Calories

rickiimarieee

Does anyone have a hard time eating all their calories? I like to eat relatively healthy. I chose something random for lunch and breakfast but for dinner it's always meat and a veggie. I don't eat bread, rarely rice and noodles. I have such a hard time getting to my calories. I have to force myself to eat. Anyone else that way?

If I ate junk food and all that snazzz I'd have an easy time but I don't eat junk food.

unigirl143

That sounds about like me most days. I don't eat my whole allotment unless it is a splurge date night with my husband or something. Vegetables have less calories and leave me more full than junk food so when I started weighing my options of what to "spend" my calories on, my calories I was eating went down dramatically.

heybales

Just as you can become vitamin or mineral deficient - you can become caloric deficient.

A reasonable deficit is required for fat loss - more than reasonable will be muscle mass, and other negative effects.

And just as a vitamin or mineral deficiency usually takes a while to show up with negative side effects, and can take awhile to get out of the issues - so also with too calorie deficient.

Just saying - undereating too much isn't healthy either.

Figure out how to get some more required fats in there - probably missing some of those, and protein big time.

If your body has already adapted to under-eating - be very concerned.

SueSueDio

Try adding some of these calorie-dense foods to your diet to bump up your intake a bit:

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

buffgrl

Beware that undereating long-term will slooooooow down your metabolism! I see this allll the time with girls in my class at the gym and clients- they eat like birds but can't ever seem to lose weight. You may feel full on those bulky whole foods but if you're not getting enough calories and nutrition, your body will perceive this as a threat and respond by slowing down your metabolism and hanging on to precious body fat for dear life. Get those calories in girl! Rice is your friend (unless you're low-carbing it, in which case you need to up your fat intake to compensate) Your macros should be balanced 40-50% carbs, 20-30% fats, and 20-30% proteins. (Again, unless you're doing a special ketogenic diet or something). This site is fantastic for keeping calories and macros in the perfect range for weight loss and maintenance without under or over eating. Personally, I log religiously everything that enters my mouth Monday-Friday, and then Sat & Sun I eat whatever I want. I'm not binging and eating everything in sight, but I'm eating Indian Food for dinner and some Ben and Jerry's for dessert! If you go totally crazy and binge all day long this method won't work. During a "refeed" limit eating to regular meal times and when you're full you're done. I have lost 15 lbs over 2 months so far doing this method, and I didn't have that much to lose to begin with. (I am a slim strength athlete/runner). I am 39, and I eat about 2000-2500 calories per day Mon-Fri and on the weekends probably like 3000-4000 daily. In fact, a study just came out today in fact where men who went on a strict diet for 2 weeks, and then came off the diet for 2 weeks- repeating this pattern for 6 months, they lost 16 more pounds than the group who stayed on their strict diet for the whole 6 months! My theory is that your body quickly "figures out" the low calorie situation and slows down your metabolism to compensate for the lack of calories, but if you periodically and strategically "overfeed" at intervals you can bypass much of this effect, providing your daily calories aren't below your BMR. The men in the study did a long "refeed" every 2 weeks, but you can do it once or twice a week like me and have success. If you're sedentary and gain weight easily, you could try going off your diet for 3 days every 2-3 weeks even. The idea is to keep your metabolism elevated and avoid the dreaded starvation mode. It also creates a nice balance where you can enjoy favorite foods and take a break from all the calorie tracking.

smh_cliff

You wouldnt have needed to start counting them if it was really that hard.
You can add calories without using junk (full fat cheese or yogurt, handful of nuts and dried fruit, more fruit rather than veg). If you are consistently eating below it might be a good idea to use nutrition goals too.

nutmegoreo

Perhaps it has to do with the prescription diet pills you have been taking...

Nony_Mouse

rickiimarieee wrote: »

Does anyone have a hard time eating all their calories? I like to eat relatively healthy. I chose something random for lunch and breakfast but for dinner it's always meat and a veggie. I don't eat bread, rarely rice and noodles. I have such a hard time getting to my calories. I have to force myself to eat. Anyone else that way?

If I ate junk food and all that snazzz I'd have an easy time but I don't eat junk food.

How did you get overweight? Eat that, just less of it. And stop equating low calorie with healthy. There are plenty of higher cal 'healthy' (by which I mean nutritious) foods, and any food is fine within the context of an overall healthful diet.

SLLeask

nutmegoreo wrote: »

Perhaps it has to do with the prescription diet pills you have been taking...

This is exactly what I was about to post. Your thread from the other day ended up getting deleted but you are in the normal weight range for your height and you are taking prescription meds that your doctor gave you when you were overweight. But you waited and only started taking them when you were in a normal range. They were an appetite suppressant so yes, you are going to have trouble eating your calories. Even if you have now stopped taking them, you were taking them just a couple of days ago so they won't be out of your system yet. If you haven't stopped - stop NOW!

You also lost your weight in a very short time frame. So you clearly were not eating enough calories. If you are still eating so few calories combined with the tablets you are doing yourself serious damage. You need to be healthy for your 9 month old baby. Your posts worry me. Please seek professional help. Even if you think you don't need it, you do.

lemurcat12

rickiimarieee wrote: »

Does anyone have a hard time eating all their calories?

Not really. If I did, I imagine I wouldn't ever have had to lose weight or to think about it much.

I can eat in a way so that I am satisfied for a short time on low cals, but increasing calories to where I want them is trivially easy if I just add in some accents for taste like nuts or seeds or cheese or cook in olive oil or use olive oil in my dressing instead of just vinegar, so on.

Muscleflex79

rickiimarieee wrote: »

Does anyone have a hard time eating all their calories? I like to eat relatively healthy. I chose something random for lunch and breakfast but for dinner it's always meat and a veggie. I don't eat bread, rarely rice and noodles. I have such a hard time getting to my calories. I have to force myself to eat. Anyone else that way?

If I ate junk food and all that snazzz I'd have an easy time but I don't eat junk food.

wait, so you are taking an appetite suppressant and then complaining that you have no appetite??

janejellyroll

If the only calorie-dense foods you can think of are "junk food" to you, then you're using a uselessly wide definition of the term.

Chef_Barbell

So eat "junk food "

/thread

rickiimarieee

I got where I'm at from pounding Mountain Dew down everyday and eating junk food all day long and being pregnant. I haven't took my prescription in like 3 days now so people saying that, find something else. I won't eat junk food because I feel like id binge because I completely cut it out. I eat healthier. Yesterday morning I had sausage and green peppers. For lunch I had over roasted potatoes. And for dinner I had chicken breasts and two apples.

rickiimarieee

I'm not saying calorie dense food is junk food. I'm talking about cookies, chocolate, candy, soda, etc.

Chef_Barbell

rickiimarieee wrote: »

I got where I'm at from pounding Mountain Dew down everyday and eating junk food all day long and being pregnant. I haven't took my prescription in like 3 days now so people saying that, find something else. I won't eat junk food because I feel like id binge because I completely cut it out. I eat healthier. Yesterday morning I had sausage and green peppers. For lunch I had over roasted potatoes. And for dinner I had chicken breasts and two apples.

So eat more calorie dense food... what do you want people to tell you?

rickiimarieee

I'm really not undereating. My calories are set high and I eat three meals a day. I don't need medical help or therapy or whatever. I'm not starving myself.

rickiimarieee

My calories are set at 1,600 I atleast eat 1,200 a day if not a little bit more.

janejellyroll

rickiimarieee wrote: »

I'm not saying calorie dense food is junk food. I'm talking about cookies, chocolate, candy, soda, etc.

You said in your OP that it would be easy to hit your calorie goals if you ate "junk food." I'm pointing out that isn't the case, you can just add some calorie-dense foods to your diet and that could also make it easy to hit your calorie goals.

Where your calories are *set* is irrelevant if you have trouble meeting your goal (the reason that you opened the thread in the first place).

deannalfisher

define calories set as high? because I eat 25-2800 cal a day and have no problems hitting it with limited junk food

full fat dairy, yogurt (noosa, culinary circle, brown cow), cheese, avocado,

bagels aren't bad for you

add more food to your breakfast - have some eggs? any protein at lunch? carbs at dinner? there are lots of ways to increase your calories

Chef_Barbell

So what are you asking for help with? Or is this just a humblebrag post about your eating?