Reaching your daily calories

eat calorie dense foods like nuts, beef jerky and dried fruit to get your calories up

I dont, im under my calories most days, i couldnt possibly frce myself to eat,after all eating when not hungry got most of us into this mess in the first place. Do what feels good for you, just try and eat your full daily cals if you are exercising a lot. sorry im not much help xx

Congrats on your great start! Generally, yes, you should eat the amount specified, on schedule, in the beginning until your body and mind (and hormones, etc) re-balance and send you NORMAL hunger cues. It can take weeks or months for that to happen. Chronic lack of appetite can be a signal of severely decreased metabolism. A couple of threads that may help:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/175241-a-personal-view-on-exercise-cals-and-underfeeding

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/231636-the-eating-when-you-re-not-hungry-dilemma

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/186814-some-mfp-basics

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/230930-starvation-mode-how-it-works

As for how to increase cals in a healthy way:

Planning is key. Focus on balanced macros (protein/fat/carbs) in each meal/snack. Start with making sure to eat at least 3 meals a day. Breakfast is important when you're trying to overcome a habit of irregular eating or underfeeding. Once you've adjusted to that, add in snacks. Then, gradually increase the amount of cals in each meal/snack. Just 50 cals more for each meal/snack adds up. If you know you'll be working out, increase cals throughout the day.

If you're not feeling hungry, a good way to increase cals without much volume is healthy fats from natural oils (olive/canola), nuts and nut butters (almonds, pistachios, walnuts), and avocados. Also, I would stay away from "low cal" or "low fat" options. Partly because you want to increase cals, and partly because those foods are usually processed and not nutrient dense, and the cals or fat they take out is replaced by sugar (real or substitute) and sodium - not a good trade off. A fruit smoothie, protein shake or chocolate milk are good cal boosters, because drinking cals can be easier than eating when you aren't feeling hungry.

Typically, it may be hard for a few days or a week, but your body will adjust to the increased intake and you'll find it isn't an issue for long. Eating more will truly help your metabolism, and your appetite will increase with it.

i disagree with all the force feeders out there; if you're not hungry then listen to your body. eat when you're hungry & don't when you're not. it'd be different if you were underweight or malnourished, but it sounds like your body is meeting it's nutritional needs with healthier choices & if you have energy & feel good, then i say enjoy being lower cal & eat within your cal goals when your body wants more. ♥ just my 2 cents.

Learn from my mistakes, and try your best to eat those calories. I ate the same way for so long that my metabolism slowed down and I have struggled ever since.

Great job on your loss so far -- that is phenomenal. Just focus on adding simple things to each meal, like avocado to your sandwiches, nuts to your salads, a glass of milk as a snack, etc.

i disagree with all the force feeders out there; if you're not hungry then listen to your body. eat when you're hungry & don't when you're not. it'd be different if you were underweight or malnourished, but it sounds like your body is meeting it's nutritional needs with healthier choices & if you have energy & feel good, then i say enjoy being lower cal & eat within your cal goals when your body wants more. ♥ just my 2 cents.

Unfortunately, for most people starting new eating habits to get healthy, their bodies don't tell them the right things. For someone who overeats, listening to their body when it says "eat 5 donuts" is foolish, right? Well, for someone who is undereating, listening when it says "eat 500 cals today" is just as foolish.

When someone's abused their body by over OR undereating, hormonal imbalances that control appetite and metabolism are NOT functioning normally, so a person simply cannot trust hunger cues in this situation. Whether the person is underweight or not is irrelevant, because the body still needs certain nutrients and a certain amount of fuel DAILY that cannot be met under a certain caloric intake without serious, long-term consequences (when done for a significant period, not talking about 1 day.)

ETA: Increasing calories does not necessarily mean "force feeding"...it means making better choices that will meet nutritional needs. It does not require a lot more volume, just more nutrient dense foods.

Hmmm... That makes sense in theory, but it still seems counter productive to me. I eat when hungry and stop when full, and have been doing so for about a year and a half and haven't had any issues... I just don't see how making yourself eat when you are full can be any healthier than starving yourself when you are hungry, both physically and mentally

Well, for one thing if you have under eaten for a while, your stomach has shrunk. So sure, it may tell you that you're full, but that doesn't mean you're eating enough for the day (just as a general example). That's like taking a 4 cup measuring cup that's full, and a 1 cup measuring cup that's full, and saying they're the same because they're both "full." Clearly, they don't have the same capacity and won't give you the same amount of stuff.

Also, once you've been undereating (even slightly) for a significant time period and your metabolism slows, the hormones that regulate metabolism and appetite are no longer balanced. So you won't get a "feed me I'm hungry!" signal when you should. The same thing happens with overeating in the other direction - when someone overeats, the hormones are imbalanced and because the body is used to the higher intake, it sends hunger cues even when the body doesn't need more food. There are also huge psychological components in both of these scenarios. When you get used to it, you FEEL like it's time to eat - or not - based on your routine, and just the conscious knowledge of that and the anticipation of it, can make you feels hunger pangs (or not feel them, if you are used to not eating breakfast, etc). This is how we train babies to sleep through the night and/or get on a feeding schedule. Similar to Pavlov's Dog theory... We train ourselves when to get hungry and eat.

That said, I would say we're not necessarily talking about making yourself eat when you're "full." If you've just (within the hour) eaten a meal and are still full, no one is saying you better stuff a turkey in there too. But if you aren't meeting nutritional needs with what you're eating, then you need to choose different foods and/or increase the amount. I can eat broccoli all day long and probably be full as hell. But is that a healthy diet? Not really. While broccoli is, of course, very good for you, it's not complete nutrition. I won't get all of the nutrients I need out of it...but I'll be full and won't want to eat other stuff. So, instead, I need to balance it and include other foods that will meet my nutritional requirements for energy and vitamins, minerals and macros. It will take a few days or a week for my body to adjust, but as metabolism increases, so does appetite.

Once someone has been doing this for a while and fixed their eating habits (ie learned what to eat, how much, when, etc), and have gotten healthier, and the body is regulating metabolic hormones properly, many people CAN use hunger as their main cue for when/what to eat. But for someone who has poor eating habits, depending on a broken system to send the right signals just doesn't work.

look at others food diarys to get ideas!

Well, for one thing if you have under eaten for a while, your stomach has shrunk. So sure, it may tell you that you're full, but that doesn't mean you're eating enough for the day (just as a general example). That's like taking a 4 cup measuring cup that's full, and a 1 cup measuring cup that's full, and saying they're the same because they're both "full." Clearly, they don't have the same capacity and won't give you the same amount of stuff.

Also, once you've been undereating (even slightly) for a significant time period and your metabolism slows, the hormones that regulate metabolism and appetite are no longer balanced. So you won't get a "feed me I'm hungry!" signal when you should. The same thing happens with overeating in the other direction - when someone overeats, the hormones are imbalanced and because the body is used to the higher intake, it sends hunger cues even when the body doesn't need more food. There are also huge psychological components in both of these scenarios. When you get used to it, you FEEL like it's time to eat - or not - based on your routine, and just the conscious knowledge of that and the anticipation of it, can make you feels hunger pangs (or not feel them, if you are used to not eating breakfast, etc). This is how we train babies to sleep through the night and/or get on a feeding schedule. Similar to Pavlov's Dog theory... We train ourselves when to get hungry and eat.

That said, I would say we're not necessarily talking about making yourself eat when you're "full." If you've just (within the hour) eaten a meal and are still full, no one is saying you better stuff a turkey in there too. But if you aren't meeting nutritional needs with what you're eating, then you need to choose different foods and/or increase the amount. I can eat broccoli all day long and probably be full as hell. But is that a healthy diet? Not really. While broccoli is, of course, very good for you, it's not complete nutrition. I won't get all of the nutrients I need out of it...but I'll be full and won't want to eat other stuff. So, instead, I need to balance it and include other foods that will meet my nutritional requirements for energy and vitamins, minerals and macros. It will take a few days or a week for my body to adjust, but as metabolism increases, so does appetite.

Once someone has been doing this for a while and fixed their eating habits (ie learned what to eat, how much, when, etc), and have gotten healthier, and the body is regulating metabolic hormones properly, many people CAN use hunger as their main cue for when/what to eat. But for someone who has poor eating habits, depending on a broken system to send the right signals just doesn't work.

In case you didn't research your statements or were unsure & expressing an opinion; our stomachs don't shrink from not eating. (google is fairly easy to use & decipher the sites with educated sources vs. opinions). You've been misinformed.
example:
http://women.webmd.com/pharmacist-11/stomach-problems?page=3

SOURCES:
Mark Moyad, MD, director of preventive and alternative medicine, University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor.
David Greenwald, MD, associate professor, Albert Einstein College of Medicine; gastroenterologist, Montefiore Medical Center, New York City.
Joseph Levy, MD, director, pediatric gastroenterology, NYU School of Medicine, New York City.

People who are underfed/starving/malnourished/etc. still experience hunger because their bodies need nutrients too. I'm not debating the mentality of habit eating. If anything we should have increased hunger pains from skipping meals due to build up of stomach acid and other factors.
The topic was about eating what sounds like a balanced diet, with few processed foods & even healthy-fat snacks. The diary is private, but if this is true, it is fine to assume she is getting a fair amount of nutrients and never stated she is focusing on one food group in excess.
mnsmith83 also stated that she knows about diet myths & metabolism, so I don't think that it is just a matter of her learning how to eat or regulating her hormones. The question was about if she should eat when she isn't hungry, just to raise her NET calories.
I am also wondering what you're credentials are. I stated mine and don't claim to be an expert on anything, though I am educated and know how to research what I am unsure of.

Hmm no, I'm not misinformed. I actually use peer-reviewed research. I stated it a bit simplistically, but the physiology doesn't change - many studies have shown that stomach capacity can and DOES change when intake is changed.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8561056?itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum&ordinalpos=1
"Subjects in the diet group, who lost a mean of 9.1 kg, showed a 27% reduction in gastric capacity based on the first index (P = 0.004) and a 36% reduction based on the second index (P = 0.006). For the control subjects, gastric capacity did not change significantly with use of either index. The results demonstrate a reduction in gastric capacity in obese subjects after a restricted diet."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11790438?itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum&ordinalpos=1
"Thus, gastric capacity appears more related to binge eating behavior than to body weight."

http://www.ajcn.org/content/56/4/656.abstract

http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v9/n11/full/oby200198a.html
"Of course, gastric restriction operations for the severely obese drastically reduce capacity and lead to substantial weight loss (9). Dieting also leads to reduced gastric capacity (10), but this has not been as effective in the long-term as surgery. Even after surgery, the pouch can enlarge over time and may be related to some weight regain (9)"


The hormones that largely control appetite (ghrelin and leptin) WILL be affected by over or undereating (and can be disrupted by other chemical/physical issues). Might help to read this, which explains how they work:

http://physrev.physiology.org/content/85/2/495.full#C._Feeding_Disorders

Hunger (as associated with metabolic rate, which slows in underfeeding) DECREASES at certain points in the process of underfeeding. At an extreme enough level, yes, it can increase. But due to hormonal changes (see above), appetite will DECREASE at certain levels of underfeeding.

I never said that the OP undereats, eats one food group, or that she doesn't understand nutrition. I simply offered advice when she asked for it. The other information (specifically about underfeeding, appetite and "one food group" was in response to a question from someone other than the OP...hardly translates to saying the OP has those issues. However, as a person at an unhealthy weight, it is more than likely that she in SOME way, has had poor eating habits. One of the MOST common poor eating habits that affect women is irregular eating - particularly when they diet, which is one of the reasons for yo-yo dieting. In her OP, she stated "especially on work days, I have to force myself to break 1000." Very few people (regardless of how healthy they THINK their diet is), without a specialized diet provided by an RD, can ensure proper nutrition with less than 1000 calories. So based on that original information, it was NOT "safe to assume" that she was receiving adequate nutrition.

I don't have any credentials, other than a functioning mind, some formal education, a computer, a long personal experience with underfeeding and eating disorders and their effects, and a few books I've read. I've never claimed to be an expert. But I make sure I know what I'm talking about before I speak (or type, as the case may be), and have researched this specific topic quite thoroughly. And I do my best to offer my opinion or advice without attempting to belittle others. It's a good trait to cultivate.