Why You Should Eat More: A Lion's Tale

OP, I am happy for your success and this seems to work for you so keep at it. This post is targeted at other people who feel like they are in a similar situation.

Are you guys thinking about WHAT you're eating??? I'm a vegetarian, I work as a cook in a busy kitchen, so my calorie allowance is just under 1,400 calories a day. I don't do any exercise outside of what I do in work (if you can call that exercise). I went from eating around 3,000 calories a day straight to what I am eating now and all that I have noticed is that I have more energy, I can get out of bed earlier, and my moods have balanced out. Because I am a vegetarian I eat a LOT of vegetables and fruit as snacks. I can cram a lot into a 600 calorie meal because my food is mostly composed of vegetables and pulses. Therefore I get all my essential nutrients without going above my calorie limit. As well as the protein I get from the pulses I eat, I have a boiled egg about 3 or 4 times a week. It is a fact that the majority of meat eaters consume at least 3 times their RDA of protein on a regular basis and I find a vegetarian diet makes it so easy to balance out all your vitamins and minerals. I'm not saying anyone should convert to a vegetarian diet as this is my lifestyle choice, however eating chicken or fish in every meal or any other type of meat that is low in fat is not always the answer.

Not getting your essential nutrients is what is making you feel this way. Calculate your daily calorie needs here once you know your BMR http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/harris-benedict-equation/. In order to lose weight you need to consume 500 calories a day less than your body burns off each day, but no less than 1,000 calories as this is when you can damage your health. I worked out that My Fitness Pal sets my target calories at about a 900 cal defecit of what this equation says I need. What is currently working for me is eating slightly less than my 1380 calories about 2 days out of the week, having a few extras for 3 or 4 of the days, and then eating about 500 calories above for 1 or 2 days of the week. This was a tip a bodybuilder gave me to keep my metabolism and my rate of weight loss high. I've been up and down with diets for years, but I got back on the wagon about 2 weeks ago and I've lost 10lbs. Okay, so this isn't a 'healthy' weight loss and people would argue it isn't 'sustainable', however all I know is that at my starting weight of 202lbs I was feeling extremely unhealthy, walking short distances was leaving me out of breath, and basically I was doing a lot of damage to my body. I will avoid hitting that weight loss wall by varying my calories each day, and I will be extremely careful to keep the weight off and make this a long-term thing as I never want to slip back into my old habits and end up putting myself in an early grave.

Anyway, bottom line is, it's difficult to consume all the right nutrients on 1,200 calories a day or whatever. Maybe instead of putting all your focus into BMR and how much you can consume and how much you can't etc I strongly recommend you look into your actual diet as this is a MAJOR issue with losing weight by counting calories without a tailored diet to tell you what to eat. Creating a calorie defecit by exercise is always the healthiest way to lose weight (for example eating 1,800 calories a day but hitting the gym for 2 hours 3 times a week) but if you're anything like me and you simply have too busy a lifestyle to do this then look at what is in the foods you are actually consuming to meet your calorie quota and consider having an 'up/down' calorie allowance to keep your metabolism high.

Honestly, quality of food plays a huge role as well. Hair falling out is from malnutrition, not lack of calories if you are still overweight. Upping calories and still eating crap is still unhealthy.

WHAT you eat is important and you're correct, hair loss is from malnutrition, not just lack of calories.

However, the lower your calorie goal, the more difficult it is to get every nutrient you need. The average person doesn't know or doesn't care enough about nutrition to manage it on a low calorie diet. Even under medical supervision (and/or the supervision of a dietitian), most people are just not careful enough on a low calorie diet.

Furthermore, 'eating crap' is... somewhat subjective. Many believe that processed food is automatically bad and therefore 'crap', but its not always. You can meet your basic nutritional needs and stay healthy on processed food. You can eat white flour. You can eat white sugar. You can eat butter and milk and eggs and whatever... and you'll be fine from a nutritional perspective.

You can also meet your basic nutritional needs, of course, by eating clean. You can meet them by excluding that scary white flour from your diet. You can meet them by eating paleo- meat, veggies, some fruits, minimal grains. You can meet them by eating vegetarian.

And so on.

So since there's a million different ways to eat and meet your nutritional needs as long as you've got enough calories in your daily diet to do that.....

Well... when your hair starts falling out and you're feeling like crap, a good way to fix that is simply eat more. Odds are, you'll get the basics in. You can fine-tune later.

Honestly, quality of food plays a huge role as well. Hair falling out is from malnutrition, not lack of calories if you are still overweight. Upping calories and still eating crap is still unhealthy.

WHAT you eat is important and you're correct, hair loss is from malnutrition, not just lack of calories.

However, the lower your calorie goal, the more difficult it is to get every nutrient you need. The average person doesn't know or doesn't care enough about nutrition to manage it on a low calorie diet. Even under medical supervision (and/or the supervision of a dietitian), most people are just not careful enough on a low calorie diet.

Furthermore, 'eating crap' is... somewhat subjective. Many believe that processed food is automatically bad and therefore 'crap', but its not always. You can meet your basic nutritional needs and stay healthy on processed food. You can eat white flour. You can eat white sugar. You can eat butter and milk and eggs and whatever... and you'll be fine from a nutritional perspective.

You can also meet your basic nutritional needs, of course, by eating clean. You can meet them by excluding that scary white flour from your diet. You can meet them by eating paleo- meat, veggies, some fruits, minimal grains. You can meet them by eating vegetarian.

And so on.

So since there's a million different ways to eat and meet your nutritional needs as long as you've got enough calories in your daily diet to do that.....

Well... when your hair starts falling out and you're feeling like crap, a good way to fix that is simply eat more. Odds are, you'll get the basics in. You can fine-tune later.

I agree... if your hair falls out, you need to eat more food. Hopefully the health goals of people here go beyond 'be skinny and have hair though', so I wanted to make people aware that if you are having issues like that when extremely CR, then you probably need to reexamine your diet in general. Upping from 1000 calories of low-quality food to 1500 may resolve acute health issues, but is still a recipe for long-term problems.

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So help me out, I'm very curious about this...

I currently have a goal of 1450 on MFP, plus I tend to eat back most, but not all of my exercise calories. I exercise about 6 days per week and burn an average of 300-400 calories per workout. After two months, I think I've lost about 2 pounds, but with water weight, it's hard to tell. Judging from my clothes, there is no change in size.

Further, I have been exercising and dieting for 18 months. One thing I did was see a nutritionist. She recommended eating more (I was on Weight Watchers and having totally the same problem and losing NOTHING), so I tried 1800-2000 calories. I gained 20 pounds in three and a half months, but I was "eyeballing" my food--not measuring or recording--it's possible I was eating more. I'm not sure, though.

Since this keeps coming up, I'm wondering if I should try it again. What do I have to do? This is what I know:
BMP=1610
TDEE=2778

I'm 5'9", 180 lbs, 30 years old, and small-framed. Until a sports injury two years ago, I've been healthy at about 135-140 for most of my adult life. I'm a life-long vegetarian and a pretty clean eater. I have had my thyroid tested and that's not an issue. I seem to baffle both my nutritionist and my doctor, so I'm willing to hear the tips!

Thanks!

Thank you so much! I think I'll start edging up a bit at a time. I really appreciate your insight.

THANKS SOOOO MUCH FOR POSTING THIS. Add me if you want, I may have a ton of questions :embarassed: :frown: