Having a hard time getting enough calories?
 

I never thought that would be a problem for me, but I find that at night I am scrambling to find something to eat so I am not way under my calories. It can't be good to eat at 8-9pm. I find that after dinner most nights I am at around 1100 calories. So I struggle to eat something quick that has a couple hundered calories. It just doesn't feel right to eat when I am not hungry, but I don't want to risk gaining weight from not eating enough.

I keep a food log, and every single time I eat I write it all down and I can see that I am low on calories after lunch, and I know that dinner won't have that many calories, but at that point I am just not hungry enough to eat more.

So how do you do it? Anyone else have a problem with this?

I eat three meals and three snacks. The snacks are 2 to 3 hours after the last meal.

There is a long time between lunch and dinner!

What is your calorie target, btw?

When I'm on my weight loss regimen, my target is an average of 1500 cals a day. (Your target may be different.) So, breakfast, lunch, and dinner are approximately 400 cals each (more or less). The snacks are 100 cals each (more or less).

You can add calories by increasing portion size slightly. For example, if you are used to having 3 ounces of chicken breast, have 4 ounces. Same with something like green beans. Instead of 1/3 cup of mashed potatoes, have 1/2 cup.

I always have a snack with protein before I work out.

Hope that gives you some ideas!

Jay

I wish I had your problem! My advice would be to make sure you are having snacks. Add a mid morning and afternoon snack, and that should do the trick. Otherwise, you can try adding a few more nutrient dense items to your meals, like nuts (1/4 cup of walnuts is 200 calories, but has a lot of healthy fats for you).

I have the same problem. Usually when I eat a Salad as a main course for either lunch or dinner. For example yesterday I was way under my calories and I tried to eat some triscuts but just couldn't down them. Other day's I am over my calories. It's just weird.

I have a few questions for you...
1. How many pounds are you losing per week?
2. How many calories are you trying to eat per day?
3. Are you weighing food, measuring it, or just eyeballing it to figure out your calories?

My thought is...if you are not hungry, don't eat! Many of us are trying to lose weight because we did not listen to our body before, and we ate more food even though we felt full or otherwise ate food when we weren't actually hungry, perhaps to deal with our feelings. If you are losing 2-4 pounds per week (after the initial first 2 weeks or so, when many people lose more), then you are probably OK.

My other concern is perhaps you are getting more calories than you think. If you are not actually weighing your food, you are probably eating more than you realize. Every time I get out "one roll", "one cookie", or "15 crackers" it ALWAYS weighs more then the package says it should. In general, it is recommended that women eat at least 1200 calories per day, so if you can get yourself to 1200, I wouldn't worry. Good luck!

This is day 10 for me and I have lost 5lbs so far. I am trying to eat around 1400 calories a day. I only weigh meat or things that I can't count out like my carrots/grapes, things like that.

I have breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack. I drink around 80-100oz of water a day. Right now it is 5:30 and I am about to make dinner. So far today I have had 857 calories, the most dinner will be is 300 calories, and most of my snacks are under 100 calories. And 857 at this time of day is a lot more than most days. Most days by this time I have about 700, but I ate a little extra for snack this afternoon trying to up the calories a little.

1400 cals sounds OK. I don't agree with "eat only when you're hungry" for someone just starting out, because a lot of folks have no idea when they are getting hungry when they begin a program. This sounds like you. It's best in these cases to go by the numbers--what time and how many calories.

Work on figuring out how to add more calories throughout the day, as has been suggested.

Jay

This happens to almost everyone! Trust me, it's a good sign that you're on the right diet. You're at a point where you decide if your diet is going to succeed or fail- it's all based on how much you eat. You're going to have to force yourself to eat at regular intervals, and ENOUGH calories, or once this "not hungry" phase goes away, you might not be able to control the hunger your body will be giving you.

Trust me, force yourself. It's not fun, but it's worth it, and after a few weeks (1-4 for most people) you'll start to feel normal again.

I do have this problem once in awhile, where I am still short a couple hundred calories at the end of the day. If I really don't feel like eating (which isn't usually the case!) I put some almond butter on a plate, throw it in the microwave for 30 seconds or less, and then slice a banana onto the plate. I eat the banana, smearing up the almond butter along the way. The last time I did this, it was 135 calories. If it's still not enough and I can't think of anything else I want to eat, I'll have hot tea with milk and honey (25 cal) and call it a night.

I would try to get over the 1200 cal mark everyday if possible, but would focus on you average calorie intake. If you've been very low for a few days, then have a high calorie day to compensate.

Do you like yoghurt? That's a pretty healthy snack that you can eat everyday, but has quite a lot of calories. Also, are you saving calories for the evening? I now plan my evening meal the day before, so that I know how many calories I can eat during to day.