Difficulties hitting my recomended daily calories

darkorical

I am having a bit of difficulty actually hitting my goals. This would be an exaggeration of what I eat

and the recipes for the spicy salad and taco lasagna



I have been using Slim fast for 2 meals a day and keep ending up 1100 - 1500 shy so today I decided to see what would happen if I just ate what I wanted to. so Imagine my surprise when I still came up nearly a 1000 shy of my goals.

Can someone offer any suggestions, or is it ok to be that far off?

Note: I stand 6,3 weight 385lbs and not even the doctors believe it and insist on reweighing me to make sure at every visit, as they are certain I cant possibly weight over 300-325.

sweebum

You are eating far too little for your size.

You need to up your protein to help minimize your muscle loss while in a deficit.

Add some cottage cheese, nuts, healthy fats, lean meats etc to your diet.

Lean cuisines are nothing but filler and sodium.:grumble:

astronomicals

open your mouth and put food in it and swallow.... ffs

how many zero cal monsters are u drinkin? stimulants kill appetite bud

mish24canada

lucky you i have a problem staying within 1200 calories and not going over.

diannethegeek

Ditch the weight loss shakes and make your own! You can add Greek yogurt, peanut butter, protein powder, etc. to boost the calories without having to eat more.

Add cheese and nuts or seeds to your salad. Eat your baby carrots with some hummus or dip.

At your weight you can sustain a larger deficit for a while, but you'll want to try and increase your calories to keep your body from breaking down as much muscle as possible.

NayNeeNoo

I got some good suggestions here:
https://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1016029-struggling-to-meet-the-minimum-but-want-to-reach-1350

Bekahmardis

Ditch the weight loss shakes and make your own! You can add Greek yogurt, peanut butter, protein powder, etc. to boost the calories without having to eat more.

Add cheese and nuts or seeds to your salad. Eat your baby carrots with some hummus or dip.

At your weight you can sustain a larger deficit for a while, but you'll want to try and increase your calories to keep your body from breaking down as much muscle as possible.

Bingo! if you're having a tough time reaching your calories, stay away from the "diet" stuff. Increase your proteins.

Caitlinhappymeal

i'm apologising before hand if this comes out as rude, it really isn't intended to be but there is only one way of asking and that is why are you struggling to hit your calories when clearly eating too many calories got you on a pickle to start with, if you didnt struggle before to eat too many calories then why are you struggling now? see, theres no other way to ask lol apologies

Dre8604

Question... Is the 2,350 Calories before or after you've added your exercise calories burned for the day? Or is this the calculated recommended calorie intake from MFP?

carmenb39

It's ok. A person of your size can literally go months without food, provided they consume sufficient water and vitamins for the body to maintain function. Do what you're comfortable with calorie-wise, but DO NOT skip daily vitamins and the minimum 8 glasses of water.

darkorical

i'm apologising before hand if this comes out as rude, it really isn't intended to be but there is only one way of asking and that is why are you struggling to hit your calories when clearly eating too many calories got you on a pickle to start with, if you didnt struggle before to eat too many calories then why are you struggling now? see, theres no other way to ask lol apologies

No offense taken and I did not find it rude. I think part of my problem is I almost never actually feel hungry and even less often do I actually feel full. because of that this is what I ate before.

when I decided to loose the weight eating like that went straight out. So now Im looking for things to add back into my diet that wont be detrimental.

Question... Is the 2,350 Calories before or after you've added your exercise calories burned for the day? Or is this the calculated recommended calorie intake from MFP?

actually I never report calories burnt for the day. I spend most my day at work in front of the computer. and most my evenings at home doing the same. so basically 0 exercise except for the occasional house work. but I do tend to be up for 18 hour days up at 7 am and don't go to bed till 1 am so that could skew my amount naturally burnt just by breathing so to speak

sweebum

You could easily lose at 3000 calories a day. 1400 is way too low, you need to have somewhere to go when weight loss slows

Can I just say how refreshing it is to see someone seek common sense advice, and actually listen?:flowerforyou:

I think you'd really benefit from adding Helloitsdan and PU_239 to your friends list. Dan has common sense advice, and PU_239 has the same, in addition to have lost over 100 lbs.

LoosingMyLast15

maybe it's just me but i feel like what you are eating now is still crap. hardees for breakfast. yes it's an improvement from what you were eating but it's still bad. i bet if you changed your settings to include sodium you would see you are going over significantly in this area. some things to add:

edited to add: make your own breakfast sandwich with whole wheat english muffin, 2 eggs, canadian bacon (you could have 2 of these and probably end up less calories than hardees)
peanut butter
chicken
string cheese
yogurt
fruit
no butter popcorn
veggies
hummus
eggs (i see you are eating)
make your own granola bars
fajitas instead of that taco thing (way less fatty cheese) add grilled veggies to it (very healthy)
whole wheat pasta
tuna
fish
nuts

RunForChai

Hey Friend,
More REAL food: eggs, lean meats, black beans, avacados, greens and well, you get my drift.....less shakes and pre-made meals.
I know this can be challenging for some people in the beginning, but really I eat all real food and it takes me minutes to prepare.
Good luck!

SideSteel

OP:

Are you using a food scale?
How do you feel at your current intake levels?
At what pace are you losing weight at your current intake levels and how long have you been eating at this intake?

jonnythan

Eat more of the things that made you overweight in the first place. Eat whatever you want. Ice cream, hamburgers, peanut butter, milk, etc.

RickNeedzToGetShreaded

Well that ain't no where near enough calories or protein.

LoosingMyLast15

maybe it's just me but i feel like what you are eating now is still crap. hardees for breakfast. yes it's an improvement from what you were eating but it's still bad. i bet if you changed your settings to include sodium you would see you are going over significantly in this area.

Since you're so much in to "healthy" eating... I went to see your diary... Well to inform you.
The bread(most of the carbs) you eat has yeast which can create microbacterial overgrowth in the blood. The myotoxins and exotoxins will feed on the sugar from the fruit in your blood. Which excretes acidic waste products which has been linked to certain cancers. We all know that animal protein such as the chicken has been linked to shorter life span.

glad to hear i'm feeding the myotoxins and exotoxins. thanks for letting me know. i wouldn't want them to starve.

teagirlmedium

I think you should stop drinking the shakes and replace them with food you have to cook at home or pick up from some other place. I think replacing your energy drink with a different energy drink you like that has calories could help. If you do not want to do that it may help if you start drinking fruit juices or tomato juice. Calories can come from drinks not just food. Drinking milk can also help with the calories and help with some vitamins. Good luck.

jmurad27

lucky you i have a problem staying within 1200 calories and not going over.

I wish I had a problem under-eating. This mama has had plenty of practice with the eating contests... haha... My mantra to calorie intake is... MORE MEAT.

darkorical

ok I would like to point out that I didn't actually eat Hardee's for breakfast. I set that up as an exaggerated example of what I might eat.
I am in fact still using the slim fast diet. When I started it my plan was to something akin to as follows

1 Slim Fasts for breakfast and 1 for lunch with a healthy snack like fruit or veggy (probably apples or carrots) between
for suppers I figured I had a hand full of options

A salad with either ham, chicken, or turkey with hard boiled egg and sunflower seeds and bacon pieces, and a dressing of spicy mustard and either low fat oil or mayo

2 Tortilla wraps using an entire 90 calorie package each of any of Budding's various meat flavors, lettuce, olives around a medium - large dill pickle and again spicy mustard.

Baked Chicken breaded with egg and Italian bread crumbs with steamed veggy medley with cream of broccoli sauce

Broccoli and beef with Worcestershire sauce, with cauliflower mash with sour cream and onion dip for dressing.

and several other such dinners. things that sounded really good and were simple.

I assumed that would be sufficient yet Im finding that that Idea leaves me severally under calories

also while I do not intend to go full atkins I did decide to use some of their theory's and remove most of the bread and starches from my diet.

darkorical

I think you should stop drinking the shakes and replace them with food you have to cook at home or pick up from some other place. I think replacing your energy drink with a different energy drink you like that has calories could help. If you do not want to do that it may help if you start drinking fruit juices or tomato juice. Calories can come from drinks not just food. Drinking milk can also help with the calories and help with some vitamins. Good luck.

Ironically I drank the energy drinks before because I like them... and I have never drank them for energy boost. so it just turned out a happy coincidence that they became something I did not have to remove from my diet.

stephreed11

No, that's not enough for you. Let me ask you this, "Can you realistically follow that the rest of your life?" If not, then why are you even doing it? You want life long changes, not temporary changes.

I recommend eating what you normally eat, but just eat a little bit less. I saw your 7,000 calorie day... it looks good, just cut it by like 60%. I don't recommend making big changes over night like you are doing. It has to be a gradual process. Hit your calorie goals daily(don't worry about healthy and non healthy, most of that is bs anyways).

If you don't eat enough you can easily stall out on your weight loss and not lose weight. That can easily happen to you. When i was about 300lbs I was eating 1,200 calories a day, i didn't lose any weight for 5 weeks. I said "screw this" and started eating again. Don't make the mistake I did.

So here is a question, "Who is healthier, a 400lbs mean eating "healthy" or a man at a healthy weight eating junk food?" A lot of blood pressure, triglycerides, insulin related issues, risk for cardiac arrest are mostly dependent on weight, not food choices. If you lower your weight, you automatically are healthier despite what you eat. Keep in mind I am not saying "go eat junk food 24/7" I am saying enjoy your life, your food... don't stress it to much. If you want some junk food and it fits in to your calories go for it. enjoy it.

I recommend reading this maybe it will drive the point home: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html

Good stuff.

nomeejerome

OP:

Are you using a food scale?
How do you feel at your current intake levels?
At what pace are you losing weight at your current intake levels and how long have you been eating at this intake?

zumarouli

Hello, I'm new here and I don't know much about how the whole thing works. So, my problem is similar to the one of this topic, I think i consume too few calories but I feel full before reaching my calorie goal. Should I start a new topic for this or can I get some advice here? Sorry, for the irrelevant post

LoosingMyLast15

ok I would like to point out that I didn't actually eat Hardee's for breakfast. I set that up as an exaggerated example of what I might eat.
I am in fact still using the slim fast diet. When I started it my plan was to something akin to as follows

1 Slim Fasts for breakfast and 1 for lunch with a healthy snack like fruit or veggy (probably apples or carrots) between
for suppers I figured I had a hand full of options

A salad with either ham, chicken, or turkey with hard boiled egg and sunflower seeds and bacon pieces, and a dressing of spicy mustard and either low fat oil or mayo

2 Tortilla wraps using an entire 90 calorie package each of any of Budding's various meat flavors, lettuce, olives around a medium - large dill pickle and again spicy mustard.

Baked Chicken breaded with egg and Italian bread crumbs with steamed veggy medley with cream of broccoli sauce

Broccoli and beef with Worcestershire sauce, with cauliflower mash with sour cream and onion dip for dressing.

and several other such dinners. things that sounded really good and were simple.

I assumed that would be sufficient yet Im finding that that Idea leaves me severally under calories

also while I do not intend to go full atkins I did decide to use some of their theory's and remove most of the bread and starches from my diet.

phew! glad to hear you're not eating hardees everyday. :happy:

a yummy salad of spinach, tomato, avocado, cucumber, red onion and dressing would be great with your chicken and beef dinners and the avocado has lots of healthy fat/calories.

actually throw avocado in your big salad for dinner as well.

go with extra virgin olive oil while it's higher in calories it's better for you.

how about mashing some white beans into your cauliflower mash.

these little things will help bring up your calories.

darkorical

OP:

Are you using a food scale?
How do you feel at your current intake levels?
At what pace are you losing weight at your current intake levels and how long have you been eating at this intake?

Not currently mostly I measure by cups and convert to weight based on package labeling.
I feel no different what-so-ever as I mentioned before I never really feel hungry or full so that is not an issue. and I have not noticed any change in energy levels or need for sleep.
Ive been doing this for not quite 2 weeks now and just did my first weigh in today I have lost 11 lbs

NOTE there may be some cheating involved with my weight loss tho....
this was me before


and my pic on the left is me now. now I don't know how much all that hair weighs but it FEELS alot lighter.

darkorical

Hello, I'm new here and I don't know much about how the whole thing works. So, my problem is similar to the one of this topic, I think i consume too few calories but I feel full before reaching my calorie goal. Should I start a new topic for this or can I get some advice here? Sorry, for the irrelevant post

there seems to be quite alot of good advice here so by all means continue to read but you may wish to start your own thread to get responses that may be more specifically towards your exact situation.

Sunshine2plus2

Honestly I would cut the shake! Its so unneeded. Eat some peanut butter thats like 200 calories for a 1tbsp. I like to put mine on some graham crackers!

Sarauk2sf

Were you restricting calories prior to this 2 weeks. I realize that you have lost quite a bit of weight before, but how much of gap was there between you losing before and this 2 weeks?

Sarauk2sf

crap it doesn't fit in to my macros. oh yeah i don't follow that silly stuff. (cough cough)

You seem to have had that cough for a while now...here, for you