Am i eating too few calories?

This is a starvation diet and if you keep up with it it surely will bring you into the hospital as your organs will shut down, your kidney first and it's rather painful, never mind damaging your kidneys to the point where you have to be hooked up on a dialysis machine 3 times a week.

You are very young, your body is still growing and you are depriving it of the essential nutrients you so desperately need to grow and keep a healthy body and mind.

Please talk to your parents at once and seek out a doctor/dietician that can help you get a more normal approach to food.

I've been through this before, when I just wasn't hungry. It became self-perpetuating -- that is, the less I ate, the less I seemed to "need." I eventually figured out (like you seem to be) that I really needed to eat more, and at first it was a chore. But then my stomach got more used to eating again, and my hunger levels went up (as well as my energy levels).

You may want to see a doctor if you're not able to get your food levels back up on your own -- or just in general to see why it's happening.

Also, do you prepare your own food? That's part of what helped, for me. My dad (who I lived with) was going through an experimental cooking phase and I just did not like what he was making, and we didn't have a lot of other food in the house. That's the reason I started eating less, and then that just sort of took hold. (Stomach shrank and I needed less food to feel satiated.) When I started preparing my own food I got some of my appetite back.

ok, thanks and yes i prepare my own food , its not that i don't like it, i just generally feel sick thinking about eating, I've tried to eat more today, I've eaten about 850 cals, but still the though of eating more makes my stomach hurt!
do you think i really need to go to the doctor?

I can't answer the calorie question but more information is needed for others to help you.

For instance, how long (days or weeks) have this limited calorie intake been happening?

If it's only been a weekend or so then clearly there has nothing to worry about in the short term. People's appetites change due to stress amounts and ones environment (hot weather, etc...), limited amount of exercise and activity (someone who finds himself unemployed recently so that he finds himself on the couch all day/all week), etc....

If you could add these details and more then anyone who can help can get more specific to your case.

Eat soy fillers, it'll fatten you up to healthy size in no time.

But seriously you shouldn't go below 1000 calories per day. So you're saying that your metabolism has slowed or you've dipped into "starvation mode."
So what you gotta do is uptake calories slowly over time and eat at the same time every day. The body like patterns to follow.

For this reason alone you need to seek competent help with your food. Healthy vegetarianism is complicated.
It is not easy.
It is not something one does because some of your friends think they are doing it.
It is not simply avoiding meat, dairy and eggs (or all three), you must be very careful to eat a completely balanced diet of fats, proteins and carbohydrates, plus the way your food is prepared is just as important. You have be sure you are actually getting the nutrients in the food.

I would suggest that you contact a nutritionist and start reading and researching the subject while continuing to eat all kinds of foods including meat and dairy and eggs UNTIL you believe you have educated yourself in following a vegetarian diet.

Then, guess what, then you will be a vegetarian.

Joe(Be well)Nation

Unless you trust the "advice" you are getting from people here..."going to a doctor" seems to be an excellent idea!

thanks for the reply, but i am fully educated in vegetarianism, i have been one for 8 years i don't really think thats the problem though...

Psst:

Meanwhile, if this is a new thing for you (just the past month) and you don't seem to be able to solve it on your own, I do suggest going to the doctor.

You've been a vegetarian since you were eight years old? Then, yes, I don't think that's the problem of why you haven't been eating more than 400-800 calories a day for the past month.
What have you been eating?
And, when you are eating "normally" for you, what kind of foods are in your weekly meals?

I'm relieved you are not one of those picky eaters who seem to have sprung up in my extended family. One of them decided she was vegetarian and proceeded to eat nothing but Tiramisu.... . She's now, happily, expanded on that menu.

When are exams over? Since that's what you thought might be causing stress, and, if they are over, how long have they been over?

We haven't a clue who you are kiddo, but we try to help questioners like you as if they were our own.

Joe(My kid, raised vegetarian, is 40 and a drummer in rock band.)Nation

This is a healthy weight unless you have a very large frame. How are you calculating your calories? 400 calories can be in one muffin. What is your daily intake like? What do you eat at each meal or for snacks. I would only be concerned if your weight goes under 100 lbs, your periods stop, your skin texture looks poor or your hair starts to fall out. Some people just require less food than others, but I'm also not confident you really know your calorie count.

I understand Sozobe's take as I've notice similar reactions with myself and have for a long time - if I don't pig out one day, I don't particularly want to the next day. If I eat sensibly several days in a row, that's what my stomach wants. If I eat too little for too many days, I'm not a big food scarfer the day after that.
I don't know how common this is.

I'm older and have not much money, and happen to like to cook, so most of what I eat is what I cook. I'm not vegetarian but I like vegetables and probably eat more of those than a lot of people who aren't strict vegetarians. I've lost a fair amount of weight over six years but have stayed amazingly stable for months or years at a time, my stomach and metabolism seeming to be used to me and my ways. I now weigh twenty pounds over what I did at twenty, and I don't want that to go lower.

Off the cuff, I'd say eat a little more each day, that you need to retrain your stomach and its signals.

What this young woman eats or does not eat...or how she eats it is NOT as important as the fact that she has some serious concerns regarding her eating habits.

The best advice that could be given to her here is to see a professional...a doctor.

What you eat or how much you eat may not be as much a problem for you, Luleigh, as the fact that you have concerns about your eating habits. '

See a doctor about this!

yeah, i decided to be a vegetarian when i was 8 as i don't like the way in which they are treated blah blah...
so i kind of make myself eat stuff like.. :
yesterday, i ate like 5 strawberries for breakfast, a packet of quavers (crisps) and a slice of toast with a slice of Quorn (you probably know what that is - if not its like substitute sandwich meat) this is probably the most I've eaten all moth, and it was about 800 calories.

thats basically what i have been eating, and my parents don't really notice because its just my dad and he works till like 7 pm.

when eating 'normally' (seems like ages ago now) i would eat about 1300 calls a day, and id eat i guess cereal, then like pasta and veg. for lunch, then for dinner i don't know maybe substitute meat ready meals or something like that. i'd snack on fruit or chocolate

my exams are over on the 25th of june. they started on the 11th of may...

thanks for your help!

i was thinking, would taking vitamins help?

Please go and see a doctor and he'll refer you to a dietician!
Especially being a vegetarian, you need to learn how to eat healthy so you
have proper protein, carbohydrate and fat balance. The damage you're doing to your body will be felt for many years to come, if you're malnourished.

Yes, vitamins help but just as an additive, not as a substitute!

News Flash~ You are not a vegetarian, you are a carbo-loader. What we used to call in yoga class our Pastatarians. It's okay, but really, you are missing out on some really interesting food.

Go read some Vegetarian Cookbooks, expand the variety of foods you eat, try many different spice and herb flavors to re-energize your appetite. Go to the produce section of a large market and make a list of every vegetable and fruit they sell. Make it your goal to eat some of each by the end of this year. Oh boy, bok choy!

Fake meat: You'd do better getting your proteins by combining foods. Look it up.

Joe(rats. now I'm hungry)Nation

All you vegetarians in this thread is making me want to eat more meat.

I'm going to cook up some spicy orange chicken, time to interrogate my spice cabinet.