am i eating enough?

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kangaroux92
kangaroux92 Posts: 188 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
i never thought id be saying this because usually i struggle very hard with dieting. but am i eating enough my diary is open if anyone wants to take a look.

im not starving by any means with what im eating currently. its not easy ether, but when i feel myself wanting to eat i ask myself to rate the level of hunger. am i snack hungry meal hungry or ravenous definitely meal hungry or really not hungry at all just bored. in the past my brain would be like " i can eat" and i would eat a whole meal even if i wasnt that hungry. so ive stopped doing that and alot of junk food.

i still do get alot more carbs in than protein which i want to work on, but idk why this time i am able to eat so little calories were in the past i would be shaky, get headaches, dizzy ect.

i am satisfied with the weight loss, but will i need to decrease even further when i ge lighter because thats not possible.

Replies

  • RllyGudTweetr
    RllyGudTweetr Posts: 2,019 Member
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    Short answer: No.

    Long answer: 1200 calories is the minimum MFP gives when you plug in "Female, Sedentary, lose 2 lb/week." With only 20 lb. to go, it's likely that 2 lb./week is too aggressive a goal. . . and you're often not hitting the 1200 minimum that MFP recommends. Compound this with the generally accepted (around these parts) notion that - unless you're bed-ridden - you're probably not truly sedentary, so you're probably under-reporting your exercise calorie output. . . and MFP's NEAT method of calorie calculation expects you to record and eat back the calories you've expended in exercise.
  • kangaroux92
    kangaroux92 Posts: 188 Member
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    thanks for the reply and my life is very sedentary i sit alot! besides going to the gym and walking sometimes i sit at work for at least 8 hours a day and go home and lay down to watch tv. i have heard i should eat some more but since i decreased my cal from 1500 i have been loosing and before i was not loosing at all. what calories would you or anyone out there recommend with or without exercise.
  • AllOutof_Bubblegum
    AllOutof_Bubblegum Posts: 3,646 Member
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    Are you eating 1200 cals?

    Then no. You are nor eating enough.


    MFP is quite notorious for setting calorie goals FAR too low, regardless of height and weight. For example, it told me to eat 1200, and my BMR (the bare amount of calories I need to LIVE) is 1280. And I am extremely tiny, only 5 feet. So unless you are smaller than me, or bedridden, it is almost a CERTAINTY that you are eating too little. (This can result in lean muscle loss, chronic fatigue, metabolism damage, and bingeing due to over-restriction.)

    Go to

    http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/

    and enter your height/weight/activity level.

    Subtract 10-20% from the number it calculates for you, and that is the number of calories you should be eating a day in order to lose weight. With this method you do not eat back your exercise calories, as they are already figured into your daily goal.
  • AllOutof_Bubblegum
    AllOutof_Bubblegum Posts: 3,646 Member
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    rouxkayla wrote: »
    thanks for the reply and my life is very sedentary i sit alot! besides going to the gym and walking sometimes i sit at work for at least 8 hours a day and go home and lay down to watch tv. i have heard i should eat some more but since i decreased my cal from 1500 i have been loosing and before i was not loosing at all. what calories would you or anyone out there recommend with or without exercise.

    You just contradicted yourself, here. If you are going to the gym and walking, that is not sedentary.

    After I'm done at the gym, you will find me parked on my royal @SS for exactly the rest of the day. And I am far from sedentary.

  • kangaroux92
    kangaroux92 Posts: 188 Member
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    if i do need to increase my calories how come i wasn't loosing weight when i was eating 1500 calories ? thats not that far off from 1200, should i try 1350 maybe
  • kangaroux92
    kangaroux92 Posts: 188 Member
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    oh ok well on mfp it labels sedentary as the type of job you do, so next to it it says desk job /sitting and the others it says standing walking or hard labor. so i thought it was other than your exercise are you sedentary which would be yes for me but i see what you mean
  • dramaqueen45
    dramaqueen45 Posts: 1,009 Member
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    That is true- on MFP it goes by the job type you have and then gives you more calories as you exercise. I am always seeing how you need to eat more than 1200 but I swear if I eat more I usually gain weight (if I don't exercise). If I do exercise I usually eat back about half of my calories.
  • covens04
    covens04 Posts: 76 Member
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    I would recommend you start at least between 1400-1600 calories per day. Be consistent. Log daily and really focus on hitting your nutrition goals for a few weeks. Hope this helps! Feel free to add me if you need any more help!
  • thinkpositive92
    thinkpositive92 Posts: 111 Member
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    I've been on 1200 calories before and although it might feel fine, personally I feel it doesn't give you an enough range of foods to experiment with. The weird thing is I'm losing just as much weight on 1680 calories as I was on 1200 calories, roughly 2-3lbs a week (when I'm good of course :P). So my only advice to you would be to experiment with your calories, try upping it a little see what happens in a week! :) Good luck! xo
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,150 Member
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    Nope
  • jke78
    jke78 Posts: 59 Member
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    Ok so I was being REALLY strict with my calorie counts. But then this week I am just so hungry, I don't know what's up, increased my protein etc. but still starving. So instead of fighting it I've been allowing myself to go 200 cals over my goal. I decided to go ahead and step on the scale to see what the damage was and I was shocked that I'm still losing. So I'm going to say you probably aren't eating enough. I'm about to seriously re-access my daily goals, maybe you should do the same. Good luck!

    BTW I LOVE your profile pic!

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