Left over calories

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Caramellady222
Caramellady222 Posts: 13 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hello,

What do you guys do when you have a significant amount of left over calories for the day but appetite is low?
2-300?

My deficit is 1200 so I’m weary about eating too little.

Thanks in advance for your responses ☺️

Replies

  • Coach__Varun
    Coach__Varun Posts: 1 Member
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    I have as much as we can for the day and plan next day better by either adding calorie dense foods in the end or spreading meals evenly throughout the day
  • goal06082021
    goal06082021 Posts: 2,130 Member
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    First: You can probably eat more than that and still lose.

    Second: Spoonful of peanut butter is 200cal easily.
  • wunderkindking
    wunderkindking Posts: 1,615 Member
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    Once in a while? Nothing.

    Regularly? reincorperate full fat/full calorie versions of things I'd previously substituted.

    Or, yeah, ate a bowl of oatmeal with some PB in it or a bowl of cereal or a sandwich.
  • Caramellady222
    Caramellady222 Posts: 13 Member
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    These are are reasonable ways of doing things thank you.
  • Caramellady222
    Caramellady222 Posts: 13 Member
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    goal06082021 wrote: »
    First: You can probably eat more than that and still lose.

    Second: Spoonful of peanut butter is 200cal easily.

    Is it unhealthy to eat the bare minimum of 1200?
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    edited February 2021
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    Caramellady222 wrote: »
    goal06082021 wrote: »
    First: You can probably eat more than that and still lose.

    Second: Spoonful of peanut butter is 200cal easily.

    Is it unhealthy to eat the bare minimum of 1200?

    Depends. 1,200 is a default minimum based on your weekly weight loss goals. A short, sedentary woman or a tall, active woman could potentially be assigned the same goal.

    Better yet, decide if your weekly weight loss goal is too aggressive for how much you have to lose. Rule of thumb - weekly goals should be less than 1% of your current weight.
  • VegjoyP
    VegjoyP Posts: 2,710 Member
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    goal06082021 wrote: »
    Caramellady222 wrote: »
    goal06082021 wrote: »
    First: You can probably eat more than that and still lose.

    Second: Spoonful of peanut butter is 200cal easily.

    Is it unhealthy to eat the bare minimum of 1200?

    It can be. Your body burns calories all day long, just to keep you alive; it "costs" calories to keep your heart beating, your lungs breathing, your stomach digesting, your hair/skin/nails growing, your muscles moving, your brain...braining. All of that takes calories - even if you laid absolutely still in bed and slept all day long, you'd burn some amount of calories (this is your BMR, basal metabolic rate). The average adult human burns about 2000 calories in the course of a normal day (this is called TDEE, total daily energy expenditure); however, this can vary widely depending on your age, height, weight, sex, and activity level. The people whose TDEE is low enough that they need to limit themselves to 1200 calories to lose weight are older (50+), sedentary women, who are very short (under 5'4") and already very small (under 120lbs), so they don't have much to lose anyway. Even those women, if they start doing basically any appreciable exercise, are able to eat more than 1200 calories per day and still lose at a safe and sustainable rate.

    You "pay" the calorie cost of being alive each day in the form of food. You can "overpay" your calorie "bill" by eating more food than your body needs to burn in the course of a day; similar to how a utility company will keep a credit on your account to put toward your next bill if you overpay, your body stores those extra calories to put toward the next day's calorie "bill" in the form of fat. Now, if you do that over and over again, day in and day out, for a long time, you see how we end up overweight or obese.

    The way to reverse that is to "underpay" your calorie bill - it's much easier to do that by withholding food than it is to increase your TDEE by being more active. But, your body has no concept of future planning and it really doesn't want to burn through its savings all at once. So, if you come up too short (i.e. by eating too little), it will try to reduce the day's "charges" by pausing or slowing way down on non-essential calorie-burning activities, like hair/skin/nails maintenance, cognition, even digestion. So, if you eat too little, your hair starts falling out, your nails get brittle, your skin gets dry and flaky, your brain gets foggy, and you can develop digestive issues. Letting your body do this to itself for too long can cause permanent damage - it's not uncommon for people who have suffered from anorexia to later develop gastroparesis, partial paralysis of the digestive tract, making it harder for their bodies to process food now that they have started feeding it again. Undereating for too long can also damage other organs; there's a harrowing but excellent post somewhere around here about a user who experienced heart failure as an otherwise-healthy young adult because she was not eating enough, if I can find it I'll link it.

    ☆THIS☆ explains excellently. 👏👏👏 I am going through this myself. I am very thin and older ( 48) and small but need more than 1200-1300.

  • love2smock
    love2smock Posts: 5 Member
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    If you have a deficit, a piece of fruit (or PB as suggested) would be a wonderful choice to get in those extra few calories. Don't be tempted to grab a candy bar, though!

    I wouldn't go under 1200 calories unless I was under a doctor's care. My endocrinologist has me on a very LC diet along with intermittent fasting to lower my A1C and prevent diabetes. I had gastric sleeve surgery in 2014 and lost 2/3 of the weight I needed to lose--only to gain half of that back. My Fitness Pal is a great tool. Tracking is the key and watching those nutrients is essential to HEALTHY success.
  • LazyBlondeChef
    LazyBlondeChef Posts: 2,809 Member
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    I usually eat between 1250-1350 calories a day. Sometimes more if I do a lot of exercise on a particular day. I'm in the short, small boned, over 55 and relatively sedentary category.

    In hotter weather I tend to eat a lot of salads with protein and even though the quantity is large those vegetables don't have a lot of calories so I'll often have a calorie dense snack in the evening. Nuts, hummus with celery, Clif nut butter bar or Kind bar for example. They don't over fill you.
  • Theo166
    Theo166 Posts: 2,564 Member
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    I get twice your calories on an active day, so I'm likely to be happy I'm under for the day and mark it up to undercounting. However If I were at 1200 a day, I'd double check I logged everything well, then make sure I ate the calories.

    I like using a protein bar to simply add 200 calories.
  • Hamiltonfamily2018
    Hamiltonfamily2018 Posts: 81 Member
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    https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/1200-calorie-diet-review
  • janeoshep
    janeoshep Posts: 14 Member
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    I had this problem if I worked early and skipped breakfast. I now have a protein shake those morning and add a banana and nut butter. Take it to work and put in the fridge until I'm hungry, sometimes I drink it with lunch. Or after a workout
  • elmusho1989
    elmusho1989 Posts: 321 Member
    edited February 2021
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    Caramellady222 wrote: »
    Hello,

    What do you guys do when you have a significant amount of left over calories for the day but appetite is low?
    2-300?

    My deficit is 1200 so I’m weary about eating too little.

    Thanks in advance for your responses ☺️

    That's a very small amount of calories. I'd know, I was on it for ages. Please eat them. Peanut butter is good bang for your buck as a calorie laden snack on fruit or crackers for the last few hundred of the day. Or a glass of milk.
  • jeri30
    jeri30 Posts: 46 Member
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    Try keeping something calorie dense but that you don't crave around. Like nuts or whatever you like.

    I'll admit that my food logging isn't mainly for weight loss. I'm 1200 for weight loss and iirc 1390 for maintenance. Sedentary.

    You're right to be wary about not eating enough at less than 1200 cals. If it's just occasional don't worry about it but if it happens a lot well...I now track my calorie and nutrient consumption to be sure I'm eating enough protein, etc. I was having issues with feeling like I was going to blackout if I stood up too fast, dizziness, lightheaded feeling from crouching or lying down or just bending over.

    Turns out I wasn't getting close to 1200 calories (like 900 cals in 1 day and I didn't think I was eating that low!!!!) and my protein was like 20g for the day. I had been eating like that for a while. I now have protein powder on hand to make up the difference if I'm low for the day for protein and/or calories. Or i eat nuts or cheese or drink milk. I'm fixing to eat some pecans since I'm 120 cals short right now myself for the day. I'm so full i don't want to, but I'm going too. Nice thing about nuts since they are calorie dense you don't have to eat many.
  • westrich20940
    westrich20940 Posts: 875 Member
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    If you're actually not that hungry you have to choose a calorie dense food (like PB or dates ect...that doesn't take up much volume but has a lot of cals).

    Myself...if I have a couple hundred cals left, I always have ice cream in the freezer, take a couple big ole' scoops and shove 'em in yo mouth! Hahaha.

    I really also love fried pies (I'd rather get homemade ones but the store-bought ones are still good)....and they are like 400 calories so I don't keep them usually but if I'm not that hungry and have the calories, I'd definitely treat myself to one of those.

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