Just curious to hear your thoughts. I noticed I’m barely eating 1200 calories each day. After eating mostly eggs, chicken, veggies/fruit, I noticed I don’t have much of an appetite. I walk about 10,000 steps a day. I’m worried I may not be eating enough. Anyone experienced this? If it’s not an issue then I’m more than okay with not having much of an appetite. But I’m only 3 weeks in, maybe it will catch up with me lol. I guess I’m mostly concerned if eating 1200 calories a day is okay long term. Thanks for your help!
I don’t count calories and I never will, I think your calories per day changed wildly depending what fasting schedule you’re doing. I do ADF (I do not eat Monday, Wednesday or Friday on my eating days I do 1-2 meals no snacks). I’m a point away from my GW and I eat wayyy more than 1200 calories in my eating days and I’m also 5’6”. I do eat keto aka very low carb.
I mean 1200 calorie low carb diet is the go to diet Dr Now puts everyone on to start on ‘My 600LB Life’ - if that gives you any idea. Track the scale, how you feel, blood sugars, etc. and adjust as needed. I personally go quite low on calories at times and I’m a competitive bodybuilder - some of us just have slower metabolisms and require less. I base my calories off of the scale, mirror, measurements, and how I feel. Blood sugars - how quickly scale is moving or not over weeks - etc. if you feel good at 1200 I’d see what happens after a few weeks and assess
I used to eat below 1000 kcal, but once I added in nuts, my daily calorie intake went up a lot. If you feel okay and are not losing muscle on 1200 kcal, then it’s fine, but consider adding nuts if you feel that you need some extra calories!
I believe best is to stop counting and listen to your body.
(The ‘science’ on caloric needs is wishy-washy at best. And people are extremely different. And there is variation from day to day and week to week. It is easier to listen to your body, when tuning out the emotional noise from counting the calories. Same goes for weighing yourself actually. Not doing it, can improve results in my experience.)
If you’re not eating enough, your body will downregulate your energy output, or will make you constantly hungry and/or tired. This is not a long term problem, the body will find the right balance.
While calories do matter in the end, you don’t need to chase a specific calorie target (either too low or too high) if you’re following a well-formulated fasting focused lifestyle. Just eat good foods until you are no longer hungry, keep to your schedule, and don’t snack between meals. As your body heals, you will naturally trend towards eating the appropriate amount of food.
I would try to get in the habit of completely ignoring calories, although it can be very difficult to do so mentally, if you’ve spent a lot of time on diets in the past.
Wow thank you I’m definitely going to check that out.I’ve been lifting for a long time so I’m pretty thick, I don’t know if I’ll get to 175. Hopefully once I’m there I can find a way to maintain that if it feels good.