You once said that even if you feel full after a day of eating, you should hit your calorie goal. But I eat mostly low calorie foods; I don’t necessarily know whether or not eating more just to reach my daily calorie goal is healthy. I feel like eating more food just to reach my daily calorie goal will cause bloating and possibly weight gain. What’s your opinion?

I believe this was in relation to a question where the blogger was eating far below the recommended caloric intake. The reasoning behind my response was for fear of the person eating too little, and thus throwing their metabolism into disarray, especially if they are exercising as well. If you feel full, you shouldn’t force yourself to eat more because My Fitness Pal set a calorie goal for you and says you have to eat that. However, if you’re working out and eating too little, like wellllllllll under say, 1200 calories a day, then maybe you need to start looking at the foods you’re eating and trying to eat a little more (unless you’ve had weight loss surgery). 

Honestly, you know yourself, you know how many calories you should be eating (with the help of google, a nutritionist, or a personal trainer), and you want to pay attention to when you feel full/hungry. Try focusing on your macro counting instead of calorie-counting – are you eating enough protein? are you eating a lot of fiber? how many carbs are you eating? are you keeping your sugar intake low? In my opinion, those numbers matter more than the calories. Your calorie intake is always going to be evolving.

* This article was originally published here