Thoughts on Under Eating When Not Hungry

So I'm supposed to eat 1200 calories a day, anf with my activity level lately and eating back those calories, it's actually between 1400 and 1600 these days.

The last few days in particular I haven't had any appetite. I have been practicing eating only when I'm hungry, and have found at the end of both days that I hit MAYBE 700 calories. I do not feel a lack of energy or hungry or faint and I know my food measurents are accurate.

Anyway, tomorrow I am planning on packing enough food to hit the calories I need and just eat it regardless of hunger. I know eating 700 calories at the end of the day is a bad plan so this is what I've come up with.

What do you think? I've always felt like part of my eating problem is that I eat when Im bored or stressed but not necessarily hungry, so it feels wrong taking so much food and possibly eating it even when I'm not hungry.

Replies

unknown

While I use the daily 1500 calorie budget as a guideline, I pay more attention to my weekly totals-- which averages somewhere between 10,000 (or ~1428/day) and 11,500 (or ~1643/day). I've found I have a pretty predictable weekly hunger/eating pattern: Sundays and Mondays I'm usually right at 1400-1500; Tuesdays and Wednesdays are usually really low (maybe 1000- 1100); Thursdays I'm back to about 1400-1500, and then on Fridays and Saturdays I could be as high as 3,000 (!). But that makes a weekly total of ~11,000-- so I'm still in budget for the week, (and losing about 1.5 lbs per week.)

unknown

ninerbuff wrote: »

leahraskie wrote: »

If you aren't hungry, you aren't hungry. It's not like you aren't eating anything that day, just continue to eat when you feel hungry. You aren't forcing yourself to starve so it likely wouldn't have a negative impact on anything- you might be getting a decent level of glucose when you do eat and your body just stays happy throughout the day.

Eating a 700 calories a day is starving. That's 52.5g of carbs at 210 calories, 70g of protein at 280, and 23g of fat at 210 calories on a 30/40/30 ratio. Without any exercise. Low on all measures.
There are people with eating disorders don't feel hungry either.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Starvation implies little to no calorie intake, and deficit on glucose which is the real problem in starvation. 700 isn't starvation, if you're trying to hit a certain ratio in that aspect perhaps. By your standards I'm low on 1 or 2 of your measures and starving myself, but that definitely isn't the case.

unknown

I have those little caloric days on weekends where I don't meet my 1900-2000 goal.
There was a time when I'd eat 500-800 calories a day for a month. It was horrible, my metabolism crashed and it made it impossible to cut fat since I was already low and working out.