Do I really need to eat more even though I am not hungry because I am under my calorie goal?

[Icanonlytry]

Hi,
Started watching what I eat after new year as Ds is now 7 months and DD 9 years so I cant keep eating everything in sight and blaming it on baby weight
Not doing anything drastic, just not eating chocolate, biscuits, crisps etc and watching my portion sizes.
Last week I started using myfitnesspal to give me an idea of what I was eating and it gave me a calorie target of 1200 a day (I need to loose 2 1/2 stone and hoping for 2lb a week loss)
I usually eat about 1000-1150 cals a day but have read that eating too few calories can stop you loosing weight. I am eating 3 decent meals a day lots of fruit, veg and salad and not many potatoes, pasta, bread (still eating them but 2 small potatoes instead of 6 is this going to stop me loosing weight? seems strange to eat something when I am not hungry.

No. If you're not hungry, don't eat.

Those calorie counter things always seem to underestimate imo when I try to use them.

What you're doing sounds healthy and sensible. If you do feel hungry then you could eat a bit more but it would be crazy to force yourself to eat when you don't want to during a weightloss programme. (Read Paul McKenna on this. he says you can't get fat or stay fat if you eat slowly and consciously and stop as soon as you feel full.

Thats good thank you. Just keep reading that not eating enough calories is as bad as eating too many as your body goes into starvation mode ( I know this is true but was sure 1000-1200 calories a day is ample)
I do eat whenever I am hungry, I have had major issues with food in the past where once I tell myself I cannot eat something even if I am hungry it spirals out of control and I start limiting my food too much (to the point on only having slim a soup or oxo cubes and hot water) so determined not to go down that road again. This time it is about making sensible choices -less potatoes more veg. Fruit instead of chocolate, a few crisps not a few packets.

Are you exercising as well as controlling your calories? If you are, you will need to increase your intake, as you will be netting far too low. Its fine to do it occasionally, but if you are netting lower than 1000 calories a day then your weightloss programme isn't healthy or sustainable.

I have been using MFP since last June and have lost 3 and a half stone. My calorie goal is also 1200 kcal a day, BUT, if I work out I do try to eat back a good percentage of my extra calories and not net lower than 1000 kcals.

Your diet sounds very healthy, but you will need a decent quantity, as well as quality of food in order to reach a health nutritional intake of all the necessary nutrients. If you start missing out on some of your nutrition, you will find it harder to maintain your eating plan as your body starts craving what its missing, iyswim.

1200 is already a very low intake and no-one would advise eating less than that on a regular basis. The 1200 MFP allocated already includes a really good deficit for weightloss purposes and that's why it allocates more calories for those you burn off through exercise.

I found that after a few months on 1200 kcals I hit a wall for a while. Bumped my kcals up to 1400 a day for a while, by reducing my projected loss to 1lb a week and started losing again straight away. I now have my profile set at 1lb a week (sedentary) and try to eat back most of my exercise calories I'd say about 80% of the time. (I do the 30 Day Shred most days and throw in some Banish Fat Boost Metabolism, walking and using a stationary bike as well.)

You could try adding in a really healthy snack twice a day, something like a small handful of nuts perhaps. That way you are increasing your nutrition as well as helping to reach your calorie goal and you won't even notice it really.

I totally understand what you are saying about it feeling counter-intuitive and odd to eat when you aren't hungry. I was exactly the same at first. It took a while to get my head around it all, but it really helped to go and read some of the sticky threads at the top of the community forums.