Not enough calories and not hungry for weeks

I was just looking for some advice or input.  I started to change my eating habits after a check-up with my doctor that resulted in me being given a perscription for high blood pressure.  This was about 3 months ago and I weighed about 300 pounds.  I'm a 35 year old married male with two kids.  Stand 6 foot 2 and by calorie count measure, I have a large build.  So, in the past three months I have lost 56 pounds by just paying attention to serving sizes and watching out for too much sodium and cholesterol.  I have also been cycling for 1 1/2 to 2 hours per week.  I have noticed that my appetite has pretty much gone away.  At the end of the day I've been struggling to get to the 1500 calorie mark, nevermind the 2050 calorie daily goal cc has set for me.  Does anyone else have this experience?  Should I eat more than I feel I want to?  I've been eating more just after dinner to try to get more food in me, like a banana or apple for dessert, but its still not alot of food and I feel really good still.

Thanks!

It sounds like you need to be eating healthy higher calorie foods, like peanuts, cashews, avacados, peanut butter is really good - things that you can eat a litlle but still get the calories you need.  The highest calorie fruit is the banana.

I can confess that I have not had this problem.  i am female - 35 - 154 currently - lost 12 pounds so far and want to loose another 14 - I could always eat.

It could be the medication you are taking - it could make your appitite smaller.  So I would really suggest looking into some healthy higher calorie foods so that you can take in what you need for you body but not eat so much that you feel over stuffed!

I actually try to stay away from salads because it is just empty food - calories, vitamins and the such - the only thing that adds flavor and colories is the dressing and I don't need that.

It sounds like yo uare doing a really good job - maybe if yo ukeep it up you can get off your meds!

Good luck and keep up the good work!

Hi and good luck with the life style changes ... :)

I am 45yoa, 187 lbs and 5 ft tall. Although I've been bothered with high blood pressure for the past couple of years, what really got me to sit up and start making changes recently is I've been diagnosed with Pre-Diabetes. That scared me. I went to a Nutritionalist. She gave me a Metabolical Test that shows how many calories are burned while sitting in a day. The result was 25% above normal (burn about 1868 calories doing nothing) That explained why I am not twice the size of myself because I have horrible eating habits. I normally don't eat 'ALOT" I just starve myself all day and then gouge at one sitting and of course it it high in carbs. I don't eat sweats or cakes etc ... but I do love my food food. (Meat and potato girl)

Anyway. The nutritionalist put me on a 1400 cal diet, with 160 carbs. Since I've changed my ways, I notice by the end of the day, my calorie intake is somewhere between 700 - 1100, and carbs 100 - 140. That's with eating 3 meals a day and some fruit or snacks in between.

My thoughts on it is hey, if you are eating better foods than you were; eat comfortably and as long as you don't go over your 2050 mark. I'll keep cheering for you!

Good luck, Liz

Yes, the blood pressure medication was very much a wake-up call.  I have never maintained a healthy diet so I was just a matter of time, but I guess that is what it takes.  My father has the same issues and now he has diabetes and his liver is failing, even more of a wake-up!  It's hard to change your attitude when you feel indestructible.

Do you think the meds have to do with the appetite issue?  That is really one of my main motivations, to not have to take a pill every morning!  I am on my second medication, the first one made me have a dry cough all day for a month.  The second one seems to be doing fine with no side effects.  Loss of appetite is not common for this one. (But neither was coughing for the first!)

It's also funny to have to think to eat "oh yeah I forgot to have breakfast!"  Thinking that I have to focus on higher calorie foods is too much for me to get my head around just yet.  But I have been enjoying lots of bananas and other fruits.  Nuts make me worry about sodium and fat, but in time I guess.

My wife and I think it it funny that my initial goal is to get to 230 pounds.  That is when my BMI goes from "obese" to "overweight".  For now I strive to be just fat, ha!

Thanks for the replies!

yeah losing the appetite thing happened to me too. I dont know why...prolly cuz you all of sudden changed your lifestyle/food around? I know for me, I did a fridge makeover and a lot of the stuff in there, i was thinking "uhg, this doesn't apeal to me AT all..." but hey, it was good for me and I never overate LOL.  Now I LOVE healthy foods and love love to run but now I run so so much during one day that I'm ALWAYS hungry.....

Yeah, that is another strange thing.  There are foods that I see now, and now I know how bad they are for me.  There are other times when I see a dish of food on tv or in a magazine and it actually makes me feel sick.  Has anyone seen the Kraft twinkie like bagel thing with cream cheese inside?  It's so gross I'm feeling sick even thinking about the picture!