Should I eat my calorie limit if I am not hungry?

Options
2»

Replies

  • evildeadedd
    evildeadedd Posts: 108 Member
    Options
    Bah stupid quote system.
  • amywilson_88
    amywilson_88 Posts: 12 Member
    Options
    I think weighing every day will help me long term as I LEARN my body's fluctuations... But I'm thankful for the stern taking to :wink: meanwhile to remind me in daft and needn't throw a wobbly if I have a gain day.
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,191 Member
    Options
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    You shouldn't take a day-to-day weight fluctuation as a sign that you're doing something "wrong" with your diet. As you lose weight, the scale will go up and down. It's the long term trend that matters.

    As you've noticed, when you don't eat enough one day, you are extra hungry the next. I think this is a sign that you really should try to meet your calorie goal each day.

    THIS.
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
    Options
    Hunger can fluctuate. As long as you're meeting your calorie goals over the course of the week, I wouldn't worry. However, I would eat at least some of your exercise calories back, as creating too much of a deficit isn't good, either.
  • nuttynanners
    nuttynanners Posts: 249 Member
    edited April 2016
    Options
    amywilson_88 wrote: »
    nuttynanners wrote: »
    1) You cannot gain a pound of fat overnight


    You're not wrong!!! But I'm the kind of bad loser that goes to hell with weight gain. I get a sort of "f*** it" mentality that is quite silly but the scales go up and so does my calorie intake.

    It scares me away from "naughty" food - which I don't want. I want to have control over food, not fear which results in a binge anyway.

    Do what I do! If you think you are holding onto water weight, don't weigh yourself. I generally weigh myself every 2-3 days rather than every single day. I don't like seeing the scale go up... but it does pretty often! The important thing is that the overall trend is down.

    Some people will tell you that you should only weigh once a week or less, but it's a personal preference.
  • nuttynanners
    nuttynanners Posts: 249 Member
    edited April 2016
    Options
    queenbea77 wrote: »
    evildeadedd wrote: »
    kelseyframe91 wrote: »
    If your not hungry then don't eat and try to avoid eating after 7pm. It's not the end of the world that you don't reach your calorie target for one day. If it's a common thing then try having a few more calories at breakfast time and try to balance it out that way. Good Luck.

    Not eating after X time is malarkey. I do agree ita not the end of the world to be a bit under, but if being under one day is leading to you going over the next due to hunger, I would say you are better off being constant. We have been conditioned that losing weight is supposed to hurt, to be uncomfortable, a challenge of our will. In truth for long term success you don't want it to be hell. Will power is a finite resource, of every day is a battle you are much more likely to burn out.

    Like evildeadedd said - not eating after a certain time is total BS.

    And eating under 1,200 isn't going to result in long term weight loss. As soon as you start eating more you will regain the weight. That number of calories isn't even enough for you to lay around in bed all day .

    Actually, the idea of "long term weight loss" is extremely subjective. You can starve yourself to your "ideal weight" on 500 calories a day and maintain. It's not good for you, but you can do it.

    I think what you MEANT to say is that psychologically, someone eating >1200 cals a day MIGHT have a harder time eating at maintenance once they reach their goal weight. Because they only have 2 modes - diet mode and binge mode. "Health mode" (and by this I mean an equilibrium of calories in/calories out) is another skill altogether. I'm tired of all this "starvation mode" talk or whatever you want to call it.
  • evildeadedd
    evildeadedd Posts: 108 Member
    Options
    I didn't see anyone suggest anything close to starvation mode. What was said is over restriction one day and over eating the next is not a healthy cycle.
  • amywilson_88
    amywilson_88 Posts: 12 Member
    Options
    for what it's worth - I had a shake and my mood picked up instantly and I feel quite chipper and in control now :blush:
  • evildeadedd
    evildeadedd Posts: 108 Member
    Options
    amywilson_88 wrote: »
    for what it's worth - I had a shake and my mood picked up instantly and I feel quite chipper and in control now :blush:

    Good for you, that's a good way to feel. You should feel better while losing weight. You don't need to feel like *kitten* to accomplish your goals. Rock on.
  • fvtfan
    fvtfan Posts: 126 Member
    Options
    amywilson_88 wrote: »
    I think weighing every day will help me long term as I LEARN my body's fluctuations... But I'm thankful for the stern taking to :wink: meanwhile to remind me in daft and needn't throw a wobbly if I have a gain day.

    I started weighing every day on January 7th and now I wish I had been doing it all along, not only does it make those fluctuations not matter you can see that you are trending down, which sometimes you can't see with weekly weigh-ins due to those fluctuations.

    Start weighing daily and use an app to track - I use Libra and I really like the information it gives me. Like I know I am going to go up around the 15th of every month, so now when I do I don't stress over it.

    Give it a try and see if it helps you get a handle on your emotions regarding that stupid number!
  • mankars
    mankars Posts: 115 Member
    Options
    Remember... our body is programmed to convert & store all unused/excess calories to pure FATS... PERIOD. :-(

    So, if you were to eat over your daily calorie allowance, body will store excess calories as fats.
    The next day you eat less, your body will now use the additional stored calories.

    If you continue doing it, is main reasons for weight fluctuations... some days you lose & other days you gain.

    Is your daily allowance of 1370 cals for weight loss or weight maintenance?

    Because, eating far too less that it will put your body in 'starvation' mode where it makes harder to lose weight by hanging onto the precious 'fats'.

    All the best.
  • evildeadedd
    evildeadedd Posts: 108 Member
    Options
    mankars wrote: »
    Remember... our body is programmed to convert & store all unused/excess calories to pure FATS... PERIOD. :-(

    So, if you were to eat over your daily calorie allowance, body will store excess calories as fats.
    The next day you eat less, your body will now use the additional stored calories.

    If you continue doing it, is main reasons for weight fluctuations... some days you lose & other days you gain.

    Is your daily allowance of 1370 cals for weight loss or weight maintenance?

    Because, eating far too less that it will put your body in 'starvation' mode where it makes harder to lose weight by hanging onto the precious 'fats'.

    All the best.

    OK I retract my statement, someone has mentioned the starvation mode myth now. Listen mate starvation mode is a myth. If it were a real thing no-one would ever die of starvation. Look at a picture of Holocaust victims, see any fat people in there? I burn 2400 calories a day just existing, I would burn that in a coma, but that's at this weight. If I lose 100 pounds I will burn much less just existing. That's not starvation mode that's the law of thermodynamics, less mass requires less energy to sustain it's self. I know people mean well, and I am not trying to attack you at all, but this myth needs to die in a fire.
  • amywilson_88
    amywilson_88 Posts: 12 Member
    Options
    fvtfan wrote: »
    amywilson_88 wrote: »
    I think weighing every day will help me long term as I LEARN my body's fluctuations... But I'm thankful for the stern taking to :wink: meanwhile to remind me in daft and needn't throw a wobbly if I have a gain day.

    I started weighing every day on January 7th and now I wish I had been doing it all along, not only does it make those fluctuations not matter you can see that you are trending down, which sometimes you can't see with weekly weigh-ins due to those fluctuations.

    Start weighing daily and use an app to track - I use Libra and I really like the information it gives me. Like I know I am going to go up around the 15th of every month, so now when I do I don't stress over it.

    Give it a try and see if it helps you get a handle on your emotions regarding that stupid number!

    I'm on it! That is right up my alley. Control control control! :smiley:

  • ketorach
    ketorach Posts: 430 Member
    edited April 2016
    Options
    queenbea77 wrote: »
    evildeadedd wrote: »
    kelseyframe91 wrote: »
    If your not hungry then don't eat and try to avoid eating after 7pm. It's not the end of the world that you don't reach your calorie target for one day. If it's a common thing then try having a few more calories at breakfast time and try to balance it out that way. Good Luck.

    Not eating after X time is malarkey. I do agree ita not the end of the world to be a bit under, but if being under one day is leading to you going over the next due to hunger, I would say you are better off being constant. We have been conditioned that losing weight is supposed to hurt, to be uncomfortable, a challenge of our will. In truth for long term success you don't want it to be hell. Will power is a finite resource, of every day is a battle you are much more likely to burn out.

    Like evildeadedd said - not eating after a certain time is total BS.

    And eating under 1,200 isn't going to result in long term weight loss. As soon as you start eating more you will regain the weight. That number of calories isn't even enough for you to lay around in bed all day .

    Maybe not for the OP. Then again, I don't know her stats.


    But 1200 calories sustains me just fine. Maybe you're younger than I am with more muscle mass. (Although the '77 in your username suggests you're not *much* younger than me.) But I'm short & overweight and over 40 and my BMR is only ~1300. 1600 calories is maintenance for me. So... 1200 is what I need to eat if I want to lose 0.5-1 lb per week.

    I eat a lot of protein, fat, and vegetables. I feel perfectly fine eating 1200 calories a day. I strength train 3x a week and do cardio 3-4x a week. I eat back some calories on days I work out but not many.

    I'm tracking religiously (weighing and tracking) and losing weight but not at a dangerously fast rate or anything.
  • pebble4321
    pebble4321 Posts: 1,132 Member
    Options
    Food is fuel for your body. So, it's important to make sure you are taking in enough nutrition to stay healthy and have enough energy to get through your day.
    I think it's easy, when you are calorie counting, to fall into the "less is better" mentality, but this can be a bad idea if you end up restricting more than you need to. It's not going to do you any favours in the long term, and is not likely to be sustainable. Why set yourself up to fail?
  • Ohjeezitskim
    Ohjeezitskim Posts: 129 Member
    Options
    I was actually questioning this too this week since I started walking! In an hour, because of the amount of hills, I was burning over 600 calories (using a Polar HRM) and I can't eat those all back for the most part and have 400 or so left over calories.

    Today, was my mom's birthday so not only did I go out to lunch with my boyfriend (755 calories of my 1,400) I went out to dinner and got a turkey sub (with only lettuce and vinegar and small amount of provolone - took some of the bread off - about 550 calories) THEN we had to have birthday cake but I had 69 calories left so I went on a walk before hand and gained 256 calories lol. It was a small piece and took some of the frosting off too! Now i'm left with about 150! (But went over by -2,759 on my sodium :cry: )
  • evildeadedd
    evildeadedd Posts: 108 Member
    Options
    Ohjeezitskim wrote: »
    I was actually questioning this too this week since I started walking! In an hour, because of the amount of hills, I was burning over 600 calories (using a Polar HRM) and I can't eat those all back for the most part and have 400 or so left over calories.

    Today, was my mom's birthday so not only did I go out to lunch with my boyfriend (755 calories of my 1,400) I went out to dinner and got a turkey sub (with only lettuce and vinegar and small amount of provolone - took some of the bread off - about 550 calories) THEN we had to have birthday cake but I had 69 calories left so I went on a walk before hand and gained 256 calories lol. It was a small piece and took some of the frosting off too! Now i'm left with about 150! (But went over by -2,759 on my sodium :cry: )

    I think the most important thing to learn it how to really listen to your body. Look at the OP. she was over restricting calories one day and dealing with hunger and over eating the next, that was her bodies way of telling her the over restriction from the day before was totally hashing it's mellow. The trouble with trying to listen to hunger signals for the majority of overweight people is we don't really know what hungry is. This is where carefully tracking weight trends comes in. If after that first month you are losing more than 1% of your body weight a week, you need to eat more. Everyone wants to lose weight super fast and be beach body ready by July, but there is a reason they call diets that you lose a ton of weight fast crash diets, because you will crash and burn, and more than likely gain back the losses plus. I want to lose about 2 pounds a week for the year, that will put me close to my fighting weight, and 8 to 10 pounds a month for the next 8 months is much better than my past cycle of 50 pounds in 2 months then being heavier than I started when that year rolled around.

Categories