NOT EATING ENOUGH CALORIES - will this make it harder to lose weight?

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  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
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    No, but what will happen is that, eventually your body will start to show the effects of malnutrition. This can lead to nasty cycles of overrestricting and bingeing, which are even worse for your body. So, yes, it is highly likely to harm your weight loss, but not for the reasons you think.
  • ceiswyn
    ceiswyn Posts: 2,256 Member
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    Davidsdottir wrote: »
    So here's the thing, no disrespect to you, not aimed at you specifically, but I honestly don't understand how people, who are overweight and had to eat in a caloric surplus to get there in the first place, are all of a sudden full on 1200 cals. My maintenance is 2800 and there are some days I'm STILL HUNGRY eating them all!

    It happened to me. When I started The New Regime (my own personal complete diet and lifestyle change), I went from being constantly ravenous to having difficulty consuming over 800 calories.

    It wore off...

    But I see no reason to doubt the people who are now where I was a year and a half ago.
  • SagePeach
    SagePeach Posts: 37 Member
    edited June 2018
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    ashleyhines8490 wrote: »
    Thanks everyone! Yes I'm tracking CALORIES using MFP, and tracking steps and CALORIES burned with a fit bit Alta I wear. It really only takes in active time when I'm power walking/jogging or hiking bit not when I'm doing my weight lifting. I've been doing a circuit type of workout AT HOME. I have a retention pond behind my house so I've been circling that for a mile or two with increased heart rate, then follow up with squats, linges, dumbell arm workouts....all sorts of things! I plan on joinging the gym at work now that's it's free for my weight lifting work. I've also been climbing the retention pond hills.

    I weighed in at 187.4 Today :(....giving myself 15 months in hopes to get down to around 130ish

    I'm eating. Premiere protein shake each morning and keeping lunch and dinners to around 300 calories with snacking on fruits and veggies and I'm not hungry at all! That's why it's hard to take in those extra calories, because I don't feel like I'm hungry

    Nuts, seeds, nut butter, full fat Greek yogurt, a piece of chocolate, a serving of ice cream etc etc. It's very easy to get in more calories with little fuss :) I just had two slices of toasted homemade, whole grain bread with PB2 and honey and it was over 400 calories....

    eta: another idea is to include a salad with one of your meals and add beans, olives, and nuts (Pistachios are amazing in salads!), to it-very easy way to get some extra, nutrient dense calories in :)
  • GrumpyHeadmistress
    GrumpyHeadmistress Posts: 666 Member
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    Out of interest, what are your macros like when eating under your target? If you are significantly under on things like protein and fat that might help guide you in what to eat to use up your calories
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    ashleyhines8490 wrote: »
    I'm eating. Premiere protein shake each morning and keeping lunch and dinners to around 300 calories with snacking on fruits and veggies and I'm not hungry at all! That's why it's hard to take in those extra calories, because I don't feel like I'm hungry

    As others have said with MFP you ard supposed to log exercise beyond your normal daily activity and eat some of those calories.
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10569458/why-eating-too-little-calories-is-a-bad-idea/p1

    Choose more calorie dense foods or drinks to meet your calorie goal without increasing quantity of food.
    Eat more of what you used to eat. If you are eating very low fat stop doing that.
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10142490/a-list-of-calorie-dense-foods/p1

    Are you losing at the rate you expected to lose even though you have not been eating exercise calories? If so possibly you are eating more than you think anyway. If you do not have one you might want to get a food scale and check your accuracy.
  • kelsiesco
    kelsiesco Posts: 11 Member
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    try2again wrote: »
    Just leaving this here for the benefit of the OP and others who maybe don't understand how MFP is set up because it has an excellent explanation:

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10569458/why-eating-too-little-calories-is-a-bad-idea/p1

    Thank you so much for posting that link. For me personally when I want to start losing weight I jump online to figure out a plan of attack, and I always see the same things, mostly you have to have a calorie deficit in order to lose weight. The way to do this would to eat less, and exercise more. So you reduce your calorie intake, and start working out.

    It is really easy to think that if you are already losing weight by changing your diet, then you already have a calorie deficit, and obviously if you add working out into the mix then that is going to make the deficit bigger, and you get to lose weight faster. Is it healthy? No. But you can understand the logic.

    That is what I believed until I actually started digging deeper. Most people don't go much farther than plugging their height, weight, age, and gender into a tracking app and having it tell them what their daily totals will be. And some people don't even get that far.

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