Am I doing it wrong?
RulaAsaad
Posts: 71 Member
Hello,
I just started a diet and im trying to hit 1200 calories each day but i dont reach the 1200. I eat around 1000 and i feel full (protien. Carbs. Fat all taken in!). I also do sports... i try to stick to 3 times a week- sometimes i go to the gym sometimes i dont... but when i do- the estemated calories burned are around 300.
Am i starving myself? Is this bad?
I just started a diet and im trying to hit 1200 calories each day but i dont reach the 1200. I eat around 1000 and i feel full (protien. Carbs. Fat all taken in!). I also do sports... i try to stick to 3 times a week- sometimes i go to the gym sometimes i dont... but when i do- the estemated calories burned are around 300.
Am i starving myself? Is this bad?
2
Replies
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Short answer is yes. If you aren't very small, very short, and older (it doesn't look like you are), then you are likely severely undereating. More so if you're doing sports. Fuel your activity by eating more. If you're here for weight loss it means you know how to not undereat, it's just that you may have changed too much about your diet and removed many of the foods that tend to help you keep calories up. Re-introduce more of these foods, or you could supplement with higher calorie items like nuts.
There also might be issues with your logging, where you are taking in more calories than you think. You'll know you're doing that if you're losing a lot less over time than your calorie deficit predicts. In that case you may need to use a kitchen scale to weigh your food and record accurately. You also need to log everything, including fruits and vegetables and any oils, sauces, and dressings. (keep in mind 1200 is the lowest this app will give you and if you chose 1 kg per week this may not be your actual predicted loss)
If you are losing too fast you will know you are undereating. This may be bad both for your diet and for your health. Undereating constantly may lead to uncontrollable overeating episodes, lower metabolism, and inability to keep dieting. It may also lead to things like nutritional deficiencies, hair loss, excessive muscle loss, higher chance of gallstones, and hormonal issues among other things.11 -
No I never reach my caloric goal I think if you reach your goal everyday you maintain the weight I think if you stay a little away from it you will definitely lose faster eat when your hungry if not don't also put your workouts in there to41
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Yes, you are starving yourself.
What are your stats? Age, height, weight. And what did you selected as your weekly weight loss goal? Unless you are very short, very old, or both, 1200 cals is likely too aggressive, and 1000 definitely is. It is very difficult to meet your nutritional requirements on so few calories. You're also not fuelling your activity adequately on that calorie intake. Persistent undereating will also lead to a whole host of other problems over time.
Have you cut a whole lot of foods you consider 'bad' out of your diet? This is a fairly common mistake with those starting out. Essentially, you can eat anything, so long as it fits your calories, though obviously for good health and nutrition most of your foods should be coming from nutritious, whole food sources.
Some things that you can add that are both nutrient and calorie dense include full fat dairy, avocado, nuts and nut butters, oils in cooking and salads. This post contains a list of other suggestions: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10326769/are-you-a-hard-gainer-please-read/p1
Have a read of the 'most helpful posts' listed here too: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300319/most-helpful-posts-general-diet-and-weight-loss-help-must-reads#latest1 -
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biglouie7504 wrote: »No I never reach my caloric goal I think if you reach your goal everyday you maintain the weight I think if you stay a little away from it you will definitely lose faster eat when your hungry if not don't also put your workouts in there to
No, if you've set MFP up to lose weight, the calorie goal includes your deficit. You should be eating that amount plus at least half of any exercise calories.8 -
Hello,
I just started a diet and im trying to hit 1200 calories each day but i dont reach the 1200. I eat around 1000 and i feel full (protien. Carbs. Fat all taken in!). I also do sports... i try to stick to 3 times a week- sometimes i go to the gym sometimes i dont... but when i do- the estemated calories burned are around 300.
Am i starving myself? Is this bad?
You didn't get to the point of needing to lose weight by only eating 1000 cals. Add in sone of the things you used to eat. You should be eating 1200 cals plus your exercise cals.5 -
You may feel okay at first but eating so few calories you risk losing muscle as well as fat - remember your heart is also a muscle! You also risk hair loss and other side effects. As others have said, try eating some of the foods you enjoy but may have cut from your diet.2
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Hard to tell. If you're overweight, you'll have a tendency to underreport food intake and overestimate exercise, so you'll in reality be eating more than you think. If you log correctly, you'll know how much you're eating, if not, you will find out by monitoring your weight over time - 3500 calories equals a pound of fatty tissue, so when you've lost a pound, you know that you've eaten 3500 calories less than maintenance. But as weight fluctuates quite a lot from day to day, you need more than a couple of weeks to see any real and certain weight change.
You will lose weight if you eat 1200 real calories per day. But 1200 calories may be less than ideal for you. If you can lose eating more, you'll be better off. A 1% weekly average loss is close to ideal.
We can undereat for some time without feeling any negative effect, especially when dieting is new and exciting, but consistent undereating will catch up with you eventually, and it's not going to be pretty. Severely undereating for long, is actually dangerous. A few days eating less than ideal is no big deal - immediate danger is "only" rebound binging, long term danger is malnutrition and everything that encompasses.
"Going on a diet" if generally doing it wrong. Diets are temporary, and temporary solutions bring temporary results. Change your eating habits permanently if you want to keep the weight off.
Oh, and you can eat anything you want. "Diet foods" are intended to fill you up for few calories. A healthy lifestyle is relaxed but responsible, and has room for all foods in moderation.5 -
biglouie7504 wrote: »No I never reach my caloric goal I think if you reach your goal everyday you maintain the weight I think if you stay a little away from it you will definitely lose faster eat when your hungry if not don't also put your workouts in there to
WHAT?!
OP please dont listen to this comment.
You need to be eating more, listen to the good advice given above x5 -
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Thank you all for all those replies!! Here is more information about me:
I'm 23, 155 cm, 55 kg.
At age of 13, I gained between 10 and 15 kg in one year. That year, aside from growing up, I stopped eating breakfast and started having 3 lunches but only after 3PM. 5 years after that, and for one year only, i stuck to a normal lifestyle: breakfast, luch, dinner and i played tennis at high school- i got down from 60kg to 52 and was so happy with myself.
However after that year i got back to bad lifestyle and ended up having iron deficiency anemia. I got over it but I still eat only one meal a day- usually around 7PM and not doing any sports but still have a fatty body.
My goal is to lose fat and shape my body. i gotta admit i am very lost and i'm trying to help myself the best way i can (dietitian at the clinic refused to help me
).... soo... I will take any advice you give me. you obviously very good at what you guys are doing 
)) thank you all so much! 3 -
You are at a normal weight. If you want to shape your body the last thing you want to do is undereat. Shaping the body involves developing the muscles while losing fat. Because you are not overweight you are way more likely to lose muscle if you diet hard. To develop muscle while losing fat you need to either eat at maintenance (set your calorie goal to maintain weight) or a very slight deficit while doing strength training (called recomp). That can mean dumbbells, barbells, bodyweight training, kettlebells, or anything that challenges the muscle.
If eating one meal a day makes you undereat, try introducing more meals to hit your calories. You may find these links helpful.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300331/most-helpful-posts-getting-started-must-reads#latest
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1161603/so-you-want-a-nice-stomach/p1
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat9 -
YepItsKriss wrote: »biglouie7504 wrote: »No I never reach my caloric goal I think if you reach your goal everyday you maintain the weight I think if you stay a little away from it you will definitely lose faster eat when your hungry if not don't also put your workouts in there to
@biglouie7504
Sorry my dear but you have no idea what you are talking about, 1200 is the absolute min for a female to eat and by recommending that she stay a little away from it because shes going to maintain on 1200 is so far from true and potentially setting her up for major health problems.
Faster is not better, and YES put the workouts in, MFP is already giving her a deficit, shes SUPPOSED to be eating more.
just giving my opinion everybody in here is always in attack mode so its what'evs lol17 -
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YepItsKriss wrote: »biglouie7504 wrote: »YepItsKriss wrote: »biglouie7504 wrote: »No I never reach my caloric goal I think if you reach your goal everyday you maintain the weight I think if you stay a little away from it you will definitely lose faster eat when your hungry if not don't also put your workouts in there to
@biglouie7504
Sorry my dear but you have no idea what you are talking about, 1200 is the absolute min for a female to eat and by recommending that she stay a little away from it because shes going to maintain on 1200 is so far from true and potentially setting her up for major health problems.
Faster is not better, and YES put the workouts in, MFP is already giving her a deficit, shes SUPPOSED to be eating more.
just giving my opinion everybody in here is always in attack mode so its what'evs lol
Opinions are great.. but this is a help section not an opinion post. You have absolutely awful advice. And none of it is even remotely true.
Worst, the OP/Questioner appears to be a small female and the Responder appears to be a large male. Which makes the advice even worse.
300 calories for the OP is 25% of her daily calories.
300 calories for louie is probably less than 8%.4 -
Just as a disclaimer.. I'm not arguing with anyone here. OP at 55kg I'm not even sure why you are dieting. Eating healthy I get.. but you don't sound like you need to diet persay..
But I'm curious as to why so many ppl are saying 1000 is too low, when MFP itself says this if I try to log less than 1200 in a day as a guy...
"For safe weight loss, the National Institutes of Health recommends no less than 1000-1200 calories for women and 1200-1500 calories for men."
Is this woo? help me understand pls kthx.2 -
Just as a disclaimer.. I'm not arguing with anyone here. OP at 55kg I'm not even sure why you are dieting. Eating healthy I get.. but you don't sound like you need to diet persay..
But I'm curious as to why so many ppl are saying 1000 is too low, when MFP itself says this if I try to log less than 1200 in a day as a guy...
"For safe weight loss, the National Institutes of Health recommends no less than 1000-1200 calories for women and 1200-1500 calories for men."
Is this woo? help me understand pls kthx.
At 61 inches and 110 lbs, OP may be OK at 1000 calories without exercise, but If she's actually doing 300 calories of exercise 3x weekly, that's probably pushing her to a deficit that will be counter to her goals(losing fat gaining muscle... shaping her body)
If anything, a small surplus and strength training would be beneficial.2 -
Ok fair enough, sounds sensible. Thanks.stanmann571 wrote: »Just as a disclaimer.. I'm not arguing with anyone here. OP at 55kg I'm not even sure why you are dieting. Eating healthy I get.. but you don't sound like you need to diet persay..
But I'm curious as to why so many ppl are saying 1000 is too low, when MFP itself says this if I try to log less than 1200 in a day as a guy...
"For safe weight loss, the National Institutes of Health recommends no less than 1000-1200 calories for women and 1200-1500 calories for men."
Is this woo? help me understand pls kthx.
At 61 inches and 110 lbs, OP may be OK at 1000 calories without exercise, but If she's actually doing 300 calories of exercise daily, that's probably pushing her to a deficit that will be counter to her goals(losing fat gaining muscle... shaping her body)
If anything, a small surplus and strength training would be beneficial.
0 -
Just as a disclaimer.. I'm not arguing with anyone here. OP at 55kg I'm not even sure why you are dieting. Eating healthy I get.. but you don't sound like you need to diet persay..
But I'm curious as to why so many ppl are saying 1000 is too low, when MFP itself says this if I try to log less than 1200 in a day as a guy...
"For safe weight loss, the National Institutes of Health recommends no less than 1000-1200 calories for women and 1200-1500 calories for men."
Is this woo? help me understand pls kthx.
The lower end is okay for those who need to go that low because are short and sedentary. It does not include exercise. If she is eating 1000 and exercising for 300 calories she is netting 700 calories which is lower than any recommendation. Like @stanmann571 said, it's the worst thing to do for her goals.0 -
That's not accurate. You need to create a goal that has you in fat loss, that way when you are hitting your daily goals you are losing. A goal should only maintain your weight if maintenance is what you're after.biglouie7504 wrote: »No I never reach my caloric goal I think if you reach your goal everyday you maintain the weight I think if you stay a little away from it you will definitely lose faster eat when your hungry if not don't also put your workouts in there to
1 -
How many calories a day were you eating prior to this diet? If you are eating that few calories a day I'd be willing to bet you need to add more calories for a while before dropping them again,Hello,
I just started a diet and im trying to hit 1200 calories each day but i dont reach the 1200. I eat around 1000 and i feel full (protien. Carbs. Fat all taken in!). I also do sports... i try to stick to 3 times a week- sometimes i go to the gym sometimes i dont... but when i do- the estemated calories burned are around 300.
Am i starving myself? Is this bad?
1 -
YepItsKriss wrote: »biglouie7504 wrote: »YepItsKriss wrote: »biglouie7504 wrote: »No I never reach my caloric goal I think if you reach your goal everyday you maintain the weight I think if you stay a little away from it you will definitely lose faster eat when your hungry if not don't also put your workouts in there to
@biglouie7504
Sorry my dear but you have no idea what you are talking about, 1200 is the absolute min for a female to eat and by recommending that she stay a little away from it because shes going to maintain on 1200 is so far from true and potentially setting her up for major health problems.
Faster is not better, and YES put the workouts in, MFP is already giving her a deficit, shes SUPPOSED to be eating more.
just giving my opinion everybody in here is always in attack mode so its what'evs lol
Opinions are great.. but this is a help section not an opinion post. You have absolutely awful advice. And none of it is even remotely true.
That's the problem with this page. People get MFP and think they are nutritionists now.3 -
MFP is horrible for this. You need to calculate your own calories and macros based on your daily energy expenditure, weight loss (or gain) goals, etc. MFP is notorious for giving ridiculously lows caloires and way out of whack macros.Just as a disclaimer.. I'm not arguing with anyone here. OP at 55kg I'm not even sure why you are dieting. Eating healthy I get.. but you don't sound like you need to diet persay..
But I'm curious as to why so many ppl are saying 1000 is too low, when MFP itself says this if I try to log less than 1200 in a day as a guy...
"For safe weight loss, the National Institutes of Health recommends no less than 1000-1200 calories for women and 1200-1500 calories for men."
Is this woo? help me understand pls kthx.
1 -
I'm happy to help if you want to friend request and send a message.Thank you all for all those replies!! Here is more information about me:
I'm 23, 155 cm, 55 kg.
At age of 13, I gained between 10 and 15 kg in one year. That year, aside from growing up, I stopped eating breakfast and started having 3 lunches but only after 3PM. 5 years after that, and for one year only, i stuck to a normal lifestyle: breakfast, luch, dinner and i played tennis at high school- i got down from 60kg to 52 and was so happy with myself.
However after that year i got back to bad lifestyle and ended up having iron deficiency anemia. I got over it but I still eat only one meal a day- usually around 7PM and not doing any sports but still have a fatty body.
My goal is to lose fat and shape my body. i gotta admit i am very lost and i'm trying to help myself the best way i can (dietitian at the clinic refused to help me ).... soo... I will take any advice you give me. you obviously very good at what you guys are doing )) thank you all so much!
2 -
My experience is that the majority of dieters are not accounting for their calories properly, some of the common mistakes:
- Not knowing that menu/signboard calories in restaurants only include the entree and not the sides.
- Forgetting to account for cooking oils used.
- Mis-measuring food.
- Using the 'raw' items on MFP when the food is cooked.
- Using horrifically incorrect items from the MFP food database which have impossible nutrient counts.
- Forgetting to include things like milk and sugar consumed with coffee and tea.
- Forgetting to add snacks or other food items.
- Misunderstanding the portions listed in nutrition labels (ex: assuming the calories are for the whole bag of chips, when the listed calories are actually for 1/3 of the bag).
However, if we assume that you are counting the calories accurately and you are having trouble eating more than 1000 calories a day, here are a few ways you can add calories to what you are eating:- Add some sugar in your meal, be it in a beverage or in the food itself. Sugar helps the stomach relax and stretch, which is why people always have room for dessert.
- Add additional fat to your meal, for example, use an oil based salad dressing on salads to add a lot of calories without significantly changing the volume of food that you are eating.
- Keep some snacks around you throughout the day.
- Keep a regular eating schedule (eat your main meals at the same times daily).
- Chop your food into smaller pieces so that you can consume your food faster but in a more easily digestible form.
- Include some carbs, like a multigrain baguette in your meals. Bread takes little room and can be quite calorie dense.
3 -
Just as a disclaimer.. I'm not arguing with anyone here. OP at 55kg I'm not even sure why you are dieting. Eating healthy I get.. but you don't sound like you need to diet persay..
But I'm curious as to why so many ppl are saying 1000 is too low, when MFP itself says this if I try to log less than 1200 in a day as a guy...
"For safe weight loss, the National Institutes of Health recommends no less than 1000-1200 calories for women and 1200-1500 calories for men."
Is this woo? help me understand pls kthx.
Just to add to the answers you already got, that 1000-1200 is the bare minimum for the shortest, most sedentary women/men. Just because it's enough to not be dangerous for those individuals doesn't mean it's optimal or even recommended. That message is pretty much MFP covering it's heiny so no one can accuse it of supporting someone starving themselves to lose weight or suffering from an ED. :drinker:1 -
So.... Now I'm wondering if I'm starving myself hahaha. hmm. See, I'm not a patient person. So when I decide to do something I want results. But I'm not actually trying to do myself harm. And it's possible I've been placing a little too much stock in the numbers MFP gives me. But I won't hijack OP's thread. I'm off to do some more reading.1
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Just as a disclaimer.. I'm not arguing with anyone here. OP at 55kg I'm not even sure why you are dieting. Eating healthy I get.. but you don't sound like you need to diet persay..
But I'm curious as to why so many ppl are saying 1000 is too low, when MFP itself says this if I try to log less than 1200 in a day as a guy...
"For safe weight loss, the National Institutes of Health recommends no less than 1000-1200 calories for women and 1200-1500 calories for men."
Is this woo? help me understand pls kthx.
No, these recommendations are backed by rigorous scientific study. Generally speaking, they notice that people consuming less than this for a wide range of reasons tend to pick up health problems.0 -
Just as a disclaimer.. I'm not arguing with anyone here. OP at 55kg I'm not even sure why you are dieting. Eating healthy I get.. but you don't sound like you need to diet persay..
But I'm curious as to why so many ppl are saying 1000 is too low, when MFP itself says this if I try to log less than 1200 in a day as a guy...
"For safe weight loss, the National Institutes of Health recommends no less than 1000-1200 calories for women and 1200-1500 calories for men."
Is this woo? help me understand pls kthx.
Because MINIMUM SAFE does NOT mean DEFAULT BEST.
And "safe" does not mean optimal or most effective or suitable for every person's goals.5 -
The minimums provided by MFP are indeed to cover their butts but it's also because the numbers are built to assume that a person is getting all of their nutrients from a whole food diet, and not supplementing with any significant program of vitamins and minerals.
What I often tell people is that even us bariatric patients, with the exception of the immediate time before and after surgery, are not instructed to maintain a diet of less than 1200 calories and we are also heavily supported by nutrient supplementation. If a person is opting to go VLCD as would be the case of the OP in this scenario, they would most definitely need to be doing regular bloodwork and supplementation in order to maintain a low calorie intake while providing themselves adequate protein levels to avoid organ damage.
OP, the likely reason that dietitians and doctors will not "help" you is because you're likely going in talking about wanting to reduce your size (based on your comment about having a fatty body) and they are firmly aware of the fact that you do not need to be losing any weight or reducing your size. The person you should probably be working with is a personal trainer who could help you learn how to bulk as well as give you a regimen for lean muscle build to create the sleek profile it sounds like you want. It will likely cause you to gain weight in the beginning but this will be necessary to change your body fat % and appearance.
As a bariatric patient that is also an eating disorder patient, I can tell you that a routine pattern of VLCD eating without supplementation and medical guidance coupled with binges out of starvation and compensatory exercise is exactly how I screwed up my entire metabolic system, gained a TON of weight, and ended up having to go through many medical eras in my life to get it back under control. OP, you are in the position to stop the big damage before it takes you down, and I seriously encourage you to read into refeeding strategies, as they will help you learn how to eat more, increase your hunger impulses (because frankly, you've probably trained yourself out of hunger, rather than your body actually not needing more food), and get back on track.
Good luck!7
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