I only consumed roughly 800 calories today

This is my first time really trying to track my calories. I thought I was doing great by staying under 1200 for the day. Then when I submitted my diary entry for the day it said it was unhealthy. I am not an active person, I sit at a desk, and my pedometer said only 1500 by the end of today. I ate 3 meals and 2 snacks, and I havent even felt as though I was starving all day. Cereal for breakfast, grilled chicken salad for lunch, sauteed chicken, snap peas and squash for dinner. My snacks were string cheese and a greek yogurt cup.
Essentially what I want to know is, for me being as innactive as I am, is this okay? Or do I need to be taking in the full 1200 per day? I am new to this so any advise is helpful!
Also, I'm 20 years old 5'5 and 197 lbs.

Replies

  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    I am pretty new at this myself, but since you haven't gotten any replies yet, I want to start you off with something.

    First, try reading through the sticky posts at the top, they do a great job of explaining how to figure out where your calories should be! I learned a ton from them.

    Second, are you measuring your servings and listing every ingredient? I only ask because if I ate a bowl of cereal, a string cheese, a greek yogurt, some chicken salad, and more chicken with veggies, I would eat way more than 800 calories!

    Otherwise, I can't be of much more help, because I have NEVER had a problem eating all my calories :) I get hungry if I haven't eaten 800 cals by the end of lunch. Good luck!
  • AllOutof_Bubblegum
    AllOutof_Bubblegum Posts: 3,646 Member
    1200 calories is probably not the right number for you. More that probably. Definitely.

    MFP is quite notorious for setting calorie goals FAR too low, regardless of height and weight. For example, it told me to eat 1200, and my BMR (the bare amount of calories I need to LIVE) is 1280. And I am extremely tiny, only 5 feet. So unless you are smaller than me, or bedridden, it is almost a CERTAINTY that you are eating too little. (This can result in lean muscle loss, chronic fatigue, metabolism damage, and bingeing due to over-restriction.)

    Go to

    http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/

    and enter your height/weight/activity level.

    Subtract 10-20% from the number it calculates for you, and that is the number of calories you should be eating a day in order to lose weight. With this method you do not eat back your exercise calories, as they are already figured into your daily goal.
  • Nuggetron
    Nuggetron Posts: 4
    I made my diary public just now. Didn't realize it wasn't. Thanks for the response!
    I am fairly certain I logged it all accurately, Since this was my first day using MFP I wanted to make sure I did it right, so I measured everything. The only thing I didn't list was salt and pepper, and a small amount of italian seasoning on the chicken each time I ate it. I will definitely check out the stickys, clearly I should have done so before posting, I was just being lazy :)
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    I wasn't scolding you or anything :) Sometimes stickies on forums are just the rules of posting or something like that, so I wanted to make sure you knew there was good info up there!
  • Nuggetron
    Nuggetron Posts: 4
    So since it says my BMR is 1650, and the 20% would make it 1320? Just want to make sure thats right.
    How do you consume that much in a healthy way?
    Generally I never eat breakfast, rarely eat lunch and will overeat at dinner ( which is usually 7 PM or later due to work). Today I ate 3 meals and when I ate my snacks, it wasnt because I was hungry, but mostly because I knew my calorie intake was low.
  • Tigg_er
    Tigg_er Posts: 22,001 Member
    I am pretty new at this myself, but since you haven't gotten any replies yet, I want to start you off with something.

    First, try reading through the sticky posts at the top, they do a great job of explaining how to figure out where your calories should be! I learned a ton from them.

    Second, are you measuring your servings and listing every ingredient? I only ask because if I ate a bowl of cereal, a string cheese, a greek yogurt, some chicken salad, and more chicken with veggies, I would eat way more than 800 calories!

    Otherwise, I can't be of much more help, because I have NEVER had a problem eating all my calories :) I get hungry if I haven't eaten 800 cals by the end of lunch. Good luck!

    ^ Good advise
  • Kevalicious99
    Kevalicious99 Posts: 1,131 Member
    I ate almost that for breakfast.

    I am in maintenance .. been there did it. The one thing I will say is that this is a long term thing and you will hear all over that you need to change your lifestyle. 100% true.

    Do not try to starve yourself, you will not get there sooner by a drastic reduction of calories. Your body will freak .. and you will be sorry that you did. Be sure to eat a big breakfast.

    Slow and steady .. and ignore the scale. The biggest thing .. look in the mirror and go by that more than anything else.

    Whether you are still over weight on the BMI chart or you have not gotten to your magical goal weight .. which are mostly just fictitious numbers that people make up and really have no reason to them.

    Myself .. the one thing I learned, know when to stop. I lost too much weight and look like **** now. Super freaking skinny at 8% body fat and I really wish I would have stopped earlier. But I get to eat whatever and how much I want now .. and am happy gaining weight. What I am saying ... ignore the scale and use the mirror instead. You will thank yourself in the end.

    So .. be thankful you are where you are, cause it is possible to mess this up.

    But .. 800 cal is too low. NO rush ... eat some food.
  • JengaJess
    JengaJess Posts: 109 Member
    So since it says my BMR is 1650, and the 20% would make it 1320? Just want to make sure thats right.
    How do you consume that much in a healthy way?
    Generally I never eat breakfast, rarely eat lunch and will overeat at dinner ( which is usually 7 PM or later due to work). Today I ate 3 meals and when I ate my snacks, it wasn't because I was hungry, but mostly because I knew my calorie intake was low.

    No, you subtract 20% from the TDEE (the larger number). But if you're not exercising, make sure to note that by selecting "no exercise." The calculator seems to automatically select 3 days of exercise. It might seem like a lot of calories, but it's really not and by eating a bit more while losing weight, it will help you create a maintainable diet.
    If that's confusing for you, you could start by changing your weight loss goal on MFP. 2 lbs a week is a pretty aggressive weight loss goal. Set it at .5 or 1 lb a week and start by eating that amount of calories.

    Don't worry about demonizing food and putting it into "good" or "bad" categories. Just pay attention to how many calories are in your food and try to hit your macros (protein, fat, carbs). Add a little bit rice to your dinner. Add some more veggies to your salad. You don't always have to eat "diet food," you can have yogurt with more calories! It's tastier! :laugh:
    You should be eating more than 1200 calories. It will be easier to maintain as you continue to lose weight.

    Good luck! :flowerforyou:
  • I haven't been at this for a super long time, but this is what I am doing... BMR is what you would burn if you sat in bed all day. TDEE is the amount of calories needed based on your activity level. So if you never work out, have a desk job, and don't do a lot outside of work, you would be sedentary. This still requires more than if you just sat in bed, so what you should take your calorie deficit from is TDEE.

    This is a great calculator that will do the math for you : http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/

    I don't know how much you need to lose, but 20% reduction may be too much if you don't have much to lose.

    MFP set my calories too low, by about 300 calories. I was starving! I was so glad I fgound this info, and I'm still losing weight.
  • DiamondRubyMom
    DiamondRubyMom Posts: 147 Member
    BMR stands for Basal metabolic rate and basically means the absolute minimal energy your body needs to survive if you were sleeping all day. So you ate less than half the number of calories you body needs to survive in a day. This number does not include any movement you did such as walking to the bathroom and even sitting up right in a chair. Not to be too sarcastic but does that sound healthy to you? MFP doesn't recommend you go under 1200 calories and I think that is good advice. I did look at you diary and you have very little carbs. Are you trying an Atkins diet? Carbohydrates are important for your brain. Your thinking will become impaired if you deprive you brain of enough carbohydrates. You may be thinking, "I just want to lose as much weight as quickly as possible." Let this site guide you in learning portion control instead. It may take a bit longer but your more likely to keep it off in the long run and not damage you metabolism along the way.
  • wildskies
    wildskies Posts: 129 Member
    So since it says my BMR is 1650, and the 20% would make it 1320? Just want to make sure thats right.
    How do you consume that much in a healthy way?
    Generally I never eat breakfast, rarely eat lunch and will overeat at dinner ( which is usually 7 PM or later due to work). Today I ate 3 meals and when I ate my snacks, it wasnt because I was hungry, but mostly because I knew my calorie intake was low.

    I could be wrong (still figuring this out too) but I'm pretty sure you deduct the 20% from your TDEE, not your BMR. BMR is the bare minimum your body needs to survive. TDEE is what your body actually uses in a day so eating 20% less than that should have you losing weight.
  • mickiebabs
    mickiebabs Posts: 183 Member
    I'd say add some fruit or an occasional "naughty" snack to put some more calories in there if you are sure you've measured and logged correctly. At a BARE MINIMUM you should be eating 1200 per day. It's ok to eat a little less than that but it's not healthy to make it a habit of it. Personally I'm at less than 700 for today but that was due to rare circumstances and I'm not going to force myself to eat another meal at this time of night. It's not something I do on a regular basis so it's not going to hurt me but eating less than 1000 every day would really not be good for you.
  • Kelll12123
    Kelll12123 Posts: 212 Member
    I'm also 20 years old and 5 ft 5 in. I've found that a good way to consume a healthier number of calories is by adding a lot of ingredients to my salads and wraps. I like to try to recreate Panera salads. I'm pretty active, so a plate full of spinach won't fill me up. When I reach the end of the day and I've consumed less than 1,000 calories, I tend to allow myself to indulge in unhealthy food, even if I'm not hungry. I think it's better to eat full healthy meals during the day than to snack all evening.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    Welcome. Yes, 800 is too low. Add in some nutrient dense foods, such as nuts, avocado, olive oil, etc.
  • Lialena
    Lialena Posts: 45 Member
    I agree with the person above who said not to label food as good or bad. I extend that to not thinking of my overall day as having been healthy or not, and my weight loss for a week as good or not. In my opinion that way of thinking is self defeating, because every time you eat something 'bad' or have a week where you don't loose weight, you may self-shame and eventually think there is no point in continuing because you can't be 'good'.

    When I began to loose weight I decided to start as I meant to continue, being realistic about the foods I loved, my eating habits and allergies, and times I'd want to have treats (holidays, movie nights, illness, crappy days at work...). Plus I knew that whenever I had tried to give something up before I would suddenly want little else. So I planned in treats into my day, and allowed weekly days where I could go over my calories if I wanted to.
    Being this flexible really helped me stick with using MFP and made it easy to change habits over time. For example I pretty much gave up soda, but I'm not quite sure when it happened (I have it at movies and sometimes with takeout, so roughly 1-3 times a month instead of daily).

    Today I had pizza, wedges, soup, ice cream, a doughnut, and coffee with sugar in it. I ended up 129 calories over target and consider this a perfectly ok day. I'm pleased I hit my protein goal.
    I have an open diary. Anyone looking though would see I have a lot of days like this. I'm by no means a clean eater. But it works for me, and I loose at least a half pound a week (slow but steady).

    On the other hand, labeling foods into good and bad categories may be what works for you. There is something to be said for the 'gold sticker' approach of accumulating days you think of as 'good'. But do watch out for how you feel on days that you think are bad and try not to be too hard on yourself. Tomorrow is always a new day.
  • sexymamadraeger
    sexymamadraeger Posts: 239 Member
    I wouldn't sweat it. I've had day where I only eat that much and I feel fine. I don't think you should force feed yourself just to make the calorie goal. If you aren't hungry you aren't hungry! There's other days I eat 1200 and I'm still starving! LOL. Bodies do crazy things. Try to eat healthy and track your calories. Don't worry about the numbers so much. I will say this... if you start exercising you will eat more. I only ate 900 or 1000 for a while. Then I started exercising and got hungrier. But I exercise over an hour a day and I still only eat around 1100. I've lost 35 lbs in the last 2 1/2 months and I feel great. Just listen to your body.
  • Nuggetron
    Nuggetron Posts: 4
    Thanks guys!
    So much information to be found here.
    I am not doing an Atkins diet. I am just a picky eater, but bread is my weakness, so I thought I'd try and stay away from that for a few days.
    Will definitely grab some yogurt that is not the " light and fit" found out I was not a huge fan yesterday, but I LOVE just plain ole greek yogurt.
    I guess I got on the whole good food bad food thing because I can eat as many vegetables as I want, and not as much pizza as I want, I do not want to be hungry all the time ha!
    Again thanks so much y'all!
  • sparacka
    sparacka Posts: 137 Member
    Carbohydrates are important for your brain. Your thinking will become impaired if you deprive you brain of enough carbohydrates.

    This is complete bunk.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    Just to give you an idea...
    For breakfast I made a smoothie with chocolate protein powder, almond milk, spinach and a frozen banana = 300 calories.
    For lunch I brought 1/4 cup of quinoa with 3 oz. baked chicken, 1/2 cup cucumber and a TBL of tangerine vinaigrette = 380 calories.
    I brought a strawberry greek yogurt as a snack = 150 calories.
    So I will have eaten 830 calories by 4PM, and no junk food in the lot of it :)

    Mind you I know I am going to my parents for dinner, and we are having pasta and Italian bread, so that will shoot me right to my calorie goal!

    Adding avocado, nuts, and seeds into what you are already eating is a great way to add some nutrition and calories into your diet, just watch the serving sizes. And have a piece of pizza everyone once and awhile if it makes you happy. Slow and steady wins the race...
  • WBB55
    WBB55 Posts: 4,131 Member
    Carbohydrates are important for your brain. Your thinking will become impaired if you deprive you brain of enough carbohydrates.

    This is complete bunk.

    Probably it's more accurate to say your brain required glucose (among many other things).
    (edited for: clarity)
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    Carbohydrates are important for your brain. Your thinking will become impaired if you deprive you brain of enough carbohydrates.
    Wow! I think you're on to something! When I carb load, I notice I can name every president and their years of office, and even name future presidents, but when I eat lower carbs I can't even remember my name. :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

    Your statement is about as silly as it gets. However, you are welcome to prove me wrong and post a citation for a peer reviewed study.