Undereating?

does the thingie tell you only eat 1200 a day? where do you have your weight loss goal set? 1 lb? 2?

You can get more cals by exercising or changing your settings to lose less aweek

Are you entering your exercise? You are suppose to eat your 1200 + your calories burned in exersise. If you are doing that, you should not be hungry.

Try to eat foods high in fiber, they fill you up and stay with you longer. You can eat a lot of fruits and vegetables for very little calories. Also make sure you are drinking your 8 glasses of water a day. Water helps fill you up and cleans out the toxins, helping you to lose weight faster.

Good Luck!

I felt like this when i first started and i also left a post saying i felt like i was eating nothing. First of all, you chose to want to lose 2 pounds a week! girl thats way to much-thats for like super fatties which i see your not. And secondly you need to work out every other day in order for this to work so you can eat what you work off (says the girl who barely moves lol)
it gets better...and if youve been doing this forever and still feel like this then talk to your doctor and raise your caloric intake to 1350 so that your only losing a pound a week

If I want to eat something and I'm short on calories left, i'll do a workout and burn what I want to eat. i found a brisk walk around my neighborhood takes just 20 minutes and burns almost 150 calories.

It's a common problem around here. Many people are chronically under-eating and it's somewhat heartbreaking. Some have eating disorders and are working on it. Some have eating disorders and are not working on it. Others say they are "scared" to eat to much and I fear those people are headed towards a disorder, or at least into a zig-zag diet pattern. Eat up. You'll lose weight the healthy way and you'll feel better,

Exactly!!! You need to eat at least your 1200 and then your exercise cals when you have them...The less you eat the longer it will take you to lose weight the healthy way!! good luck to you....and eat something lol *om nom nom nom*

So I know there's always this talk about the '1200 cal' thing. But when everybody talks about making sure you don't go under 1200 are they meaning just food calories or net calories. Because I've decided that I always need to be a few hundred under just to give myself a bit of a buffer, because I might underestimate what I've eaten. You only get that little message about eating too little if you eat less than 1200 total, (cos I tried that one day this week,) but not if you're under with your net calories. I find it confusing because the amount MFP sets for me is only 1280 so 80 calories doesn't really give you any leeway! I burn a lot of calories because I'm training for a marathon at the moment and I'm not wanting to eat all of them back to reach 1200 net calories, cos that could be a whole lot of food.

So I know there's always this talk about the '1200 cal' thing. But when everybody talks about making sure you don't go under 1200 are they meaning just food calories or net calories. Because I've decided that I always need to be a few hundred under just to give myself a bit of a buffer, because I might underestimate what I've eaten. You only get that little message about eating too little if you eat less than 1200 total, (cos I tried that one day this week,) but not if you're under with your net calories. I find it confusing because the amount MFP sets for me is only 1280 so 80 calories doesn't really give you any leeway! I burn a lot of calories because I'm training for a marathon at the moment and I'm not wanting to eat all of them back to reach 1200 net calories, cos that could be a whole lot of food.

Don't go under 1200 NET calories. MFP calculates a deficit already so that 1280 already includes the deficit for you. So if you ate 1280 and NEVER exercise you would still lose weight...if you exercise that is why they say to eat your exercise calories because you would be creating a bigger deficit and your body needs more fuel if you are burning it off.

Yeah, guilty of undereating most of this past week as charged but at least today I understand it heaps better in terms of spreading the calories thru'out.

But good to hear that my Food 1265cal is good as the great big red -65 is kind of alarming.

Even if I overeat slightly, I am still within the minimum target as there is probably still a 500cal deficit, considering that I did a little bit of 'weights' today hauling laundry waste water upstairs for recycling in the bathrooms.

P.S. After that, I decided to add another 2 bananas for potassium so now -185 and still comfortable with it.

I had that problem. I never want to under my 1200 cuz it's not good for me. I usually just add a little walk and go slightly over 1200.

sorry haven't replied in a while, I've been trying to eat more every day, but I always end up way below my goal. Today I ended up eating 995 calories and burning of 473 so my net was 522, and I feel energetic and really good after my workout so I don't know how to change when I usually don't eat that much to begin with.

Also, i checked out the Basal Metabolic Rate and does anybody think that is a completely bogus thing? I put my height and weight and age in and it says i burn like 1300 calories a day just being sedentary or laying in bed. Am i missing something with this or is it not really accurate?

They are all estimates but they generally are fairly accurate. If you have been eating at a very reduced rate for a long time though, you will have slowed this rate down, so it may be high for you, but generally 1300 is pretty standard (I'm 1360 and that's about what I set my calorie goal at).

And just to clarify, BMR is only what your body burns being alive. Being sedentary is actually different (as you do move and talk and such) so BMR is if you just lay still and did literally NOTHING, sedentary is a level of activity, so it would be higher. At 5'3", at my goal weight of 130, and with an activity level of sedentary I would burn 1600 calories just living my life, but my BMR would be about 1250.

haha i finally ate over my alotted calories today. what did the trick...CHINESE FOOD!! lol. I definitely wouldn't want to eat that everyday but it seems like thats the only thing that really has calories that I eat.

I'm sure you can find enough calories without adding in all the fat and sodium from Chinese food! >.<

What do you usually eat everyday?

It just seems weird that I eat under 1200 calories a day but supposedly i work off 1300 just by being alive, so if that were true then wouldn't be lathargic or anything if im burning off more than im eating? or is that good? i dunno. that just seemed weird.

haha i finally ate over my alotted calories today. what did the trick...CHINESE FOOD!! lol. I definitely wouldn't want to eat that everyday but it seems like thats the only thing that really has calories that I eat.

Well what happens when you consistently undereat is that your body slows your metabolism, it's what is generally referred to as "starvation mode" or "famine response", your body gets a consistently low number of calories, so it slows the metabolism so as to make those calories you do get cover all of the functions that it needs to cover. So right now, that BMR is probably high for you. You have 2 options to continue losing from here- 1) You can keep your calories lower than suggested understanding that MFP's estimates really don't apply to you because your metabolism has been slowed. The disadvantage to this is that you may be risking problems with your health as your body is "short cutting" or giving each of it's functions less calories than it would prefer to to complete it's normal activities/duties.

2) (and the one I'm generally in favor of) You can increase your calories - I would say 50 calories every 3-4 days- until you are back at the range of estimates that MFP would project for you and even a little higher, up to 1400 or 1500 or even to your maintenence calories. The disadvantage to this one is that you may gain a little in the process of increasing your calories, but it will re-set your metabolism and speed it back up so that online estimators like MFP are more accurate for you. By going OVER your BMR, you will give yourself some room to drop your calories back down (your body will adjust to the higher calories, so cutting your calories will have a greater effect). This way requires more patience, but is healthier and better for your body.