How important is the goal?

chrisrook90
chrisrook90 Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So, at 250lbs, I was consuming a diet that averaged 1200-1400 calories a day, and it wasn't until I dropped the fast food and started watching what I ate and now force myself to try and consume 2000 of my 2300 daily calorie goal that seeing weight loss. My question is, I force myself to eat 2000 calories a day just cause I'm not hungry. Coming that close to my goal, does it matter if I hit the full 2300 or not?

Replies

  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,652 Member
    If you lose weight at 2000 calories but not 1200-1400, I have no frame of reference even to guess whether your calorie goal matters. That makes no sense at all to me.
  • bulbadoof
    bulbadoof Posts: 1,058 Member
    edited June 2015
    you're probably getting better nutrition now than you were when you ate fast food.

    2000 calories of good, healthy food is fine. don't force yourself to eat more than you want to.
  • atypicalsmith
    atypicalsmith Posts: 2,742 Member
    Just to clarify: So you were eating fast food but only 1200 - 1400 calories a day? Like two Big Macs? But now you're not eating fast food anymore and are losing weight by forcing yourself to eat 2,000 calories? Is that correct?
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  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
    Okay, so I don't believe you can consume 1200-1400 calories of fast food and not lose weight but by consuming 2000 calories of something else you do. Weight loss doesn't work that way. There is nothing magical about beef and bread and lettuce and potatoes that make them stick to your body when you eat at McDonalds but not when you fix them at home. That being said, there is no reason for you to force yourself to eat 2000 calories.
  • beemerphile1
    beemerphile1 Posts: 1,710 Member
    chrisrook90 wrote: »
    So, at 250lbs, I was consuming a diet that averaged 1200-1400 calories a day, and it wasn't until I dropped the fast food and started watching what I ate and now force myself to try and consume 2000 of my 2300 daily calorie goal that seeing weight loss. My question is, I force myself to eat 2000 calories a day just cause I'm not hungry. Coming that close to my goal, does it matter if I hit the full 2300 or not?

    Can't really follow your statements. Maybe you could explain better.

    However to answer what I think you are asking, 2,000 calories per day should be able to provide all your needed nutrition. Problem is, can you stick to that number?
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    DeguelloTex wrote: »
    If you lose weight at 2000 calories but not 1200-1400, I have no frame of reference even to guess whether your calorie goal matters. That makes no sense at all to me.

    I reckon he wasn't logging properly

    But now he is

    that's the only way it makes sense
  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,652 Member
    rabbitjb wrote: »
    DeguelloTex wrote: »
    If you lose weight at 2000 calories but not 1200-1400, I have no frame of reference even to guess whether your calorie goal matters. That makes no sense at all to me.

    I reckon he wasn't logging properly

    But now he is

    that's the only way it makes sense
    Well, yeah, the situation as a whole makes sense. If he's losing weight, he's in a deficit. If not, then not. His description doesn't make sense... to the point where it's just wrong.
  • yopeeps025
    yopeeps025 Posts: 8,680 Member
    1200-1400 of certain fast foods can put your sodium level well above 4000 mg. So OP was filled with water retention.
  • lemonsnowdrop
    lemonsnowdrop Posts: 1,298 Member
    yopeeps025 wrote: »
    1200-1400 of certain fast foods can put your sodium level well above 4000 mg. So OP was filled with water retention.

    Sounds right to me. OP should have been drinking enough water to balance that out.
  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,652 Member
    yopeeps025 wrote: »
    1200-1400 of certain fast foods can put your sodium level well above 4000 mg. So OP was filled with water retention.
    For how long was he retaining water?

  • yopeeps025
    yopeeps025 Posts: 8,680 Member
    DeguelloTex wrote: »
    yopeeps025 wrote: »
    1200-1400 of certain fast foods can put your sodium level well above 4000 mg. So OP was filled with water retention.
    For how long was he retaining water?

    That is a question only OP could answer if there is a log to show what they ate from fast food. He said he drop fast food. So he drop a lot of high sodium foods(maybe) for "watching what I ate".
  • chrisrook90
    chrisrook90 Posts: 2 Member
    Alright, for years a usual meal for me was a single McDonalds double hamburger and small fries, or 2 bean burritos and a taco. I stopped drinking soda 2 years ago and only drink water and used to drink one monster a day (not anymore). Every now and then we would go out to eat and I'd eat half my meal and save the other half for the next day. If I ate 2 meals a day, it was a busy day for me. We ate pizza once a week as well. So yes, certain days were probably well I've 2000 calories, but one Neal a day was average for me. That's how I ate when I started working out, and j had no energy to actually work out. So I have no clue if its cause I am forcing my body to consume more for energy that u can go harder on my workouts (probably is) or if it's cause I cut out majority of my intake of saturated fats and sodium that I'm starting to see loss. All I know im almost never hungry and I force myself to consume 2000 calories cause I know I need the energy.
  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,652 Member
    It sounds like for years you were underestimating how much you were eating. When you weren't seeing a loss, you were eating at maintenance calories or above.

    Fat doesn't make you fat. Excess calories do. Sodium doesn't keep adding pounds for years, it levels out.

    If you're losing weight on 2000, you'd lost weight on 1200-1400.

    Depending on height, weight, age, and activity, 2000 calories can be plenty without any need to force yourself to eat to get to 2300.
  • atypicalsmith
    atypicalsmith Posts: 2,742 Member
    lemonsnowdrop wrote: »
    yopeeps025 wrote: »
    1200-1400 of certain fast foods can put your sodium level well above 4000 mg. So OP was filled with water retention.

    Sounds right to me. OP should have been drinking enough water to balance that out.

    In that case he should have been gaining weight, not losing it.
  • yopeeps025
    yopeeps025 Posts: 8,680 Member
    atypicalsmith wrote: »
    lemonsnowdrop wrote: »
    yopeeps025 wrote: »
    1200-1400 of certain fast foods can put your sodium level well above 4000 mg. So OP was filled with water retention.

    Sounds right to me. OP should have been drinking enough water to balance that out.

    In that case he should have been gaining weight, not losing it.

    He wasn't losing weight.
  • atypicalsmith
    atypicalsmith Posts: 2,742 Member
    chrisrook90 wrote: »
    Alright, for years a usual meal for me was a single McDonalds double hamburger and small fries, or 2 bean burritos and a taco. I stopped drinking soda 2 years ago and only drink water and used to drink one monster a day (not anymore). Every now and then we would go out to eat and I'd eat half my meal and save the other half for the next day. If I ate 2 meals a day, it was a busy day for me. We ate pizza once a week as well. So yes, certain days were probably well I've 2000 calories, but one Neal a day was average for me. That's how I ate when I started working out, and j had no energy to actually work out. So I have no clue if its cause I am forcing my body to consume more for energy that u can go harder on my workouts (probably is) or if it's cause I cut out majority of my intake of saturated fats and sodium that I'm starting to see loss. All I know im almost never hungry and I force myself to consume 2000 calories cause I know I need the energy.

    So you only eat one meal a day, and sometimes two? What do your meals now consist of since you have given up fast food?
  • atypicalsmith
    atypicalsmith Posts: 2,742 Member
    yopeeps025 wrote: »
    atypicalsmith wrote: »
    lemonsnowdrop wrote: »
    yopeeps025 wrote: »
    1200-1400 of certain fast foods can put your sodium level well above 4000 mg. So OP was filled with water retention.

    Sounds right to me. OP should have been drinking enough water to balance that out.

    In that case he should have been gaining weight, not losing it.

    He wasn't losing weight.

    Ooops you're right. He said he was gaining weight with fewer calories on fast foods, then started gaining when he quit FF.
  • Timshel_
    Timshel_ Posts: 22,834 Member
    DeguelloTex wrote: »
    It sounds like for years you were underestimating how much you were eating. When you weren't seeing a loss, you were eating at maintenance calories or above.

    Fat doesn't make you fat. Excess calories do. Sodium doesn't keep adding pounds for years, it levels out.

    If you're losing weight on 2000, you'd lost weight on 1200-1400.

    Depending on height, weight, age, and activity, 2000 calories can be plenty without any need to force yourself to eat to get to 2300.

    Exactly.

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