How to eat minimum calories with low carbs

ohhval

Hello everyone! I've been trying to lose weight for the past three months, but I have not seen any changes. It's so hard for me to eat over 1,000 calories. For years I've been eating low calories and junk food, and now for the past 3 months I've been eating 90% healthier but my calories remain low. I've been told that because I eat so little calories my body is storing everything as fat which explains the excess fat on my body. I'm 5"8 149 and 18 years old. My body is medium size, I'm not that slim, but not that wide either. I eat 3 meals and 1 snack, but it adds up to around 1,000 and my carbs are really high from all the fruit I eat in the morning. I usually have a fruit smoothie with 2 eggs for breakfast, greek yogurt for a snack, quiona and mixed veggies for lunch, and chicken and broccoli for dinner. I try to mix it up, but I don't want to eat to many carbs. I do HIIT workouts, and I run a lot. I feel more toned but no lbs lost yet. Also what should I eat pre run? I run right after I wake up. Any advice is welcome! I'm not starving myself I just want to drop a few pounds and feel better about my body.

CMB1979

I'm just in for the carnage to follow.

astrampe

If you are not diabetic, you can eat as much carbs as you like...carbs is good for you, it's not the devil.....Add a piece of toast to you breakfast, a baked potato with cheese to dinner and an apple of banana for a snack and you will find it very easy to eat more than 1000 calories ....Which btw is about enough for a 5 year old, not an active 18 year old...
Eat more and the weight loss will follow....

yarwell

Have 2 eggs for breakfast, no fruit. Exercise before eating. Better fat loss.

BigTireFlipper

Open your diary to public so people can review what you have been doing and make sensible recommendations. :bigsmile:

tennisdude2004

Great idea not to eat too many carbs! (especially sugar and grains)

If you stick to about 100 - 150g that might be idea. Get your carbs from Veggies - mainly, with moderate fruit.

If you're going to be doing much exercise get plenty of protein 0.7g per lb of body weight might be a good quantity to aim for. Or 1g per lb lean mass - whichever works best for you.

And make the rest of your calories up from fat (nuts are a good source for some easy snacking (the only fat I would avoid would be trans fats).

Make sure you've input all your personal details into MFP - include your daily exercise and aim to hit the calories they suggest. With the diet and exercise you should see some results.

Eating too few at this stage will be counter productive.

Good luck

jesslseador14

Carbs are definitely not the enemy! Especially if you are working out and burning them off. You stated yourself you feel more "toned" so clearly something is working. Look up pictures to compare 5lbs of fat vs muscle- the scale isn't always the best way to say you are losing weight, when in fact you may just be losing some fat and replacing it with good muscle! Your calorie intake should be alot higher, a high carb snack pre-workout (maybe ricecake with PB & sliced banana?) and then something high protein postworkout, like a greek yogurt smoothie with protein powder or some almonds will help with muscle repair and your body won't go into "starvation mode" because you are stressing it under so few calorie taken in. Hope this is helpful! ????

BigTireFlipper

You know, looking at your height/weight/age you really aren't "fat", even by BMI scale results. I almost went off on my daughter's MD when she told her (a swimming and volleyball athlete) that at 5'6" and 142 lbs that she should start watching her weight. The girl had a 4 pack set of abs going, low body fat, and honest to goodness guns. So you can understand why I don't like just looking at height/weight stats.

It might be a good idea to get a body fat measurement to see where you sit right now. The results of that (and a chat with a good nutritionist) can go a long way toward getting you exactly where you want to be in the healthiest manner possible.

terbusha

Hello everyone! I've been trying to lose weight for the past three months, but I have not seen any changes. It's so hard for me to eat over 1,000 calories. For years I've been eating low calories and junk food, and now for the past 3 months I've been eating 90% healthier but my calories remain low. I've been told that because I eat so little calories my body is storing everything as fat which explains the excess fat on my body. I'm 5"8 149 and 18 years old. My body is medium size, I'm not that slim, but not that wide either. I eat 3 meals and 1 snack, but it adds up to around 1,000 and my carbs are really high from all the fruit I eat in the morning. I usually have a fruit smoothie with 2 eggs for breakfast, greek yogurt for a snack, quiona and mixed veggies for lunch, and chicken and broccoli for dinner. I try to mix it up, but I don't want to eat to many carbs. I do HIIT workouts, and I run a lot. I feel more toned but no lbs lost yet. Also what should I eat pre run? I run right after I wake up. Any advice is welcome! I'm not starving myself I just want to drop a few pounds and feel better about my body.

Hi, you should definitely watch this video from Layne Norton. He is a PhD in muscle metabolism, a natural body builder/powerlifter, and a highly regarded fitness competitor coach. It explains the dangers of eating very low calories and doing lots of low level cardio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHHzie6XRGk

Hope this is informative

Allan

tennisdude2004

Yes but for someone Layne's size he probably needs them (man he's big).

For normal muscle mass eat low carb - it's much healthier.

If the OP's goal is to look like Layne then she probably will need a ton of extra carbs just to fill the gun's up!! :laugh: