Eating less than the app suggests

Pr_ettyPrincess · April 2020

If u eat less than the app suggests for u, do u lose more? Please answer

Unicorn_Bacon · April 2020

Yes, but is it healthy? Probably not depending on how much you have to lose.

Not eating enough calories can eventually cause you fatigue and unable to function and get through your day, prolonged under consumption of calories required to run your body can lead to lean muscle loss, hair loss, skin problems, organ failure, even death if left too long.

What good is losing quickly if your a bald sick sack with bad skin? What good is losing weight too quickly If you end up dead lol or with permanently damaged organs?

heybales · April 2020

Be aware too that for the over 50% that fail to reach healthy weight, or fail to maintain it past 3 months - a large % of those failures were people attempting to lose fast the last chart I saw.

Just going out on a limb, but with a question like that I'm betting there is not a great awareness of how the whole weight loss thing works, which means making decisions on how to NOT use the tool isn't a great idea.

Jthanmyfitnesspal · April 2020

Well, if you're reasonable about it, you certainly can do it safely and you will accelerate weight loss. When I do a strict cut, I set the app to "sedentary," 1lb per week loss, and then add in my workouts. I aim to eat fewer calories than is suggested, partially because the exercise cals are sometimes a bit overestimated and partially to accelerate the weight loss above 1lb per week. In general, it works well.

But, once you get into the long game and are within 10lbs of a healthy maintenance level, there's not much need for accelerated loss. The point is to right-size your eating to fuel your life and maintain your weight, rather than going on a crash diet every few months.

Best of luck!

spiriteagle99 · April 2020

You are more likely to continue the weight loss journey if it isn't too difficult. Losing weight quickly usually ends up leaving you feeling deprived, hungry and unhappy. How long are you likely to stick with it when you feel that way? Eating enough food to feel satisfied, but still losing weight, is the aim of this plan. Get as close as you can to your goal calories. Eat some of your exercise calories. You'll feel better and will be more likely to stick around long enough to lose the weight you intend to lose.

quiksylver296 · April 2020

Pr_ettyPrincess wrote: »

If u eat less than the app suggests for u, do u lose more? Please answer

Yes. You lose more muscle. You lose more energy. You lose more chances to see this thing through to the end.

workinonit1956 · April 2020

Of course it depends on how much “less”. If you’re talking about sometimes being under by a few calories, then it probably won’t do anything one way or the other.
If you mean being significantly under calories consistently, then you will lose more but at what cost? Better to stay the course, within the calorie limit MyFitnessPal gives you, and know that you’ll lose in a healthy way. The time will pass anyway, and this does work—just need a bit of patience. Trust the process

AnnPT77 · April 2020

Pr_ettyPrincess wrote: »

If u eat less than the app suggests for u, do u lose more? Please answer

Sure.

You'll lose weight faster.**

You may lose some hair (usually doesn't show up until weeks later, when it's too late).

You may lose an unnecessarily large amount of lean tissue (i.e., including muscle), which will slightly reduce the number of calories you burn daily via your basal metabolic rate, thus slowly lower the number of calories you need to eat in order to keep losing. Oh, and make you weaker, and more likely to develop osteoporosis (weak bones) as you age, a condition that makes women age faster and die younger, in severe cases.

You may lose energy, so do less, and rest/sleep more, which also leads to burning fewer daily calories (possibly hundreds fewer), thus losing weight more slowly than if you had good energy.

You may lose enthusiasm for dieting, because it's really hard to keep going when you're hungry and tired.

You may lose immune system function, or reduce it, due to under-nutrition, and become more vulnerable to disease or infection.

In really unlucky cases, you may also gain: You might gain a haggard look, fatigue, weakness, a gallbladder problem, a heart problem, brittle fingernails, etc.

** You probably won't lose more total weight in the long run, because, as others have said, you're more likely to give up and revert to old eating habits.

Don't try to lose weight too fast. Try to lose weight in a way that's sustainable, and helps you learn how to stay at a healthy weight long term.

Please. :flowerforyou:

kshama2001 · April 2020

Pr_ettyPrincess wrote: »

If u eat less than the app suggests for u, do u lose more? Please answer

A better question is "Should I eat less calories than the app suggests?" The answer to that is "No."

What Are the Risks of Rapid Weight Loss?

Rapid weight loss creates physical demands on the body. Possible serious risks include:

Gallstones, which occur in 12% to 25% of people losing large amounts of weight over several months
Dehydration, which can be avoided by drinking plenty of fluids
Malnutrition, usually from not eating enough protein for weeks at a time
Electrolyte imbalances, which rarely can be life threatening

Other side effects of rapid weight loss include:

Headaches
Irritability
Fatigue
Dizziness
Constipation
Menstrual irregularities
Hair loss
Muscle loss

You probably picked a weekly weight loss goal of 2 pounds per week. Unless you have more than 60 pounds to lose, that may already be too aggressive a weight loss goal for you.

harper16 · April 2020

I hope that the OP comes back, and responded to some of the questions. Lots of great insight through out this thread.

heybales · April 2020

This should now be turned into a sticky for that common question, or sadly when not questioned but just done.

PedmomJill · April 2020

I will lose at first but then stop if I don’t eat enough

Unicorn_Bacon · April 2020

JimDew wrote: »

My experience.....

I’ve eaten less than allotted by the app, but basically because I (and I bet many people) are bad at estimating portion size, or the calories of an unknown recipe.

I also do not ‘eat back’ the calories I exercise away, as again, I bet the amount I burn is OVER estimated by my fitness app.

It’s worked for me. I lost 70lbs, and have maintained two years.

But that’s only what happened with me.

It's more helpful to assume that people are not over estimating their portion sizes then to assume shes in a group of people who do.

Giving the advice that hey it's okay cause you're probably over estimating, when she very well could not be, leaves that person harming themselves due to under eating on calories because you said they probably were logging more because you were and it worked out fine for you.

Unicorn_Bacon · April 2020

If someone makes a board asking if something is okay and it gets various replies, it's likely they were asking because they are either already doing it or want to..

If they see instances where someone else has done what they do or want to do, they're going to give themselves the okay because you said you did it and it works for you.

But if you dont see anything wrong with that, that's fine. We have absolutely no idea what the OPs stats are or what her calorie goal is.

I personally would much rather give someone the reasons not to do something and why it could be harmful, especially when there is a possibility their calorie goal could be 1200 and they could be burning a ton of calories and not eating them.

Eating less than the app suggests

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