I was wondering if I'm cutting (started at 242, 217 currently) and should be eating around 2200 (based on what others on the board suggested), what happens if I'm full? Certainly I shouldn't force myself, but I'm sitting here at 8:30 having filled in my fitday and realizing I'm only at 1650 cals, with only a cup of cottage cheese left. What's more, I'm NOT hungry! I mean, I am very comfortable. I am finding this more and more that when I'm eating clean, I have to struggle to get those extra calories in through the day. Should I be content with 1800 calories for example, if they are all clean?

My meals are all really good (I've posted my menu on this forum many times, and everyone says it's good). I am getting 40/40/20 almost perfectly every day, give or take 2%.

Thanks for your input...you are all such a big help for me. I came to JSF knowing NOTHING.

all the best,
MIKE

break your meals into 6 smaller meals and you would not feel full at each meal and you would be able to eat without feeling too full.

I'd force yourself to eat it. You're used to eating way more than this on a regular basis, so not eating it now is partly a psychological block or, worse (though unlikely to happen very quickly) a metabolic suffocation. I have always eaten my goal calories, even on days where I felt like i could easily have eaten a couple hundred calories less.

I guess I"m just worried because I lost 25 lbs. in about a month and a half, then I started keeping track and consciously was eating 2200 cals like people here suggested, but my weight loss has pretty much stopped. I do cardio EVERY day, for 1/2 hour minimum (some days 45min.), work hard at a 3 day lifting split, eat clean, yet I can't seem to lose any more. at 217 lbs. I know there is a lot more to lose, and I do realize that much of my initial loss was water, but only 1 lb. per week? For smaller guys that's great, but when you have so much to lose, that doesn't seem so good.

cheers....
MIKE

You don't want to lose it too quickly either. It's just as bad, because you aren't learning a new way of eating. All you're doing is dieting then when you've lost what you want to lose, who knows what you'll do? The other side is that if you do lose it too quickly, you can get bad stretch marks, which I am presently trying to get rid of. You don't want them, trust me.

The arithmetic is sound. If you eat less calories than you burn, you will lose weight.

Masher