Hi Guys,

Let me start by saying I'm new here but would like to thank everyone for all the great info on this forum.

Now onto my issue. I just started dieting and working out. I'm not terribly overweight but I used to eat nothing but unhealthy food and snacks. My goals are to lose my gut and work on building some muscle.

At the end of my first day on my new diet I made a spreadsheet with all the nutritional information for all the foods I had that day and was surprised to find that I was well under 1000 calories. My understanding was that I was supposed to have a minimum of 10 times my body weight in calories. My weight is 172 pounds so the next day I planned my meals accordingly and made it to roughly 1700 calories. I've been doing that the last few days now. The only problem is that I'm having to eat when I'm not hungry. I feel like I'm stuffing myself full of food. Is this normal? Did I misread something and now I'm overeating?

There are a lot of times I eat when I'm not hungry:nod: I actually haven't felt real hungrer in a while now. At most, I'll get a bit of hunger, but by that time my next meal is usually within 15-20minutes away.

Hi Guys,

Let me start by saying I'm new here but would like to thank everyone for all the great info on this forum.

Now onto my issue. I just started dieting and working out. I'm not terribly overweight but I used to eat nothing but unhealthy food and snacks. My goals are to lose my gut and work on building some muscle.

At the end of my first day on my new diet I made a spreadsheet with all the nutritional information for all the foods I had that day and was surprised to find that I was well under 1000 calories. My understanding was that I was supposed to have a minimum of 10 times my body weight in calories. My weight is 172 pounds so the next day I planned my meals accordingly and made it to roughly 1700 calories. I've been doing that the last few days now. The only problem is that I'm having to eat when I'm not hungry. I feel like I'm stuffing myself full of food. Is this normal? Did I misread something and now I'm overeating?


If you are only eating 1700 calories at 172, you are not close to overeating. I would even eat more if I were you, but that's me :)

You shouldn't really wait until you're hungry to eat. Blood sugar levels would already be down at that point. Your goal is to keep a steady flow of nutrients in the system and not have spikes (up or down).

If you used to eat junk, you were most likely eating calorically dense foods and drinks. Now, you're eating healthier, so foods you have chosen might have seemed more filling because they aren't so dense and they may have more fiber, etc. If you are having a probem getting the calories in, don't forget to get your share of healthy fats. Stuff like nuts of all types, natural peanut butter, olive oil, flax and flaxseed oil, etc are calorically dense and can quickly add some more calories to a diet and bring in much needed healthy fats and nutrients.

Many avoid fats because they think they'll get fat from eating them, when the opposite can be true if handled correctly.

Hi Guys,

At the end of my first day on my new diet I made a spreadsheet with all the nutritional information for all the foods I had that day and was surprised to find that I was well under 1000 calories. My understanding was that I was supposed to have a minimum of 10 times my body weight in calories. My weight is 172 pounds so the next day I planned my meals accordingly and made it to roughly 1700 calories. I've been doing that the last few days now. The only problem is that I'm having to eat when I'm not hungry. I feel like I'm stuffing myself full of food. Is this normal? Did I misread something and now I'm overeating?

You protest too much or you aren't doing any exercise and activity all day. If you were, your body would tell you to eat. What are you doing in an average day, any weight training, any cardio? Get active.

BTW: What did you eat?

I'm eating over 2000 calories a day, at 150 and I'm always still hungry. It just depends on your activity level.