Calorie Intake

[A_Bearded_Burton]

I just recently started a diet that I like to call FA2BA (Fat A$$ 2 Bad A$$) and am new to Nerd Fitness (which I am loving more and more each day). I am doing the Paleo diet and have not really been able to reach the calorie intake each day that myfitness pal and other websites claim to be healthy. Should I be concerned??? My overall goal is to be functionally fit (I have a long way to go) and take Joe's title of best transformation ever. I want to get there the most healthy way. Should I be trying to increase my calorie intake or just keep up with what I am doing. Right now I am averaging around 1300 calories a day, but don't ever feel hungry because for the most part I am eating all vegetables, eggs and chicken. Any suggestions?

[Grymm]

1300 is pretty low unless you are very small and inactive.  What's the calorie target?  MFP is a good tool for general tracking.  It becomes better after using it for a while because you can add personal experience to its recommendations to figure out if you need to modify the target.  If you're supposed to be eating say 1500 calories a day, a little avocado or nuts will get you there without really adding all that much to your volume of food.

 

Do you have an idea of how much you were eating prior to the new diet?  If you undercut your calories too far, you will get poor results on your diet.  Your body will fight you. 

[calanthrophy]

I second what @Grymm said. I'd also recommend double-checking your portion sizes to make sure you're tracking correctly. Sometimes MFP's default portion sizes are a little wonky.

[A_Bearded_Burton]

I was probably between 3500 and 4500 because it was mostly processed foods that I am avoiding now. My portions have been huge while on the diet so I am getting full. If I do get hungry between meals I eat an apple or carrots. Maybe I should substitute the apples and carrots with nuts and a higher calorie fruit??? A lot of my food has been scanned into MFP. The MFP calorie goal is 2700.

[Waldo]

Might as well stick with it until it becomes a problem.  When it does, take a week or two off and eat at maintenance, then start cutting again, this time with a more cautious deficit.

 

Depending on how much you have to lose, its possible to cut at ludicrous levels for a long time with no Ill effects.  Eventually though you'll start to really struggle with hunger, fatigue, drive, etc.., then it is time for a break.

 

Most people approach things far too cautious; the self-reinforcing feedback of the scale dropping like a rock and your clothes ballooning really helps to get the ball rolling and keeps it on course once you get past the "yay dieting!" phase (first 2-4 weeks).

[A_Bearded_Burton]

I think that I'm going to stick with that low of an intake 4 days a week and make sure that I get at least 1800 the other 3 days. I am already getting some of the reinforcing feedback (clothes because I haven't got back on the scale) that you referred to @Waldo but more importantly exercising is becoming easier by the day.

 

[SpecialSundae]

See how you go, but 1300 calories is very, very low for a man.

 

I'm a small, albeit quite active, woman and I lost weight at 2000 calories a day initially and these days lose at 2200 calories.

[Waldo]

When I first started I had MFP set to 1500 calories for the first 2 months and rapidly dropped 40 lbs.  It was probably even lower because at the time I believed all the "calorie counts for exercising are way too high" hooplah and reduced workout times by half.

 

Then I took a diet break, combed through my data and realized that exercise calorie counts were quite accurate, and started raising my cals, first to 1750, then to later to 2000 in hopes of preventing problems; futher loss after that break moved in sync with what intake would predict.  In hindsight I consider the raise to 2000 cals a mistake, as well as the timing of the move to 1750, I should have waited longer to do that; at the time I was dramatically underestimating how much I had left to lose.

[Lyatril]

I've been eating around the 1200-1500 per day similar to you as in vegetables, eggs, and chicken though I vary up the meat a bit, and only had issues with energy level when I stopped all in-between meal snacking without increasing meal size, I only ate about 700-850 for three days in a row and took a huge hit in energy level, now I've added in things like avocado with my veggies if I have a snack or with a meal and then some more nuts and seeds and a bit of fruit with my breakfast so that I'm getting enough.  For me it wasn't even a I'm hungry moment but more just not having enough energy after doing a good workout to do the rest of the day at a decent energy level.  There is a balance of eating enough to fuel your body but still maintain a deficit for loss, and that's something that is different for every person and just takes time to figure out what your body does best at, it can also change at different points in the journey too just to throw you for a loop  

[Cataleya]

Yeah it really depends on how active you are. Generally what I recommend is see what your energy levels are like and if you're making progress in your fitness goals. If you notice it's harder to concentrate, get up in the morning, finish a workout, etc., you're probably not eating enough. If you find that you're not making gains when lifting, or running faster/longer/whatever, etc., you might not be getting enough to eat. Just some thoughts.

[A_Bearded_Burton]

My energy is up. I have increased it to around 1700 a few days a week by adding the nuts and avacados. I did this to make sure that I have the energy to get after it in the exercise department, which I have done real well at. Things can be hard because of my weight but modifying movements is allowing me to still get a real good sweat.

 

My first week results were 11.5 lbs.