Questions:

I have a 1,200 calorie a day limit, and it seems like most days I end up with 800 left over by the end of the day, (but I'm not hungry) I don't want to go into starvation mode, but I don't want to eat when I'm not hungry either. Any solutions? I went from 7 dr peppers a day to 3, (which my gym instructor told me to cut them down to 4 the first week) so I think I'm doing pretty good. I'm just not sure.

Replies

  • The simple answer is eat more. You would be nutrient deficient as 300 of those 800 calories is soda. I am sure you know the general idea of good eating. You simply need to eat more. Some high calorie foods tho are things like full fat dairy, avocados, olive oil, nut butters etc.
  • maidentl
    maidentl Posts: 3,203 Member
    You're eating next to nothing to fit in those Dr. Peppers. That can't be healthy. :noway:
  • The 3 doctor peppers alone have something like 360 calories.....you must be eating almost nothing else.
  • oksanatkachuk
    oksanatkachuk Posts: 149 Member
    I checked ur diary.
    First: u ve been logging few days only yet, it's too early to judge anything.

    Second: prolly the reason u r not hungry on 800 cal for a few days- coz that's how many days it will last.

    U will get hungry and I hope u will eat than instead of starving urself.

    My only advise will be to make sure u eat a lot of protein per day and keep going. It needs few weeks for body to adapt.
  • melaniecheeks
    melaniecheeks Posts: 6,349 Member
    You ate half a blueberry?

    Small steps - cutting down the soda is a very positive step, so well done on your progress there so far, keep it going.

    Your food choices are pretty good, try to add in some calorie dense good stuff like avocado or peanut butteer or a handful of almionds.
  • Cryptonomnomicon
    Cryptonomnomicon Posts: 848 Member
    Look here is how to set up your calorie allowance properly, what you are doing is neither healthy nor sustainable.

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

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

    Some solid advice on how to approach using mfp if you're new

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1235566-so-you-re-new-here

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1069278-acronyms-and-terms-for-new-mfp-members-v-6

    What you are doing to your body by having such an extreme deficit...

    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html

    A real explanation on the controversial subject of "starvation mode"

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1077746-starvation-mode-adaptive-thermogenesis-and-weight-loss

    The links I have provided were created by very knowledgeable people who have and continue to have much success on here, I highly recommend you go over them.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    Your diet is appalling. You need to eat more protein and fats and not try to live off sugar from a bottle.

    Have an omelette for breakfast, not a bottle of sugar water.
  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,724 Member
    Your diet is appalling. You need to eat more protein and fats and not try to live off sugar from a bottle.

    Have an omelette for breakfast, not a bottle of sugar water.

    Personally I prefer sugar for breakfast

    OP, read post four here for calorie dense options to add to your diet. You should try to bring up your daily totals to at least the minimum 1200 calories you've setup.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1331494-1200-calories-per-day
  • SunofaBeach14
    SunofaBeach14 Posts: 4,899 Member
    Are you actually logging accurately? Everyone starts suggesting eating more in every one of these threads but I'm not seeing evidence of consistent and accurate logging, OP. Weigh and measure. Log everything. Then come back and talk to us about how little you're eating.
  • gypsy_spirit
    gypsy_spirit Posts: 2,107 Member
    Are you actually logging accurately? Everyone starts suggesting eating more in every one of these threads but I'm not seeing evidence of consistent and accurate logging, OP. Weigh and measure. Log everything. Then come back and talk to us about how little you're eating.

    Agree. Try and get a food scale so that you know more about how much you are really eating (a chicken leg can be small or huge - weighing is the only way to be accurate ). Once you begin weighing more accurately, then go back and read Deliverator's links. Our bodies can tolerate anything for a few days. Nutritionally, we won't notice problems for a while. Take care of the nutrition piece and you'll be able to do this long enough to lose the weight you want to. Sacrificing your health is never smart.
  • SonicDeathMonkey80
    SonicDeathMonkey80 Posts: 4,489 Member
    Hmm... 200 calories for a PB&J seems a little on the light side to me. I'd re-evaluate how you're measuring/weighing/logging.

    I just can't wrap my head around some of your choices, but
    Lipton_Kermit-630x422.png
  • SunofaBeach14
    SunofaBeach14 Posts: 4,899 Member
    Look here is how to set up your calorie allowance properly, what you are doing is neither healthy nor sustainable.

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

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

    Some solid advice on how to approach using mfp if you're new

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1235566-so-you-re-new-here

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1069278-acronyms-and-terms-for-new-mfp-members-v-6

    What you are doing to your body by having such an extreme deficit...

    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html

    A real explanation on the controversial subject of "starvation mode"

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1077746-starvation-mode-adaptive-thermogenesis-and-weight-loss

    The links I have provided were created by very knowledgeable people who have and continue to have much success on here, I highly recommend you go over them.

    ^ And I agree 100% with all of this, but start by purchasing a food scale
  • You are not logging accurately. Most peanut butter has a minimum of 200 cal a serving. Measure, weigh, log and repeat... simple
  • FisherGT
    FisherGT Posts: 55 Member
    Your still overweight, give it a few months, wait till you dip into the underweight range and one meal sends you into shark mode and you find it nearly impossible not to eat even when your full because your body is deprived of vitamins and minerals. Trust me :) I got the experiance to back it.
  • LoraF83
    LoraF83 Posts: 15,694 Member
    Look here is how to set up your calorie allowance properly, what you are doing is neither healthy nor sustainable.

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

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

    Some solid advice on how to approach using mfp if you're new

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1235566-so-you-re-new-here

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1069278-acronyms-and-terms-for-new-mfp-members-v-6

    What you are doing to your body by having such an extreme deficit...

    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html

    A real explanation on the controversial subject of "starvation mode"

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1077746-starvation-mode-adaptive-thermogenesis-and-weight-loss

    The links I have provided were created by very knowledgeable people who have and continue to have much success on here, I highly recommend you go over them.

    ^ And I agree 100% with all of this, but start by purchasing a food scale

    I definitely agree. Get a food scale. Weigh and measure everything. And read ALL of those links. You will benefit a lot from the information that they offer.
  • dollarstitch
    dollarstitch Posts: 26 Member
    lol, I had to add 2 blue berries because my daughter in law ate a blue berry cheese cake and I stole her blue berries off it LOL...There was only 2 though LOL
  • dollarstitch
    dollarstitch Posts: 26 Member
    Your diet is appalling. You need to eat more protein and fats and not try to live off sugar from a bottle.

    Have an omelette for breakfast, not a bottle of sugar water.

    I went from 7 to 9 dr peppers a day to 2 or 3, I am still trying to cut them out complely.
  • dollarstitch
    dollarstitch Posts: 26 Member
    You ate half a blueberry?

    Small steps - cutting down the soda is a very positive step, so well done on your progress there so far, keep it going.

    Your food choices are pretty good, try to add in some calorie dense good stuff like avocado or peanut butteer or a handful of almionds.

    I ate 2 blue berries, stole them off my daughter's cheese cake LOL
  • rileyleigh
    rileyleigh Posts: 106 Member
    You are almost definitely eating more than you think you are. Everything you have logged is "1 cup" or "1 chicken tender" or "1 serving". Also it appears that you are using data entries that other MFP users have input manually, which likely is not exactly the same as what you are eating.

    For instance, your chicken cordon blue recipe is likely different than the recipe of the user that put that information in there. That means there is a different amount of calories in it.

    To be accurate in your logging, you have to get away from cups, servings, slices, or individual anything. You need a food scale, and you need to weigh everything in grams/ounces. Then find a database entry with a lot of user confirmations for the basic food you are using, and log it with grams/ounces.

    If you make somthing homemade, don't find a "homemade" item in the database to log, you need to log each indivual ingredient and quantity yourself. The recipes function on MFP makes that pretty easy actually.

    Then finally, don't blindly trust the calories that MFP tells you you are burning in your exercise. I tend to believe that i burn about half of what it says i burn, just so that i don't eat more than i should.
  • dollarstitch
    dollarstitch Posts: 26 Member
    You are almost definitely eating more than you think you are. Everything you have logged is "1 cup" or "1 chicken tender" or "1 serving". Also it appears that you are using data entries that other MFP users have input manually, which likely is not exactly the same as what you are eating.

    For instance, your chicken cordon blue recipe is likely different than the recipe of the user that put that information in there. That means there is a different amount of calories in it.

    To be accurate in your logging, you have to get away from cups, servings, slices, or individual anything. You need a food scale, and you need to weigh everything in grams/ounces. Then find a database entry with a lot of user confirmations for the basic food you are using, and log it with grams/ounces.

    If you make somthing homemade, don't find a "homemade" item in the database to log, you need to log each indivual ingredient and quantity yourself. The recipes function on MFP makes that pretty easy actually.

    Then finally, don't blindly trust the calories that MFP tells you you are burning in your exercise. I tend to believe that i burn about half of what it says i burn, just so that i don't eat more than i should.

    I only log the calories the treadmill says I burn at the gym, I don't go by it on here, but I am going to try doing the stuff suggested on here :)
  • AliceDark
    AliceDark Posts: 3,886 Member
    You have a lot of "generic" and "homemade" entries in your diary. Unless you're using the Recipe Builder tool to input your own recipes, those entries are almost guaranteed to be wrong for you. Someone else pointed out the 200 calorie PB&J, so I'm just going to say that is probably far fewer calories than you actually ate (you need to log the bread, the peanut butter and the jelly as separate items to be accurate). Same thing with the 1 cup of generic hamburger soup for 100 calories and no sodium. (Just as a general rule, use your BS detector when it comes to selecting database entries. If one of the macros is wrong, like soup having zero sodium, the rest is probably wrong too). I'm not sure where you found an 80 calorie slice of cheesecake, but that's either a gift from the gods or the most disgusting thing on the planet.

    Yeah, you need to work on cutting out some more of the Dr. Pepper, but the bigger issue is that you're not logging accurately, so you really have no idea how many calories you're eating.
  • Stoshew71
    Stoshew71 Posts: 6,553 Member
    I ate 2 blue berries, stole them off my daughter's cheese cake LOL

    You ate 2 blueberries but logged 7.5. What else is inaccurately logged?

    Generic - Hamburger Soup, 1 Cup ???? Did you actually have just 1 cup? And does the content in this log really represent the actual soup you had?

    First thing you need to learn is how to actually log correctly before you question how many calories you sjhould be consuming. At this point, I still don't think you know how many actual calories you really eat in a day. You should start there first. Logging does not mean just picking random things in the mfp database that kinda resembeles what you think you are eating. To be honest, distrust every single mfp diary entry. Doublecheck with what is on the actual label with the diary entry. When you pick things in the mfp diary, there are so many choices. Some of them are accurate, and many of them are inaccurate. Doublecheck before you choose it.

    Also, if a serving size says 1 cup. Pour 1 cup of the soup into a measuring cup and make sure you only consume exactly 1 cup. If you want more, say you want to eat 1-1/2 cups of the soup, but the serving size is only 1 cup, then you log 1.5 servings.

    If you see mayonaise 1 Tsp, then you actually scoop out with a 1 Tsp spoon that much of mayo. If you want 2 of them on your sandwhich, then log 2 servings.

    If you see 6 oz chicken breast, then you actually put your chicken breast on the food scale (which many above posts suggest you go out and buy) and see what it comes out to. You can eather cut the chicken breast so you only eat 6 oz, or if it says 8 oz and you want to eat the whole thing, then you have to do some math to figure out that what you ate was 1.33 servings of 6 oz chicken breast.

    Once you have this all settled, then we can comment more accurately on how you should change up your food choices.

    Good luck!
  • Stoshew71
    Stoshew71 Posts: 6,553 Member
    I only log the calories the treadmill says I burn at the gym, I don't go by it on here, but I am going to try doing the stuff suggested on here :)

    When you jump on the treadmill? Do you have the ability to enter your sex [M/F], age, weight? If not, ask the gym trainers how to do that. If you use the default setting, the treadmill will spit out calories burnt for a 35 year old male who weighs 185 lbs (some statistically average for the "average" user). Which will grossely over estimate the number of calories that you actually burned.

    The best way to estimate what you loose during any exercise to include the treadmill is to invest into a heart rate monitor that includes calorie burns where you can customize your default settings to attribute sex, age, weight, and even height. Treadmill and other gym equipment companies have been known to overestimate calorie burns even in customized workout settings.
  • enzosmama
    enzosmama Posts: 134 Member
    From what I can see a few things:
    1) You're not eating breakfast. I would start eating a little something in the morning at least.
    2) You're pretty low on protein. Focus on getting in some lean meats/other high protein items. Greek yogurt is one of my favorites.

    I find when I'm eating high protein high fiber foods I feel best. I'm not starving and don't have many cravings.
  • Snip8241
    Snip8241 Posts: 767 Member
    Look here is how to set up your calorie allowance properly, what you are doing is neither healthy nor sustainable.

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

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

    Some solid advice on how to approach using mfp if you're new

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1235566-so-you-re-new-here

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1069278-acronyms-and-terms-for-new-mfp-members-v-6

    What you are doing to your body by having such an extreme deficit...

    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html

    A real explanation on the controversial subject of "starvation mode"

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1077746-starvation-mode-adaptive-thermogenesis-and-weight-loss

    The links I have provided were created by very knowledgeable people who have and continue to have much success on here, I highly recommend you go over them.

    This!!!
    Read, learn and come up with a sustainable plan for weight loss. What you are doing now will certainly end in failure. These links helped me find a plan. Stop what you are doing. It is not smart.