not eating enough

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sunshinegirl2012
sunshinegirl2012 Posts: 52
in Health and Weight Loss
anyone struggle with this? I've lost a lot of weight since august and although I aim to eat 1200 a day I can't seem to make that minimum...esp since I'm allergic to wheat/dairy, so that's out of the diet! this past week I struggled to even make 1000 calories a day, and if I do make it up to 1200+ I start to feel really sick. bah! advice?

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5'5, 19, cw 134, gw 118-124
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  • theroadto100
    theroadto100 Posts: 209 Member
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    I have the same problem... I just cannot get myself to eat that much food. And some days I'll feel like I ate so much, and I'll look at my diary, and I've only had a few hundred calories. So I'm interested in what people have to say.
  • lifeismoto
    lifeismoto Posts: 245
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    I am usually way under on my calorie intake...people will often suggest to eat more calorie dense foods most common being peanut butter, but to tell you the truth...if I am not hungry, sore, or out of energy...i do not eat all I "should" just my thoughts though...i listen to my body not a computer lol
  • servilia
    servilia Posts: 3,452 Member
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    See a doctor :) I mean, it's not normal to actually feel "sick" if you eat 1200.
  • chicklidell
    chicklidell Posts: 275
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    I wish I could help, but I don't honestly understand this...if you're eating the suggested 5-6 meals a day, including a protein source at each meal, you would be getting your calories in....what are you taking in each day? I would really like to help, but you give little insight to your eating behaviour. FYI, i'm a dietitician and can honestly help you.
  • Kymmu
    Kymmu Posts: 1,650 Member
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    I'm always getting friendly advice to eat more, but I feel terrible when I do. So I listen to my body too.
  • chicklidell
    chicklidell Posts: 275
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    I am usually way under on my calorie intake...people will often suggest to eat more calorie dense foods most common being peanut butter, but to tell you the truth...if I am not hungry, sore, or out of energy...i do not eat all I "should" just my thoughts though...i listen to my body not a computer lol

    Your body can be giving you the wrong signals, you have to condition it to be healthy. No different then you train a puppy, you train your body, getting rid of old habits and replacing with new ones. It's like breaking the habit of eating frequent meals, your body needs to adapt to this, it takes time,
  • servilia
    servilia Posts: 3,452 Member
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    Beans, lentils, avocados, nuts. ... really it's not hard to eat 1200, unless you have a physical problem with your GI tract (other than the dairy/wheat problem) or a mental block as a result of disordered eating issues. So please see a doctor. Good luck!
  • adjones5
    adjones5 Posts: 938 Member
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    I am usually way under on my calorie intake...people will often suggest to eat more calorie dense foods most common being peanut butter, but to tell you the truth...if I am not hungry, sore, or out of energy...i do not eat all I "should" just my thoughts though...i listen to my body not a computer lol

    Your body can be giving you the wrong signals, you have to condition it to be healthy. No different then you train a puppy, you train your body, getting rid of old habits and replacing with new ones. It's like breaking the habit of eating frequent meals, your body needs to adapt to this, it takes time,

    Your body may need to adapt to eating this much. I went for a while of eating 1200 calories a day and burning at least 600 a day...so netting less than 600 calories a day. When I joined MFP I could not for the life of me eat 1200 calories everyday. I had to work up to it.
  • gj4man
    gj4man Posts: 52 Member
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    In terms of food, a cup of long grain brown rice is 216 calories on here - have one with your main meal. Nuts seem to be a favourite on here for easy calories without too much bad stuff too.

    If you're struggling to eat enough portion wise, try eating more smaller meals rather than fewer larger ones.

    I'm personally considering spending this week's calorie deficit on a couple of glasses of wine tonight, but that seems to be just playing with the graphs, rather than actually eating a healthy diet!
  • MaynardLD50
    MaynardLD50 Posts: 36 Member
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    Chicklidell hit it perfectly, what are your eating habits? I suffered from a similar problem and hit a plateau at 205Lbs. How did I break it? Ate 800 more calories than I had been and all the sudden I got insanely hungry, fat began shrinking, and back on the road I was. Don't get stuck into a meal frequency worry also, it's about calories not how often you're eating. So, if you only have time for 3 meals a day you'll need to plan accordingly and eat pretty heavy calorie meals, which is why they recommend breaking it up into 5 or 6 meals a day. 1200 Calories or less for a woman a day is very dangerous though and any real weight loss your seeing is probably lean body mass muscle, which is VERY bad. Brown rice, red potatoes, eggs, Daiya cheese, sataan, avocados, peanut butter, all of these are complex carbohydrates that are calorie rich and I promise your body is BEGGING for them right now which you're confusing with a sick feeling. Don't listen to mainstream, carbs are not the devil.
  • Boostsmum
    Boostsmum Posts: 2 Member
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    Can I ask why you are tracking calories if you struggle to eat 1200 a day? Are you trying to lose weight? I just imagine that if I was eating less than 1200 calories a day I wouldn't even be usin MFP as I wouldn't have weight to lose............. Or have I missed something?? :smile:

    I am new to this so i could be totally off track????

    For a food lover like myelf, being required to eat more would not be much of a dilemna I can tell you!
  • chicklidell
    chicklidell Posts: 275
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    Can I ask why you are tracking calories if you struggle to eat 1200 a day? Are you trying to lose weight? I just imagine that if I was eating less than 1200 calories a day I wouldn't even be usin MFP as I wouldn't have weight to lose............. Or have I missed something?? :smile:

    I am new to this so i could be totally off track????

    For a food lover like myelf, being required to eat more would not be much of a dilemna I can tell you!

    This is actually a huge problem. I myself don't understand the mentality of 1200 being the magical # for weight loss.... that being said, the problem lies with an inactive metabolism, when your body isn't getting the fuel it needs to run it simply slows down, which means each calorie it takes in it stores.....the weight loss slows down, because the metabolism is running on empty...even with exercise, you actually exacerbate the problem. Have to change the mindset, which is very hard to do.
  • snookumss
    snookumss Posts: 1,451 Member
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    Seriously, if I only at 1k calories a day I guarantee 100% of those calories in my diet would be PROTEIN. I focus on it. I eat a ton of it. I doubt that anybody only eating 1200 a day is worried about the macros as much, but I sure would want to see it. Maybe a doctor wants to see what they've been eating?
  • theroadto100
    theroadto100 Posts: 209 Member
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    Can I ask why you are tracking calories if you struggle to eat 1200 a day? Are you trying to lose weight? I just imagine that if I was eating less than 1200 calories a day I wouldn't even be usin MFP as I wouldn't have weight to lose............. Or have I missed something?? :smile:

    I am new to this so i could be totally off track????

    For a food lover like myelf, being required to eat more would not be much of a dilemna I can tell you!

    Well I eat less than 1200 a day and I'm losing nothing. Sometimes I even gain a bit. I'm using this site in an attempt to lose weight by overcoming an eating disorder. And to do that, I need to eat more. So I'm trying to force myself to reach at LEAST 1200 calories. That's just my side though! Obviously everyone's here for different reasons :)
  • evepoyepo
    evepoyepo Posts: 1
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    I have the same problem with trying to reach calorie intake. As several people have mentioned, you have to recondition your body. My problem stems from childhood abuse. My parents kept me on the brink of starvation. It has taken me years to convince my body that it is okay to eat. To answer the question of why tracking calories even when not meeting calorie intake: I don't know the situation of the original poster, but for me, it's a way to make sure I eat what I'm supposed to.
  • amonkey9
    amonkey9 Posts: 94
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    Thank you it's nice to know I'm not the only one. There are some users who would criticize me for it and were just plain rude, like I was purposefully starving myself
  • chicklidell
    chicklidell Posts: 275
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    Thank you it's nice to know I'm not the only one. There are some users who would criticize me for it and were just plain rude, like I was purposefully starving myself

    I hope my comments, didn't offend anyone
  • Boostsmum
    Boostsmum Posts: 2 Member
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    Oh, that makes sense to track calories to try and work up to eating a healthy amount.
    Good luck with the journey - I guess we have in common that we are trying to get healthy!!! Hope we all achieve what we need to :smile:
  • KPORLANDO
    KPORLANDO Posts: 3
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    I found that I'm averaging about 1200-1300 calories a day, but I found that eating 4-5 small meals a day is really helping me lose weight. A typical day for me would be:

    Breakfast: 1 fried egg, 2 strips of turkey bacon

    Lunch: Salad: 1 grilled lemon chicken cutlet-diced, romaine or iceberg lettuce, 1 plum tomato, 1/4 cup of cucumber, 4-5 baby carrots, 1/4 cup diced bell peppers, and vinegrette dressing.

    Supper: 1 andouille sausage link, 1/4 cup onion, 1/4 cup celery, 1/4 cup bell pepper....sauteed in olive oil

    Dinner: broccoli, carrots, zuchinni, yellow squash, onion, garlic pepper - stir fried with olive oil

    For snacks: cubed pineapple, strawberry, pear, clementines or tangelos, cashews, or beef jerky (not all together...one or two of them each day) in moderate/small servings. (For example...3 pineapple cubes and 3-5 strawberries, or 1 clementine and 1/2 serving of cashews.

    I'm eating roughly every 3 to 3.5 hours. Shockingly, I'm really almost never hungry, and I've dropped over 6 pounds in my first week. Granted I know this rate won't keep up, and I don't want it to...that wouldn't be healthy. But I'm eating quite a lot, and feeling way better in a short amount of time. I lost 35 pounds last year before losing my willpower (depression kicked in and I gained 15 pounds back). Am already down over 6 pounds since Jan.1...and am determined to drop below 200 pounds this year.
  • sunshinegirl2012
    sunshinegirl2012 Posts: 52
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    eating habits for a typical day...
    breakfast: greek yogurt w fruit, or a bowl of oatmeal with 1-2 tsp jam or peanut butter just something before a workout
    lunch: usually salad, bell peppers, a cup of low cal soup, maybe with chicken once in a while
    snacks: piece of fruit or veggies
    dinner: varies...a smoothie, oatmeal, chicken with salad, etc. nothing huge. if i'm hungry late at night I'll eat oatmeal but that's not too typical. I try and keep as much of a raw foods diet as possible except when I need to add in protein. also lots of tea, water, and sometimes black coffee. weekends I'll allow a splurge food, like a cup of ice cream or something

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