Looking for high calorie foods that don't feel like a waste of exersize

Faithful_Chosen

Hello everyone,

I am new to the forum (and MFP in general) and I am looking for some advice. Because I can't eat grains (terrible intollerance), I don't like sauses and oils, and dislike meat, I have trouble eating more than 1200 to ~1400 calories a day (but don't get too hung up on those numbers, I might be logging a few things incorrectly although I measure, and I might oversell my exersize because of the math MFP does. The issue is that I need to eat more on exersize days, no matter my base). It's darn hard to get there on veggies, fruit, dairy, eggs, and a little bit of fish and meat. Before I go on, I should stress that I have seen a nutritionist once I cut out grains two years ago as well as my general physician to check up every once in a while. Both have given me a clean bill of health. So, yes, I know that on average women my age/weight/height should eat more but my body is perfectly fine with what I put into it and the doctor is happy. I am loosing weight slowly.

For the last year or so, I have been working out, building slowly. I skate, bike, walk, jump rope, use a punching bag, do light weight training and geek out on doing push-ups. Now, here is the issue: I used to offset that by putting junk in my body in front of the TV while sitting on my *kitten* all day. I'd eat super healthy and then binge on an entire family bag of crisps. I didn't even gain that much weight but I hated it because all these lovely muscles I was developing were hidden under this soft layer of flabby tissue--so I cut it out. And now I have a huge deficit on work-out days (and a minor deficit on rest days).

So, that was an insanely long introduction (sorry!) for a fairly simple question: I would like to find some high calorie foods that are not too filling and which are not potato crisps, junkfood, sauses, etc. Eating those just to get to 1200 (which I now do sometimes because I am too stuffed to get through a healthy 300 calorie meal) feels like regression and a huge waste of time working out. Because I love my sports, I also don't want to cut back on that, but once I get to about 53 kg, I do want to start maintaining--and even building a bit more muscle.

How do you guys fill up your calorie deficiency when you have already had all the treats you can stomach and you don't want to resort to junk? I figured I would start by trying to up the volume of everything as much as I can stomach but I don't think that will be enough. As a note, there is nothing I find more dissatisfying than chewing on nuts (please tell me I am not alone on this!), and I think I am intollerant to peanuts, too--or at least peanut butter. I recently tried that and... well... the results were not to be shared. Ahem!

I have opened my diary so you can get an idea of my foods and the sizes of my meals. I would be very grateful for any foods you can recommend that fit both the bill of 'healthy' and the bill of 'lots of calories'. If they are also foods that don't make me nauseus because they are too filling, I would be insanely grateful--but I know that is a long shot. Tips and tricks are also appreciated.

Thank you very much in advance!

pzarnosky

How do you feel about avocados? I love them, probably too much. And would add them to pretty much everything if they weren't so calorie dense. They're high in healthy fat and will definitely close the calorie gap.. if you like them.

SezxyStef

well right off hand...

avocado, ice cream, choose full fat dairy instead of low fat. Cook with olive oil.

But to be honest "junk food" is just a name given to food high in calories...and there is nothing wrong with it.

I eat chocolate every night, fit chips in when I want, pop corn, beer and pizza.

Unknown

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MsJulesRenee

There's all kinda of nut butters out there, not just peanuts. Some brands you can buy little packets of it to try.

agal129

Have you tried sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds? What about beans?

Faithful_Chosen

pzarnosky wrote: »

How do you feel about avocados? I love them, probably too much. And would add them to pretty much everything if they weren't so calorie dense. They're high in healthy fat and will definitely close the calorie gap.. if you like them.

I do! I have three ripening in my fruit bowl right now. I scoop it right out of the skin or toss it in salads... mmm... Thank you for the reminder!

SezxyStef wrote: »

well right off hand...

avocado, ice cream, choose full fat dairy instead of low fat. Cook with olive oil.

But to be honest "junk food" is just a name given to food high in calories...and there is nothing wrong with it.

I eat chocolate every night, fit chips in when I want, pop corn, beer and pizza.

Ice-cream is a beautiful thing and I enjoy it a lot these hot days. I eat full fat Greek Yoghurt every mornign (except right now because they were out...). Olive oil: check, but I don't bake things often, just potatoes and soy chicken flakes.

I am totally not saying there is anything wrong with 'junkfood' at all! sorry if it came across that way. I'm just saying it feels insanely counterproductive to fill up 800 exersize calories just with chips, chocolate, and candy. Thank you!

Caitwn wrote: »

Avocados, full-fat cottage cheese and Greek yogurt, cheese, peanut butter, protein bars.

I should eat more cheese... I don't really like cheese... hum... But yes, Greek yoghurt is awesome! Meh on peanutbutter, and nope on protein bars because of grains. Thank you very much!

agal129 wrote: »

Have you tried sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds? What about beans?

I have and I do eat seeds, but they feel just like eating nuts to me. Maybe I need to look up some nice things to make with them besides my replacement bread... Beans I definitely eat, but I had forgotten they are pretty calorie dense. Thank you very much!

MsJulesRenee wrote: »

There's all kinda of nut butters out there, not just peanuts. Some brands you can buy little packets of it to try.

Yes, I had thought I might. Almond butter seems to be a big hit, I think? I'll look into the small packages. Let's not repeat the peanut butter experience... Thank you!

josiemead

tablespoon of olive oil over your vegetables, tablespoon of nut butter into protein shakes/oats etc

WinoGelato

There is a great list of calorie dense foods in this link, some of which you said won't work for you but others likely will.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10142490/a-list-of-calorie-dense-foods/p1

Also, I looked back at your diary, it is hard for me to gauge whether or not all the entries are accurate since I'm not familiar with some of the foods (you are Dutch?) but I did notice you had pretty high exercise burns logged (which you mentioned in your original post). What kind of exercise are you doing to get those 700-800 cal burns, and for how long are you exercising? You mentioned you were losing slowly, while I think it is great that you are trying to get more calorie dense foods in to help with the calories you burn during exercise, you may want to consider tightening up on your logging of the foods you eat (with a food scale ideally) and only eating back a portion of your exercise calories. You may find that you are closer to your daily goal than you think if you are under estimating your CI and over estimating your CO.

Another alternative would be to calculate your TDEE and factor your exercise and other daily activities into your total goal, with a modest reduction for weight loss (5% maybe since you only have less than 10 lbs to lose), but if you do that, you still need to make sure you are logging the food accurately.

Faithful_Chosen

josiemead wrote: »

tablespoon of olive oil over your vegetables, tablespoon of nut butter into protein shakes/oats etc

That is a good tip, even though the thought of putting oil on my lovely veggies makes me cringe. Thanks!

WinoGelato wrote: »

There is a great list of calorie dense foods in this link, some of which you said won't work for you but others likely will.

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10142490/a-list-of-calorie-dense-foods/p1

Also, I looked back at your diary, it is hard for me to gauge whether or not all the entries are accurate since I'm not familiar with some of the foods (you are Dutch?) but I did notice you had pretty high exercise burns logged (which you mentioned in your original post). What kind of exercise are you doing to get those 700-800 cal burns, and for how long are you exercising? You mentioned you were losing slowly, while I think it is great that you are trying to get more calorie dense foods in to help with the calories you burn during exercise, you may want to consider tightening up on your logging of the foods you eat (with a food scale ideally) and only eating back a portion of your exercise calories. You may find that you are closer to your daily goal than you think if you are under estimating your CI and over estimating your CO.

Another alternative would be to calculate your TDEE and factor your exercise and other daily activities into your total goal, with a modest reduction for weight loss (5% maybe since you only have less than 10 lbs to lose), but if you do that, you still need to make sure you are logging the food accurately.

That link! My hero! Thank you so much! I am going to scout that out.

As for the exersize, I am not sure what you were looking at (my older logs were all messed up because I was still figuring MFP out but I fixed it later so my calorie burn at least matches MFP or the cardio device (whichever is lower)). I rollerblade a lot, for an hour or more, I go on hour(s) long hikes, spend hours standing and do a lot of biking (low intensity while working or high intensity for cardio, do weight training and general fitness exersizes, and I have recently added punching bag exersize to my repertoir. Not all in one day, mind you, but according to MFP, the calories add up.

I should... clearify the losing weight slowly bit. I -was- loosing weight slowly when I cut out the junkfood and didn't really exersize beyond some hiking and cycling but now I have kicked my exersize up a coupe of notches I am loosing quite a bit. Another reason I want to up my intake some. I have lost 1.5 kg in eighteen days (which is lovely for my thighs but not sustainable in the long run).

Oh--and my food. If there is a gram count there, it's the gram count, weighted on a digital scale. I sometimes mess up with fruits (because I just grab something and run) so it's probably a litle more but I weigh the big things like dairy, meats, fish, treats, and most of the vegetables and fruits. So, a little off on some days, but not 800 calories worth Thank you so very, very, much for your in-depth reply! And yes, I'm Dutch. Since I barcode scan a lot to make sure I get the right info, there are a good few dutch terms in there. Sorry about that!