I am not meeting my caloric intake for the day, is this bad? Also,Please help explain net calories?

RBXChas wrote: »

trinatrina1984 wrote: »

RBXChas wrote: »

You can check out this link to read about setting your calories and going from there:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

Yes, you'll lose weight eating that little, but it won't take very long for you to become miserable eating that little. Long-term, you'll see plenty of negative health effects, some of which you'll be able to see, some of which you won't. That's if you continue eating that little, but my guess is that the pendulum will swing the other way, and soon.

+1 for sexy pants!

I feel like it should be required reading for everyone signing up for MFP. It really is helpful, and it contains links to other helpful posts. It's a lot of reading but oh so informative. It changed my perspective even after I'd been at this for a while.

Yeah knowledge is power, even when it comes to weight loss.

moshispins wrote: »

ILiftHeavyAcrylics wrote: »

Can you open your diary? Go to Home>Settings>Diary Settings and then set to Public.

You say you're weighing but in your OP you say you estimated the oil you used. If you're estimating things like oil then it's likely you're eating more than you think.

Sure, but I have only been on MFP for one day so there is not much info there. I have been using my phone and just keeping notes before yesterday.

In that case you don't really know what you're eating yet. Log accurately for a few weeks, with scale, and then see where you are. And make sure your accurate logging includes measuring things like oil. Do not estimate, even if you think you're overestimating.

RunMamaMaya wrote: »

I just looked at your food diary for Sunday where you only hit 782 calories. You did not eat any real food for breakfast that may be a good place to start. A cup of tea for breakfast isn't enough. You also didn't have a snack. By including a breakfast and snack you should hit your minimum intake.

Some people don't eat breakfast

moshispins wrote: »

It is when we eat out that is a problem which we have done in abundance recently. We aren't doing that anymore and I am just home cooking for myself, when I am hungry, with what I have at home.

So yes, you make a point, but I am more worried about if this is an ongoing trend from here on out without the eating out, if it will be a problem.

You don't get to a point where you need to lose 75 pounds from eating out "too much" "recently." If you truly are 75 pounds over weight and now, all of a sudden, you're having trouble eating more than 800 calories per day, I'd consult a physician.

moshispins wrote:

I have noticed that I am not reaching my goal caloric intake for the day. I was supposed to have 1640, but I only reached 782 yesterday (and that was using a generous estimate of the oil I used for cooking). My husband seems to think this will prevent me from losing weight, is this true?

The only way to lose weight is to eat fewer calories than your body burns.
If you are eating fewer calories than your body is burning, you will lose weight.
Your body will not (cannot) "hold onto" or store calories when you're eating at a deficit. It has to have energy (calories) to run, and will burn what's available. It prefers carbs (glucose, then glycogen), then it burns fat, and as a distant third it burns muscle (the conversion is inefficient, but better than starving; this is the true "starvation mode", and it takes a long time of abusing your body to get there).
That is why you need to eat at a moderate deficit, not a VLCD (very low calorie diet).

If your goal weight is 164 lb, and your target calories are 1640, eating as low as 1300 would probably be OK and will get you the nutrition you need.
I seriously doubt you actually had only 782. You would be starving (unless you're anorexic, and then there's more trouble there than strangers on the interwebs can help you with) and probably feeling poorly.
Weigh &/or measure all your food until you learn portions. You are almost certainly eating more than you think.
Choose the food entries which are the specific brand & weight that you're eating, or for fresh foods use the "USDA" entries.

Also, I have already read the definition but I am still confused, can someone help explain how net calories work?

Don't feel too bad... neither my doctor nor my dietician had ever heard of such a thing either.
Total calories eaten - exercise calories = net calories
But now that you know what it is, ignore it.
Find your healthy goal weight (based on BMI) and eat 10x that in calories to get there.
When you hit a plateau, drop 50-100 calories & wait several weeks to see the result. Don't go under 1200 cal/day unless your doctor says it's OK or you're very short.
Another reason to ignore exercise calories is that most machines (including MFP) overestimate calories burned. If you're really hungry at the end of the day once in a while, have 1/3 - 1/2 of your exercise calories that day as a snack.

I am sorry if this has already been answered or is in the wrong place

There is a search function, and while it's not the best, it will show you the threads which have dealt with whatever topic you ask it about. Yes, this has been dealt with many times.

I did a newbie help post which includes links to helpful info such as sexypants, accurate logging, goal setting (weight, calories, macros), motivation...

supermodelchic wrote:

I looked at your dairy and you are not eating enough proper food, what kind of calories you eat matter, start sending out friend requests and see what kind of food fit people are consuming

For weight loss, the only thing which matters is calories in / calories out.
For nutrition & health, yes, what you eat matters.

To be fair, we only have 2 days to look at at this point.
However...
Increase your intake of vegetables, and to some degree fruits (though they have more sugar, it's healthy sugar & balanced with fiber). They will give you the nutrition you need with few calories and with their bulk you'll feel more full on less.

Have protein at every meal - it keeps you feeling un-hungry longer.

EAT BREAKFAST!!!! Ideally, have half your calories for breakfast (look at that newbie help post for a link to the blog post with the studies), but at least eat something substantial.

Another thing...don't eat breakfast early in the morning if you don't want to. I can't eat first thing in the morning -- makes me nauseated. I start with coffee around 7am, then have a Greek yogurt around 10 am, then maybe a protein bar around noon. "Lunch" doesn't really happen for me until after 2 pm. Your body really doesn't care what time you eat.