Numbers

sh2640
sh2640 Posts: 7 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I set my goals for the calories, protein, etc. But the app keeps raising them. It also says I'm not meeting the proper nutrition for my body but I'm eating mostly veggies, fruit, and proteins. Am I supposed to eat more even though I am meeting the goals I placed even though they keep going up?

Replies

  • naomi9271
    naomi9271 Posts: 127 Member
    Is your overall daily calorie goal set to less than 1200 if you’re female? Or 1500 if you’re male? Those are the minimum daily calorie goals according to MFP.
  • sh2640
    sh2640 Posts: 7 Member
    I'm a female but I set my goal at 1,000cals a day. It let me change that goal but then every time I exercise, it raises that number.
  • corinasue1143
    corinasue1143 Posts: 7,460 Member
    sh2640 wrote: »
    I set my goals for the calories, protein, etc. But the app keeps raising them. It also says I'm not meeting the proper nutrition for my body but I'm eating mostly veggies, fruit, and proteins. Am I supposed to eat more even though I am meeting the goals I placed even though they keep going up?

    Yes.
  • naomi9271
    naomi9271 Posts: 127 Member
    Yes, 1000 calories is too low. There are some cases where a doctor will recommend that amount for morbidly obese patients under close medical supervision, but that’s the only exception I am aware of.

    You will lose weight with a higher calorie allowance. Don’t worry about that. There are some TDEE calculators you can look at for free online that will give you a pretty good idea of where to set your calorie goals. Just Google TDEE and they will come up.
  • naomi9271
    naomi9271 Posts: 127 Member
    https://www.calculators.tech/tdee-calculator

    Let’s see if I can post a link to a simple one. It’s better/more accurate if you know your current % body fat, but I just checked my numbers with this one and it was bang on.
  • Beverly2Hansen
    Beverly2Hansen Posts: 378 Member
    Very low calorie diet is any diet plan under 1200calories for women and 1500 for men. Very low calorie diets are not safe without medical supervision and this app has fail safes to discourage dangerously understating. Gal stones, heart attacks, hair loss, fainting and mood swings are the most common side effects of very low calorie diets. When you exercise you burn more calories so if you're under eating to produce fast results you're not just eating super low calories you're risking health. You can also damage your metabolism the longer you eat that little causing long term harm to your weightloss goals. You can raise your calories to 1500 choose not to log your exercise or customize it to 1calorie burn and you will then bypass the fail safe and have a less dangerous plan if you're not exercising an insane amount.
  • sh2640
    sh2640 Posts: 7 Member
    yirara wrote: »
    Why eat so little? Please eat more than this tiny amount

    Iam actually eating a lot. I've been eating lots of veggies, cups of fruit, some protein, ect. I once got so full on a meal but it came out to under 500 cals. All that was in my bowl was cups of Spinach, a cup of rice Cauliflower, 2 cups of fruit, 1 cup of carrots, some lite Italian dressing, 2 Oatmeal raisin cookies, and a Mozzarella stick. And I had more to eat for dinner. So I am definitely eating, just not things that are high in calories.
  • sh2640
    sh2640 Posts: 7 Member
    I am actually eating a lot. I've been eating lots of veggies, cups of fruit, some protein, ect. I once got so full on a meal but it came out to under 500 cals. All that was in my bowl was cups of Spinach, a cup of rice Cauliflower, 2 cups of fruit, 1 cup of carrots, some lite Italian dressing, 2 Oatmeal raisin cookies, and a Mozzarella stick. And I had more to eat for dinner. So I am definitely eating, just not things that are high in calories. Sorry if this comes up 2x, I'm still learning how to use this app.
  • glassyo
    glassyo Posts: 7,758 Member
    sh2640 wrote: »
    yirara wrote: »
    Why eat so little? Please eat more than this tiny amount

    Iam actually eating a lot. I've been eating lots of veggies, cups of fruit, some protein, ect. I once got so full on a meal but it came out to under 500 cals. All that was in my bowl was cups of Spinach, a cup of rice Cauliflower, 2 cups of fruit, 1 cup of carrots, some lite Italian dressing, 2 Oatmeal raisin cookies, and a Mozzarella stick. And I had more to eat for dinner. So I am definitely eating, just not things that are high in calories.

    Your body is a car and food is the fuel. It doesn't matter where you buy your fuel (food) from, you still need to top off the tank (calories) to get to where you're going without finding yourself stalled with no gas in the middle of the desert in 102 degree heat.

    Go eat a snickers bar. :)
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,985 Member
    Seriously, eat more! You're doing harm to your body if you don't. You might feel great now, but damage builds up over time. Think hair loss, heart damage, loss of muscles and increased risk of ostheoporosis, loss of menstruation. If you think what you're eating is normal then you really should talk to your doctor. Oh, and eat things higher in calorie.
  • sh2640
    sh2640 Posts: 7 Member
    Thanks everyone. Heard your advice, am looking into it more.
  • KNoceros
    KNoceros Posts: 326 Member
    It is quite common that if you massively change your eating habits from higher calorie foods to very low calorie items (such as your salad bowl listed above), that you get full quickly on what turns out to be very low calories. Veggies / salad / fruit tend to be high volume, low calorie items. I love massive salads but there’s no way I could possibly eat enough to keep me fuelled. I’d need a washing-up bowl full, rather than a plate!!

    What’s needed is to find a happy medium between how you have been eating, and this that enables you to get enough calories in and still feel like you’ve had enough to eat.

    It doesn’t all have to be “healthy” stuff.
  • Sara3veg
    Sara3veg Posts: 48 Member
    edited June 2021
    KNoceros wrote: »
    It is quite common that if you massively change your eating habits from higher calorie foods to very low calorie items (such as your salad bowl listed above), that you get full quickly on what turns out to be very low calories. Veggies / salad / fruit tend to be high volume, low calorie items. I love massive salads but there’s no way I could possibly eat enough to keep me fuelled. I’d need a washing-up bowl full, rather than a plate!!

    What’s needed is to find a happy medium between how you have been eating, and this that enables you to get enough calories in and still feel like you’ve had enough to eat.

    It doesn’t all have to be “healthy” stuff.

    This.

    Op, sounds like you're still in the weight-loss honeymoon phase, where you've made big changes to your way of eating and are temporarily feeling full on lower calorie foods (in part because all those veggies have fiber and high water content). I actually went through this a few days ago, when I started a weight-loss phase, to lose some maintenance weight creep. Started eating large salads everyday, fruit, whole grain bread etc and was feeling really good on a lower calorie intake. But, it only lasted a few days and as my food diary shows-I've really started having trouble keeping my calories in check. Now it gets real :)

    OP, just enter your info into MFP and let it do the math work for you. Follow it's recommendations and enjoy the calories it gives you.
  • littlegreenparrot1
    littlegreenparrot1 Posts: 702 Member
    sh2640 wrote: »
    yirara wrote: »
    Why eat so little? Please eat more than this tiny amount

    Iam actually eating a lot. I've been eating lots of veggies, cups of fruit, some protein, ect. I once got so full on a meal but it came out to under 500 cals. All that was in my bowl was cups of Spinach, a cup of rice Cauliflower, 2 cups of fruit, 1 cup of carrots, some lite Italian dressing, 2 Oatmeal raisin cookies, and a Mozzarella stick. And I had more to eat for dinner. So I am definitely eating, just not things that are high in calories.

    If this what you like there are ways to make this higher in calories so that you get both the nutrition from the veg and it includes more to reach your goals.
    So for example you could include avocado, toasted nuts and/or seeds, croutons, olive oil, quinoa/bulghar wheat, some feta or goats cheese, a chopped boiled egg. Or some lovely fresh bread to dip into olive oil and balsamic vinegar or hummous.

    Mmm, hungry now :smiley:
  • sh2640
    sh2640 Posts: 7 Member
    littlegreenparrot1 wrote: »
    sh2640 wrote: »
    yirara wrote: »
    Why eat so little? Please eat more than this tiny amount

    Iam actually eating a lot. I've been eating lots of veggies, cups of fruit, some protein, ect. I once got so full on a meal but it came out to under 500 cals. All that was in my bowl was cups of Spinach, a cup of rice Cauliflower, 2 cups of fruit, 1 cup of carrots, some lite Italian dressing, 2 Oatmeal raisin cookies, and a Mozzarella stick. And I had more to eat for dinner. So I am definitely eating, just not things that are high in calories.

    If this what you like there are ways to make this higher in calories so that you get both the nutrition from the veg and it includes more to reach your goals.
    So for example you could include avocado, toasted nuts and/or seeds, croutons, olive oil, quinoa/bulghar wheat, some feta or goats cheese, a chopped boiled egg. Or some lovely fresh bread to dip into olive oil and balsamic vinegar or hummous.

    Mmm, hungry now :smiley:

    I did add an entire egg to boost my calories one day and that did the trick. I also bought some potatoes (I love them) and air fried them into Curly fries. That also helped.

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