calories back into my diet. I personally don't see the point of eating a bunch of food I don't want when I'm not hungry and need to lose some weight.

Some people do like to force feed themselves to lose weight and more power to them, different strokes for different folks is all.

I'm not following your logic here, at all.

Your calorie amount, if you're using MFP, has already calculated a deficit for you (based on your "how much you want to lose" data) and bases that amount on your day to day activity. The calories you get from exercise are meant to be eaten back. Are you suggesting you net negatively? That's. ..not right at all.

It's not a matter of "eating to eat". It's a matter of eating to fuel your body and retain your muscle (including vital organs) and retaining your health....

A lot of people seem to catch issues being able to eat their caloric amount because they start using trivial words like "good" and "bad". Those words are meaningless. Nutrient density is really the focus and doesn't eliminate any foods from a diet. Does it limit? Sure. I certainly couldn't maintain my health on eating nothing but pizza. I also couldn't eating nothing but apples. It's about balance.

I follow his logic completely. But my body burns stored fat calories just fine to fuel my workouts and to save my organs and for all else. There is no other diet plan in the world that I've ever heard of that supposes it doesn't work that way for everyone. People need 1200 for nutrition, as a conservative estimate. Calorie balance is a whole other ball game. MFPers mix the two up constantly, in my opinion. And it seems mostly based on a few old studies on the effects of low calorie (way lower than 1200) diets on LBM. I think one was from the 80s and one was from Japan, when I've asked people here what they base that belief on.

Are you hungry? Do you feel irritable, weak, fatigued?

1) Hunger pangs are based on your "normal" intake. This is why someone who is just starting a diet feels like they are especially hungry. After a week or so of a new habit, the normal shifts, and your hunger pangs are based on your new habits. In short, if you're new to your diet, hunger isn't the most accurate indicator. (Sometimes it never is.)

2) Irritability, weakness, and fatigue are all signs that you actually could use a calorie boost in the form of healthy snacks and/or additions to your meals. Don't use them as an excuse to add in some extra cheat food. You're feeling that way because you need something wholesome food gives.

3) Numbers are not made of magic, and your body is good at dealing with famine. We put on weight so easily because of years of evolution favoring humans whose bodies prepared them for bad times. Both a blessing and a curse--we don't really experience those bad times anymore in first world countries, and there's no evolution backing putting down the pie. All that said, 1200 is not particularly a special number, your BMR probably varies by as much as 100 calories from the next person your height and weight, so there's no reason to worry overmuch about one day going below your calorie requirements. Making a habit of it would be bad, but a day here and a day there, it's really not going to somehow turn you into a marshmallow because of "starvation mode"

4) Keep in mind that MFP's database of exercises is all estimation and may or may not reflect how many actual calories you burned. If you want a more accurate estimate, I recommend an HRM of some sort. Even then, there's not necessarily a need to eat back every exercise calorie. Maybe just finish your workout and have an apple with peanut butter if you feel like it.

5) Losing weight is stressful for your body. It's supposed to be. It wants to hold onto energy in case of worse times ahead. Anytime you're in a calorie deficit, there's a chance you're going to just feel like poop. You can mitigate it by lessening the deficit, eating at least your BMR, and eating back some (if not all, doesn't have to be though) your exercise calories. Just don't accidentally add back in too much food to see any weight loss

I don't eat unless I'm hungry. I burn a few thousand calories a day riding my bike around and don't quite get the logic of eating a tub of ice cream and a pound of bacon everyday to lose weight.

I'm trying to find the post advocating for eating a tub of ice cream and pound of bacon every day?

How big would my bowl of vanilla ice cream with peanut butter and granola mixed in need to be to get to 2000 extra calories? Bacon was just my idea, I figured I would burnout on ice cream after the first 1000-1500 calories.

A pint container of Jeni's Ugandan Vanilla Bean is 1,040 calories; a pint of Dark Chocolate (which would be my choice with a nut butter, because that's how I roll) is a bargain at only 920. Add 5-6 ounces of peanut butter, and you're easily there. Leaving no room for granola, which is awesome because I don't like granola in my ice cream.

A "tub" of ice cream is usually a half gallon (4 pints), although some manufacturers no produce 1.5 quart (3 pints) tubs instead. A pound of bacon, cured and pan-fried, is about 2,400 calories.

So now I'm in to see a link to the post advocating approximately 6,500 calories of ice cream and bacon to round out the last-minute needs of a 1,200-calorie dieter who's a few hundred under net at the end of the night.

I tend to focus more on the calories over the entire week that way I don't worry too much about being under my net on one day. Also, the exercise calories on MFP are notoriously high, so keep an eye on that and maybe only plan on eating back half of them.

Your TDEE is 1494? Or your TDEE - 20% is 1494?

Also, why don't you give us a list of things you can't eat for dietary reasons, and then people can make suggestions for ways to add calories to fit within your requirements.

But personally, I am of the "eat what you want if it fits within your goals" camp and am not a fan of arbitrarily restricting foods that one deems not beneficial. so my suggestions are more likely to be along the lines of wine and cookies (since you said ice cream is out).

Sorry, I grabbed the wrong number, I meant to put the 2054, the 1494 was BMR according to the calculator I saw.

In general, I cannot eat: any dairy (not just lactose); peanuts; benzoates; melons of any sorts; peppers; or raw cucumbers, onions, and almonds.

This is the last week of challenges for the elimination diet, so currently, I am eating fruits, vegetables, meats and fish, and some grains/rice. I'll be able to add back in eggs, nuts, almond butter, gluten, and things like that next week.

Hmmm... Rice, corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes -- those are all reasonably calorie-dense, especially the way they're usually prepared. No butter, that's too bad, but soy sauce would season the rice nicely. Sweet potatoes are great with a little brown sugar and cinnamon. Or as fries... yum! Oatmeal? Not my favorite, but might go down pretty easy at night.

Fattier meats, like ribs, dark-meat chicken, and steak, would give you more calories than leaner meats.

For sheer calorie content, fruit juices are quick and easy.

No almonds or peanuts, ok. Are other nuts an option? Like cashews or macadamia nuts? What about sunflower seeds?

My general rule is, if I'm not hungry, I don't eat. If I am hungry, then I eat. I use MFP in a very general way....to log food and exercise and talk to others who are doing what I'm doing. MFP tells me quite often that I'm not eating enough calories yet my body feels satisfied so I listen to my body.

Your TDEE is 1494? Or your TDEE - 20% is 1494?

Also, why don't you give us a list of things you can't eat for dietary reasons, and then people can make suggestions for ways to add calories to fit within your requirements.

But personally, I am of the "eat what you want if it fits within your goals" camp and am not a fan of arbitrarily restricting foods that one deems not beneficial. so my suggestions are more likely to be along the lines of wine and cookies (since you said ice cream is out).

Sorry, I grabbed the wrong number, I meant to put the 2054, the 1494 was BMR according to the calculator I saw.

In general, I cannot eat: any dairy (not just lactose); peanuts; benzoates; melons of any sorts; peppers; or raw cucumbers, onions, and almonds.

This is the last week of challenges for the elimination diet, so currently, I am eating fruits, vegetables, meats and fish, and some grains/rice. I'll be able to add back in eggs, nuts, almond butter, gluten, and things like that next week.

Hmmm... Rice, corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes -- those are all reasonably calorie-dense, especially the way they're usually prepared. No butter, that's too bad, but soy sauce would season the rice nicely. Sweet potatoes are great with a little brown sugar and cinnamon. Or as fries... yum! Oatmeal? Not my favorite, but might go down pretty easy at night.

Fattier meats, like ribs, dark-meat chicken, and steak, would give you more calories than leaner meats.

For sheer calorie content, fruit juices are quick and easy.

No almonds or peanuts, ok. Are other nuts an option? Like cashews or macadamia nuts? What about sunflower seeds?

I clearly have to read up some more on TDEE - all I did was google a calculator. I had seen threads talking about TDEE, but missed what it says about -20%. I suppose it was a raw number.

Today, I was just looking to get to 1200 calories, not even trying to make up for exercise calories.

I did remember I have some raw pecans in the fridge and ate a few, so that bumped up the calorie consumption about 180 calories. I will see what we are having for dinner.

TDEE - 20%, or -15%, or -10% is just the mechanism to calculate your deficit. TDEE is the amount of calories you burn in a day, doing everything you do. Breathing, working, eating, sleeping, working out, etc. So if you eat at your TDEE, you should in theory, maintain your weight. Subtracting 20% is what is usually recommended if someone wants to lose about a pound a week. But since TDEE includes your estimates of your exercise burn, you don't log your workouts and eat back the calories. A lot of people still log their workouts, but enter them at 1 calorie, just to track what they are doing.

1200 cal/day is pretty low for a TDEE of over 2000. That would put you losing about 1.5 lbs/week. which is probably too aggressive for your goals, and also, you aren't even reaching that 1200 minimum number all the time.