People who eat less than 2000 cals...in need of support

blah2989

Maybe the foods you are eating are not enough to sustain you. I started July 6th at 249 lbs. I marked sedentary for my daily activity level. ( when I really not sedentary, but I do add my exercise and occasionally cleaning, which I always count as "light" even if it vigorous. But anyway at first it calculated intake as 1360, then as I lost weight reduced it to like 1260-1280. Weighed myself aug 28th , now weigh 220 and it reduced me to 1210. If I want to eat more, I just exercise and try to always end up 100 cal under my intake. I try to keep myself around 1200-1500. Depending on how I feel that day. I have gone over, and when I do I exercise. Jogging 30 mim burns 300+cal, walking a leisurely for an hr also burns about 300 cal. I think you should really look at what you eat, maybe its just not holding you. Feel free to add me if you want I would be happy to give you ideas and help you figure out how to make what you enjoy eating low cal. You can definitly do it.

MyaPapaya75

Its clearly not about peanut butter your kind of willy nilly OP..if you want to be serious you need to make a plan and stick to it regarding workouts and food, you still young so you can really get a head start...but you need to find something that works for you. Clearly just doing things because you like to or because they taste good isn't going to work. We all have been there ..that's why some if us are in the situation we are in now. Myself included.....make a plan and if you have health insurance seek professional help from a Dietician...and perhaps your mom can go with you.

connie_messina

bump

FerretBuellerr

Looks like you've gotten a lot of good advice on here!

I think everything I was going to say has already been covered, but here's what I wanted to add:

1. Go grocery shopping WITH your mom so you can pick out healthier foods that you like! You don't necessarily need to go buy it yourself (unless it was something your parents requested you to do), just tag along and help with the choices! Does your mom buy the pre-packaged meals because she doesn't know how to cook, or because there is a "lack of time"? Do you know how to cook at all/are you able to help your mom cook so you can have healthier meals? Cooking everything from scratch ALWAYS tastes better and (in some cases, depending on what you're making) has less calories/salt/sugar! I know it's been said before, but even taking one day and pre-cooking a bunch of meals for the week and freezing them helps a lot!

2. Not meaning to be rude, but if you say you know you eat too much of certain things, then just STOP. You are the only one that can help yourself lose weight - it's your own mental and physical challenge to achieve! When you can't figure out why it's so had to eat less than 2000 calories but you know you stress eat/don't have a lot of healthy food in your home, then you've already got your answer! I used to eat a lot out of boredom, and they would always be the sugary or high-carb foods - even making the conscious effort to eat some fruit or nuts instead of *insert more of your favourite stress foods here* can make a difference! I do it by keeping all the junk food out of my apartment - then I can't be tempted by it and have to take a walk to buy some if I really want it! Exercise is also a GREAT way to relieve stress - instead of eating, get up and move! Go for a walk, a run, a bike ride, rollerblade, go to the gym, anything! Moving around and drinking lots of water always helps curb my hunger.

3. Eat more vegetables. Lower in calories and carbs, and you can eat a TON of them without really taking in that many calories. The nights I have a vegetarian meal for dinner I often end up having a lot of calories left over, so I can go have some junk food if I want - it's a win-win!

StacyReneO

I glanced at your diary and it was really dismaying. The things you are eating are spiking your blood sugar - peanut butter & jelly with chips for lunch is not a well balanced meal. And you snacks alone were totaling over 1200 calories a day. All you seem to be eating is junk food.

Howdoyoufeeltoday

I know I eat too much peanut butter. I know I need to cut back on how often I eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. They are my comfort food, and eating out of stress is something I've been trying to work on for a few months now.

you're allowed to eat peanut butter. I eat it all the time. I eat that stuff off the spoon sometimes....bread just gets in the way. Key is to eat less of it so that way you can keep your calories low and still eat what you love.

If you're not losing weight then maybe your over-estimating the amount of calories you're burning. I always underestimate mine by about 50-100 calories depending on what activity i'm doing. also try to only eat back some of your exercise calories instead of all of them.

My best advice would be to cut out things little by little. like I used to love the coffee creamer too but now I drink my coffee black. they're empty calories. You can add in a teaspoon of sugar and some vanilla extract instead. it's not the same but it's better then all the calories from the cream. and instead of 5 tablespoons of jelly use 2. Work on managing your food first and then focus on getting your exercise on track. It's a slow process I know. there are tons of ups and downs but you just have to remember how much you want it. If you give up now then in a year from now you might be starting this whole process all over again, but if you take slow steps now then in one year from now you might be on the road to your goal. I know what its like to turn to food for comfort but just cause your trying to lose weight and eat better doesn't mean food has suddenly become the enemy. Some ppl just love food.

VpinkLotus

Filling up on low cal foods will help. Make sure you have veggies and fruit and try to eat them first. You can obviously eat more food if you choose a lot of foods with low cal counts. Small amouts of food throughout the day, water!!!! Also are you eating back your workout cals? If not then you probably will be hungry.

Duck_Puddle

Peanut butter is fine. It's just really calorie-dense (lots of calories in a very small amount of food). If you can make your PB&J with say 2 tablespoons of PB instead of 5, you'll save about 300 calories per sandwich.

Best advice is to troll the diaries of others. Lots of people eat lots of food (volume and calories). Get ideas from there. I think you'll generally find a trend that people are eating high volumes of non-calorie-dense foods (veggies, some fruit) and low volumes of very calorie-dense food. While fiber and protein and whatever else help you feel full, you also have to eat an adequate volume of food. If most of your food choices are extremely calorie-dense, it will be very hard to eat the volume of food you need to eat to feel full AND stay within your calorie limit.

kerrilaberge

PROTEIN PROTEIN PROTEIN!
I try to eat high-protein, low calorie meals. For breakfast I usually eat non-fat greek yogurt with 1/4 cup of Bear Naked granola. It's about 300 calories and 18g of protein, which keeps me full for at least 4 hours.

I'm on the lose-1-pound-a-week plan. My goal is 1270 calories, but I often go over by a little. I rarely eat more than 1500/day.
I try to go for a walk daily- (30 minutes=100 calories for me). If you can't exercise though, stay in your calorie goal range and you will still lose weight.

Good luck!

scookiemonster

No offense, but sounds like a lot of excuses to me. There's no reason you can't make better choices - you're just not making them.

Looking at your diary, there's nothing wrong with the foods you're eating, but the proportions are way out of whack. Why do you need a pbj sandwich AND pasta for lunch? How on earth do you fit 5tbsp of peanut butter on one slice of bread? I love a good pbj - but all you need is 1, maybe 2 tbsp of peanut butter. And you don't need a sandwich and pasta for lunch - pick one or the other. No matter how much the pbj sandwiches are a comfort food for you, there's no reason you can't just use a little bit less peanut butter - or a lot less.

As far as your mom not buying the right foods... have you even asked her? You say you don't like confrontation so you can't ask for things, but I find it hard to believe that your mother would refuse to buy apples... and even 7-11 sells apples. It's not like they're hard to find, regardless of where your mom is shopping. I also agree with those who said that you should ask your mom if you can go to the store with her. Since you say you don't have a job, sounds like you should have plenty of time for that - or even offer to go shopping for her if she'll give you the money, since you aren't working. Unless she really likes to grocery shop and as long as she can give you a list to buy, she might just be relieved to have the chore taken over. Asking for things and offering to help doesn't have to be about confrontation.

If she really won't do that, you can certainly manage with what you have, just eat less of it. Drink more water and eat more slowly and mindfully. Then wait at least 20 minutes before you eat anything else to see if you really are actually still hungry.

Also, just as an aside, don't fool yourself by thinking that it's okay to log 1,000 calories burned from cleaning and then eat all of that back. Cleaning isn't really exercise, and eating 3,5000 calories in one day is just crazy unless you're actually working out hard.

mkphotogirl

hey OP, i think you're doing the right thing to ask for advice. some of the replies might seem a little harsh, but do know they're well intended. it's tough when you're not living on your own and in full control of what foods are in your fridge and pantry -- so that requires stronger willpower and dedication. it might also mean you should have a conversation about your goals with your mother -- maybe she can get on board and adjust the grocery shopping to work toward healthier habits for the whole household. your diary shows a pretty unhealthy diet, and keeping it up will only continue your struggles with food and weight and health.

you're consuming a lot of not-so-healthy processed foods, and very little protein or fiber. this is where vegetables come into play. you may not like them at first, but a lot of the healthier food habits people develop take time to enjoy.

try eating kale every day, either in a salad, or cooked, or in a smoothie with fat free yogurt and frozen fruits. try quinoa or even brown rice instead of white rice. try your coffee black. i HATED this when i first tried it but now the sugar/cream i used to put in my coffee would probably revolt me.

try to save the hostess cupcakes and stuff like that for a once a week treat -- you may actually find you don't enjoy them as much as you once did!

i bet if you reduced your calories to even 2000/day, right off the bat you'll start feeling better and healthier. do you cook? maybe you should use this as motivation to start learning how to cook healthier meals instead of eating high-calorie nutrient-lacking foods. maybe that will help with the depression and stress, too, if you use it as a motivator and something exciting to challenge yourself with. feel free to also look through my diary and those of others to get a sense of what other people are eating. there might be some inspiration there for you.

i wish you the best of luck!

lithezebra

Peanut butter is great stuff. If it were me, I'd cut back on the bread and jelly first, and find other ways to eat as much peanut butter as I could fit into my TDEE.

mkphotogirl

here's a thread with tons of open diaries for you to peruse for ideas: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1073352-please-post-here-if-you-have-an-open-diary

AleciaG724

Sit down and plan meals and grocery lists together - offer to help her with the shopping and cooking. If you're not working you have plenty of time to look up healthy meals online. Borrow some healthy cookbooks from the library (you can also get workout DVD's form the library & on Youtube for free!) I would think she's overwhelmed trying to manage the food for all of those people, so she would love the help. Don't approach it as she's doing something wrong, just offer to help because you are trying to lose some weight...

misti777

A few of the replies I have gotten sound kind of like this, "You are eating way too much food. You're a dumbass to think you could lose weight and eat that much."

I have already changed my diet from the one I had, I think 6 months ago, to the one I've had for a couple months now and I have lost inches. I haven't measured, but my tummy doesn't stick out as far.

I know I need to cut back on peanut butter. Tablespoons are not that big though. If I put only one tablespoon on a slice of bread I would feel like I was eating carpet.

I have asked my mom to buy more fruit. And she usually does buy more fruit now, but waits to long to get and get the produce. So we only have fruit for a couple weeks out of one month when she should really go and get produce every two weeks. And just last weekend she bought a bunch of processed stuff, but for some reason could not make it to the other grocery store she goes too(I've talked about this before in response to some of the people's thoughts on this thread) And lately, I've been eating a lot more salads than I ever have.

So just what I have done so far, has helped me. I know that as soon as I get a job I will be able to buy myself a few things that I choose to eat over a sandwich or the other processed stuff.

My mom actually just got back from the grocery store with lots of fruit - finally!

misti777

A few of the replies I have gotten sound kind of like this, "You are eating way too much food. You're a dumbass to think you could lose weight and eat that much."

I know this is not what they mean, but the tone of their writing makes me feel like that is what they are truly thinking.

grentea

Can you go with your mom and get the healthier foods you need? There are inexpensive healthy foods like brown rice and beans, frozen bags of veggies, oatmeal, tuna, chicken breast. Is it possible for you to cook your own foods or try to get your family to try new healthier recipes.

You can also try your local library to check out nutrition or fitness books. It might be an easier way to get some healthy ideas. And just talk to your mom, you never know, she could want to get in shape also.

Cindyinpg

A few of the replies I have gotten sound kind of like this, "You are eating way too much food. You're a dumbass to think you could lose weight and eat that much."

I know this is not what they mean, but the tone of their writing makes me feel like that is what they are truly thinking.

A lot of people are small and/or sedentary or have to/choose to eat less for whatever reason, so your intake seems like a lot to them. Depending on your activity and how much weight you have to lose, what you are having now may be pretty reasonable. Take the time to figure out your TDEE and go from there at that link I first left for you about the basics.
Edit: here it is http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819925-the-basics-don-t-complicate-it?hl=The+basics+don't+complicate

misti777

Can you go with your mom and get the healthier foods you need? There are inexpensive healthy foods like brown rice and beans, frozen bags of veggies, oatmeal, tuna, chicken breast. Is it possible for you to cook your own foods or try to get your family to try new healthier recipes.

Well, she does know that I am working on eating healthier, so she is buying more fruit than before. I don't like to eat frozen veggies though. She buys veggies and oatmeal actually. We just don't always have fruit in the house and I struggle a little bit with using too much peanut butter when I decide to have sandwich. I also usually opt to not have the frozen corn dogs or burritos that she buys.

FerretBuellerr

No offense, but sounds like a lot of excuses to me. There's no reason you can't make better choices - you're just not making them.

Looking at your diary, there's nothing wrong with the foods you're eating, but the proportions are way out of whack. Why do you need a pbj sandwich AND pasta for lunch? How on earth do you fit 5tbsp of peanut butter on one slice of bread? I love a good pbj - but all you need is 1, maybe 2 tbsp of peanut butter. And you don't need a sandwich and pasta for lunch - pick one or the other. No matter how much the pbj sandwiches are a comfort food for you, there's no reason you can't just use a little bit less peanut butter - or a lot less.

As far as your mom not buying the right foods... have you even asked her? You say you don't like confrontation so you can't ask for things, but I find it hard to believe that your mother would refuse to buy apples... and even 7-11 sells apples. It's not like they're hard to find, regardless of where your mom is shopping. I also agree with those who said that you should ask your mom if you can go to the store with her. Since you say you don't have a job, sounds like you should have plenty of time for that - or even offer to go shopping for her if she'll give you the money, since you aren't working. Unless she really likes to grocery shop and as long as she can give you a list to buy, she might just be relieved to have the chore taken over. Asking for things and offering to help doesn't have to be about confrontation.

If she really won't do that, you can certainly manage with what you have, just eat less of it. Drink more water and eat more slowly and mindfully. Then wait at least 20 minutes before you eat anything else to see if you really are actually still hungry.

Also, just as an aside, don't fool yourself by thinking that it's okay to log 1,000 calories burned from cleaning and then eat all of that back. Cleaning isn't really exercise, and eating 3,5000 calories in one day is just crazy unless you're actually working out hard.

^ All of this. Especially the first paragraph.

No one here means you any harm or grievance with the advice they give - some are just able to word it more nicely than others, and some prefer the blunt, honest approach. What you've been told is the advice you were looking to hear, regardless of the tone they've used! You gotta have thick skin, not just online when you ask for advice from strangers, but for life in general. But you do seem like you're still making up excuses for no reason at all. Like this for example:

I know I need to cut back on peanut butter. Tablespoons are not that big though. If I put only one tablespoon on a slice of bread I would feel like I was eating carpet.

Have you actually eaten carpet before to know that? :laugh: And have you actually measured a sandwich with 1 T of peanut butter and 1 T of jelly? That's 2 T of condiments altogether - it's the perfect bread to condiment ratio! :happy:

I understand that it's hard to break out of a habit (I used to put a looooot of peanut butter on my pb and j's because I love the stuff, but when I realized how high cal it is, [bold] I knew I had to be more reasonable [/bold] so I started using less) but you CAN do it! And to be quite honest, I don't know how you taste the bread of your sandwich with 5 T of peanut butter :laugh: If you think it "tastes like a carpet" without 5 T of pb, then maybe ask if you can have a different type of bread for your sandwiches so it doesn't taste so blah.

You're a big girl, you can do all of the things people are suggesting here if you REALLY do want to progress, lose weight, and learn to have a healthier lifestyle! Don't complain about when and how your mother does groceries - go with her to do them to avoid that problem! Need to cut down on something - be brave, grow a pair and just do it! Eat more vegetables and fruit, eat more protein instead of carbs (your body burns protein as fuel too, but it takes longer to do such, so it makes you feel full longer!), weigh and measure everything you eat! Getting close to your cal limit for the day? - then DON'T have a pb and j sandwich as a snack - have some pb and celery instead!

It's all a learning process, so when you learn you're eating too much of something, cut it back. If you love that food and want to eat it everyday, then cut back on other foods so you can have your comfort food more without going over! There's quite a few foods that I love that I don't eat much of anymore because I know it will put me over what I need for the day, and I'm fine with that because I know if I plan ahead I can still eat them - or they just become treats!

Basically, if you want to do it, you can. If you want to be healthy, you can and will change your lifestyle to sustain it! Excuses will only hold you back - and only cause you grief on forums :laugh: