Not enough Calories?

raeadhani

I'm a 33 year old female, 6 feet tall with a desk job. I try to work out in the evenings after work as often as possible especially lately as I'm getting married next year. I'm determined to lose a little but of the softness that I've ended up with in the last couple years. I'm not really trying to lose weight.. I'm just trying to tone up. I'm about 155 pounds right now, so I'm not an unhealthy weight for my height.

I'm trying to watch what I eat but I'm not sure I'm doing that properly. I have my calorie goal at about 1450.. I've been tracking the calories that I eat as closely as possible and more often than not, I don't reach that goal. This is going to destroy my chances at toning up, is it not? Do I really need to eat more?

I do sin and I don't usually eat breakfast.. for some reason, eating breakfast makes me feel nauseous for hours. So my first meal of the day is usually lunch (on rare occasions I might have a snack before lunch). and I eat small enough meals usually that the calories aren't overly high, even if I do eat fast food. I'll have a snack later on then dinner, which is usually chicken/pork with either veggies or rice. My biggest sin outside of the lack of breakfast is sodas.. I'm trying to lower that intake as well, though so that's going to lower my calorie intake even more. Plus working out which burns more calories.. this is a bad thing, right?

seska422

You don't have to eat breakfast. It doesn't really matter when you eat. You do need to eat enough calories overall.

Food choices aren't sins. You can have anything in moderation. Don't feel guilty about food. Feeling guilty is for things like embezzling money.

Log all of your food (if you aren't already) and go back and see where you can make different choices. Eat some dense calorie things with healthy fats and plenty of protein to bump up your overall calorie intake.

You won't build muscle if you aren't eating enough calories.

DizzyMissIzzy

seska422 wrote: »

You don't have to eat breakfast. It doesn't really matter when you eat. You do need to eat enough calories overall.

Food choices aren't sins. You can have anything in moderation. Don't feel guilty about food. Feeling guilty is for things like embezzling money.

Log all of your food (if you aren't already) and go back and see where you can make different choices. Eat some dense calorie things with healthy fats and plenty of protein to bump up your overall calorie intake.

You won't build muscle if you aren't eating enough calories.

I love this, and I need to hear this more often. If I have a "bad food" even if it more than likely fits into my macros anyway, I always feel so guilty. It's a step up from feeling guilty for eating anything (I was not so healthy in college), counting macros has given me a way to eat so that I don't have to feel guilty knowing that I'm eating ENOUGH and also at the same time losing weight in a healthy way.

louiandaisy

You sound like you need to add muscle rather than loose weigh. If it were me I would up my calories and follow a good weight lifting programme, decent heavy weights not little ones. Mia Shanks is worth taking a look at if your new to lifting weights. Have a look at a Tdee calculator to give you your calories and macro breakdown. That way you will have enough calories to complete your workouts and add some muscle X edited to add I used to struggle to eat more than 1200-1500 calories a day but once you start lifting weights you will gain a hunger and need to eat x

RuNaRoUnDaFiEld

Have you read about recomping? Sounds like it may suit you.

kgirlhart

Not eating breakfast is not a sin and neither is drinking an occasional soda. If you don't want to eat breakfast then don't. And if you are not going over your calorie goal and you want a soda then have one. I'm still trying to lose weight so I don't know that I really have much advice for you other than make sure you get enough protein. I'm sure there are lots in here who can help with increasing your muscle. I just really was sad to think that you think you are doing something wrong by not eating breakfast so much that you called it a sin.

Yi5hedr3

Skipping breakfast is a trend now, called Intermittent Fasting. Nothing wrong with it.

raeadhani

RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »

Have you read about recomping? Sounds like it may suit you.

No, I haven't ready about it.. I'll check into it, though.

Thanks for the comments, everyone.
Yes, I do need to add muscle rather than lose weight - Unfortunately I don't have access to a weight lifting program or weights in general. So I'm trying to do what I can Hopefully the stuff I've been doing at home will help.

janejellyroll

raeadhani wrote: »

RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »

Have you read about recomping? Sounds like it may suit you.

No, I haven't ready about it.. I'll check into it, though.

Thanks for the comments, everyone.
Yes, I do need to add muscle rather than lose weight - Unfortunately I don't have access to a weight lifting program or weights in general. So I'm trying to do what I can Hopefully the stuff I've been doing at home will help.

You can do a ton with body weight resistance training -- no weights required.

Rosyone

This would be a good question to put to the Fitness and Exercise forum.