Below Calorie Goal

bandenna
bandenna Posts: 89 Member
edited December 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
Hello Everyone :)

I just started using myfitnesspal a couple days ago and at the end of every day I am below my calorie goal. It says that my body may go into "starvation mode". Strange, I don't feel hungry. It also says I have like 1,000 calories or so left to consume. Whenever I do try to reach the goal, it seems like alot of food. I do want to loose the weight but why does it require me to eat so much??

Replies

  • neelia
    neelia Posts: 750 Member
    How many calories are you eating on average? & are you exercising?
  • ahubbard134
    ahubbard134 Posts: 61 Member
    you could make your diary public. How did you enter your fitness level when you started? If you said anything higher than "Sedentary," you may be double counting exercise calories if you already counted a certain amount of workouts in your goals.
  • loombeav
    loombeav Posts: 391 Member
    Your body needs fuel to properly function. If you are getting a message saying you may go into starvation mode that means you are eating less then 1200 calories a day, which is considered a VLCD and is not healthy or sustainable. Even MFP generally sets intake goals on the low side, expecting you to track and eat back your exercise calories. The healthiest way to determine what your intake should be is to figure out your BMR and TDEE. A good site for that is fat2fitradio.com, use the Military BF calculator to find your BF% then use the BMR calculator to determine what your intake should be to maintain a healthy & sustainable weight loss while preserving lean muscle.
  • Mom0fTwo
    Mom0fTwo Posts: 326 Member
    it will take you a little while to get used to eating that much if you are one of those people that barely ate before, cause I used to be like that, I used to think i was dieting properly and i wasn't one time on mfp i logged a regular day on my "old diet" and sometimes i barely hit 1000 cals, clearly that was the issue, took me a month to get used to eating the 1400 that i have to and now that i am used to that i have been trying to eat cleaner which means even more food lol,dont worry you will get there :)
  • bandenna
    bandenna Posts: 89 Member
    today I have consumed 980 calories and it says i have 1996 to go
  • bandenna
    bandenna Posts: 89 Member
    I walked 3mph for 1 hour on the trials and I rode my horse 2 hours half the time trotting half walking.
  • loombeav
    loombeav Posts: 391 Member
    today I have consumed 980 calories and it says i have 1996 to go
    What is your daily goal & activity level set at? 980 calories is not enough to properly fuel your body.
  • bandenna
    bandenna Posts: 89 Member
    Perhaps that is why my body retains all my weight. I dont feel hungry though. Ive never heard of starvation mode untill I started this. I thought it was only for really thin people, not overweight people like myself.
  • Toddrific
    Toddrific Posts: 1,114 Member
    Hmm, always assume it is overestimating the calories burned during exercise. You aren't double counting exercise (marked yourself as active then logging exercise)
  • jaymek92
    jaymek92 Posts: 309 Member
    you definitely need to eat more.
    if you find that eating a vast quantity of food is hard, try eating more calorically dense foods, such as nuts, avocados, bananas, milk, yogurt, etc. if you eat meat, have steak and pork.
  • loombeav
    loombeav Posts: 391 Member
    We are designed to survive, so when you are eating, but not enough to actually fuel your body properly, then it will protect itself by slowing down your metabolism and retaining fat rather then burning it. You need to increase you intake to a healthy (above BMR) level and retrain your body into knowing that it's ok to burn fat.
    Also, as others have mentioned you do not want to double up your calories. If you set your intake as very active, which if today is a normal day you should, then you do not want to eat back your exercise calories. Again I suggest you check out fat2fitradio.com and determine what your intake should be based on your actual activity level.
  • bandenna
    bandenna Posts: 89 Member
    my daily calorie goal is 2,949. today I burned 1079 calories exercising and the goal is 245. Not sure if that makes any sence but that's what it tells me. I checked to see if i added in something that I shouldn't have but I cant see anything out of place that i have done today.
  • bandenna
    bandenna Posts: 89 Member
    thanks, this might help me alot :)
  • susannamarie
    susannamarie Posts: 2,148 Member
    2949 today or every day?

    If that's just today counting 1079 exercise calories it looks like your goal is 1870. How much weight did you tell MFP you wanted to lose? How did you set your activity level? If you set a high activity level, that includes exercise calories and you shouldn't eat more of them back.

    The 1079 may be an overestimate -- I wouldn't trust it. When I'm using MFP estimates I always underestimate my exercise and then enter the underestimate and eat THOSE back.

    However -- 998 is too low.
  • bandenna
    bandenna Posts: 89 Member
    susannamarie, you're probably right. I've never done this before so all this counting calorie thing is bran new to me lol. I want to lose 50 pounds and I wasnt sure about my activity level. i didnt know what people consider high activity or low, so I put light exercise. I work in a barn and I am an equestrian rider for my college, so I do get alot of exercise doing my daily chores. I dont think i should be so presice and trust the accuracy on these numbers, but i was concenred when it told me I may go into starvation mode lol.
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,423 Member
    today I have consumed 980 calories and it says i have 1996 to go

    This is a very low number of calories - I don't think you have to eat absolutely every last cal, but under 1000 isn't much to sustain anybody. The way I see it, you are running a few risks cutting calories so low:
    - it's hard to sustain this once the first excitement of your new "diet" wears off, so it's going to be much easier to give up.
    - you run the risk of not getting enough nutrition and energy to keep your body healthy and keep you feeling good and full of bounce
    - you will almost certainly lose weight in the short term, but lots of people find that their weight loss slows down or stalls because your body isn't getting enough nutrition so it tries to work more efficiently with the small amount of energy you are giving it. (ie slow down your metabolism)... and this is the opposite of what you want to achieve!

    Try planning your meals for the day ahead of time so you can see where the calories are coming from and fit in a more reasonable amount at your meals or snacks.
  • bandenna
    bandenna Posts: 89 Member
    Thankyou :) Its probably too late for me to do anything about this, so I am going to try again tomorrow. Hopefully I can plan to take care of myself and my meals. Ive learned alot from this. Never knew not eating enough can do these things to a person. You all are great help!
  • susannamarie
    susannamarie Posts: 2,148 Member
    When I said "how much weight did you tell it you wanted to lose" I meant "Did you tell it 1 lb/week, .5lb/week, etc"?

    Working in a barn certainly burns a bunch of calories, and if you are out there every day I would definitely count that as part of your activity level. But if you count it as part of your activity level, I would *not* enter your work/riding as exercise separately. If you do that, you have essentially given yourself twice the calories for the exercise.
  • bandenna
    bandenna Posts: 89 Member
    I chose the recommended 1 pound a week. And I dont count the work I do in the barn but I do count my riding. I probably should, since there is alot of lifting, shoveling, and walking I have to do. But trying to measure that may be difficult.
  • loombeav
    loombeav Posts: 391 Member
    Count the riding and barn work you do in your daily activity to determine your caloric needs, but not daily tracking to earn back. Any other exercise you do you can track and eat back if you feel like it.
  • keiraev
    keiraev Posts: 695 Member
    Why don't you change your activity settings to ACTIVE and not enter your exercise, but make sure you eat ALL your calories, none of this 900 stuff!:smile:

    Give it a couple of weeks and I am sure you will start to lose.
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