I'm confused. Can you really eat too little?
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Hey Groveadelic I have opened my diary u may check it out . ... u will realise I put cheats to match up the 1000 cals cos otherwise MFP will not calculate the weight for me... so I go to the exercises and balance it with the matching cals.
any other exercises are genuine exercises done-4 -
Grooveadelic, I agree with your doctor.
I'm 5'4" , 129 lbs, 45 years young, have 9 more to lose. Weird- I ate 1670 calories like MFP told me to (by eating back my exercise calories) and I gained weight! Back to eating 1270 and success.
Really, noone can assume they are eating the correct amount of calories or amount of calorie burn. There's a lot of hit or miss. Listen to your body as I am sure the OP will do.
Also the OP is in her forties. She is really lucky she has only gained 13 lbs. Hello pre menopause!!! which most definitely slows down calorie burn. Just lurk the 55-66 year old women threads...as I've been doing since September. They aren't eating back their calories and are successful keeping off weight at goal for years.-3 -
This is pretty basic stuff, but not always the most intuitive. My suggestion: read the stickies and start learning. Also, you came to MFP for help, presumably because you weren't sure about things like calories and dietary needs. So when MFP tells you to eat more, why are you assuming you know better? You came here for a reason, do what MPF tells you to do.
I came to MPF to start tracking my calories because I wanted to lose weight and everything I've ever known of losing weight is if you consume less calories than you burn then you'll lose weight. I guess I never got the whole story before. I'm now learning so much more. I'm not assuming I know better than MFP, I'm asking questions to get a better understanding, please be patient with me. Or if you can't, please just don't respond. There are others nice enough to respond without the judgement. I will read the stickies. Thank you for the suggestion.0 -
yeah, MFP screams at me if I hit that 'complete this entry' button and I've not hit the 1200 calorie mark. BIG RED letters telling me I don't eat enough. I just use it as a quick way to journal my food, ultimately my Dr. decides how much I need to eat and what ranges I should stay in... A healthier way to look at this is exercise to eat.... it sucks.... but it's what you have to do.... so instead of cheating the food journal, hit that 1000 - 1200 calorie mark and then deduct some good exercise to create the deficit. I have time issues, not enough time in my day, I have to work out 30 min in the morning and 30 min at lunch and 30 min after work to get my fitness in.... my job and life don't allow me to be a gym rat nor do I have the budget for that either, but biking, walking, playing fetch with the dogs.... that's all free and adds up to calories burned at the end of the day. I just make sure I get winded for at least 20 minutes of that exercise routine...-1
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kerimanuel wrote: »This is pretty basic stuff, but not always the most intuitive. My suggestion: read the stickies and start learning. Also, you came to MFP for help, presumably because you weren't sure about things like calories and dietary needs. So when MFP tells you to eat more, why are you assuming you know better? You came here for a reason, do what MPF tells you to do.
I came to MPF to start tracking my calories because I wanted to lose weight and everything I've ever known of losing weight is if you consume less calories than you burn then you'll lose weight. I guess I never got the whole story before. I'm now learning so much more. I'm not assuming I know better than MFP, I'm asking questions to get a better understanding, please be patient with me. Or if you can't, please just don't respond. There are others nice enough to respond without the judgement. I will read the stickies. Thank you for the suggestion.
I'm not judging. But if you've come here for help with calories, then trust the tool. This is all actually pretty easy.
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GulfcoastAL wrote: »Grooveadelic, I agree with your doctor.
I'm 5'4" , 129 lbs, 45 years young, have 9 more to lose. Weird- I ate 1670 calories like MFP told me to (by eating back my exercise calories) and I gained weight! Back to eating 1270 and success.
Really, noone can assume they are eating the correct amount of calories or amount of calorie burn. There's a lot of hit or miss. Listen to your body as I am sure the OP will do.
Also the OP is in her forties. She is really lucky she has only gained 13 lbs. Hello pre menopause!!! which most definitely slows down calorie burn. Just lurk the 55-66 year old women threads...as I've been doing since September. They aren't eating back their calories and are successful keeping off weight at goal for years.
GulfcoastAL, you and I are the same person0 -
kerimanuel wrote: »Dang! I really need to figure this stuff out.
MFP calculates a net caloric goal to eat based on your age, height, current weight, and activity level from normal life ... that calculation does not include exercise. MFP expects you to accurately calculate your exercise burn and eat that back.
total calories consumed - exercise calories = net caloric intake.
The other method is TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). It includes exercise in the up front calculations so you don't eat back exercise calories.
The concept is the same. Figure out what your body needs to maintain its current weight, eat a reasonable deficit based on the amount you have left to lose, hit that caloric goal. With the 13 pounds your ticker says you have to lose, a 250 calorie per day deficit is reasonable for a planned 1/2 pound per week of fat loss ... or TDEE - 10 or 15% at most ... small weekly increments at this point.grooveadelic wrote: »The question should be how small is the person and how accurate is that calorie count? I had a friend who was eating 1000 calories a day and gaining weight..... in reality she was eating about 2000 calories a day and not exercising. I had another friend go on the HCG 500 calories a day diet, she weighed her food and strictly adhered to it, by the end of the day she was sitting on her couch bundled up in a blanket laying down, she didn't even have enough energy to keep her core temp up!
One day I will graduate to a maintenance diet of about 1800 to 2000 calories a day but with the understanding that I will keep my cardio and strength training routine in place too...
So she ate 2000 calories while claiming to eat less. Claims are not always the truth. The VLCD diet your other friend was on is a forbidden topic on MFP ... specifically called out in the guidelines.
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Kerimanuel, I hope my information has been helpful, without judgement.... I know the feeling and it's not readily available information (seriously who knew it would be so hard?) I'm an educated woman and my Dr had to S-P-E-L-L it out for me... I was told the same thing, eat less ya fat slob! but what wasn't being told to me was that I had to eat a minimum of foods to get the micronutrients (micro= your vitamins and minerals) Macronutrients carry the Micronutrients, they go hand in hand.
Gulfcoast..... Yes, MFP and everyone else would tell me to eat more if I exercised more, my Dr. said that's not the case if you're unfit... you have to force your body to send signals to the fat stores that it's time to 'RELEASE THE FATTTT!' and the only way to do that while still eating healthy is to bump up the burn, get out and 'move it-move-it'
Irene, I would pay more attention to making sure you're hitting your nutrition... if that means you're eating more calories then you have to turn up the heat.... there comes a fine line of eating too little to get good nutrition at the cost of trying to lose weight... poor nutrition because of slashing your calorie intake is what signals the metabolism to slow down, and ultimately you'll start to slow down... you may not notice it, but you'll walk less.... walk slower.... maybe get a chill when you didn't before... these are all signs! heed the signs....-1 -
I'm so not advocating that forbidden diet, in fact I saw the ill effects of that first hand... trying to relay that danger to others.-1
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Looking at the diaries, I honestly hope people are just terrible at accurately logging. The other option is that people are deliberately netting under 500-600 calories per day for protracted periods without medical supervision.0
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GulfcoastAL wrote: »Grooveadelic, I agree with your doctor.
I'm 5'4" , 129 lbs, 45 years young, have 9 more to lose. Weird- I ate 1670 calories like MFP told me to (by eating back my exercise calories) and I gained weight! Back to eating 1270 and success.
Really, noone can assume they are eating the correct amount of calories or amount of calorie burn. There's a lot of hit or miss. Listen to your body as I am sure the OP will do.
Also the OP is in her forties. She is really lucky she has only gained 13 lbs. Hello pre menopause!!! which most definitely slows down calorie burn. Just lurk the 55-66 year old women threads...as I've been doing since September. They aren't eating back their calories and are successful keeping off weight at goal for years.
I'm 47, 5'2", have my calories set at 1,500 & eat back my exercise calories...some days all, some days half, some days none. It just depends on how I feel. I would be depressed if I thought I could never lose weight unless I ate so little. I teach at least 4x a week & lift (moderately heavy) so not interested in eating less to weigh less.0 -
grooveadelic wrote: »Kerimanuel, I hope my information has been helpful, without judgement.... I know the feeling and it's not readily available information (seriously who knew it would be so hard?) I'm an educated woman and my Dr had to S-P-E-L-L it out for me... I was told the same thing, eat less ya fat slob! but what wasn't being told to me was that I had to eat a minimum of foods to get the micronutrients (micro= your vitamins and minerals) Macronutrients carry the Micronutrients, they go hand in hand.
Yes, very helpful. Thank you so much! It is so much more complicated than I thought. I worry now about my husband. We have both been trying to lose weight and he is very strict on his calorie intake as well. He's not using MFP, he's just not eating very much. Now I'm worried he's not eating enough.0 -
It's interesting that I have actual experience with long term famine response, in the form of purposeful fasting (e.g. zero calories), and have never run into any of the big, bad danger zones that people claim happen if you consume under 1200 calories for more than a couple days (including supposed widespread, debilitating muscle wastage).
Human beings are well equipped to deal with periods of famine, extensive even, and far longer than what is experienced in most modern societies. The fear that a generally healthy adult will ruin their health in a matter of days, even weeks, due to low or no caloric intake is a mostly unsubstantiated. Kind of like how many people believe that not eating breakfast will somehow lead to dire, metabolism destroying results.
I'm not about to advocate or endorse VLCD or longer term fasting here, but this conversation is always tempered by rumor and fear mongering, and very little by actual science and experience.0 -
brianpperkins wrote: »Looking at the diaries, I honestly hope people are just terrible at accurately logging. The other option is that people are deliberately netting under 500-600 calories per day for protracted periods without medical supervision.
The third option might be that we just didn't know. I've been netting that. I thought I was doing good keeping my calories to 800-1000. I wasn't aware that I had to make up for what I burned by exercising. I'm 47 years old. I've never had a problem with my weight. I've had four children and always lost the baby weight easily. I've never been educated on this stuff. It's only now that I'm older, I've gained some unwanted weight and the weight loss isn't coming as easily as it has in the past that I'm doing some research and finding this stuff out. I'm sure there are MANY people in my situation.0 -
Iwishyouwell wrote: »Human beings are well equipped to deal with periods of famine, extensive even, and far longer than what is experienced in most modern societies.
This is indisputable.
We evolved to handle feast/famine, and the feast phase is nothing more than binging. IMO we would have more success dealing with eating disorders if that basic physical reality was acknowledged in our treatment approaches.
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pscarolina wrote: »GulfcoastAL wrote: »Grooveadelic, I agree with your doctor.
I'm 5'4" , 129 lbs, 45 years young, have 9 more to lose. Weird- I ate 1670 calories like MFP told me to (by eating back my exercise calories) and I gained weight! Back to eating 1270 and success.
Really, noone can assume they are eating the correct amount of calories or amount of calorie burn. There's a lot of hit or miss. Listen to your body as I am sure the OP will do.
Also the OP is in her forties. She is really lucky she has only gained 13 lbs. Hello pre menopause!!! which most definitely slows down calorie burn. Just lurk the 55-66 year old women threads...as I've been doing since September. They aren't eating back their calories and are successful keeping off weight at goal for years.
I'm 47, 5'2", have my calories set at 1,500 & eat back my exercise calories...some days all, some days half, some days none. It just depends on how I feel. I would be depressed if I thought I could never lose weight unless I ate so little. I teach at least 4x a week & lift (moderately heavy) so not interested in eating less to weigh less.
I'm not interested in "eating less to weigh less" either.
I'm interested in NOT gaining weight when I originally came here to lose weight. Everyone is doing a different fitness regimen of their choosing, has different metabolism from each other. Obviously, mine is slower than yours. But I will no longer let people bully me into "you need to eat more", when I'm not hungry, a doctor has done my nutrional workup (great health), and I'm only losing 1/2 lb a week if I am lucky.
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See the problem is not that your body "holds onto weight", but a few things happen when the body is not fueled properly:
- Deficiencies. Having deficiencies is not something to scoff at, especially if you have kidney or liver issues you may not be aware of. Yes you want to lose weight, but you don't want to make yourself unhealthy in the process.
- Muscle mass. When you don't eat enough, the body tends to use your muscle proteins for energy at a much higher rate than fueling adequately. When it does that, you are basically shooting yourself in the foot, because it will increase the "flabby" feel if you happen to regain the weight, and you will end up looking flabbier than you were before, even though you would be at the same weight. Losing muscle will also decrease the amount of calories your body needs to survive, which leads to either gaining all the weight back and more, or having to eat less than you could have been eating to maintain the loss. This is especially important when you are close to your goal as muscle is lost faster on a very low calorie diet the leaner you are.
- Not eating enough may affect your exercise performance, and you may not be working out to your full potential, wasting calories you could have burned. If you do lose a lot of muscle the calories you burn with exercise is even lower.
Basically, what you are doing may actually be the exact opposite of what you are trying to achieve.0 -
brianpperkins wrote: »Looking at the diaries, I honestly hope people are just terrible at accurately logging. The other option is that people are deliberately netting under 500-600 calories per day for protracted periods without medical supervision.
There's some inaccurate logging going on. As someone who waivers back and forth between weighing food and not weighing (which I do because I actual am an accurate estimator and lose the same without weighing lol), when I look at a diary and see round numbers (100 grams of X food) you are just take a wild guess.
I'm not one to demand people weigh food since weight loss can be done right without it if you're honest, repeating foods (ie you've seen 32 grams of peanut butter so you're estimating pretty close), and being conservative. But if the weight isn't coming off, recheck your accuracy.0 -
kerimanuel wrote: »This is what I thought too, but I'm hearing others say it's unhealthy. I don't want to be unhealthy. I want to be thin, fit, toned and healthy.
Aim to meet your macros (Protein, carbs and fat). The TDEE site linked above should help you calculate how much of each you need every day. If you get the right amounts of those then I don't think you need to worry about the calories. I'm 5'3 and I go under 1200 regularly, but I also eat back exercise calories so that is 1200 NET (meaning I ate 1600 but worked out 400).
But I also think it's important to realize that you do NOT have to go to that large of a deficit to lose weight, especially when you're already pretty slender. Take it slowly, you'll do better and feel better. And if you're working on a fitness plan, even more reason to make fueling your body the top priority, otherwise you'll get run down quickly.
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Ok, so here we go (I had to go take my physical fitness break from the computer).
Yes, feast and starvation, we as humans have evolved to endure these ups and downs. Eons of evolution (or creatism, your choice) has evolved us to this point, but I think the point is long term self inflicted starvation can/does lead to eating disorders and that is what we're trying to ward off here. Plus malnutrition wether intentional or not.
I'm with Amusedmonkey.... there are several factors at work here, what we're saying is long term poor nutrition and lack of food can and will break the body down if combined with too much exercise and not enough care and balance. The whimsical idea that Fat people just eat too much is absurd, ever been out eaten by your skinny cousin/aunt/nephew/etc? I have, and wanted to bap them into next week! Genetic's plays a cruel part too. My mother (god love her) was plump, my dad tall and thin, I got a 50/50 mixture of their genetics and am tall, plump and small boned... the standard 'one weight fits all' doesn't apply to anyone, it's just a guideline. I've seen Anorexia Nervosa up close and personal with a woman who's mother had survived the concentration camps of the Natzi invasion. It really screwed her up as small child, she was anorexic then inflicted the same torture onto her daughter (the woman I knew) and she was locked in a deadfast battle with food and guilt and storm that is 'Eating disorder'. I watched a friend of a friend curl up on the couch so weak she couldn't keep her core temperature maintained, yet she was classified as obese. (I know... I know... they are forbidden diets...I'm not naming or advocating them, they are dangerous)
The psychological battles that go on day to day with food, survival, our own bodies and our own personal body image is the underlying affliction! Centuries ago being skinny was considered undesirable! To be plump was a sign of wealth and beauty. My my how the tides have turned. Unfortunately the whole point seems moot these days, it's about health! Can you carry your own body weight? Yes? then bravo! No? well time to watch the food and get to steppin'.
Medical fasting is a whole nuther subject... there are medical reasons for fasting, ever had surgery? NPO p Mid means 'nothing by mouth after midnight' I have never met a doctor or nutritionist that would prescribe fasting for obesity (or weight loss). I have, on the other hand, a Doctor who wanted a graduation of both, lower caloric intake and increase physical output. I thought he was plum nuts, I have arthritis! But he was right, a body in motion STAYS in motion! working my joints gently and then graduating the physical demands to more intensity works.
My journey started with water aerobics and swimming, my joints literally couldn't hold my weight anymore. I had to get in the pool to help get me in motion. The first 20 lbs made me feel better. Then at 40 lbs lost he increased my cardio and told me to get on a bike.... I joined a spin class.... then he said to get some muscles going... I started body pump and core workouts. He'd take blood work and blood pressure every month and chat with me about food diary and what I was eating. He'd measure my joints and help me with stuff like wrapping my knees to help prevent further damage to the joints as I got more active on the bike and even started short jogs. He never told me NO to my dreams and goals and he never starved me either.... no fasting, no ridiculously low calorie diets, but he opened my eyes to what I was REALLY eating.
Ok so my posting might be a bit off the subject, but it just lead down this path.
Long and short, if you can have a caloric deficit you'll lose weight, what we're saying is to do it smartly... lets not get an eating disorder, cause malnutrition or waste muscle and bone mass in the process.0
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