Never thought I'd complain about not enough food!

T

tamaralnorton

Cathlete
How do you all make sure you're getting enough of your daily caloric needs?! I log my meals in sparkpeople and I've been coming up really short lately. My recommended daily requirement is anywhere from 1730 - 1900 calories to lose, and GOD that scares me! I'm curious and wondering if this is why I'm not losing faster? I average about a pound a week right now and I do heavy lifting (GS, S&H, etc rotations) with cardio at least 5x/week (more like 6).

I'm wondering if by not getting those extra couple hundred calories, I'm slowing my progress? As an example, I came in at approx. 1400 calories after dinner so I made a protein shake with lean dessert whipped vanilla, 6 oz light soy milk and half a banana. It was delicious but I'm really nervous about bumping it up to 1700 calories. After adding the shake, I'm still not at 1700. Anyone else experienced this? Am I being completely anal? Thanks, as always :*
 
I used the calculator on this website to figure out my calorie intake to maintain my weight when I was trying to lose after giving birth.

http://www.annecollins.com/calories/calorie-needs-women.htm

I then calculated a 500 calorie deficit and used the 2 figures to calorie stagger. It worked like a charm.

If you are nervous about your numbers, double check them with the calculator above. If you are still nervous, take the activity level down a notch from where you TRULY think you are at. That should lessen the cals a little with out being harmful to your goals.

To answer your question though, yes eating too few calories is not healthy. Too few calories will put your body into starvation mode and thwart your progress.

HTH!
 
Oh and one more thing to consider....

When I was calorie staggering it was ofcourse along with eating clean and healthy. On my maintenence days I had to reach just over 2000 calories. I felt like I was going to throw up. LOL I had to FORCE that last snack down my throat to make the calorie goal. You have to eat ALOT more healthy food to make a calorie goal then if you were to eat the same cals in greasy, rich, super fattening stuff.

Just something to keep in mind for days when you feel like you are eating too much. ;)
 
Hi There Wendy,

Yes, I have Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle and I actually used the Harris Benedict method from the book and ta da! And my eating is clean as it is (except for my cheat meal(s)) so it's just hard to reach that number. I always LOVE a good lean dessert protein shake though, yuummmmmyyy!

I have decided to try the staggering method though just to see how it works. How long do you follow it for - a week? Any suggestions on it before I try it?? Thanks!!
 
You can do the calorie staggering method for as long as you need to in order to reach you goal weight. It really has no limit to it except that you have to be willing to track the cals and it will be even more effective if you track micronutrients too. I tracked it all with fitday but I'm sure you can do the same on spark, no?
 
Man I wish I could err on the side of not meeting my calorie requirement! My calorie requirement is ~1600 right now, since I'm trying to lose these last 5 pounds, and I can't seem to get below 1700--and this is when I'm eating super clean *sigh*.

I think it's because I'm trying to be very conscious about meeting my daily calcium requirement--getting in that extra serving of dairy makes a difference in the calorie count!

Those of you who are coming in at 1400, 1500 calories a day--mind sharing some of your meal ideas? I'm trying so hard to stick to clean foods, but still find myself going over my calorie count :(.
 
Hi Wendy,
I love sparkpeople - it's very user friendly. The BFFM book has the staggering method in it so I've just got to sit down and figure it out. I can do it, as I track my foods anyway, it just freaks me the heck out that right now I'm not meeting the 1700+ cals... I mean, I CAN DO IT, but then I feel guilty...I guess I've got mental issues ;)
 
Hi Peggy,

I didn't get any extra books with mine but I do have a copy of the book if you'd like it. I really enjoy it and he's got so many good pointers. You can email me at [email protected] or just give me your email address and I can attach it as a .pdf file ;) You'll like it!
 
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