Well since starting my "diet" I really haven't been counting calories persay just have been watching what I eat and kinda eye balling proportions... I think I must be doing something right since I have lost 15 in 5 weeks. Thing is today I decided I would start writing down my calorie intake and for today I only ate 800 calories... thing is I feel satisfied and am not really hungry Is this bad... to tell you the truth this is how I have been eating for the past little while, is this going to affect the success of my weight loss?? Opinions please

I am actually thinking of eating something right now just for the sake of increasing my cal intake!!

Congrats on your 15lbs, that's great!

800 calories seems a bit low to me. Are you sure you're writing dowm every bite? It's easy to munch on something when you're cooking or out of a kids plate without thinking about counting it.

I hope you continue to do as well as you have been.

on your 15 Lbs loss!! That is amazing of the" non diet approach" of eyeball portions. You are doing great and keep up the good work! I have tried guessing my portions, never worked for me..so am impressed of your efforts..Keep at it!!

800 calories is very low you can't possibly get all the recommended nutrients/vitamins in that low a calorie intake. My worry would also be that if you reach a plateau at 800 calories there isn't much leeway to cut calories to lose more weight...

My recommendation would be to bring your calories up very gradually about 100cals/day every week till you are at least at 1200 to 1400 calories/day which is the a healthy number of calories to lose weight at.

Do you exercise you don't mention exercising... If you exercise you can eat a bit more and keep losing weight...

Good luck, oh, and CONGRATS on your weight loss ...

Greetings! I agree with what Ilene said. Although you can lose weight for awhile at that low an intake, it will leave you lacking in basic nutrients. That's usually not good for health. Medically supervised weight loss plans sometimes go that low or even lower, but the key there is medical supervision.

Better to lose a bit more slowly and get enough to eat!

Good luck!
Jay

I don't mean to second-guess you, but before you eat more food to increase your calories, make sure your guesstimates of portion size are correct. A normal idea of a normal serving of pasta, for example, is at least twice if not three to four times the official serving size, which is usually 1/2 cooked. A 1/2 cup of pasta is diddly squat in terms of volume, especially relative to portion sizes in American restaurants.

Kim

I was eyeballing portions for awhile when I started. Then I got a food scale and ralized that some of my portions where way to large while others were to small. Even when the bag said something like 18 piece or 3 ounces I find now that 18 pieces is more like 4 or 4.5 oz rather then 3.

I also agree with the others who said you probable want to be more like 1200 calories rather then 800 calories becuase you have more room to work with in the future. Also I find if I drop low like then I am not getting everything I need nutrition wise. You might try a calorie counting website like fitday.

I would also say you should take a day and measure everything before you start increasing your calories. Its VERY easy to misjudge portion sizes, or even to lose count. Like the 18 chip serving deal...I never eat from the bag now. I take out the specified number if I DO have chips, and leave the bag behind. With the bag in hand, its way too easy to miscount. A 3 or 4 oz. serving of anything is much smaller than people usually imagine.

I agree with the measuring. I have been amazed at what a portion really looks like.