Is it ok to be under your calories?

You should try and reach your calorie goal because the calorie goal on here is already lower then what you should be eating normally. What you want to avoid is depriving yourself of food and sending your body into starvation mode where it will store fat quicker because it thinks it needs to in order to run properly.

Oh gosh, begin rants about starvation mode! :laugh: Welcome to the site, first of all. Good for you for making a change. Second off, if it's not an every day thing, or even a most days thing, I think you'll be fine, though I am no expert. The reason I say you should stay close to or at goal is because I've been eating >1600 calories, normally. MFP has me at 2110 with a 1 pound loss a week. I haven't been losing, though, I've been maintaining my weight. The scale would not budge for a good month. After asking around, doing some research, etc, I decided I need to be eating way closer to my goal. So for the past week I've started doing so, and three pounds have melted off so far. A lot of people (including me, before!) think that fewer calories = more fat lost. While to a certain degree this is true, if you eat TOO few, your body basically holds on to the fat instead of losing it. You won't necessarily gain, you just won't lose, either. If you're truly full for the night, don't worry about it. If you have room later, have something small but packed with fiber or protein, like oatmeal. It will give you a few more calories, so you won't find yourself worrying about it. I hope I helped in some way. :flowerforyou:

Generally speaking, your calorie goal is based on the amount of weight you want to lose and you need a minimum of that number for your body to function without going into fat-storing, or starvation mode.

For the average person NOT trying to lose weight, 1600-2000 calories a day are recommended. That's in order to maintain their current weight.

My calorie goal, for example, is currently set at 1200. That's to lose about a pound per week. I will admit that sometimes I find it difficult to hit my goal, especially on days that I exercise more, because I don't consume a high number of calories anyway. BUT, it's important to try to eat *at least* that many, otherwise your body is likely to start storing fat because it doesn't think it's getting enough fuel to allow you to lose anything.

If you were maybe 10-30 calories under, I wouldn't worry too much about it (as long as it's not every day), but being 900 calories under is a HUGE number and I think that would be very detrimental to your progress.

Also, it may help if you set you diary so at least your friends can see it. I may be able to offer a little better advice if I could, but no pressure to!

We aren't saying that you are starving yourself honey. It's just starvation mode is something that happens usually if you don't eat at least 1200 a day. It is just when the body thinks it needs to hold onto its fat because it doesn't think it's going to get enough fuel to help it run. Just keep working at balancing your eating habits and after a while of planning it gets easier to reach your goal every day. (=

Don't feel obligated to get to those calories right now, but 900 below is a lot. I'd pick up a few hundred calories with something with a good bit of protein and fat. IMO, it is more important to get to the goal levels for those two than for the carbs. I'd also probably take a multi-vitamin with that food just to make sure I'm getting those.

ETA: I focus on me weekly totals more than my daily totals. I'll be under some days, over others.

I;m sure this has been asked before but I have no clue what the answer is or where to find it. As of right now i have 900 more calories to consume but I'm full so is this ok to be under calories? Or should I try to meet my calorie goal each day? Any answers would help and thank you in advance everyone!!!!

It's NOT OK - not unless you want to totally sabotage your efforts.
A small variance is no biggie - something like 200 calories.

It's different for each person, but you are advised here to reach your goals, eating back your exercise calories.
Simply stated MFP has already figured out your total calories you need to eat per day to lose 1lb etc. a week. That's WITHOUT exercise. You'll notice that when you actually add exercise in, the calorie limit goes up. Why? Because it's telling you to eat your exercise calories. Large deficits aren't really good to do because while you will lose weight, what kind of weight will it be? In many cases you'll lose lean muscle tissue which LOWERS your metabolic rate even more. Then you have to eat even less to compensate for less of a calorie burn to continue to lose the same amount of weight each week.
Be efficient. Exercise hard and eat back the calories. The hard exercise will RAISE your metabolic rate and burn more fat at rest.

There is a good explanation here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/390234-does-starvation-mode-exist-and-what-is-it


Plan ahead tomorrow so you don't get caught so short on your calories.

Im no doctor...but heres my thoughts on this. Being under calories on occasion is ok..if your not hungry dont eat just to eat. I dont know about you...but I would eat for boredom..or because other people were or because someone told me I should. It lead to alot of my weight gain. Soooo, if you are under calories on occasiion...ok....but not all the time. ...or even more than once or twice a week. Your body needs the energy and food is the fuel for that energy. But that is up to you..and if nothing else...i would call your doctor and ask them

I found at first it was really hard to get all my calories in. But as I became accustomed to eating differently, it became much easier to reach my calorie goals.
And once I added exercise in then it became MUCH easier because I was hungrier.

Being under every once in awhile won't kill you. However if it is a continual thing you will find yourself become lethargic, tired and/or grouchy. Then you know you need to really make yourself eat.

You are being proactive about it and thats good!

I had to eat some high calorie foods like nuts, peanut butter, avocados and hummus to reach my goals at first. Maybe you could add some of that kind of thing in

No! Of course not!!! I suggest you drink up! :drinker:

Not sure if that drink up was for me,, but it works.. lol

I have this problem as well so thanks for the thread, it may help me as well! :-) I seem to end up about 150-200 shy most days, I am not tired or hungry, it's darn bizarre actually!!

I am adding in a full exercise schedule next week, so hopefully that will make me hungrier! I don't want to set myself back but have a hard time with eating, even healthy, just to fill calories... As a serious e
Emotional over eater it feels, wrong somehow...