How important is it to eat your daily calorie goal?

Hello! This is my first post: I'm 5'2", 157 lbs, and 20 years old. How I got to 157 wasn't through eating a lot, but that the little food I was eating was very rich.

Now that I'm eating healthier, but keeping my same proportions, I find it hard to reach my daily goal of 1300 calories. Seltzer instead of soda, fruit instead of candy, a slice of pizza with veggies instead of piled with meat and ranch dressing- My replacements are just as filling, and I eat until I'm full, but I only get to about 700 calories.

I'm worried my body will think I'm not getting enough calories and slow my metabolism down. I've always been slightly overweight, so I'm concerned about slowing my metabolism down even more. So,

1.) Should I continue eating healthy food and force myself to eat up until 1300 calories? Would smaller, more frequent meals help?

2.) Should I reach 1300 calories by eating richer foods? A scoop of peanut butter instead of a cup of tea? I don't have very good self control, though, and often a scoop of peanut butter turns into two.

3.) Am I not exercising enough to start my metabolism // feelings of hunger? The only exercise I get is as a waitress, three times a week.

4.) Is it not even a big deal because I'm eating when I'm hungry and stop when I'm full?

Thanks for the help. I really don't know how to tell how many calories the body needs.

You should definantly get to atleast 1200. But for you probably more like 13/1400. Yea it is important, or your body will get used to 700cals and you'll have a hell of a time rebooting your metabolism. Just add in a glass of milk, some yogurt, dark choc, etc.

'Healthy food' is not necessarily 'low calorie food'.  And a diet is not healthy if you're not getting enough energy & nourishment...  That's what you need to adjust.   If you included an ounce of almonds (150 cals) as a snack, a tablespoon of olive oil (120 cals) in your cooking or as a dressing, an extra ounce of dry pasta (100 cals) in a dish, oily fish rather than white fish.... those kinds of things... you could easily boost your intake without adding to the size of your meals very much at all.

Because you've been chronically undereating you have lost your appetite.  And someone with no appetite  who only 'eats when they are hungry' will never eat because they are never hungry....  QED.   Brains starved of nourishment can quickly become depressed, anxious and delusional.  All in all, it's a vicious circle that can all too easily end up as an eating disorder.

I would strongly recommend you make a big effort this weekend to redress the balance with a 2000 cal day (your maintenance intake).   Choose energy-dense, nutrition-dense foods.... eat/snack regularly whether you are hungry or not.... cut right back on the low-cal, high-bulk foods like diet foods, salads and vegetables.

Then resume weight-loss on about 1400 cals a day but be sure to reach that number every day.

You should be eating at least 1500 calories, not 1300 to lose since you are only 20 years old. I will second what GI-Jane has said, your loss in appetite is due to chronic undereating and your lack of hunger is no indication that you're properly nourished. Make sure to begin eating an appropriate amount by having more calorically dense foods and eating regularly. What is a typical day of eating like for you? 700 calories shouldn't be making you full and have to stuff yourself to get to 1300. 

Well, before I started dieting, (I've only been dieting since this Monday, so I don't know if it's at the chronic stage yet.) I'd drink two cups of coffee and grab something from my school cafeteria for lunch (I wake up at 11, so I lunch is my first meal) like a doughnut, croissant, quesadilla, all those nice things. And I'd be really full from one doughnut and a 2 cups of coffee, by the way.

Then, at work, around 7pm, I usually would eat a chicken bacon ranch slice of pizza, a soda, and when I got home (11pm) I'd have another meal, like a pb&j sandwich, spaghetti, very easy quick meals. Then (12am) I'd eat junk food: a bowl of ice cream or some cookies. And I wouldn't get any exercise.

Since starting my diet this week, I have tea with my lunch, which is a bowl of oatmeal with honey and raisins, or soup, at work I have a slice with plum tomato and basil and drink seltzer, and since I get home from work at 11 at night, I try not to eat another heavy meal. I'll eat half a sandwich, a 12oz. glass of ovaltine with skim milk instead of 2%. Between being a full time student, a writer, and a part time waitress, I still haven't found the want to make room for exercising.

I was gaining weight with my previous lifestyle, even though it doesn't seem like I was eating a lot.

1500 calories? But I burn 1750 calories a day- Will cutting out 250 calories a day make a difference?

gi-jane, how did you figure out that 2000 cal is my maintenance intake?  Two different websites told me two different things, and I’d like to do the calculation myself. The website tells me 1750, and another told me 2100. That’s a big difference :/

I really haven’t been eating salads and veggies the past five days… I just don’t drown my pizza in ranch anymore and eat oatmeal with raisins and honey instead of fast food croissants.

I know this is dumb, but I know if I allow myself to have 2000 calories, I’m going to binge on junk food, and I’ll keep eating and just tell myself, “You can get back on track later this week! It’s okay to binge once in a while!”

Only, I used to binge like that about twice a week.