The Danger of too few Calories

It is recommended by most sports nutritionists that you try to keep your calorie intake in line with your activity levels on a day to day basis. The idea is to eat less on rest days and a bit more on training days, and a lot more if you have a race or a long, hard session. Yesterday was a somewhat busy day, so I was relieved it was also a rest day in my training plan. I was trying to keep the calorie count down, mindful that I would get no extra exercise, but I wasn’t counting every meal as I went along. I was really hungry for my dinner but felt I had had a big lunch so just had some stew. I was hungry again an hour later but tried to distract myself and just drink more water – which worked, I didn’t snack. Unfortunately, I need to get better at listening to my body as that bowl of soup was less than 300 calories and my total intake only 1450 calories! No wonder I was hungry!

Obviously you want to create a calorie deficit if you’re trying to lose weight. The problem is that if you don’t eat enough and you’re feeling hungry all the time, your body decides that this is a famine and it’s time to conserve what little food, and energy, it does get. Your body does this by slowing down your metabolism so you burn far fewer calories at rest and feel rather sluggish, so you don’t feel like exercising. In this state you can be eating very little food and still not be losing weight. That’s one of the reasons why it’s a much better idea to create a calorie deficit through exercise, rather than “dieting”. In order to prevent starvation mode, I want to make sure I get at least 1600 calories a day. Better a slow but sustainable weight loss than none at all!

The Score:

Calories:	Protein:	Carbs:	Fat:	Alcohol:	Fibre:
1451.11	89.16g	151.18g	53.24g	0	26.57g
	25%	42%	33%
Calories burned through exercise:		Rest Day

What I ate:

Time	Item	Amount
08:15	Vitamins - Centrum Advance A to Zinc, 400iu of Vitamin E, 1000iu Vitamin D3 and 500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 each
	Cold water	200mL
	Whole Scrambled egg with 2 egg whites	3 eggs
	Heinz Beanz, reduced sugar and salt	185g
	Raw tomato	85g
	Mushrooms	110g
	in butter	5g
	Sainsbury's orange, mango and passionfruit juice	150mL
09:30	Black tea	500mL
10:30	Raspberry and Echinacea tea	250mL
11:15	Sainsbury’s Freefrom iced rich fruit cake slice	1 slice
13:30	Sainsbury's Be Good to Yourself Pork medallion	69g cooked
	Tinned Green Giant sweet corn	127g
	Roasted Carrots	84g
	Roasted parsnips	65g
	all brushed with olive oil (and herbs)	10mL
	Colman's Bramley apple sauce	1 tbsp
	Seedless Red Grapes	100g
17:15	Brazil nuts	8g
	Cashews	17g
17:45	Camomile, honey and vanilla tea	250mL
20:15	Leon's Chicken, Pumpkin and Borlotti bean stew	307g
22:00	Ellactiva Chocolate Calcium Chew	1 chew
	500mg Glucosamine sulphate	1 pill

Plus 500 to 1500mL of cold water sipped from a water bottle throughout the day.