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Low calorie intake
eborda76
Posts: 4 Member
I have been doing low carb for 3 weeks now. I'm finding it very hard to eat over 1,000 calories a day, I'm just not hungry. Usually I eat about 800 a day. Is this going to slow my metabolism down or will it sabotage me in any other way?
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Replies
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No! It's a wonderful side effect of this WOE.2
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If it is just for a few days, I wouldn't worry about 800kcals, but if it continues I would increase calories. 800 kcal is low. Your body won't get enough protein and it won't be healthy long term. A few days? Pfft. No worry.
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800 calories long term will not be healthy for you, a reduced appetite whilst low carbing is normal though. You can easily upp the calories by adding in some good fats, a few nuts, pork rinds, add some butter/oil to your food, enjoy some peanut butter, snack on a couple of eggs, add dressing on salads etc.2
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I tend to believe our bodies are smarter than us and if you're following hunger signals it just doesn't seem likely to me that your body would put itself into that situation to need to reduce metabolism by choice.
Don't forget, the fat we have stored away is there for exactly this reason. To be used when needed. On a high carb diet, not our natural diet, our bodies have a hard time switching over to using fat so it mostly doesn't. It makes you hungry again so you'll feed it sugar because it doesn't know how to access the fat. Now that you've taught it how to use fat for fuel, it's doing it quite nicely.
This is an incredibly common question and I can assure you, based on what has happened to so many of the rest of us, once you've used a certain amount of body fat, your body will increase your hunger signals and you will naturally eat more following those signals. This will happen way before you're ready for your body to stop using so body fat. lol
Then you'll be actively trying not to overeat.
Also, if you don't know about your increased needs for sodium, please find the post about electrolytes in the FAQ.5 -
Thank you all0
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People here seem to like Chris Kresser. Here's an article from his site and one of his staff dietitians.
https://chriskresser.com/are-you-an-under-eater-8-signs-youre-not-eating-enough/
Just thought I'd toss it in the ring. I understand an occasional day of not being hungry. 3 weeks is a pretty long time to "usually eat about 800 a day". Just my opinion.1
This discussion has been closed.