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Feeling extremely tired with headaches on 1200calories

Jay43dc
Jay43dc Posts: 10 Member
edited December 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
I am hoping for some advice. I am a 43 yo female needing to loose 28 pounds after ill health and stopping smoking. Have just started diet and exercising again 2 weeks ago.MFP recommend a 1200 cal a day intake. I am usually somewhere around 1000 per day and exercising around 400-600 calories a day which I am not eating back.

I felt amazing in week one but this week I am extremely tired even after my usual 7hrs of sleep and have been waking up with a terrible headache which lingers all day. Am feeling anxious though as have gone back to my job this week post illness.

Is it the lifestyle/ diet change and will it go away if I push on through.

Replies

  • minniestar55
    minniestar55 Posts: 350 Member
    edited May 2016
    Eat AT LEAST the 1200 calories MFP gives you. This will help keeping your body ticking over...you should also eat a portion of your exercise calories. You are not eating enough for your body & brain to function well. Make certain as well, that you are drinking enough water each day; I get headaches when I'm dehydrated. If you are coming off some ill health, you need to make certain you are fueling your body enough to recover & flourish. Please stop under-eating, it will backfire on you.
  • girlinahat
    girlinahat Posts: 2,956 Member
    eat more. In fact, eat more than a basic 1200 plus some of your exercise calories.

    You only have 28lbs to lose, which means you should be looking at a smaller deficit from whatever your TDEE is. In fact, you probably want to be aiming to lose only 0.5lb a week. Plug your stats back into MFP and recalculate. EAT at a minimum what MFP tells you, PLUS your exercise calories.

    As an example, I am a 40 year old woman, but I am only 5' tall. I have my calories set to 1390, and eat some if not all of my exercise calories (I eat a daily average based on the figures in the app, my NET average for this week is 1512 calories a day). I am losing about 1.5-2lb a month and not struggling with food, feeling tired or any of that. I run three days a week and hike/dance etc other days.

    Eat more.
  • rosebarnalice
    rosebarnalice Posts: 3,488 Member
    Everybody's saying it: eat some of those exercise calories back!
  • Dannigreen31
    Dannigreen31 Posts: 557 Member
    You need to up your calories. Being on that low and exercising daily will eventually affect your health. No wonder you are tired
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    You need to eat all 1200 calories and some of the calories you earn from exercise.
  • BoaRestrictor
    BoaRestrictor Posts: 194 Member
    Either stop exercising or eat some exercise calories back. Or look into fasting every so often.
This discussion has been closed.

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