Need diet advice please

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Blessedbecca24
Blessedbecca24 Posts: 10 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone,
After posting my last question I got a ton of feedback saying I wasn’t eating enough calories throughout the day, having gone from emotionally binging to eating mainly fruits and veggies (with the occasional carby family meal) so I’ve been trying to up my calories (but in a really healthy way as I still have about 50 pounds to lose) by adding in a handful of nuts here and there and even indulging in extra creamer for my coffee because I love it as well as smaller more frequent meals like eggs and whatnot but today I feel like I’m stuffed and still only at 700 calories and it’s already 6:30! I’d been cutting off food around this time to allow my body time to rest/digest.

So my question is, what am I doing wrong? How can I form a healthy relationship with food and not feel like I’m stuffed?

Thank you for any kind words and constructive advice!

Replies

  • Blessedbecca24
    Blessedbecca24 Posts: 10 Member
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    Nony_Mouse wrote: »
    Oh, and if you feel comfortable making your food diary public, we can take a look and see what other suggestions we can give.

    Thank you! Not sure how to do that but will look into it, I have been using measuring cups/spoons because I don’t have a scale yet. So that may very well be it.

    I read a lot of articles saying stopping meals/snacking at night is better for weight loss so I ran with that but my husband is a night owl and usually snacks at night so at least while I’m retraining my brain and stomach I can snack on something and sit with him (bonus because that’s extra bonding time) so I love that you said that!!
  • Blessedbecca24
    Blessedbecca24 Posts: 10 Member
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    TeaBea wrote: »
    Fruits & veggies are carbs. Veggies (especially) are low-calorie and high volume. This is why they make perfect diet foods. The problem with high volume is they aren't generally nutrient packed. Sure brocolli has vitamin C (and other micronutrients) plus fiber, but there isn't a lot of protein or fat.

    Instead of focusing on staying full for the least amount of calories possible, focus on reaching macros.

    How do your protein and fat numbers look? Are you meeting or surpassing your protein? Adequate protein is one of the factors that help you retain muscle (your heart is a muscle) while losing weight. Other factors to help retain muscle are adequate calories (at least 1200 for women) and resistance training. Lose fat and keep muscle; lowering your body fat % is healthy weight loss.

    Dietary fat is calorie dense (small portions, high calories). Avocado, olive oil, nuts, full fat dairy, hummus, and full fat salad dressings. One (of many) health benefits from fats is they are required for your body to absorb certain vitamins.

    If you have good protein and fat numbers, there is nothing wrong with rounding out your calories with some starchy carbs (unless you have a medical condition). Whole grains, potatoes, sweet potatoes are more calorie dense than non-starchy carbs like brocolli.

    I do need to up protein for sure! That I’m itself will probably help a lot. I’m just trying to retrain my brain that full, healthy food isn’t the same as gorging on chocolate/ice cream.
    Also, love the salad dressing idea because I’ve been measuring out the recommendations but could up that as well ❤️ thank you
  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
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    remyrunnels1 wrote: »
    Nony_Mouse wrote: »
    Oh, and if you feel comfortable making your food diary public, we can take a look and see what other suggestions we can give.

    Thank you! Not sure how to do that but will look into it, I have been using measuring cups/spoons because I don’t have a scale yet. So that may very well be it.

    I read a lot of articles saying stopping meals/snacking at night is better for weight loss so I ran with that but my husband is a night owl and usually snacks at night so at least while I’m retraining my brain and stomach I can snack on something and sit with him (bonus because that’s extra bonding time) so I love that you said that!!

    On the homepage, go to 'settings' then 'diary settings', scroll down and select 'public' under diary sharing.

    Stopping meals/snacking at night helps some people because it helps them to not go over their daily calorie limit. That's not an issue for you, so snack away until you reach your calorie goal. Meal timing really makes no difference for weight loss. You can eat right before bed, and again as soon as you get up in the morning, and you will lose weight just the same so long as you're at a deficit :)
  • Blessedbecca24
    Blessedbecca24 Posts: 10 Member
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    Just made my diary public and also figured out how to scroll back through it (didn’t know that was possible) so I think for weight loss I need to cut soda 🤦‍♀️ didn’t even realize how much I was still drinking! Which might help me feel less full and with the tips y’all have shared my belly is going to be happy! 😃 thank you again!
  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
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    Just checked and still can't see your diary, Remy. Can you try again please?

    And yes, cutting down soda will help if your stomach is therefore not full of gas :)
  • lgfrie
    lgfrie Posts: 1,449 Member
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    remyrunnels1 wrote: »
    Hi everyone,
    After posting my last question I got a ton of feedback saying I wasn’t eating enough calories throughout the day, having gone from emotionally binging to eating mainly fruits and veggies (with the occasional carby family meal) so I’ve been trying to up my calories (but in a really healthy way as I still have about 50 pounds to lose) by adding in a handful of nuts here and there and even indulging in extra creamer for my coffee because I love it as well as smaller more frequent meals like eggs and whatnot but today I feel like I’m stuffed and still only at 700 calories and it’s already 6:30! I’d been cutting off food around this time to allow my body time to rest/digest.

    So my question is, what am I doing wrong? How can I form a healthy relationship with food and not feel like I’m stuffed?

    Thank you for any kind words and constructive advice!

    Without being able to see your diary, here's my thoughts, not in any way as a nutrition expert but just as a fellow dieter chewing over your question.

    This may seem counterintuitive, but I would suggest taking a few days or a week off from the mainly fruits & veggies thing, and eating more calorie-dense foods while counting calories carefully so it doesn't turn into a binge. Not to say you can't have fruits and veg as part of that, but eating a diet of mainly fruits and vegetables may be throwing off your hunger and appetite signals -- possibly in a way you'll want and benefit from later, but for right now these filling and non-calorically-dense foods you're eating are causing you to feel too full. So eat something more calorically dense! Since you've gone vegetarian, how about a big fat peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or those higher calorie granola bars we rarely buy because they're too many calories, or look for some recipes that use higher calorie ingredients like potatoes au gratin and so on. Of course keep careful track of the calories, and whatever you've chosen as the daily limit - I assume 1500 or so based on the last thread - stop there.

    I recommend that because at lease for me vegetables are extremely filling per calorie and would be my last choice if I was trying to increase my cals without feeling excessively full. Two hundred calories worth of broccoli will leave me a bloated, stuffed gasbag (pardon the imagery) whereas I can down 200 calories worth of nuts, cheese, etc., and still have 90 % of my appetite left, if you see my logic.

    Agree with others above, step one is probably to be sure you're measuring things right. It's very easy to be way under-counting with volume measures, as opposed to weight-based measures. The best thing to do would be to use a food scale and measure everything by the gram. When I started doing that it was absolutely shocking how little food actually goes into a portion LOL My peanut butter tablespoons were approximately two tablespoons worth of peanut butter, and my eyeballed tbsp of butter was never less than 1.5 tbsp. So weight-based measuring is an excellent way to get a reset on all this. I doubt your "700 calories" is adding up to 1500 calories, but it may well be 1000+. You'll want to nail this down as you go forward.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,996 Member
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    Another vote for calorie dense foods such as nuts, peanut butter, and cheese.

    Lest this swing too far in the other directions, I also recommend a food scale.

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