Eating less than daily calorie goal?

Has anyone ate less than their daily calorie goal and lost wt faster, or has it slowed it down. Just curious cuz I seem to have quite a bit of calories left at the end of the day especially when I workout.

Replies

  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    You would lose weight faster, but it wouldn’t necessarily be healthy to do. Losing quicker runs a greater risk of muscle loss and other issues that can come from lack of adequate nutrition.
  • Healthy and skinny is my goal. I might need to eat more healthy snacks during the day then to help reach my caloric daily intake.
  • jayemes
    jayemes Posts: 865 Member
    1900 calories is a lot to work with. How much weight do you have to lose?
  • Cynthia1066
    Cynthia1066 Posts: 21 Member
    Listen to your body. If you're not hungry don't worry that you're not eating enough. But if restricting your caloric intake is putting you at risk of losing control (and binging), build more food into your plan.
  • I would like to lose 50lbs
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Then a 1.5 lb weekly goal loss is reasonable for now.

    When you get to 30 lbs left - 1 lb more reasonable.

    Last 10-15 - 1/2 lb weekly.

    That means the deficit in total is 750 cal.

    Not 750 cal, and then purposely overestimate food eaten, and purposely underestimate workouts done for correctly eating the calories back - making it closer to 1000.

    And I'd suggest don't listen to your body - it speaks a foreign language, and unless you know it, you won't understand correctly what it's saying.
    Following that idea is frankly why so many are here to lose weight.

    Get some knowledge, and then use your brain.
    For instance - many workouts can leave you not hungry, or very thirsty and drinking the water hides the hunger.
    But make no mistake - body needs the extra calories to aid in a good recovery - if you want a good workout tomorrow too. Skip eating when it really needs something, hunger or not, and it'll usually just make you more tired.

    Several have mentioned the fact that if you consistently undereat too much (without enough protein and resistance training, almost any diet actually) you will lose some muscle mass - that will suck big time later, sometimes sooner too.

    That calorie goal sounds reasonable, unless it's because you selected a high activity level thinking it meant with exercise included - it doesn't.

    Good goals though and thinking, knowing it may not be right to leave too much on the table.
  • DianePK
    DianePK Posts: 122 Member
    I try to do under my calorie goal as it speeds up the process, but not by much. The slower you lose it, the long you keep it off.
  • My calorie goal is 1760 and for example today I consumed 1320 of that but then I exercised on elliptical for 30min and it added approx 400 calories. So I've ended my day with having approx 900 calories left!
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    edited October 2017
    Now, about adding exercise calories so the deficit isn't made unreasonable.

    Of all the possible wrong numbers - 0 or 1 calorie burn is most obviously wrong.

    Where did the 400 cal for 30 min come from?

    And if machine - did it know your weight?
    Did you use your arms - it's calorie calculation probably assumes you do?

    For a hard workout moving 50 extra lbs - that could be reasonable, if like 30 min was about it and couldn't keep going.
    But if 5 min was slow warmup, and 5 min was slow cooldown - then actually 20 min at perhaps high intensity, 10 at low.
    Was there actually resistance - I've seen ones jump on, not enter weight, don't increase resistance, and just move through the motions - barely any pushing required. Not a hard workout.

    And if you really are finding it hard to eat more with hard workouts - test log Strength Training Weight lifting from the database for 30 min (you can delete it or just not even save it but cancel out).
    Much smaller calorie burn - and that is true.

    So you could do some strength training which would transform body more anyway, and help with that issue of losing muscle mass.
    And not have as many extra calories to find.

    Because ya - missing by 400 calories on base eating goal, not even counting the fact you burn more - not good.
    Would you be willing to miss your goal weight by 23% and say eh, close enough, call it day, lost 38, don't need the last 12.
  • The 400 calories was added by MFP which knows my wt, I did however think that was a bit much for 30min of cardio. I use resistance 9 and incline 3 and I go at a moderate pace.. nothing real crazy but not slow either. I do understand its prob just an estimate because like u said, warm up and cool down takes away a little from the 30 min. I guess I will have to see how much I lose at the end of this wk.. if I lose more than 2lbs then I may need to make some changes so I'm not losing too fast. I would be happy to lose 1.5-2lbs a wk steadily.
  • RaeBeeBaby
    RaeBeeBaby Posts: 4,246 Member
    My calorie goal is 1760 and for example today I consumed 1320 of that but then I exercised on elliptical for 30min and it added approx 400 calories. So I've ended my day with having approx 900 calories left!

    Calorie goal of 1760 seems pretty high for weight loss and then to add 400 additional for exercise might even put you in a surplus. Personally, I would not be losing any weight at 1760 even if I was exercising daily. Of course, we're all different so perhaps you will lose at that calorie intake.

    1320 isn't a super low calorie day, so I wouldn't be terribly concerned about it as long as you're feeling energetic and not extremely hungry.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    edited October 2017
    The 400 calories was added by MFP which knows my wt, I did however think that was a bit much for 30min of cardio. I use resistance 9 and incline 3 and I go at a moderate pace.. nothing real crazy but not slow either. I do understand its prob just an estimate because like u said, warm up and cool down takes away a little from the 30 min. I guess I will have to see how much I lose at the end of this wk.. if I lose more than 2lbs then I may need to make some changes so I'm not losing too fast. I would be happy to lose 1.5-2lbs a wk steadily.

    As a woman, your BMR literally changes through the month, so 1 week isn't enough time to discern anything.
    And it won't be steady loss either for that reason.

    The Elliptical database entry is equal to walking 5.25 mph flat, or jogging 4.9 mph flat. (fast walk or slow jog)
    That's for comparison.

    If it felt that hard the entire time - then that's correct.

    If you had slower for 5 min start and end - only log 20 min.

    What activity level did you pick on MFP?
    If you have a kid and normal household chores, shoot, even without a kid - Lightly Active is appropriate.
    If desk job, and outside of exercise truly a bump on a log all night and weekends - then Sedentary would be. Most select that, but they really aren't. Increases the deficit.
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    RaeBeeBaby wrote: »
    My calorie goal is 1760 and for example today I consumed 1320 of that but then I exercised on elliptical for 30min and it added approx 400 calories. So I've ended my day with having approx 900 calories left!

    Calorie goal of 1760 seems pretty high for weight loss and then to add 400 additional for exercise might even put you in a surplus. Personally, I would not be losing any weight at 1760 even if I was exercising daily. Of course, we're all different so perhaps you will lose at that calorie intake.

    1320 isn't a super low calorie day, so I wouldn't be terribly concerned about it as long as you're feeling energetic and not extremely hungry.

    not necessarily - female, 5'2", 148lbs - I maintain on 2600avg a week and lose consistently on 2000
  • Activity level is lightly active, and I work 12hr shifts 3 days a wk that requires me to walk most of the day, no sitting at a desk for me.
  • hydechildcare
    hydechildcare Posts: 142 Member
    I have extra calories at the end of the day. Sometimes a few hundred. I did set my goal lost weight at .5 pounds a week. I try not to go super low though.
  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
    I've only seen this factor mentioned in passing: it really depends on your logging accuracy. Many people think they are under their calorie allowance, but are not weighing their food, choosing accurate database entries, or like has been touched on, logging inflated calorie burns. It's why we see so many "why am I not losing weight on 1200 calories?" posts. Now, I'm not being critical or judgmental here- logging is just a skill that takes education & practice like any other. You may want to check out the stickied posts at the top of the Getting Started & General Diet & Weight Loss sections if you haven't already. The only *true* indicator of our accuracy is results- do they match our chosen weekly weight loss goal? But if you've just started, those will be skewed for a few weeks with water weight loss. So do your best to be accurate, and after 4-6 weeks see if your results correspond to your goals. If not, make adjustments. :)