Okay to go waaaay under calories for one day?

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7/31/12 7:03 A

I think it is very important to listen to your body. Sometimes the digestive tract needs a break too.

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7/31/12 6:25 A

For one day, as a one-off? I wouldn't sweat it at all...BUT, on days where its looking like I'll be under calories and I'm not hungry, I reach for nuts...almonds, hazelnuts, pistachios. Small amount of nuts will boost your calorie count in a hurry, and they are healthy.

Another way to help avoid going under in a day is to make sure that breakfast is the biggest meal of the day.

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7/31/12 12:28 A

In my opinion...don't sweat it!

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7/30/12 9:24 P

I know it's probably not a great thing to do, but I understand where you're coming from. I will occasionally have days like this. Just not hungry, nothing sounds good. I think as long as you don't make it a habit, or you're not doing it for some extreme reason it's not a big deal. Make sure you're hydrated well and don't let it send you off the caloric deep end if you're starving tomorrow.

I think one of the things we all need to learn to do is listen to our bodies. If your body says hey I'm not hungry, don't force it. Isn't not listening part of what got us here now?

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7/30/12 9:11 P

It's not "okay", no. It is not going to hurt you, but it's something you really do want to try to avoid in future. So that means it's not an "okay" thing.

Will you be "okay" every single day for the entire rest of your life? No. You'll make mistakes, you'll get busy, you'll have emotional outbursts leading to binges, etc. We all do. Those things aren't "okay" - they're bad. But when we do them, we should just carry on from there, not try to beat ourselves up.

So it's "okay" in terms of "don't fret over it" but it's definitely not "okay" as in "yeah sure, do this now and then, it's no problem". It IS a problem, and you should always endeavour to plot your day so this problem doesn't come up again.

As for today, no don't eat cake (or other) just to make up the numbers. You might find you're a little hungrier than 1550 allows for tomorrow, and that's fine - on average on the two days you'd still be below range. So if you fancy a bit more tomorrow, that's okay.

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7/30/12 7:37 P

Well, it's definitely not a good idea to undereat often, but a one-off will likely not hurt you. Do keep in mind that you'll be at a greater risk for binging tomorrow as your body ends up short on fuel for the next day.

If you can, it's probably a good idea to eat a little something more, because spagetti doesn't have much in the way of protein. It won't leave you with anything for running on tomorrow.

Calorie cycling (eating at the top of the range one day and the bottom the next) is one way to get your calories in, but it won't make you lose weight faster or anything. What matters isn't what you eat in a given day, but your overall deficit over a longer period, typically a week.

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7/30/12 7:29 P

This is the fourth day of my 1,200-1,500 calorie diet, it's going fantastically~ but today I am waaaaay under my calorie goal. I was busy today and didn't eat much for lunch. For dinner I stuffed my face with wonderful spaghetti squash and Light Ragu pasta sauce (which was a whopping 102 calories). So far I've eaten about 550 calories for today along with tons of water, but I'm not hungry. Should I force myself to eat?

I heard that it's good to vary your calorie intake, like eat 1,200 calories one day and 1,500 the next day in order to keep your body/metabolism guessing (it's supposed to make you lose weight faster somehow?). Similar to the not-eating-two-days-per-week that is advertised in Eat Stop Eat.

Since I'm not planning on eating this little every day, it should be fine, right? Or should I go get some cake? (jk on the cake part)