Trying to figure out how to add more calories, since seems with my strat, it's a bit aggressive

maryadavies4667
maryadavies4667 Posts: 58 Member
edited November 28 in Health and Weight Loss
Okay. I've noticed I'm consistently way under the goal MFP has been setting for me. First month, I lost 21 pounds.

..Considering I started 100 pounds overweight, I didn't think that was too bad and my doctor didn't seem too concerned other than my liver enzymes spiked a little. This week I lost three pounds though.

I'm thinking I need to add some cheap/healthy snacks. Been checking around for unflavored protein powder, tho that seems to be shy. (I do NOT want to add a lot of sugar to my diet right now; sugary snacks/junk food is what got me into this mess) but considering I don't have much money, I would like to be careful on that. There's oranges available of course; and we do get apples too.

Any ideas, folks?

Replies

  • LKArgh
    LKArgh Posts: 5,178 Member
    Has your dr recommended eating more? What is your current calorie plan? And if more calories are recommended, why not just eat a bit bigger portions?
  • maryadavies4667
    maryadavies4667 Posts: 58 Member
    edited August 2018
    I'll call her and tell her about it, she didn't check MFP.

    My current calorie plan is 1910 calories a day; I've been more like 1200 on average. I figure I should have it 1800 at the very worst. Part of it is my sister's food nazi (No, you can't have eggscan'thavemilketc), and I have also not been making protein macros at all.

    Also with bigger portions; have to be real careful there. I think Sis and her dishing up too much when she dishes up for us contributed to me keeping the weight in the first place. (Um, whole plate of pasta? No.)
  • corysmithsmail
    corysmithsmail Posts: 166 Member
    I think it depends on your starting weight. The bigger you are, the more that is ok to lose at a faster pace. I started at about 100lbs overweight also. When I weighed 265, I lost 20lbs my first month. My doctor was monitoring it, and was comfortable with that. Of course every body is different, but in general the smaller you get, the slower you should lose weight.

    You could try eating more veggies. Frozen are cheaper and still better than sugary snacks. I like protein shakes, you can add in fruit or just mix in water/milk/juice. Fills me up for a decent amount of time.
  • Panini911
    Panini911 Posts: 2,325 Member
    Almonds. find them on sale at bulk food stores for better price.

    why are you staying so far under your calorie goal? did you correctly enter your stats into MFP to get that goal of 1910? Staying too far under for long periods is not "better" for your health.
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member
    edited August 2018
    Protein shakes don't generally have sugar - look for a WPI, the nutrition info should show minimal carbs and fat (if any). They are usually sweetened with artificial sweetener, so no contribution to your sugar intake but an easy way to bump up protein.

    I like adding powder to natural yoghurt for flavour and sweetness - shakes are horrid imo!

    For other non-added sugar snacks, you could try cheese and crackers, nuts, apple with PB, eggs, a sandwich or toast (top with avo, or PB, or cheese... Or whatever!)
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    It's real easy to add calories with peanut butter, which is about 100 calories per tablespoon, depending on the brand.
  • maryadavies4667
    maryadavies4667 Posts: 58 Member
    edited August 2018
    Panini; part of it is sis's food nazi attitude and partly b/c I'm sticking to what we have/watching portions a little aggressively. (She is anti milk, surprising since we were raised as milk drinkers. I had to cut way down anyway b/c we can't afford a lot of milk; but I can see why when I cut out all snacks, I drop weight like nuts.) And Spirit; we have a limited amount of cheese and milk (not to mention eggs), so sis is very all food nazi about that. X_X. I'd eat more of that if I could.

    I'm just trying to rethink it and prolly add some protein powder to my oatmeal in the morning. Might start checking grocery stores for protein bars too, as long as those aren't all sugar. X_X. And seeing if I can get some almonds at Sam's might be helpful too.
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
    maryadavies4667 wrote: »
    Panini; part of it is sis's food nazi attitude and partly b/c I'm sticking to what we have/watching portions a little aggressively. (She is anti milk, surprising since we were raised as milk drinkers. I had to cut way down anyway b/c we can't afford a lot of milk; but I can see why when I cut out all snacks, I drop weight like nuts.)

    I'm just trying to rethink it and prolly add some protein powder to my oatmeal in the morning. Might start checking grocery stores for protein bars too, as long as those aren't all sugar. X_X. And seeing if I can get some almonds at Sam's might be helpful too.

    Can you only cut out *some* snacks?

    Cheese, eggs, tuna, peanut butter... all easy calorie options.
  • maryadavies4667
    maryadavies4667 Posts: 58 Member
    edited August 2018
    Music; she does in a way b/c she tends to get most of the food (Church food bank, etc) and really, in that case; I don't like to hear her say, "YOU DON'T NEED MILK OR EGGS OR CHEESE! LEAVE THAT ALONE!"; as I said, she is a major food nazi and knows how to push all my buttons. Also we only get 4 gallons of milk every two weeks unless one of my brothers buys some (they usually do; my middle brother is all screw her and drinks lots of it, which annoys my other brother all to heck and gone)

    As for tuna, we have some, I might look into that. Been eating a pb&j sammwich for lunch with some raw carrots; she doesn't mind me getting into the carrots for some reason. And there's no limit on peanut butter, tho yeah, have to be careful there.

    Anyway she overlooks me drinking a cup of milk with breakfast; she hates me getting into the eggs and cheese, tho I've been trying to use a cheese cutter when I use that to control how much; she allows me to basically eat anything else, and of course anything I can scrounge up and buy. I noticed at the Dollar General down the street I can get canned chicken as well as tuna; might consider that too for a change. Finally found the unflavored protein powder at Wal-Mart for a decent price too.

    I'll look into adding some peanut butter to my breakfast in the meantime. Figure I need to deal with this before I get sick.
  • shaf238
    shaf238 Posts: 4,022 Member
    I'm confused...why does your sister dictate what you eat?
  • pinuplove
    pinuplove Posts: 12,871 Member
    I'm sorry your financial situation is limiting your options here. What were you eating before you started losing weight? Maybe just add some of that back in or bigger portions of what you currently eat.

    As is often said here, once your nutritional needs are met, you don't get extra credit for eating more broccoli.
  • belladamjc
    belladamjc Posts: 55 Member
    I'm in a household where I don't dictate the meals either, so for extra protein I have a can of tuna, either alone or with a salad or in a sandwich depending on other macros. A small tub of yoghurt is a good additional filler or veggies/fruit as available. I stay away from protein shakes as I can eat meat/fish and other nutrients are beneficial.
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
    Peanut butter
  • kiela64
    kiela64 Posts: 1,447 Member
    Cheap ways to get more protein would be beans & legumes. I don’t know if the food banks will have them (they should, shelf stable and all), but dry bulk stores when they have sales can be fairly cheap. Dry or canned work, just dry is a bit more prep. With rice it’s a complete protein.

    In the meantime, peanut butter or peanuts and an apple is one of my favourite snacks. Easy to push calories up with nuts. It’s good to know what foods your sister isn’t guarding - like carrots. Maybe you can note these things and try to search up snack/meal ideas and try to build some more items into your day while avoiding arguments.

    Good luck! That sounds like a challenging situation with your family ❤️
  • VUA21
    VUA21 Posts: 2,072 Member
    Granola. Very tiny amounts have a bazillion calories. One serving with yogurt adds a lot!
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    maryadavies4667 wrote: »
    I decided to go with adding some peanut butter to my oatmeal in the morning. This'll take some trial and error to get things just right (seven pounds in one week's a bit extreme; I want to aim for 1-3 a week instead).

    Oh and I forgot to mention. Since my main exercise right now is a thirty minute walk (About a mile at the moment) every morning, I'm not going to eat back any calories unless it gets to be just..way too much. I think eating back calories is stupid..to a point.

    Also part of how I got to this was again, oversnacking; I'd sometimes even buy Oreos/nuts/candy at Dollar General and eat the whole bag! Which is why I'm trying to be careful about not snacking much. Not to mention picking in leftovers and not watching how much I ate. Mostly just stress/bored eating.

    something that helps me with oreos etc...when I buy them - I immediately divide the bag into single servings and then put them away - so if I want some I just grab a single bag to eat
  • maryadavies4667
    maryadavies4667 Posts: 58 Member
    edited September 2018
    I'll remember that Deanna; just right now I'd rather make sure i'm not pigging out b/c I'm bored or something and repping that with feeding the game machine instead. It's just bad habits caused by just not controlling what I ate.

    Not to mention STAY THE FRICK OUT OF THE FRIDGE. Picking in leftovers = Very Bad Idea since I just eat, I don't check to see how much.

    I noticed someone mentioned a book too; I mean to get it.
  • Evelyn_Gorfram
    Evelyn_Gorfram Posts: 706 Member
    If I've got this right, yo originally had 100 lbs to lose; and you lost 21 lbs the first month (for which, Congratulations! B) )

    But you lost 3 lbs this week, have been averaging 1200 cal/day on a plan that calls for 1910 cal/day, and you have not been making your protein macros. I think you're very right to be concerned about getting sick.

    Since your sister is concerned about your eating too much milk, cheese and eggs; would it be doable to work out an agreement with her as how much of each you would eat per day? Say maybe, a cup of milk, an ounce or two of cheese, and an egg per day (or more, if she's cool with that). Then you an she would both have the reassurance of knowing how much you would be eating, and she would know how much would be disappearing from her larder.

    The foods you've mentioned as readily available include:
    tuna
    canned chicken
    protein powder
    peanut butter
    oatmeal
    bread (in pb&j sammwich form)
    pasta
    oranges
    apples
    carrots
    (and maybe almonds)

    A few thoughts:
    - Apples and peanut butter have already been mentioned, but they're a favorite of mine, too.
    - You could boost your oatmeal, pasta dishes, and tuna or chicken salad with protein powder.
    - Cooking your carrots may help make them easier on the system if you're eating a lot of them.
    - Looking at this list makes me want a nice tuna-with-slivered almonds salad.

    Someone mentioned getting beans, peas, lentils, etc, from the food bank. My food bank generally has lots of these, dry and canned, and are very generous with them. I also get lots of my produce from the food bank, especially at this time of year when farms and gardens are overflowing. Some vegetable are fairly high in protein; including spinach, kale, collard, beet greens, turnip greens, peas, green beans, sweet corn, broccoli, potatoes, mushrooms, chickpeas, yams, and sweet potatoes.

    Any possibility you could go to the food bank with your sister, or for her?
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,312 Member
    Get your protein. Post by kiela above covers how it can be done on a budget. Apples were a gotto snack for me while I was losing weight because I found them filling for the calories. It does sound however as if you might eventually need to increase your calories closer to mfp's recommended levels.
  • Strudders67
    Strudders67 Posts: 989 Member
    If you're able to get hold of a tin of chickpeas, cook and then mash them and add a drizzle of oil to make a basic houmous / hummus - lovely as a dip for carrots. If you happen to have lemon, cumin or paprika, add a little bit for a more authentic taste but you don't need them and houmous is an easy way to boost calories and protein.

    Consider chopping an apple and adding that to your oatmeal too. Or chopping a handful of nuts if you have any of those.

    I'm in the UK so have no idea what Dollar General sells, but if it has cheese, could you buy your own every so often?

    Although she's controlling and you avoid her, could you possibly sit down with your sister and plan nutritious,cheap meals by searching on the internet for dishes containing the ingredients available to you?
  • maryadavies4667
    maryadavies4667 Posts: 58 Member
    edited September 2018
    Okay, I discovered also that I'm WORSE than I thought weight wise (another reason to get with the doctor). I was 134 pounds overweight. (106 now)

    I'm ordering that protein powder just to be safe, and I'm going to ask folks something too.

    Also the Church food bank works wierdly. Ya order the stuff beforehand and THEN go pick it up; you can't choose it there. I do have SOME input there but they also limit how much you can get (like we can only get 4 gallons of milk every two weeks, and X amount of meat and cheese)

    And Dollar General sells things like junk food, some milk, some cheese, some tinned meats. (but at bad prices for the fresh stuff; heck, it's expensive for staples in general); hence why it's better to avoid. However, it's the only place I can walk to atm. The grocery stores are further away, like 3-5 miles away (I'd def get my walk doing that but there is no sidewalk and it's DANGEROUS; the drivers are nuts. I'd rather get my butt in shape and THEN pedal to the grocery stores; until then I have to bum rides, which isn't easy sometimes.)

    I'll make a excuse to go down to Dollar General and see if they have chickpeas though.
  • Evelyn_Gorfram
    Evelyn_Gorfram Posts: 706 Member
    edited September 2018
    Procrastinating on doing my housework :/ , so checked the weekly ad for a random Dollar General in GA (the one I happened on is 15 mi outside of Macon).

    Your best bets for protein might be Swanson's Canned Chicken at $2.50/can (9.75 - 12 oz). They also have Clover Valley Sunflower Kernels at $1.50/7.25 oz. (I like half a tablespoon or so of sunflower seeds stirred in my oatmeal). Bush's Baked Beans are on sale for $4/4 28 oz cans, and Van de Camp's Pork-&-Beans are $1/2 15 oz cans.

    Okay, enough shilly-shallying around with other people's grocery prices - my dirty dishes await! B)
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