Worried about not reaching calorie goal

SuperZann
SuperZann Posts: 6 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I'm worried that I might missing something. I'm eating three meals a day (for the most part! Breakfast is usually a bit of a rush) and trying to eat all the right things but I seem to always be below 1200 calories a day.
I don't want to eat just for the sake of it (I'm not hungry at the end of the day) but at the same time I'm worried about not getting the right nutrition levels.
Does anyone else have this problem and is it OK?
Thanks

Replies

  • MissusMoon
    MissusMoon Posts: 1,900 Member
    That depends on how low you are.

    You could try adding things like nuts, avocado, things like that. They pack a caloric punch and typically won't violate any person's nutrition style.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    edited June 2016
    More important than hunger signals.....how are your macros? Are you meeting protein & fat goals?

    1200 is the default minimum for a woman. How tall, young, active are you? 1,100 isn't so bad if you are a 5' tall senior.

    Calorie dense foods - small portions - lots of nutrition. Nuts, nut butter, avocado, olive oil, full fat dairy, whole eggs.
  • crispystax
    crispystax Posts: 1 Member
    I'm 6'3" 217lb dude and I always come way under my 1680 goal. My calculated requirement is around 2300 or something.

    I'm about 30lbs overweight and decided to use this app to shed the fat. I'm never hungry or tired or sick even though my caloric intake is so low (according to this app) and I do more than 20mins of resistance band and bodyweight exercises.

    I might be measuring wrong but I'm reasonably certain my scale isn't wrong. And I'm accurate with all the Barcode scanned items. That leaves the calorie calculation a bit sketchy. it feels like if I eat more than I am right now, I'll gain weight, which is the opposite of my goal, so. either really weird or these calculations aren't scientific enough to be accurate.

    Hope I get an answer to this, I know this app works for others, is there something I'm missing?

  • Huffdogg
    Huffdogg Posts: 1,934 Member
    At 6'3" and 217 lbs 1680 is an awful low mark.

    To answer the original post, as long as you hit your minimum amount of protein and are doing some sort of resistance exercise to preserve whatever muscle you do have, fats are your friend in a deficit. Olive oil, higher-fat dairy than you might normally use, nuts and nut butters, avocado, all can be used to quite easily rack up a higher calorie total. If you have problems making your goal with your current meal pattern but aren't getting hunger signals when it seems you should, you might have to look into scheduling yourself "snack times" throughout the day between meals.
  • lauraesh0384
    lauraesh0384 Posts: 463 Member
    crispystax wrote: »
    I'm 6'3" 217lb dude and I always come way under my 1680 goal. My calculated requirement is around 2300 or something.

    I'm about 30lbs overweight and decided to use this app to shed the fat. I'm never hungry or tired or sick even though my caloric intake is so low (according to this app) and I do more than 20mins of resistance band and bodyweight exercises.

    I might be measuring wrong but I'm reasonably certain my scale isn't wrong. And I'm accurate with all the Barcode scanned items. That leaves the calorie calculation a bit sketchy. it feels like if I eat more than I am right now, I'll gain weight, which is the opposite of my goal, so. either really weird or these calculations aren't scientific enough to be accurate.

    Hope I get an answer to this, I know this app works for others, is there something I'm missing?

    What are your sodium levels like? That can cause water retention and mask any weight loss depending on how often you weigh. Something isn't adding up, though. I'm 5'6" 165 lbs and I eat around 2000 calories a day which usually puts me around 1550-1600 net. I'm also set to active.

    I know starvation mode isn't real, but I have recently discovered if my deficit is too big, that puts unneeded stress on my body and I won't lose weight (or worse, gain). Since I started eating back my exercise calories (I wasn't before and would have less than 1200 net after exercise) and keeping a more appropriate deficit, the scale is shifting downward again. I believe I wasn't properly fueling my body for how active I am.
  • SuperZann
    SuperZann Posts: 6 Member
    Thanks everyone for your replies! I don't tend to find that I'm hungry very often (or if I am it's right before a meal so isn't a big deal). I've been keeping a close eye on protein and that seems to be OK but I don't eat many carbs so it's still hard to hit the target.
    I guess the best thing is to up the calories but also through in some strength training - I was just worried about eating more just for the sake of it. Thanks :smile:
  • billglitch
    billglitch Posts: 538 Member
    good fats like coconut milk can help with a few more cals while not filling you or over filling you
  • mommazach
    mommazach Posts: 384 Member
    When I was doing this same thing, I wasn't losing weight. Are you consistently losing weight? I found that when I added a few snacks into my day that I actually lost more weight. I also spend at very very minimum 30 minutes a day with exercise and now I eat back about 1/2 of the calories, or under, and my 5 week outlook looks way better and then I'm back to 2lbs loss per week.
  • Vicxie86
    Vicxie86 Posts: 181 Member
    crispystax wrote: »
    I'm 6'3" 217lb dude and I always come way under my 1680 goal. My calculated requirement is around 2300 or something.

    I'm about 30lbs overweight and decided to use this app to shed the fat. I'm never hungry or tired or sick even though my caloric intake is so low (according to this app) and I do more than 20mins of resistance band and bodyweight exercises.

    I might be measuring wrong but I'm reasonably certain my scale isn't wrong. And I'm accurate with all the Barcode scanned items. That leaves the calorie calculation a bit sketchy. it feels like if I eat more than I am right now, I'll gain weight, which is the opposite of my goal, so. either really weird or these calculations aren't scientific enough to be accurate.

    Hope I get an answer to this, I know this app works for others, is there something I'm missing?

    I am also 6'3 and currently 106kg(233lbs), wanting to lose 40lbs and set to lose 1.5lbs a week and i've been given 1560kcals on sedentary. Are you set to lose 1kg(2.2lbs) a week? Because i don't think 1680kcal is an awful lot for a man.
  • sambonham
    sambonham Posts: 1 Member
    Hi everyone some great posts. I'm a similar guy to Huffdog, I'm 6'4 230 pounds. However I'm not trying to loose weight just lean up and gain strenghth fitness and really harness putting good diet in my aresonal! I want to be a PT so I'm trying to get in really good shape.

    I'm taregeted to eat 3400 calories with the exerise I'm doing. I' on a macro breakdown of 45% protien 30% Carbs 25% Fat. I'm really struggling with how much I have to eat, I think I must have undereaten before.

    Loving the training, but the eating is a job in itself, working though (I think).

    Does anyone have any tips of how to pack on good calories?

  • distinctlybeautiful
    distinctlybeautiful Posts: 1,041 Member
    I used to back when my life was full of disordered eating. I lacked appetite because of my attitude toward food and weight loss. Sounds crazy, but it was real. Not saying that's you.. just throwing it out there because I think attitude can manifest itself physically.

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