too little calories ?? i dont get it

I dont really have any advice or help but I am having the same exact problem and would also like an answer....

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/62929-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

I read this last night and it makes a lot of sense to eat the net 1200 calories if you are tying to lose weight.

From what I understand, if you do not eat enough your body goes into starvation mode. Stores food as fat thinking it will not get any when it needs it. Try eating a few extra calories to get to the 1200. Good luck.

Listen to your body... you can get the extra calories by simply adding an extra piece of fruit or veggie with each meal.

I'm not sure what your goals are but definately listen to your body and try to eat back any exercise calories. Try aiming for 1200 NET calories!

Hope this helps!

had this problem when i first started. you need to get 1200 cals what i did was stared drinking a glass of juice it puts you right where you need to be without feeing really full from it. plus its easy cals to burn. hope this works for you!

add in some almonds or something to up your cals

http://www.hussmanfitness.org/html/TPAdaptation.html

The law of unintended consequences

Your body is an amazing feedback system aimed at balance and survival. Humans are at the top of the food chain because they are able to adapt to their environment. Every action produces a reaction. Every change in its environment triggers a survival response. It's important to keep that in mind when you plan your fitness program. If you treat your body as an enemy to be conquered, you'll produce unintended results.

For example, if you severely cut off the supply of food to your body, it will defend itself by slowing down its metabolism to survive starvation. The body will shed muscle mass the same way that you would throw cargo from a plane that was low on fuel, and it will reduce its thyroid activity to conserve energy. The body will also actually defend its fat stores. In anorexia, muscle loss can be so profound that fat as a percentage of body weight actually rises. Extreme carbohydrate restriction also causes muscle loss, dehydration, and slower metabolism, which is why even successful Atkins dieters can have a significant rebound in weight after they stop the diet (don't worry – the advice on this site will prevent that from happening).

As another example, if you put your body under stress through overexertion and lack of sleep, it will respond by slowing down, reducing muscle growth, and increasing your appetite for junk food, carbohydrates and fat. If you feed your body excessive amounts of sugar and quickly digested carbohydrates, and it will shut off its ability to burn fat until those sugars are taken out of the bloodstream.

This website will show you how to work with your body to quickly produce the changes you want. In order to do that, you need to take actions that push your body to adapt – to build strength, burn fat, and increase fitness. You need a training program, not an exercise routine. You need a nutrition plan, not a diet. You need a challenge, not a few good habits you usually try to follow except when you don't.
Setting the right goal

John Dewey once said that a problem well-stated is half-solved. If you want to reach your goal, you have to define it correctly. See, a lot of people say “I want to lose weight.” Well, if losing weight is your goal, go on a no-carb diet. You'll lose a lot of weight – some of it will be fat, a lot of it will be water, and a dangerous amount will be muscle tissue. You'll lose weight quickly, but you'll slow your metabolism and gain fat more quickly once you go off the diet. Trust me on this. I've been there, done that.

The problem is that you've set the wrong goal. If you want to look better, have more energy and enjoy better health, the goal is not simply to “lose weight.” The goal is to improve your fitness level and body composition. That means losing fat, improving your aerobic capacity, training your strength and defending your muscle tissue. You can't do that with a no-carb diet. You will do it using the approach you'll learn on this website. Trust me on this one too. I know what it's like to feel fat, tired and helplessly out of shape. The whole point of this site is to help others avoid that, by sharing lessons that I had to learn the hard way.
Ready to change?

Right this minute, your body is the way it is because it has adapted to the lifestyle you've thrown at it, in an attempt to survive. Ever seen the directory at the mall with the little red arrow that says “you are here”? Well, fitness is the same way. You are here. You can't start anywhere else. So be kind to yourself. Don't beat yourself up. Don't worry about how much there is to do. Change your self-talk from “My body is my enemy” to “My body is my partner.” Accept where you are right now as the starting point, and start moving.

Changing your body requires more than just “going on a diet” for a few weeks. If you want to change your body, you have to make some changes to your lifestyle (which requires some discipline, but isn't as hard as it sounds). If you create the right environment, your body will adapt to it by becoming leaner, stronger, and more energetic. You can do this.

AND:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/209559-metabolic-damage-starvation-mode-article


Eating back your exercise calories and staying above 1200 NET is even more important when you are not that overweight or already at a healthy weight (fat reserves are low). The body doesn't want to give up the fat and will protect it while eating into your lean muscle mass and that muscle mass is what burns fat during rest, normal activity and sleeping.

Your body will adjust to the food. I went from drinking coffee all day and eating at night to eating at least 4 meals a day. It was hard at first but my body had adjusted and is loving me for it.

Add some healthy higher calorie snacks like peanut butter or almonds. After I exercise I usually eat 2 tablespoons of peanut butter and a banana, that adds around 200 more calories. Or an ounce or two of cheese, it has good fats and higher cals. Avocados also are high in calories but good for you.

You can't always trust your body. Over time it adjusts to the amount of food you eat. If you eat too much you'll be hungry all the time if you suddenly cut back. If you eat too little you'll feel too full when you try to eat more. Hunger signals are subjective.

When I first started with MFP I was eating 400-700 net calories a day. I hadn't lost weight in three months. I started eating more because I knew I had to, but it was hard. I added a little extra food to each meal and tried to work in some snacks. I didn't simply eat higher calorie foods because they are generally higher in fat. It only took about a week for me to be comfortable eating 1500 calories plus my exercise calories every day.

I retrained my body to want the appropriate amount of food. It took a little bit of work at first, I was daunted by the amount of calories I had to eat. But like I said, I adjusted quickly. Once I was eating enough I started losing weight immediately. It's been 5 months and I've lost 13.5 pounds.

i dont eat any where near 3300 cals a day i eat alot of veggies mostly raw fruit and lots of water i dont ever skip meals and i do light exercise i feel sick when i try to eat more because my body feels full so what should i do eat more and then get sick and puke ??? i get extra cals for excersing but never eat them back i just feel like im not hungry ...should i be worried or should i just force myself to eat more and i enter everything in MFP as soon as im done eating to so i never leave anything out ....thank for all ur help

I think the previous poster was trying to tell you this:

It's better to eat 5-6 small meals a day versus three 300 meals/day. Try having oatmeal w/ a tablespoon of peanut butter, or making yourself a protein shake after a work out.

Absolutely, YES, you should be worried about too few calories, in fact I have found that MFP tends to assign too few calories to begin with. Gonna try to be concise with my answer...but there is a lot to cover.

Each person has a Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). This is the number of calories your body would need for bodily functions even if you were in a coma. Conventional wisdom says not to go below 20% ABOVE this number.

So what happens when you get too few calories??? If you consistently eat too few calories, your body figures out it needs to conserve energy so that it can exist on the few calories that it is getting. Since muscle burns a lot of calories, the most efficient way to do this is to get rid of some muscle so that it can exist on fewer calories. This slows your metablolism, which means that you won't lose weight as quickly.

Lets carry this on out. Let's suppose that you decide to lose weight this way and are successful. You have two options. Stay at the limited calories that you have lived on, or eat more. If you stay on at the same calorie intake, you will continue to lose weight and will fall below a healthy level. But if you increase your calories, you body is now not equipped to deal with all of those calories. It has slowed your metablolism to deal with decreased calories, so when you begin eating normally, it all turns to excess weight.

I hope this helps. If you want to know what your BMR, you can use this calculator http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/. You can also get a lot of good information from the Fat2Fit podcast at www. fat2fitradio.com.

After looking at your diary there are a couple of things you could do to help meet your calorie goals - choose a different bread, one that has more calories per slice. I buy Franz Whole Wheat bread, which is 80 calories a slice (only 1 g. of sugar!), but the slices are not huge, so they shouldn't fill you up too much. Another thing to try is more calorie dense vegetables. Carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, snap peas, and bell peppers all have more nutrition (and more calories) then cucumbers which are mostly water. I keep a jar of olives in the fridge to help me get up to 1200 calories when I'm close and not very hungry - 2 are 15 calories, and even if I'm not all that hungry I can manage 4 or 5 olives. Since my overall salt intake is low i don't worry about the additional sodium.

Try six 200 calorie "snacks/Meals" I find that like clockwork when I eat small meals every two hours I am hungry. The way it was explained to me once was eating a small meal is like throwing a couple sticks on a fire. It burns hot and very fast. If you eat a big meal its like throwing a log on the same fire it burns very slow. Essentially by eating small meals you are boosting your metabolisim. Good Luck! Hope that helps.