Having problems with reduced caloric intake... help?

Hey everyone. So I'm F, 23 yrs, 5'3", 143lbs, and trying to lose about 20 pounds. After journaling my food intake for a week I realized that my previous caloric intake was about 1800 - 2500/day with eating whatever I wanted, drinking alcohol, and no exercise. My BMR is pretty low at 1170 (got this number from a bodpod test). I reduced my calories to 1200/day but have been struggling with it.

Meal plan:
Breakfast: coffee, oatmeal, egg, milk
Lunch: grilled chicken strips on a spinach & romain lettuce salad with ranch dressing, carrots & applesauce
Dinner: hamburger patties (2-3 oz, 95% lean meat), zucchini or another veggie, fruit (strawberries or an apple)
Snacks: If hungry between meals, I'll have steamed broccoli with spinach and olive oil, or green beans. Sometimes I replace my chicken/beef with swai or shrimp. Other snacks include air popped pop-corn or greek yogurt. If i'm craving something sugary I'll suck on hard butterscotch candies (only 20 cals each) or have some dark chocolate

Exercise includes daily walks for now since I'm still struggling with the diet part (3-5 miles a day)

This totals about 1200 cals and I feel pretty satisfied since I eat large amounts of veggies now and upped my protein intake, but I noticed that some days I'll get really shaky. I don't feel hungry, but I get light headed and my hands won't stop trembling, and suddenly feel the urge to binge and I'll go out and buy ice cream or something terrible for me. What can I do to stop this uncomfortable feeling? Or will it eventually pass once my body gets used to the reduced calories?

Replies

  • squishprincess
    squishprincess Posts: 371 Member
    are you eating back your exercise calories? or even half? or just at 1200ish calories a day, plus exercise?

    also are you drinking enough water?
  • I always have a water bottle on hand and feel like I'm drinking enough. And that's 1200 cals total - I don't eat them back. I figured since my BMR is so low I should be fine at 1200...
  • squishprincess
    squishprincess Posts: 371 Member
    well if you're eating at a deficit on top of working out, and not eating back at least some of those calories, you may not be getting enough. even if you feel full, going extended periods of time eating that little plus burning up a decent amount of calories each day, might make you feel shaky and your body feel drained. just start eating a little more, and see if that helps with how you feel? just listen to your body and don't overwork yourself :)
  • Diet242
    Diet242 Posts: 21 Member
    Wow! I am 5'3 Female 142 pounds and my BMR is 1640...you might want to re-figure your BMR. I eat 1340 calories a day. If you are walking those miles too ...girl you are probably only netting, at the most, 800 calories a day. I do have 1200 calorie days but my weekends make up the difference to balance it out.

    Up your calories before you get yourself sick!
  • higgins8283801
    higgins8283801 Posts: 844 Member
    That skakey feeling is your body telling you it's depleted. You need to eat more. Regardless of what the test told you your BMR was, it's obvious your body isn't in agreement. Eat back the calories you burn, and feed yourself more and the shakes should stop.
  • higgins8283801
    higgins8283801 Posts: 844 Member
    I always have a water bottle on hand and feel like I'm drinking enough. And that's 1200 cals total - I don't eat them back. I figured since my BMR is so low I should be fine at 1200...

    When you exercise, your body doesn't have 1200 calories anymore. It has whatever is left after you burned them off. You need to be netting 1200.
  • 365andstillalive
    365andstillalive Posts: 663 Member
    You're feeling weak because you're not eating enough, and because your BMR is likely wrong. I checked two online calculators, and both came in at 1465.

    Calculate your TDEE, and try doing TDEE -10% and see where that leaves you.

    You're not going to be able to lose weight aggressively because you're not that far from a healthy weight (depending on your frame size) so really your goal shouldn't be to lose more than 0.5-1lb per week.
  • zoeysasha37
    zoeysasha37 Posts: 7,088 Member
    Personally,I would try eating a bit more and see if this stops. You don't have to starve in order to lose weight and since you don't have much to lose, you should set a less aggressive deficit. I'm 5"8,135 lbs and eat @1850/1900 a day. But definitely try to eat more and I bet these issues go away
  • D_squareG
    D_squareG Posts: 361 Member
    Are you diabetic? I'd have my blood sugar tested.
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
    Rather than looking at adding exercise being a complication, exercise more and eat more. Weight loss is mostly the foods you eat and eating less calories than you burn. Adding exercise allows you to eat more calories each day. You might also try adjusting your goal upwards a bit and lose a little more slowly. With only 20 pounds to lose you shouldn't have it set for more than 1 pound per week, for example.

    By the way, I'm 5'3", 48 years old and my BMR is in the 1500s. Either you have a metabolic dysfunction or your bod pod calculation was off. I'm suspecting it's the calculation.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    If you weren't exercising before but you are now walking 3-5 miles a day, you likely could continue with the same caloric intake as before and still lose at a slow yet sustainable pace. You don't need to make so many drastic changes with relatively few pounds to lose.

    You said you determined your BMR but maybe calculate your TDEE and take a 10% reduction from that since you prefer not to eat back your exercise calories.
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    Being hungry when you begin is normal. Your stomach is shrinking, yada, yada, yada.

    Being shaky and dizzy is not.

    See your doctor. Everyone should do that when beginning a weight loss journey. I'd bet good money that somewhere in the MFP plan, they will suggest seeing a doctor when you start. It's good advice. Do that.

    I'd eat a little more until I saw the doctor. :)
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Just to be clear - Bodpod did NOT give you your BMR.
    It only gives a measurement of your bodyfat %.

    From that, they then give an estimate of your BMR (or RMR, check the paperwork if they say Nelson RMR which several studies have shown is on low side of estimates) that is at least better than gender, age, weight, height based estimate, and should be within 5% of reality - if you haven't had any weight changes or tried to lose weight in last 6-9 months.

    If indeed RMR - that is about 150-250 above BMR actually, use a site for getting Katch BMR using that bodyfat %.
    If that was Katch BMR given, then bodyfat % is about 43%, right?

    And if indeed much lower than other estimates - just means you have less muscle mass than average person your age, height, weight.
    Which is probably not good at all - since it's the muscle that provides 15-20% of your resting metabolism.
    So you really don't want unreasonable deficit that will cause more muscle mass loss - do you?

    With that little left to lose - just use the tool correctly.
    Be honest with non-exercise activity level. Really sedentary desk job/commute for 45 hrs weekly, and no kids, pets, many errands, ect?
    Selected reasonable weight loss goal - 1 weekly until you get to 10 lbs left, then 1/2 lb weekly. You either pick it purposely, or for many the body forces that on then anyway.

    Then log food accurately by weight eaten, liquids is for measuring. Calories is by weight, grams, not volume, cups and spoons.

    Log your workout honestly.
    Did you really walk 30 min at 4 mph the whole time, or really 25 min closer to 3 mph average the whole time?

    Then follow the new eating goal that is given, which should be higher when you burn more that day in exercise, to keep the same amount of deficit each day.

    Keep in mind you were eating 1800-2500 with NO exercise.
    You merely must eat less than you burn in total, and now you ARE exercising.
    So eating on exercise days 1500-1800 is still under where you should be.
    500 less would be better now, so 1300-2000 on no exercise days - 1600-2300 on walking days.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    The shaking part is not normal. I'm 5'3.5 and my BMR is 1290- 1356 depending on what online calculator you believe. Try eating back half of your exercise calories.
  • effondrement
    effondrement Posts: 37 Member
    You need to increase your exercise. Start some strength training -- free weights, NOT the machines, they are just a waste of time. With any luck this increase in exercise will help curb your desire to binge, since binging is often emotionally linked, and exercise = endorphin boost = happy brain. You may not think you are depressed or whatever, but let's be real here. It's pretty damn disheartening to be overweight, and I say that as someone with a lot of weight to lose as well. It may not be diagnosable major depressive disorder (and I say that as someone who actually HAS that diagnosis, I digress), but it still sucks, and it can definitely contribute to those emotional eating urges.

    With your increase in exercise you can now, in fact, eat more! Way more, loads more. Feed your body, fuel your body. Focus on building muscle and being as healthy as you can be. It's a lot easier to keep going with your lifestyle change (or "diet") if you have other reasons besides weight pushing you forward. These can be things like living a long life, seeing your grandkids grow up, running your first 5k, finally being able to carry more groceries, or even knowing that if a zombie apocalypse were to break out, you'd have a decent shot of surviving thanks to getting in shape.

    Basically, the more you exercise, the more you get to eat. And yeah, I know how daunting exercise seems. Any other time I have tried to lose weight in the past, I shrugged off the idea of exercising and stuck to focusing on my food intake instead, since we're all told that 80% of weight loss comes from your diet. Yes, this is true. But if you're someone who struggles with emotional eating, you need to exercise. Period.

    I finally came to this realization about 5-6 weeks ago. I began working out again with the recommendation of my doctor as I have battled insomnia + MDD + PTSD for quite some time now, and exercise is good for alleviating symptoms of poor sleep and depression. Something just clicked I guess. I am now down 14lbs (in 6 weeks) and I am now STRUGGLING to eat enough calories each day. Yeah, that's right. I struggle to eat enough. I have been binge-free for 5 weeks now. It's a crazy turn of events for someone as overweight as I am.

    I probably could've condensed this message, but rambling is what I do best.

    Tl;dr: exercise more. ACTUAL exercise. You are 23 years old, unless you have had major surgery you have no excuse for not exercising. This comes from a 21 year old female who used to think that walking was appropriate exercise too after tearing my ACL two years ago. Nah-uh. You're young and you're not obese, so quit acting like it. And don't tell me you don't have time to go to the gym, because that's bs as well. I realize this all sounds kind of harsh, but I say it from a place of love. Do some cardio, lift those weights (heavy weight, fewer reps for females who want to be toned -- I can break down the science for you if you actually care), and then hey! You'll be able to eat more, and if you give it a few weeks, you may find yourself in the same position as me: down some lbs and struggling to eat enough.

    Edit [1]: forgot to add that the shaking symptoms you are experiencing are from low blood sugar. This can be caused by either eating too many refined carbs (hellooooo sugar!), or not eating enough carbs (and by "enough" carbs I mean less than 35g of carbs a day).
  • Your shaking is either: blood sugar or blood pressure related. Eat more, drink more and get your blood sugar checked.
  • Thank you everyone for your replies. It’s so interesting to read the different thoughts, opinions and suggestions here.

    I’m very hesitant to see a doctor. Too much $$ for a simple problem. My blood pressure is normal (103/70). I may start by upping the calories to 1400 and buying a glucose meter, because most of my symptoms (and what I’ve been doing to self-treat them) point to hypoglycemia, and that seems to be what a lot of you are thinking as well. If this continues, and / or my glucose readings are below 70, I’ll see a doctor.

    And to clarify a few things:

    The Bodpod test DID measure my BMR because it included a breathing test to measure how much carbon dioxide I expel. More expelled carbon dioxide = faster metabolism. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGKLpYtZ19Q. I’m scheduled to do another test this morning so we will see what this one says!

    My food intake/ exercise cals are honest. I have a food scale. I’m on my feet all day for work, though I set my MFP activity level for sedentary, just in case. MFP tends to overestimate calories burned from exercise, so since I don’t actually know what I’m burning, I don’t like to eat the cals back.

    I’m not depressed. I used to be depressed, back when I had an eating disorder, but that’s not how I feel now. I’m physically very uncomfortable, and that’s my only excuse for not exercising harder. When I get this under control, I can get a proper workout in (I just signed up for fitness classes at the Y, as well as pole dancing classes at a studio near me, lol!)
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    So you had an RMR test (not BMR, look at paperwork) in addition to the Bodpod test - they are not the same machine, even if they happen to be done at the same time - which is a great idea.
    Metabolic cart is used for the RMR test. The big egg is used for the Bodpod.

    So the interesting comparison then since you had both done.

    What is the Cunningham RMR as calculated from your bodyfat measurement from the Bodpod? If you haven't been undereating or dieting for months on end, that calculation should be within 5% of potential reality.

    Now compare that to the RMR test and what it measured. Really within 5% of the Cunningham RMR calculated?
    Good.

    But if RMR is well below potential based on measured LBM, you likely have had a diet that is too aggressive, and become more metabolically efficient. You don't want that, basically lowered metabolism and daily burn.

    Just to catch your terminology too, since I've seen many with past ED catch the same thing. "back when you had an eating disorder". As long as you mentally know you didn't get "over" it, it will be fight for possibly a lifetime as many have it. Not that you are slipping into those habits, but the thinking part of it. Once people think they've been healed, they can get in to trouble again.
    Just want to confirm you have that realization, because all the numbers can start pushing the thinking the wrong way.

    Because you are being dishonest with selecting Sedentary when you are not (just be on safe side), and not eat back exercise calories (just be on safe side) - is pointing that direction.

    You are trying to be accurate on the eating - why not on the burning?

    In case you don't see it, and you really had an ED - you are going down that road again. Don't fool yourself for long term success.

    Get your non-exercise activity level honest, and walking/running at pace described is more accurate than HRM in the database - as long as you did the pace described for the time entered. With 5% in studies using metabolic cart for the calculations.