Eating too few calories

Hello.  I have a problem with eating enough calories.  I have a hard time eating breakfast in the morning.  Then I'm starving at around 9:30.  I usually have a granola bar at that time, then I'm very hungry at around 12, and have a good lunch.  I continue to eat when I get hungry throughout the rest of the day.  An hour workout at 7:30, and I've burned 3,000 calories at 10 pm and only consumed 1,300.  Everything I read says this is not healthy, but I am not hungry.  Should I eat even though I am not hungry?  I am 31, 6'0", 175.

Thank you.

yes, because our appetite is not always a good indicator of what is a healthy amount of food.

figure out how many cals you burn, subtract what you eat, and keep the difference between 500 - 1,000 for a safe rate of weight loss between 1 - 2 lbs a week.

because you need so much more because you burn so much more, you should stick with the 1,000 cal max deficit instead of the bare minimum recommendation of 1,500 cals a day for adult men who are dieting.

Hope this helps :)

First question is are you losing weight?  If your not losing weight, your not burning 3,000 calories.  Your metabolism is just lower than normal for whatever reason.  Low muscle mass,genes, or your eating habits.

Next question is what is your ideal weight.  If you're trying to lose additional weight, make sure it is not more than 1-2 lbs per week.  If you are trying to gain weight and don't want to eat....stop working out so much silly man.

The purpose of calorie counting is to have a mathematical formula that tells you how much you need to eat to maintain a specific weight.  It has nothing to do with hunger.  If you want to hit that weight, you have to eat or not eat a specific number of calories.

Thanks for the replies.  I am lifting weights to try to build muscle mass, and trying to shed some flab at the same time.  So I guess I'm not sure I expect to actually reduce my overall weight that much.  In the past, I've rarely worked out, and eaten terribly, fast food twice a day, and I never gain more than 5 or so pounds.  I don't have access to good food during much of the day, only the vending machine, so I end up going hungry instead of eating bad. 

I have learned to eat a BIG breakfast. This helps me so much for the rest of the day. If you're not hungry til work, pack yourself a breakfast. When I include eggs or yogurt, whole grains, vegetables and fruit in my breakfast, it carries me for a long time. (ie egg whites with veggies and oatmeal with fruit). It may seems scary to eat a 600-700 calorie breakfast, but I overeat the least after doing so. It might work for you, too!

Yes, 1300 calories for a 6'0" tall man who works out is definetly not enough. The reason you are not hungry is that your mind is playing tricks on you, and in my opinion, this is a sign that you are in starvation mode.

I also have a hard time eating breakfast when I first wake up. I'm never hungry until around 9:30 or 10:00. What I do is eat a big breakfast at 9:30 or 10:00. Then I hold off until around 2:00 for lunch, eating dinner usually close to 8 pm. Is it possible you could do something similar?

If you have an office job you could try packing both your breakfast and lunch so you could eat at your desk when you want to eat. It's not too hard to pack cereal, fruit, a hardboiled egg, yogurt, some nuts. Keep milk in the office refrigerator, or get a thermos to bring just enough each day (try freezing it overnight if you don't have a fridge - then it'll defrost but still be cold by breakfast time).

Or if you have a microwave at work, take in packets of oatmeal (we used to do this at work all the time). Or pack two sandwichs, one for breakfast and one for lunch (nobody ever said breakfast had to be breakfast food).