How to meet caloric intake

Pinkvela

Hello everyone! I don't have a lot to loose but I want to get down to what I've always thought was my ideal weight which is 125/126 lbs. I pretty much never weigh myself because I figure I can tell by my clothes, but one day I just decided to check and I was 133lbs. I weighed 130lbs when I started FitnessPal as I managed to take off 3lbs before. Since then, I began by losing at the rate of 2 ounces a day it seems. I've lost 1 lb altogether, but I just seem to fluctuate at various increments of 129lbs. I notice that the morning after I teach a class I weigh 129 lbs 0 ounces, but one day after, depending on what I eat (I guess) I can wake up the next morning and weigh 129.6 or .4. So I edited my exercise goals to twice a week for 45 minutes ( I actually exercise 3 times a week) to see if FP would allot less caloric intake but it won't go under 1200 cals. I seem to meet all the other nutritional goals (close) but I'm not always meeting the caloric goal. I've been monitoring my sodium and fat intake just to see if I was going overboard ( I like salt), but that doesn't seem to be the case. Thing is I don't know what to eat to fill up. I find that the protein and fat categories get used up really quickly. I cannot eat all sorts of food combinations especially certain vegetables and legumes because I have some sort of reaction (to what? I don't know) that can give me a headache on the rt. side of my head for days (with diarrhea and gas, nausea) This is why I'm going for tests, so far my whole GI track is fine, next step: dietitian. Anyway this is why my food diary indicates a lot of squash and carrots in terms of vegetables. Can anyone give some suggestions so that I can lose another pound or two? I'm thinking that since I'm getting older, maybe this current weight is the new normal, but I would like to flatten the belly a bit and smooth out the hip line (I do work out with weights on the w/e).

queenliz99

When you have so little to lose your calorie counting needs to be precise. Do you use a food scale to weigh everything?

pwoodroof

I'm a beginner in this but my initial reading seems to suggest that certain foods are good for raising metabolism and burning calories themselves.....suggestions include fresh lemon water in the morning, eating small quantities of nuts like pecans, almonds and walnuts, eating any dark vegetables if you can (spinach, cabbage are good), Konjac "Eat Water" slim rice is great.....you can eat tonnes of it and it hardly has any calories and is high in fibre. Although egg has quite a few calories, it appears to be recommended for breakfast (preferably not fried)

Pinkvela

Yes I do use the scale but not for everything, I've started that for where meat/poultry is concerned, but I tend to always overestimate my portions, in other words I err on the side of caution. Because I sometimes weigh something and it says only a few ounces, but I also recall that meat portions should not be larger than the palm of your hand. So I'm looking at this fish fillet for example and I'm thinking that's way bigger than my hand. For instance tonight I only ate a little more than half my portion of fish, not out of fear of eating too much, just it looked like a lot to eat. Someone was telling me that it could be that my body is trying to hold on to my weight because it's not getting enough calories, but that's where I'm at a loss, what do I eat and not go over in the fat/carb/sugar etc. zone? Even if I wanted to fill up on vegetables and fruit, that's more food than I would normally eat pre-diet.

queenliz99

Starvation mode is a myth, don't listen to them. Watch this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY

Pinkvela

@pwoodroof. Thank you, I will look into this.

rileysowner

pwoodroof wrote: »

I'm a beginner in this but my initial reading seems to suggest that certain foods are good for raising metabolism and burning calories themselves.....suggestions include fresh lemon water in the morning, eating small quantities of nuts like pecans, almonds and walnuts, eating any dark vegetables if you can (spinach, cabbage are good), Konjac "Eat Water" slim rice is great.....you can eat tonnes of it and it hardly has any calories and is high in fibre. Although egg has quite a few calories, it appears to be recommended for breakfast (preferably not fried)

No food raises metabolism. It does take calories for the body to digest food, what is called the thermic effect, but what matters is how many calories are eaten. Fresh lemon in water, other than being delicious, will do nothing to speed up metabolism nor will eating any of the other things you have listed, many of which are quite calorie dense and can easily eat through the calorie allowance for this poster who is at 1200 calories.

Weighing food, especially if one has little to lose, gets quiet important as this video illustrates quite well.

https://youtu.be/vjKPIcI51lU

Pinkvela

@queenliz99 Interesting! I had to laugh at the peanut butter, it is my favourite food! I have only touched it once so far, thank God! I will be more cautious with my measuring spoons. Although I can say that I do only use 1/2 tsp to (earth balance) butter my toast, and it's a bugger trying to spread that. And thanks for clearing up the myth thing.

Pinkvela

@rileysowner. Thanks for the vid. Wow it's so true. Have to go prepare lunch for tomorrow. I can see that I have to be very diligent with portions.

rileysowner

@Pinkvela You are welcome. That video is the best visual illustration of this that I have seen.