My target daily Cal is 1850, but I often end up not eating up my daily Cal Goal Is this bad?
iwannalose60kg
Posts: 9 Member
Hi everyone, I am new to MFP, started 1 week and I have lost nearly 3kg since, averaging about 0.4kg or about 0.8 pounds a day. I guess it might just be water retention or fluid loss, but I drink a lot of liquid. I did ramp up my step count now to nearly 12K steps a day and I hit a high of adding 700 Cal of exercise daily.
Should I increase my cal consumption?
I take a Myotein meal replacement for dinner.
breakfast is normally 2 boiled eggs, a multigrain low-GI loaf (2 slices) black coffee no sugar, 1 slice of lean ham dipped in hot water to remove sodium, 1 medium apple.
Lunch is normally brown rice 100g, 1 protein + veggies cooked together with some EV olive oil, soy, garlic and cilantro
Dinner is a Myotein Shake with no sugar soy milk, banana and a raw cucumber
I like that there are very good results daily.
Should I increase my cal consumption?
I take a Myotein meal replacement for dinner.
breakfast is normally 2 boiled eggs, a multigrain low-GI loaf (2 slices) black coffee no sugar, 1 slice of lean ham dipped in hot water to remove sodium, 1 medium apple.
Lunch is normally brown rice 100g, 1 protein + veggies cooked together with some EV olive oil, soy, garlic and cilantro
Dinner is a Myotein Shake with no sugar soy milk, banana and a raw cucumber
I like that there are very good results daily.
0
Replies
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It is not ideal to eat less and lose fast.
First of all fast loss can create some pretty dramatic health issues - namely it can make your gallbladder very, very angry. It will also eventually lead to skin/hair/nail/temperature regulation problems. Can also make you eventually tired and subtly reduce your movement (fidgeting, jiggling your leg, whatever) that is not purposeful and is part of your calorie burn.
But quite aside from that, weight loss slows. It is inevitable. The closer you get to goal, the less of a deficit there is - and at some point you have no more room to decrease calories further. This can be absolutely fine if you are prepared for that to happen (like half a pound a WEEK or less slow is often where it ends, never mind half a pound a DAY). If you are relying on fast drops and loss for motivation and to feel good, then you're more likely to rage quit the whole thing/give up.
You need to do something you can do forever, and you need to be willing to do it when weight loss slows sufficiently that you are not seeing results every day - or every week - and sometimes the scale even goes UP some due to normal bodily fluctuations that become more obvious when you have less deficit (which you can't help because smaller bodies take less to maintain).
So my big caution is: EAT MORE FOR YOUR HEALTH, but also get your head into a long game NOW and work on NOT relying on seeing that scale drop to feel good. Figure out what you can do FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. And. The rest of your life what you're doing now is not going to cut it.9 -
How much weight do you have to lose to a healthy weight?
Good job on wanting to do something. But doing anything isn't always a good idea compared to doing something reasonable.
If 1850 is your base goal, and likely without exercise being added back in per the MFP method - I'm estimating you may have a fair amount to lose.
Extreme diet and weight loss is huge reason for the 80% failure rate for dieters to reach or maintain a goal weight for over 6 months though.
Many of those repeat the effort yearly - getting harder and harder each time.
0.8 lbs a day is rather high even if it does include initial water weight - is extreme except in extreme cases of obesity.
That will include a fair bit of muscle mass in there if it continues - that will suck sooner and later. Muscle is not easy to build, sadly easy to lose.
Your body will also adapt in some extreme ways if this is stressful to it after some more weeks.
While it might be nice to see results daily - that's also unrealistic and setting yourself up for some stressed out days of disappointment at some point down the road, when it can't be daily changes.
Have fast did you gain the weight?
How are you judging what's a desired rate of loss?
Sorry about sounding all negative - but this is all too familiar, and where it leads is all too familiar.
If someone can be saved from yo-yo dieting it's worth it.
Many women reaching 50-60 yo-yo dieting their lives away having a terrible relationship with their bodies and food - you should see their posts on here once they find a better way, wishing they hadn't started it.4 -
I would second (and third and fourth) other users advice to go much slower.
Many of us experienced rapid loss the first few weeks. It’s exciting. A rush. A buzz. You want it to continue. You cut calories more and exercise more. Faster! Faster!!!!!
This creates a nutrition gap which can slingshot you right into a binge.
Slow it down. Lose more slowly. Learn habits. Learn about your body. Learn about your needs.
I posed the question on my feed, for users who had just come back from months or even years absence, something to the effect of “do you regret stopping? do you wish you’d lost slower but still been here? Would you have reached goal by now at the slower pace?”
Not a single person said they were happy losing fast, and most said they’d regained and were back to try to get it off again.4 -
I am not deliberately starving myself. I am eating…I eat normal meals. I have so far avoided fried food and watch my sugar intake. My other meals outside my meal replacement is only about 450 cal, to hit 1850 I have to eat 616 cal per meal. But cos I also hit about 700 - 800 cal exercise daily. I did no more than 15mins of cardio, walk my dog for 30mins and the rest is just my normal daily activity. To be honest it isn’t a lot of exercise.
My breakfast: 2 hard boiled eggs, 2 slices multigrain bread - plain or with cheese toasted, black coffee 1 slice of ham and 1 apple
Lunch: Rice (sometimes white others brown)
Veg & proteins cooked
Apple & a green tea
Fave veg - broccoli, carrot, mushroom, spinach, cauliflower, sweet peas (in pod), bell peppers
Afternoon tea: 1/2 cucumber & a Greek yogurt (full cream) based honey mustard dip
- my own recipe
- 2 pieces of crackers
- A cup of tea no sugar no milk
Dinner myotein protein shake with 1 banana, unsweetened soy milk, 1 teaspoon honey,
5 pitted prunes
I avoided all the high sugar fruits I used to consume which included strawberries - one of my weakness. I used to distribute fruits so I have access to top grade fruits, it’s also part of my QC - I eat some of each batch
I now avoid pineapples, strawberries, berries of most kind cos I kinda can’t stop. I will have a cheat day a week where I can eat 1 punnet of blueberries with overnight oats.
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If you're exercise calories are correct then you are starving yourself. Good thing is that they likely are wrong. How do you get to 700-800 calories per day? Do you use a fitness tracker, and if so what kind of? At what activity level did you set mfp? If you walk over 10k steps per day then you are certainly active to very active, and you should eat for that.
Just to give you an idea. Say you eat 1500 calories per day. Then you exercise for 700 (yea, it's tough but maybe doable). Then you've only eaten 1500-700 = 800 calories on that day. Now 800 calories is in no way healthy! This is starving.2 -
Welcome. It's awesome you are having success! The meals sound like they have a decent amount of variety and balance, but might be too light for you.
0.8 pounds lost a day sounds a bit much. Calling berries and oates a 'cheat meal' is honestly a red flag that you are over-restricting.
Like everyone else said: don't rush, make sure it is sustainable long term.4 -
The recommended weekly maximum rate of loss is 1% of body weight. If you weigh 560 lbs, your current rate of loss is appropriate. If not, you need to hit the brakes. Losing quickly sounds fun until 4 months from now when all your hair starts falling out because you shocked it into dormancy. Also, losing too rapidly means you lose a higher percentage of muscle to fat. Spoiler: your heart is also a muscle.
Your diet isn’t nutritionally complete. Start adding some real foods in there until you reach your suggested goal.2 -
I have to hit a 1850 goal
I eat about 1400 cal per day normally and I am not hungry it’s pretty much my normal portion. I walk quite a bit so hitting 10,000 steps a day is normal plus 30mins of walking the dog and 15 mins of simple low impact cardio in the morning. I use my Apple Watch, Apple Watch exercise. My watch goal is 700 kcal for my activity circle. I normally hit 1200kcal to 1400kcal for activity
But MFP measures my total activity level around 600-700 cal exercise to add to my cal consumption.
So should I eat another 2 meals like have 5 meals a day? Cos my meal cal I tracked is about 400-450cal per meal and I am full
But I am fat, surprisingly the meal replacement is recommended by dietician0 -
I am saying I am very full eating my meals of about 450cal per meal. I am recommended to do 1850 cal per day.
But add 1850cal + 700 cal due to exercise. I am recommended to eat 2550 cal per day.
Which means my portions are too small, but I am already very full at each meal. So does that mean I should eat more meals? Or are the cal only estimates.
I only started 1 week into this. The good portions are the same to before I was doing any special dieting. Just that I don’t eat fried foods and no sugar.
I just changed my snacks to healthier choices like apples and cucumbers. I still eat cheese and my dairy is full cream full fat dairy which I don’t compromise the taste
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rheddmobile wrote: »The recommended weekly maximum rate of loss is 1% of body weight. If you weigh 560 lbs, your current rate of loss is appropriate. If not, you need to hit the brakes. Losing quickly sounds fun until 4 months from now when all your hair starts falling out because you shocked it into dormancy. Also, losing too rapidly means you lose a higher percentage of muscle to fat. Spoiler: your heart is also a muscle.
Your diet isn’t nutritionally complete. Start adding some real foods in there until you reach your suggested goal.rheddmobile wrote: »The recommended weekly maximum rate of loss is 1% of body weight. If you weigh 560 lbs, your current rate of loss is appropriate. If not, you need to hit the brakes. Losing quickly sounds fun until 4 months from now when all your hair starts falling out because you shocked it into dormancy. Also, losing too rapidly means you lose a higher percentage of muscle to fat. Spoiler: your heart is also a muscle.
Your diet isn’t nutritionally complete. Start adding some real foods in there until you reach your suggested goal.
What do you mean by nutritionally complete?0 -
Things I use as protein are:
Lean pork
Chicken - breast, thighs and legs
Salmon, Tuna, sardines, white bait, prawn, cod, several other types of white fish, scallops (fresh & dried Japanese ones)
Eggs
Veg: broccoli, spinach, various dark leafy veg, cauliflower, carrot, garlic, onions
I use dried jap seaweed in soups0 -
700 calories due to exercising on top of your 1800 budget is a lot. Congratulations! Good work.
I'd recommend you try at least eating those 1800 calories and at least half of the exercise calories.
The the next day you'll be in better shape for exercising which will then be more efficient.
It maybe kind of hard to eat more but try for calorie dense foodstuffs such as dark chocolate, almonds, nuts, peanut butter a.s.o. These will put a nice and satisfying dent in those calories.
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marius_paps wrote: »700 calories due to exercising on top of your 1800 budget is a lot. Congratulations! Good work.
I'd recommend you try at least eating those 1800 calories and at least half of the exercise calories.
The the next day you'll be in better shape for exercising which will then be more efficient.
It maybe kind of hard to eat more but try for calorie dense foodstuffs such as dark chocolate, almonds, nuts, peanut butter a.s.o. These will put a nice and satisfying dent in those calories.
Thanks for the suggestion. Will give it a try. Maybe eat the apple with peanut butter?1 -
iwannalose60kg wrote: »Maybe eat the apple with peanut butter?
God no
!!!
LOL. Of course you eat what you like and how you like it. I'd never dream of eating PB with an apple or, god forbid, with jam.
I've discovered organic spelt crackers (lots of healthy ingredients) with a (coffee)spoonful of PB. Yummy!
The problem with PB, is that's not super duper healthy, but I suppose with measure, it isn't too unhealthy either.
The 2nd problem with PB is that it tastes sooooo good
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marius_paps wrote: »iwannalose60kg wrote: »Maybe eat the apple with peanut butter?
God no !!!
LOL. Of course you eat what you like and how you like it. I'd never dream of eating PB with an apple or, god forbid, with jam.
I've discovered organic spelt crackers (lots of healthy ingredients) with a (coffee)spoonful of PB. Yummy!
The problem with PB, is that's not super duper healthy, but I suppose with measure, it isn't too unhealthy either.
The 2nd problem with PB is that it tastes sooooo good
PB is high fat.
High fat is not inherently unhealthy. Just calorically dense.
I have the 'freaking delicious' problem with it though!3 -
Fat is an important macro and keeps you satiated. In the short run, cutting out calorically dense fats like avacodo, oils, nuts etc could result in short term loses. But long term your body needs fat and don't you want to be in this for the long run?4
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Fat is also necessary for some vitamin absorption. It's not optional.3
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iwannalose60kg wrote: »I have to hit a 1850 goal
I eat about 1400 cal per day normally and I am not hungry it’s pretty much my normal portion. I walk quite a bit so hitting 10,000 steps a day is normal plus 30mins of walking the dog and 15 mins of simple low impact cardio in the morning. I use my Apple Watch, Apple Watch exercise. My watch goal is 700 kcal for my activity circle. I normally hit 1200kcal to 1400kcal for activity
But MFP measures my total activity level around 600-700 cal exercise to add to my cal consumption.
So should I eat another 2 meals like have 5 meals a day? Cos my meal cal I tracked is about 400-450cal per meal and I am full
But I am fat, surprisingly the meal replacement is recommended by dietician
Could you drop the meal replacement shake and instead eat actual food for dinner?0 -
iwannalose60kg wrote: »marius_paps wrote: »700 calories due to exercising on top of your 1800 budget is a lot. Congratulations! Good work.
I'd recommend you try at least eating those 1800 calories and at least half of the exercise calories.
The the next day you'll be in better shape for exercising which will then be more efficient.
It maybe kind of hard to eat more but try for calorie dense foodstuffs such as dark chocolate, almonds, nuts, peanut butter a.s.o. These will put a nice and satisfying dent in those calories.
Thanks for the suggestion. Will give it a try. Maybe eat the apple with peanut butter?
That's a good idea. (I really love apple with peanut butter, personally. Peanut butter can be a good contributor to a healthy way of eating**, as long as one avoids those with added hydrogenated fats.)
Another thing you could consider would be somewhat fattier meats or fish. (Consider which fish are high in Omega-3s, since it's fairly common for people to have their Omega-6 to Omega-3 balance a bit overweighted to O-6). As others have said, you need a certain minimum of fats. The nuts, nut butters, avocado kind of thing will have monounsaturated/polyunsaturated fats, which are also useful. Too low fats are bad for cellular health, hormone balance, digestive throughput, and more.
** Individual foods are not healthy or unhealthy considered alone, IMO, unless they're poisons or allergens. What matters most is the overall nutritional quality of one's total way of eating. Context and portion size matter. Even pure sugar is a "healthy food" for an endurance athlete consuming it during a long event (marathon, say) in order to avoid depleting their glycogen stores and "hitting the wall".
Eating too few calories isn't healthy. Consider, for example:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10761904/under-1200-for-weight-loss/p1
That's an extreme and fortunately rare case, but bad things can happen. I under-ate by accident at first (MFP underestimates my calorie needs by quite a bit, which is rare, but possible), lost too fast. I felt great, not hungry . . . until suddenly I didn't, got weak and fatigued. Even though I corrected as soon as I realized, it took multiple weeks to recover normal strength and energy. No one needs that. I was lucky nothing worse happened (well, maybe a little hair thinning a few weeks later, but no gallbladder problems or other possible serious baddies like that).1 -
I see the 'I'm just not hungry' thing come up a lot in the forums, and I wanted to address it here where there's some chance it might help OP - or someone reading.
It is intuitively sensible to think that if you're massive undereating you will be ravenous.
There are two problems with this, when subjected to actual examination.
The first is that many of here have sort of... broken out hunger/fullness signals. Not talking intuitive eating at all, here, just that most people here seeking to lose weight have done a lot of a-) eating way past the point of fullness and/or b-) ignoring hunger until it is convenient for us and THEN overeating. Lots of us - me included - don't have much relationship between hunger and eating.
The second is that underfeeding yourself can result in a loss of hunger, in and of itself. You eat less, you have less energy. You have less energy, you move less. You move less, you burn fewer calories/aren't as likely to GET hungry.
Even in the absence of major health issues, my energy tanks when I under eat for more than a day or two - and I don't 'get hungry' so much as I get tired, a headache, and want to take a nap. I *still* have days where I'm just not hungry, eat like 800 calories and all I want to do is go to bed at 8 p.m and forget about it. I have learned through long experience that doing so will not lead to me binging but it will lead to me struggling through my day and feeling crappy - and ultimately eating the easiest food I can find, which is rarely the healthiest option.
So, when I had eaten 1000 calories last night at 10 p.m I dragged myself into the kitchen, dumped some whole milk, protein powder, greek yogurt and PB fit into my cup, hit it with an immersion blender and CHUGGED 600 calories I didn't want to get me to a reasonable calorie count, e\ so I could *function* today.
Not hungry does not mean don't eat/you don't need to eat. Even if you're NOT doing a lot of super low calorie foods that keep your stomach full without providing much energy. Not hungry means 'Okay, I need to adjust so I can still lose while giving my body enough to fuel its necessary processes.'12 -
How much weight do you have to lose to a healthy weight?
Good job on wanting to do something. But doing anything isn't always a good idea compared to doing something reasonable.
If 1850 is your base goal, and likely without exercise being added back in per the MFP method - I'm estimating you may have a fair amount to lose.
Extreme diet and weight loss is huge reason for the 80% failure rate for dieters to reach or maintain a goal weight for over 6 months though.
Many of those repeat the effort yearly - getting harder and harder each time.
0.8 lbs a day is rather high even if it does include initial water weight - is extreme except in extreme cases of obesity.
That will include a fair bit of muscle mass in there if it continues - that will suck sooner and later. Muscle is not easy to build, sadly easy to lose.
Your body will also adapt in some extreme ways if this is stressful to it after some more weeks.
While it might be nice to see results daily - that's also unrealistic and setting yourself up for some stressed out days of disappointment at some point down the road, when it can't be daily changes.
Have fast did you gain the weight?
How are you judging what's a desired rate of loss?
Sorry about sounding all negative - but this is all too familiar, and where it leads is all too familiar.
If someone can be saved from yo-yo dieting it's worth it.
Many women reaching 50-60 yo-yo dieting their lives away having a terrible relationship with their bodies and food - you should see their posts on here once they find a better way, wishing they hadn't started it.
If her username is current, she wants to lose 60 kg / 132 pounds.0 -
Redordeadhead wrote: »iwannalose60kg wrote: »I have to hit a 1850 goal
I eat about 1400 cal per day normally and I am not hungry it’s pretty much my normal portion. I walk quite a bit so hitting 10,000 steps a day is normal plus 30mins of walking the dog and 15 mins of simple low impact cardio in the morning. I use my Apple Watch, Apple Watch exercise. My watch goal is 700 kcal for my activity circle. I normally hit 1200kcal to 1400kcal for activity
But MFP measures my total activity level around 600-700 cal exercise to add to my cal consumption.
So should I eat another 2 meals like have 5 meals a day? Cos my meal cal I tracked is about 400-450cal per meal and I am full
But I am fat, surprisingly the meal replacement is recommended by dietician
Could you drop the meal replacement shake and instead eat actual food for dinner?
Meal replacement is prescribed by physician and dietician who is slowly getting me to replace eventually 3 meals with a protein shake0 -
Okay, with all due respect, do what now? A dietician wants you to stop eating food completely and replace all three meals with a protein shake? Why? Do you have some illness we haven’t talked about? Because this is the exact opposite of current medical advice.iwannalose60kg wrote: »Redordeadhead wrote: »iwannalose60kg wrote: »I have to hit a 1850 goal
I eat about 1400 cal per day normally and I am not hungry it’s pretty much my normal portion. I walk quite a bit so hitting 10,000 steps a day is normal plus 30mins of walking the dog and 15 mins of simple low impact cardio in the morning. I use my Apple Watch, Apple Watch exercise. My watch goal is 700 kcal for my activity circle. I normally hit 1200kcal to 1400kcal for activity
But MFP measures my total activity level around 600-700 cal exercise to add to my cal consumption.
So should I eat another 2 meals like have 5 meals a day? Cos my meal cal I tracked is about 400-450cal per meal and I am full
But I am fat, surprisingly the meal replacement is recommended by dietician
Could you drop the meal replacement shake and instead eat actual food for dinner?
Meal replacement is prescribed by physician and dietician who is slowly getting me to replace eventually 3 meals with a protein shake
3 -
iwannalose60kg wrote: »Redordeadhead wrote: »iwannalose60kg wrote: »I have to hit a 1850 goal
I eat about 1400 cal per day normally and I am not hungry it’s pretty much my normal portion. I walk quite a bit so hitting 10,000 steps a day is normal plus 30mins of walking the dog and 15 mins of simple low impact cardio in the morning. I use my Apple Watch, Apple Watch exercise. My watch goal is 700 kcal for my activity circle. I normally hit 1200kcal to 1400kcal for activity
But MFP measures my total activity level around 600-700 cal exercise to add to my cal consumption.
So should I eat another 2 meals like have 5 meals a day? Cos my meal cal I tracked is about 400-450cal per meal and I am full
But I am fat, surprisingly the meal replacement is recommended by dietician
Could you drop the meal replacement shake and instead eat actual food for dinner?
Meal replacement is prescribed by physician and dietician who is slowly getting me to replace eventually 3 meals with a protein shake
I saw that, but why?
If you are already losing weight too quickly and are considering adding an additional 1-2 small meals to your day, what is the reason for using the shake instead of a nornal meal?4 -
rheddmobile wrote: »
Okay, with all due respect, do what now? A dietician wants you to stop eating food completely and replace all three meals with a protein shake? Why? Do you have some illness we haven’t talked about? Because this is the exact opposite of current medical advice.iwannalose60kg wrote: »Redordeadhead wrote: »iwannalose60kg wrote: »I have to hit a 1850 goal
I eat about 1400 cal per day normally and I am not hungry it’s pretty much my normal portion. I walk quite a bit so hitting 10,000 steps a day is normal plus 30mins of walking the dog and 15 mins of simple low impact cardio in the morning. I use my Apple Watch, Apple Watch exercise. My watch goal is 700 kcal for my activity circle. I normally hit 1200kcal to 1400kcal for activity
But MFP measures my total activity level around 600-700 cal exercise to add to my cal consumption.
So should I eat another 2 meals like have 5 meals a day? Cos my meal cal I tracked is about 400-450cal per meal and I am full
But I am fat, surprisingly the meal replacement is recommended by dietician
Could you drop the meal replacement shake and instead eat actual food for dinner?
Meal replacement is prescribed by physician and dietician who is slowly getting me to replace eventually 3 meals with a protein shake
WHY????
I get replacing one meal if you want to- and you did say you were having other things at that meal, not just the shake - banana and cucumber as well - if it is a nutritionally sound replacement , makes sure you get all vitamins neccesary and puts some people in 'diet change head space' which some people find motivating.
But replacing all 3 main meals???
Why on earth would anyone recomend that??3 -
If this is a VLCD and diet/eating change as prep to weightloss surgery this makes sense.
But that's the ONLY way it makes sense.1 -
iwannalose60kg wrote: »Redordeadhead wrote: »iwannalose60kg wrote: »I have to hit a 1850 goal
I eat about 1400 cal per day normally and I am not hungry it’s pretty much my normal portion. I walk quite a bit so hitting 10,000 steps a day is normal plus 30mins of walking the dog and 15 mins of simple low impact cardio in the morning. I use my Apple Watch, Apple Watch exercise. My watch goal is 700 kcal for my activity circle. I normally hit 1200kcal to 1400kcal for activity
But MFP measures my total activity level around 600-700 cal exercise to add to my cal consumption.
So should I eat another 2 meals like have 5 meals a day? Cos my meal cal I tracked is about 400-450cal per meal and I am full
But I am fat, surprisingly the meal replacement is recommended by dietician
Could you drop the meal replacement shake and instead eat actual food for dinner?
Meal replacement is prescribed by physician and dietician who is slowly getting me to replace eventually 3 meals with a protein shake
What did the physician and dietician say when you asked them your original question about eating the full 1800 cal/ day? They are the ones you need to listen to if you are at the point of pursuing full meal replacement, not random strangers on the internet.1
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