Not eating enough calories

KimC2010

So after using MyPlate to track my calorie consumption for the last three days I have found that I don't eat enough calories, which seems odd to me.  I don't feel hungry and I stop eating when I'm full.  I'm even consuming 1-2 sodas a day.  I've been eating like this for quite some time, is this why I have gained weight? I've gained about 5 lbs in the last two years (actually I gained 10 lbs and I've lost 5 in a year). 1727 is my goal net calories according to MyPlate, Monday was 1730, Tuesday 899 and today 1337.  I worked out 30 mins Monday and 40 minutes yesterday and today. Like I said I don't feel hungry. Any suggestions?

botgirl

It's better to track weekly calories rather than daily calories because we all eat so differently from day to day in what we eat and how much we work out etc.  I think some of the calorie tracker apps are a bit off too.  Good luck!

AdeleDazeem

You only ate 899 calories one day?  I would've eaten my hand off!

First, I'd suggest checking your serving sizes when putting them into myplate.  Serving sizes are much smaller than we realize and you could be under-counting your calories.

Next, if you do eat too little, your body thinks you are starving it and holds onto every bit of energy you consume.  Typically, if you just laid in bed and watched TV/eat all day, you'd need 1200 calories to support your body.  Movement and exercise ups this number. 

I would try to up your calories and see what happens.  It's easy to add calories back in - look at the US population

kayakrunhike

It is definitely possible to not eat enough cals and gain weight.  Looking back, I was eating at most 1200 cals per day, which was WAY too low for the amount of exercise I was doing, and my height/weight.  As soon as I added in more cals, 1500-1700ish, more if I had an intense workout that day, I literally lost 5 lbs in a couple weeks.  It is not safe or healthy to only eat 900 cals in one day, no matter how hungry you are or aren't.  Also, you need to increase the amount of cals you take in on a workout day.  You can do with less on non workout days, but not 900.

As a PP pointed out, more commonly, we underestimate our calorie intake.  Weigh/measure your portion sizes to make sure they are what you think they are.

Look for healthy calorie rich foods to include in your diet, so you don't feel like you're stuffing yourself.  Avocado is one off the top of my head.  I'm blanking on others,b ut my coffee hasn't kicked in yet this morning. 

KimC2010

No I ate more than that.  899 was my net after working out. I had 1133 calories that day. Sorry I was looking at the net numbers (consumed - exercise = net) rather than the consumed.  I know that's still a little low, but like I said I wasn't hungry at the end of the day.  The only thing I could have miss entered that day was the mac and cheese.  Everything else was prepackaged. Even my average is low its only 1405.  I'm a over today because of the free pizza at lunch. Can't resist free food. Its my downfall.

KimC2010

Okay to go with the tracking calories for the week.  Would be good to basically track the calories throughout the week, find the average, and then compare to how many calories I should be eating per day? When I do that for this week I am only about 20 calories off. I've always struggled with the eating part more than the exercise.  I love exercise, trying to meet calorie goals are a whole other issue.