Calorie deficit has me feeling drained

taylorjgarner
taylorjgarner Posts: 27 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've been eating at a calorie deficit for 2 and a half weeks now. I hit the gym 4-5 days a week, I'm a college student and have a job that I'm always on my feet. I can feel my body getting tired. I find myself getting more sleepy througout the day, it's hard to wake up. Is this just my body adjusting? Should I tough it out? Am I not eating the right foods?

Replies

  • MommyL2015
    MommyL2015 Posts: 1,411 Member
    How much of a deficit? Are you eating back all of the calories that MFP gives you? If not, you should be. If you are, maybe you've set your goal too aggressive to start, so try lowering your loss by 1/2 pound per week from what you have it set at. There are too many variables that we don't know to give you any good answers.

    I can only take a stab at a guess and say you're not eating enough but I don't really know.
  • taylorjgarner
    taylorjgarner Posts: 27 Member
    MommyL2015 wrote: »
    How much of a deficit? Are you eating back all of the calories that MFP gives you? If not, you should be. If you are, maybe you've set your goal too aggressive to start, so try lowering your loss by 1/2 pound per week from what you have it set at. There are too many variables that we don't know to give you any good answers.

    I can only take a stab at a guess and say you're not eating enough but I don't really know.
    1,560 is my calorie goal. I eat back what I burn off, I usually have anywhere from 200-50 calories that I don't eat back. I eat nutritious foods! I think I stared with a goal that was too aggressive for my body, now that you mention it!
  • shadowfax_c11
    shadowfax_c11 Posts: 1,942 Member
    Tired, brain fog etc are definitely signs that you are not eating enough. I experienced that early on myself. Pick a less aggressive weight loss goal. How much do you need to lose?
  • samanthachen
    samanthachen Posts: 360 Member
    1560 might be too low for you. You might try a TDEE/BMR calculator from other sites. Get a few numbers, and you can adjust your number manually here on MFP. Even a little change can make a big difference.
  • taylorjgarner
    taylorjgarner Posts: 27 Member
    shadowfax_c11 wrote: »
    Tired, brain fog etc are definitely signs that you are not eating enough. I experienced that early on myself. Pick a less aggressive weight loss goal. How much do you need to lose?
    I'm 190, been eating at a deficit for about 20 days, lost 4.5 pounds. I'm trying to weigh 150 and look lean by July.
  • dfnewcombe
    dfnewcombe Posts: 94 Member
    College student, job, and gym 4-5 days a week sounds like a pretty full schedule. I am thinking adding a calorie deficit on to that would lead to exhaustion. How many hours of sleep are you getting? Is the gym new or have you been going for some time? Are your workouts exhausting you? If your body is telling you that you need rest- give yourself permission to rest. While I think from time to time we all over do a little to overcome a hurdle in our progress, if you are wearing yourself out... I think it will impair your long term success. Slow down where you can (decrease your weekly weight loss goal, maybe cut a gym session out, make sure you are hydrated, and try to increase your sleep where you can). I think that is what your body is telling you....
  • dubird
    dubird Posts: 1,849 Member
    No idea how tall you are, which also impacts what your deficit is, but I'm 5'7" and at 190 my daily goal was 1700. I defiantly second going to other calorie calculators and seeing what they say. They'll all be different, but shouldn't be dramatically different. And since you can enter custom goals on MFP, you can take an average of each of them to start from.
  • Mischievous_Rascal
    Mischievous_Rascal Posts: 1,791 Member
    edited February 2016
    taylorjgarner wrote: »
    MommyL2015 wrote: »
    How much of a deficit? Are you eating back all of the calories that MFP gives you? If not, you should be. If you are, maybe you've set your goal too aggressive to start, so try lowering your loss by 1/2 pound per week from what you have it set at. There are too many variables that we don't know to give you any good answers.

    I can only take a stab at a guess and say you're not eating enough but I don't really know.
    1,560 is my calorie goal. I eat back what I burn off, I usually have anywhere from 200-50 calories that I don't eat back. I eat nutritious foods! I think I stared with a goal that was too aggressive for my body, now that you mention it!

    Doesn't matter what type of gas you use in your car if you don't put enough in to get where you need to be, right? Eating too little to the point of having horrible symptoms isn't going to get you where you want to be, either.
  • wishfuljune
    wishfuljune Posts: 2,606 Member
    This thread has a some calculators to help you determine your TDEE and your BMR. You might be eating too few calories based on whatever numbers this shows you. I also would say that you are not "sedentary" if you are on your feet all the time at your job. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/931670/bmr-and-tdee-explained-for-those-needing-a-guide/p1
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    taylorjgarner wrote: »
    MommyL2015 wrote: »
    How much of a deficit? Are you eating back all of the calories that MFP gives you? If not, you should be. If you are, maybe you've set your goal too aggressive to start, so try lowering your loss by 1/2 pound per week from what you have it set at. There are too many variables that we don't know to give you any good answers.

    I can only take a stab at a guess and say you're not eating enough but I don't really know.
    1,560 is my calorie goal. I eat back what I burn off, I usually have anywhere from 200-50 calories that I don't eat back. I eat nutritious foods! I think I stared with a goal that was too aggressive for my body, now that you mention it!

    Yes, I don't think you need a different calculator, I think you need a less aggressive weekly weight loss goal, which you can change here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided

    Set your activity level to Lightly Active if you're not already there.
  • taylorjgarner
    taylorjgarner Posts: 27 Member
    wishfuljune wrote: »
    This thread has a some calculators to help you determine your TDEE and your BMR. You might be eating too few calories based on whatever numbers this shows you. I also would say that you are not "sedentary" if you are on your feet all the time at your job. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/931670/bmr-and-tdee-explained-for-those-needing-a-guide/p1

    Ok so I calculated my TDEE and it suggested a 2500 calorie goal, which is 1000 calories over my current limit according to MFP. I'm shocked how the big he difference is. I'm conflicted because I am seeing the results that o wanted from the scale and I am becoming more lean every weigh in, I can see my muscles more and more. Should I meet in the middle at a 2000 calorie intake?

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