Is not eating enough making me fat?

michellechristianclay8184
michellechristianclay8184 Posts: 4 Member
edited November 14 in Food and Nutrition
Hey

I'm new to this app so bear with me! Just wondered if anyone is struggling to use all there calories? Mine is set at 1200 but I have like 400 left each day! I'm eating more now than I used too, as used to skip breakfast and lunch due to work etc.
I've heard not eating enough can make you gain weight but I'm not hungry with what I'm currently eating to have snacks. Should I just have them anyway?

Any suggestions welcome
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Replies

  • sarajenivieve
    sarajenivieve Posts: 303 Member
    eating to little wont make you fat but it will slow down your matabolism for when you do eat.
    You may not feel hungry but 800cal a day is not enough your body gets used to eating so little and you stop feeling the hunger pains that should be there. I used to only eat 500-900 cal a day myself and speak from experience. You need to eat more start with breakfast shakes and light lunches or up your healthy snacks your body needs a bare minimum of 1100cal daily, in most cases more based on age,height and weight to maintian regualr health and body function long term.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    No, but as others have said it can mess you up and is very unhealthy.

    What are your current stats (height/weight) and goal? How long have you been counting and how long do you think you have been eating so little?

    What types of foods are you eating? Adding some fat to foods can help with the calorie count -- have you tried cooking vegetables with some olive oil or adding dressing to salad or a little cheese, eating nuts, stuff like that?
  • Traveler120
    Traveler120 Posts: 712 Member
    If you're overweight, eating when you're not hungry makes NO sense whatsoever. Cramming more food in just to reach a number dictated by mfp and overriding your own body's natural signals, is just absurd. Listen to your body!
  • Traveler120
    Traveler120 Posts: 712 Member
    edited January 2017
    Yes, I actually read their post. And yes, it's perfectly fine to eat under your specified calories if you're not hungry. And no, I don't expect that she'll be eating 800 calories until the end of time. Some days you feel hungrier than others. Tomorrow, she may be feel hungrier and eat 1400 calories. Being a slave to a number on your mfp screen is a bit silly. As long as you're maintaining the deficit you need to lose, over the span of a week, then day to day fluctuations don't matter.

    I need 1700-2000 calories to maintain my approx 115 lbs. Some days I'll eat 1000 if I'm not hungry and some days I'll eat 2500 if I'm ravenous, most days I'm in my range. I don't force feed myself an extra 700 calories on the 'not hungry' days. I just roll with it coz my body will sort itself out. Learning to eat naturally by following your body's hunger signals, as nature intended, is a good thing. Eating when you've already eaten or if you're not as hungry, is how we get fat.
  • DancingMoosie
    DancingMoosie Posts: 8,619 Member
    I agree that it will probably even itself out over time. Sometimes we get excited about our new diets and just don't feel hungry for a few days. Don't worry unless your appetite does not return within the week. Open your diary so we can see what you are eating and give more specific advice.
  • studiog608
    studiog608 Posts: 27 Member
    What is your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure)? If too far below, body will go into starvation mode, slow metabolism, and store fat.
  • MKEgal
    MKEgal Posts: 3,250 Member
    Also, read these, esp. sexypants & the ones about logging accurately.

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10012907/logging-accuracy-consistency-and-youre-probably-eating-more-than-you-think

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/819925/the-basics-dont-complicate-it/p1

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/872212/youre-probably-eating-more-than-you-think/p1

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/833026/important-posts-to-read/p1
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,431 MFP Moderator
    edited January 2017
    If you are struggling to eat adequate calories than you should focus more on calorie dense foods and less on diet foods. The below thread can help.

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10326769/are-you-a-hard-gainer-please-read/p1
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    My first thought is that if you were truly only eating 800 calories then the weight would be falling off of you fast, and you would also be feeling like crap and pretty lethargic. All of this will be followed by hair loss, sallow skin, muscle loss, brittle nails and just all round malnutrition.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    OP is new, says she is eating more than she ever used to, and says she is 400 cals short of 1200 "each day". I honestly think it's safe to assume it's a logging issue. Maybe she'll come back and give us more info like how long this is happening, what her weight is doing, and open her diary.
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
    kimny72 wrote: »
    OP is new, says she is eating more than she ever used to, and says she is 400 cals short of 1200 "each day". I honestly think it's safe to assume it's a logging issue. Maybe she'll come back and give us more info like how long this is happening, what her weight is doing, and open her diary.

    This.

    OP, please open your diary. Something is not quite right.
  • studiog608
    studiog608 Posts: 27 Member
    MKEgal wrote: »
    Read this. Then read it again. Bookmark it so you can use it to explain to other newbies what "starvation mode"is and is not. What you're thinking it is, it's not.
    http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/starvation-mode/

    The body needs energy (calories) to run.
    It prefers to use glucose (blood sugar, easily-available carbs),
    then it prefers to use glycogen (slightly more complex carbs stored in liver & muscles),
    then it prefers to use fat,
    and as a distant 4th it uses protein (muscles).
    {Yes, we're all burning some of those all the time, but that's generally the order they're used.}

    Burning muscle is starvation.
    Part of the reason it's 4th is that it's an inefficient conversion. The body gets more energy per gram of tissue from the other sources.
    Also, it's a hail mary, hoping you will find (and EAT!) food before you lose so much muscle tissue that you can't move, or can't eat, or can't breathe, or your heart stops.
    It takes a long time of eating way below your healthy range to get there.

    The body WILL NOT "hold onto" _any_ calories (fat) if you're eating below maintenance.
    (Use a little common sense.)
    If it did, anorexia wouldn't be deadly.
    Neither would famine.
    POW's would be robust, not walking skeletons.

    Metabolism slows down. It will hold onto any fat storage, if possible, after all else has been burned for energy.

  • studiog608
    studiog608 Posts: 27 Member
    Starvation mode
    wwe.bodynutrition.org/starvation-mode/

    MKEgal...Read it. Then read it again.
  • studiog608
    studiog608 Posts: 27 Member
    Correction...
    http://bodynutrition.org/starvation-mode/
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,431 MFP Moderator
    edited January 2017
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    studiog608 wrote: »
    Starvation mode
    wwe.bodynutrition.org/starvation-mode/

    MKEgal...Read it. Then read it again.

    Still and again....no.

    http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0004377

    Well-designed study using indirect calorimetry and double-labeled water to measure EE. Caloric intake was controlled about as closely as possible without putting test subjects in a metabolic ward for the duration of the study. Metabolic adaptation for CR subjects was 6% larger than what could be accounted for by the loss in metabolic size. Six percent.

    Does downregulation occur? Yes. Does it stop weight loss and make you "hold onto fat storage"? Absolutely not. That's ridiculous woo and has been proven over and over again to be false.

    Interestingly enough, the link wasn't too bad in terms of information, but it can be easily misconstrued to the knowledgeable observer. It equals starvation mode with adaptive thermogenesis and how over time, the body will down regulate metabolism to compensate for prolong periods of calorie suppression. In turn, you TDEE would reduce so if you don't adjust intake based on a lower TDEE, you would plateau.

    To combat it, it recommend higher protein intakes, resistance training, and diet breaks. What is doesn't say, is what the studiog is suggesting.
  • studiog608
    studiog608 Posts: 27 Member
    We can agree to disagree.
  • michellechristianclay8184
    michellechristianclay8184 Posts: 4 Member
    Hi

    Sorry didn't mean to cause so much conflict! Maybe I am loggin my food incorrectly? I'm selecting things from the list that's on there. Not sure how to create my own manual entry. I'm 5.1 and weigh 141lb but wanted to get back to my normal weight 119lb. I don't know how you open your diary but I took a picture of today to show you. 2hlkada89q4l.png

    Just like to say thanks for all your responses


  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    to open diary
    settings>diary settings>scroll down the page and select diary sharing public - this will allow people to review your log
  • BruinsGal_91
    BruinsGal_91 Posts: 1,400 Member
    Did you not have any milk with your Weetabix? To get the best results from MFP, you need to log everything you eat.
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