stupid under on calories

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mandamama
mandamama Posts: 250
in Health and Weight Loss
Well, I just CANNOT seem to get where I need to be on calories, today, even with a bag of popcorn, which I haven't ate, I am STILL like 900 cals below where i need to be! I just don't get it I feel like I am eating like a damn horse. then I think, well if I have that many left, maybe I should just have one of my delicions coffee crisp hot chocolates, they are worth 250.. but I KNOW the sugars,, grrrr.. seriously its all I can to do eat as much as I do in a day. Today I even tried working out THEN eating so I would be super hungry, but, I wasn't, AND I felt like I did cardio for nothing now that I ate right after. I know. stupid but. grrr. maybe when I step on the scale friday it will tell me a good story and that my body is appreciating all this food. rant/whine over.
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Replies

  • MeredithLee11
    MeredithLee11 Posts: 192 Member
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    I can't see your diary, so maybe you already do this, but what about having a glass of milk with meals? That would give you up to 400 calories and be a great source of protein.
  • lenaparent
    lenaparent Posts: 5
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    Wait, you're trying to LOSE weight and are worried about not eating ENOUGH calories? I don't understand, it's all I can do to not go OVER my limit!
  • mandamama
    mandamama Posts: 250
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    I did with lunch today, and also in my cereal truth be told I HATE milk! I literally choke it down LOL
    going from eating just at dinner time and a snack in the evening to this eating all day thing is SUCH a huge change!
  • meg_wickett
    meg_wickett Posts: 4
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    Cottage cheese is delicious! I like it mixed up with some berries.
    Beans are another great source of fibre and protein that have a decent amount of calories in them.
  • BecksgotBack
    BecksgotBack Posts: 385 Member
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    have you tried looking at other people's diaries for ideas on meals? you can eat a lot of veggies but they don't have alot of calories...add cheese, yogurts, meat etc to your diet. Hard to imagine having to eat another 900 cals...or open your diary and we can make suggestions :)
  • janalayn
    janalayn Posts: 510 Member
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    Try avocado...lot of calories and good fat. I like mine with fresh pico de gallo or salsa
  • quetzalcoatl
    quetzalcoatl Posts: 21
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    Eat some pizza.
  • mandamama
    mandamama Posts: 250
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    From what I am to understand from reading on here, not eating enough calories = no weight loss that the system figures out what you should be eating with your exercise and such worked in as deficit, and it already is set at a deficit for sufficent healthy weight loss. Am i misunderstanding what I am reading? Maybe I should't be worried about nor eating all the calories I am alotted? dammit. now I am confused.
  • lenaparent
    lenaparent Posts: 5
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    well, I guess if you really are trying to gain weight you could try granola, you would not BELIEVE the amount of calories in that stuff!
  • MeredithLee11
    MeredithLee11 Posts: 192 Member
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    Try avocado...lot of calories and good fat. I like mine with fresh pico de gallo or salsa

    Yum! I love avocado with a touch of lime juice.
  • mandamama
    mandamama Posts: 250
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    hell no I am not trying to gain weight. LOL
  • JuniorTaitt
    JuniorTaitt Posts: 37 Member
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    Eat some pizza.

    Cant help but laugh.

    Share the diary, let us see watcha munching on.
  • MyNameIsNotBob
    MyNameIsNotBob Posts: 565 Member
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    Popcorn is a good snack if you need one and don't have many calories left. It's like 50 calories for a million cups or something like that.

    But when you have lots of calories you still need to eat like you do, try a couple handfuls of nuts and a glass of milk. They take up less room than the popcorn and have a lot more calories and other nutrients.
  • Newmammaluv
    Newmammaluv Posts: 379 Member
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    I'm with the OP... with my height and weight a 500 deduction a day would put me right around 1800-1900 cals a day.... PSHYA RIGHT!!! I can't eat that much food. No way in hell can I hit that without being stuffed and unhappy all day long. I always hit between 1200 and 1400 a day.

    I know EXACTLY how you feel... more than once I've had to break out the natural peanut butter.
  • judyschick
    judyschick Posts: 11
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    I have that problem too not eating enough calories. But I try to eat the original alloted amount to make sure I am not going into starvation mode and then the exercise calories I try not to eat . Hence weight loss hopefully. Good luck I understand
  • iamhealingmyself
    iamhealingmyself Posts: 579 Member
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    From what I am to understand from reading on here, not eating enough calories = no weight loss that the system figures out what you should be eating with your exercise and such worked in as deficit, and it already is set at a deficit for sufficent healthy weight loss. Am i misunderstanding what I am reading? Maybe I should't be worried about nor eating all the calories I am alotted? dammit. now I am confused.
    This is correct. If you are trying to lose weight MFP will give you a deficit over what you need to maintain based on the data you keyed in. So to maintain 200lbs say you need 2500 calories but you want to lose 1lb a week so you need 3500 calories less per week (500 per day) so MFP will tell you to eat 2000 calories a day to lose 1 lb. If you exercise and burn off another 500 calories every day, you will lose 2 lbs in a week because you've doubled your deficit. If you are seriously heavy then this might not be a problem and having 2k calories a day there is no danger of being nutritionally deficient unless you're just clueless about food (not saying you are)

    So your understanding is correct. If MFP has you set to 1500 calories a day and you're burning off 500 in exercise you will have only 1000 calories net for your body to use for maintenance (over what you used for exercise) and that is not enough. You also won't have enough nutrition in that 1000 calories to sustain your body and it will start turning on itself to survive (think anorexia).

    Everyone is different and sometimes there are people who have crazy high burns and would seriously HAVE TO EAT A HORSE to eat it all back but you really can't and you just have to do what you can within reason. If your net calories and nutritional levels are ok and you still have a deficit you might want to consider raising you goal (losing more weight so that you still have sufficient net calories but not such a large deficit)
  • cklbrown
    cklbrown Posts: 4,696 Member
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    I have the same problem. I can't seem to eat enough calories. I spent many years eating too many and now I can't have enough. I understand your dilemma.
  • mandamama
    mandamama Posts: 250
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    My net before exercise is 1850 then depending on my exercise (today I think it was like 300 sumn burned) I am still about 893 or sumn like that under.
    I don't know how to open my diary.. I will if someone tells me how to ;)
  • mandamama
    mandamama Posts: 250
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    My startting weight is 217 I will have to figure out how to go back and check my goal weight, because I wonder if I only put it in as a short term goal? does that matter? say i only put in 20 ounds but in actuality eventually want to lose way more than that?
  • corpus_validum
    corpus_validum Posts: 292 Member
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    From what I am to understand from reading on here, not eating enough calories = no weight loss

    Not necessarily true. The whole weight loss plateau and starvation mode is oftentimes misdiagnosed by a lot of MFP users. http://www.burnthefatblog.com/archives/2011/01/unexplainable-fat-loss-plateaus-explained.php
    You're not going to arrive at starvation mode because you didn't meet your rec caloric intake 1 day. So don't worry about it unless it's a daily occurrence and if your body doesn't change.
    that the system figures out what you should be eating with your exercise and such worked in as deficit, and it already is set at a deficit for sufficent healthy weight loss. Am i misunderstanding what I am reading?

    You're correct here. MFP incorporates a deficit already in your daily caloric goals depending upon your desired results. BUT, you should put in reasonable inputs to arrive at appropriate figures.

    The key to weight loss (for normal overweight folks) is trying to find the sweet spot, the net caloric intake where your body will want to burn fat. Too little = stall, too much = weight gain, just right = fat loss. And just right is not some exact number like 1,459 calories.

    Also, your sweet spot is not static, it's a moving target. So you should adjust your MFP inputs every so often as your BMR is likely to change as your weight and activity level changes.

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