Trouble reaching 1200 calories

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jillianarnould
jillianarnould Posts: 17
in Food and Nutrition
Ok, so I am generally a pretty good/healthful eater. Since I started using MFP two days ago and started *really* watching what i eat, in other words measuring, weighing, etc., I have had a really problem reaching my max calories! I know that this won't always be the case. But today I was 300 shy. Ouch! I AM NOT starving myself. As a matter of fact I have eaten very good meals today. I just loaded up on veggies that had hardly ANY calories in them. I don't eat junk. I cook everything I make, so that makes it easier to watch the calories. What if I was already consuming around 1200 daily and didnt' know it???? Would that mean I need to scale back even more?????

I don't know if this is a bad thing. I have read on here about putting your body into starvation mode. I'm pretty sure that is not gonna happen with me. Just a little confused about this whole calorie thing????

Any suggestions?

Replies

  • goodinmeek
    goodinmeek Posts: 13
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    Hello-
    Looking at your photo, I would say that you probably don't need to lose any weight at all. So are you just trying to "get healthy"? I know that when I am logging my intake every day, I tend to stay under 1200 calories, too. However, I KNOW I wasn't consuming 1200 before. I am like you...eat lots of veggies and lean protein and stay away from high calorie foods. Why don't you give yourself a week and see how it goes. You may lose weight very quickly because you are more conscious of what you are eating. If you are like me, I was consuming calories before without really focusing on what I was eating.
    Good luck to ya! Are you excersizing at all?
  • mamaturner
    mamaturner Posts: 2,533 Member
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    Ok so first off I'm totally jealous, I have troubles staying in my calorie intake limit. However, if you put your information into this website, they probably gave you the correct allowance amount to reach your goal. My advice is use it just to make sure that you are eating healthy and you can watch how many calories you typically take in during the day. Side note I have a book that tells you different amounts to use to figure out your caloric intake, which seems to be different to the numbers mfp uses. For instance if you want to decrease weight - 9.1, maintain weight - 13.6 and increase weight - 18.2 you then multiply whichever number you need with your desired weight and it will give you what this book says you should take in. That would at least give you another idea of what you should take in to reach your goal!
  • argburr
    argburr Posts: 25
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    I know you probably feel full because of all of the veggies, and it's a lot of good fiber, but no matter what you should never go below 1200 calories a day. Your body will go into starvation mode and start using the glucose in you blood/other places in you body for energy 1st and then start getting energy from you muscles (you don't want this). Adipose tissue (fat) is the last place your body goes for energy. I'm sure you probably don't feel hungry but your body thinks you aren't feeding it enough --> starvation mode, metabolism drops which is the opposite reaction you want. Try to get at least 1200 cal a day. the reason you need at least 1200 is because you BMR is higher than that. (BMR is the amount of calories you body needs to work properly even if you do nothing but sit on the couch all day).

    Welcome to MFP :smile:
  • songbyrdsweet
    songbyrdsweet Posts: 5,691 Member
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    Do you feel this is truly representative of EVERY day?
  • courtney_love2001
    courtney_love2001 Posts: 1,468 Member
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    Peanut butter, nuts, milk. These are high cal items that don't put a lot of volume in your stomach. They help me out on those days when I am under by a lot. Unfortunately, I just finished off a tub of dark chocolate dreams peanut butter and perhaps I have an obsession...:bigsmile:
  • twilight1542
    twilight1542 Posts: 403
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    Your body is a machine & food is it's fuel. It won't function properly unless it is being kept fed.

    From your profile I see that ur trying to lose 15lbs. So if you've been eating the same way (eg same content & calories per day) for awhile & haven't lost weight then you may need to....... ugh.....eat more. At 1200 cals a day you should be losing weight since the average female should be eating around 2000 cals, giving you around an 800 calorie deficit.

    Increasing calories doesn't mean eating unhealthy. There are lots of healthy foods that have a lot of calories in them. For example nuts. Almonds are my go-to nuts & something I eat when I find myself under on calories. 1/4 cup of dry roasted unsalted almonds have 180 cals, 16grams fat (no trans fat), & 7 grams protein. They're also yummy. So just add some different foods to your diet & you should haven't any trouble hitting your min cals per day ...BTW-1200 cals per day does not include exercise so if you exercise you have to eat more than that
  • jillianarnould
    jillianarnould Posts: 17
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    Hello-
    Looking at your photo, I would say that you probably don't need to lose any weight at all. So are you just trying to "get healthy"? I know that when I am logging my intake every day, I tend to stay under 1200 calories, too. However, I KNOW I wasn't consuming 1200 before. I am like you...eat lots of veggies and lean protein and stay away from high calorie foods. Why don't you give yourself a week and see how it goes. You may lose weight very quickly because you are more conscious of what you are eating. If you are like me, I was consuming calories before without really focusing on what I was eating.
    Good luck to ya! Are you excersizing at all?

    Thanks for your input :smile: It may look as if I don't need to loose weight, but it's hidden well, lol. I will definitely keep to logging in everything I eat. It's already helping me to make much more healthful decisions. I started doing Pilates on Tuesday. I'm doing the Winsor Pilates videos which are about 20 minutes a day. I know that's not a lot. My goal is to add to that about 3 days of cardio weekly. Either walking or the elliptical. I'm taking baby steps right now because I haven't been consistent in exercising in the past and want to build the habit.
  • jillianarnould
    jillianarnould Posts: 17
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    Do you feel this is truly representative of EVERY day?

    No, I don't. For instance, I know that tomorrow I'll be having a big dinner. So I'm trying to plan what to eat the rest of the day to account for my caloric intake at dinner. However, prior to making a concentrated effort in watching what I ate I would frequently over-eat and consume lots of sweets.
  • jillianarnould
    jillianarnould Posts: 17
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    Peanut butter, nuts, milk. These are high cal items that don't put a lot of volume in your stomach. They help me out on those days when I am under by a lot. Unfortunately, I just finished off a tub of dark chocolate dreams peanut butter and perhaps I have an obsession...:bigsmile:

    They make chocolate peanut butter????? Well, I think that I just found my answer, lol! I will try to implement some more of these items the next couple of days. Thanks :wink:
  • courtney_love2001
    courtney_love2001 Posts: 1,468 Member
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    Yeah by Peanut Butter and Co. They have it at Wal-Mart. It is all natural too, and it is the best thing everrrrrr I literally eat it by the tablespoon!
  • mamiej
    mamiej Posts: 5
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    THANK YOU.

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