Way under my calorie goal

mg_alva

Hi everyone. So it's past 8:30 here with me. I am about 600 calories under my goal of 1470. I have no idea what to eat and honestly I haven't even been reaching 1200 cals a day. I just don't know what to eat. I feel I eat fine but I know I'm not doing my body any good when I'm barely eating 700-1000 cals on any given day (without adding my exercise). I have a doctor's appointment on Friday. It's just a general check up. So I'll talk to my doctor about it, but just thought I'd ask here also. Maybe someone else is having the same problem I am

veganbaum

Toast or fruit with peanut butter. Avocado. Nuts of any kind. Those are high calorie and delicious.

nikkihk

How is this a problem? Go have an ice cream bar!! A Hamburger!! A large french fry!! There are a dozen things you can eat to make up 600 calories and all of them taste good! TWO slices of pizza!! I could do this all night...

baberzoo1

So what did you eat that got you to the point of wanting to lose weight?

rak173

I have been having the same problem. Currently, I am enjoying a couple oreos and milk I plan to buy some healthier cereal so I can have that instead of junk food.

Ang108

Hi everyone. So it's past 8:30 here with me. I am about 600 calories under my goal of 1470. I have no idea what to eat and honestly I haven't even been reaching 1200 cals a day. I just don't know what to eat. I feel I eat fine but I know I'm not doing my body any good when I'm barely eating 700-1000 cals on any given day (without adding my exercise). I have a doctor's appointment on Friday. It's just a general check up. So I'll talk to my doctor about it, but just thought I'd ask here also. Maybe someone else is having the same problem I am

I really don't understand, with all due respect.
If you need to lose 70 pounds you obviously know how and what to eat, because otherwise you would not be overweight. You can eat some of the same stuff, just less. You can also make yourself a plan to eat more healthful things some of the time and other food some other times. Just do some of the same stuff as before, but in moderation and at a deficit. I can't believe that all of a sudden people forget how to eat just because they started to exercise and eat in moderation.....I know I didn't and have no problems eating my daily calories nd I am willing to bet that I am just one of many.

Jewlz280

I think maybe you're taking the whole 'healthy eating' thing too far. I know it's tempting to cut out ALL high calorie foods when you change your eating habits and start counting calories, but don't do it. Keep the protein and the good fats. Go have some avocado with salt and pepper and maybe a few whole grain chips, 4 tbsp. of PB and a big juicy apple, yogurt with some graham crackers, or even a bowl of ice cream. People often cut fat when dieting, but that is a major mistake. So, tomorrow and from now on, remember to find a way to add in those oils, nuts, and butters! Your calorie count, brain, hair, and body will thank you. :bigsmile:

mg_alva

So what did you eat that got you to the point of wanting to lose weight?

Let's see. Huge burgers, large fries, whole tray of chinese food, super large breakfast sandwiches, huge portions and double helpings of mom's cooking. All that and more to the point of being more than full. I don't think those are things I should be eating or doing now

mg_alva

Hi everyone. So it's past 8:30 here with me. I am about 600 calories under my goal of 1470. I have no idea what to eat and honestly I haven't even been reaching 1200 cals a day. I just don't know what to eat. I feel I eat fine but I know I'm not doing my body any good when I'm barely eating 700-1000 cals on any given day (without adding my exercise). I have a doctor's appointment on Friday. It's just a general check up. So I'll talk to my doctor about it, but just thought I'd ask here also. Maybe someone else is having the same problem I am

I really don't understand, with all due respect.
If you need to lose 70 pounds you obviously know how and what to eat, because otherwise you would not be overweight. You can eat some of the same stuff, just less. You can also make yourself a plan to eat more healthful things some of the time and other food some other times. Just do some of the same stuff as before, but in moderation and at a deficit. I can't believe that all of a sudden people forget how to eat just because they started to exercise and eat in moderation.....I know I didn't and have no problems eating my daily calories nd I am willing to bet that I am just one of many.

I would like to be like you. To know exactly what to eat and have the easiest transition ever. But if I do need to loose 70 lbs it's because obviously I didn't know how to eat or what to eat. People don't forget what to eat. They've been used to eating whatever all the time, and junk all the time. I do eat health foods. That's all I eat. And because they're health foods, they're not full of fats and sky high in calories. So that's where my problem comes in. Maybe you didn't mean any disrespect, but that kind of reply sure doesn't make anyone feel hopeful

1princesswarrior

Don't start demonizing food. You can still eat all of those things, just eat smaller portions of them or 1 serving. They key to success is to eat at a reasonable deficit, use a food scale to weigh all of your solid food and measure all of your liquids.

Read this and all the links in it: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

them_and_me

Sounds like you're jumping to the opposite end of the spectrum and trying to cut out everything and anything deemed unhealthy. Do you feel a diet like this is sustainable? You don't have to cut out everything you enjoy, you just have to eat less of it so you're still hitting your calorie targets. When you get your tray of chinese food, portion out and calculate what you can have to eat that fits with in your daily calories and put the rest away.

Hope you can find the right balance for a healthy weight loss

echofm1

So what did you eat that got you to the point of wanting to lose weight?

Let's see. Huge burgers, large fries, whole tray of chinese food, super large breakfast sandwiches, huge portions and double helpings of mom's cooking. All that and more to the point of being more than full. I don't think those are things I should be eating or doing now

You can still have half a tray of Chinese food, or moderately sized breakfast sandwiches, or a normal portion of your mom's cooking. You didn't get overweight just because you ate things deemed unhealthy, but because you ate lots of them. In addition, there are lots of more health-conscious ways to add calories to your diet. Cook with butter or olive oil (or your preferred oil of choice). Eat more avocados. Bananas are like 90-110 calories a piece. Eat a steak, or some chicken if you've decided you're afraid of steak.

Snack on nuts, full-fat milk products like Greek yogurt and cheese. Granola bars. There are a million ways to add calories to your diet.

mg_alva

Sounds like you're jumping to the opposite end of the spectrum and trying to cut out everything and anything deemed unhealthy. Do you feel a diet like this is sustainable? You don't have to cut out everything you enjoy, you just have to eat less of it so you're still hitting your calorie targets. When you get your tray of chinese food, portion out and calculate what you can have to eat that fits with in your daily calories and put the rest away.

Hope you can find the right balance for a healthy weight loss

I think I should blame my sister. She's made fear salt even. I definitely acknowledge that I am taking the "healthy eating" idea too far. I just don't know how to balance it all out and meet in the middle. It's easy to become overweight. It's not so easy when you've been eating a certain way for years and then try to change those habits all of a sudden. I will talk to my doctor on Friday and see in what direction he can point me to

twhaley1990

So what did you eat that got you to the point of wanting to lose weight?

Let's see. Huge burgers, large fries, whole tray of chinese food, super large breakfast sandwiches, huge portions and double helpings of mom's cooking. All that and more to the point of being more than full. I don't think those are things I should be eating or doing now

You can still have half a tray of Chinese food, or moderately sized breakfast sandwiches, or a normal portion of your mom's cooking. You didn't get overweight just because you ate things deemed unhealthy, but because you ate lots of them. In addition, there are lots of more health-conscious ways to add calories to your diet. Cook with butter or olive oil (or your preferred oil of choice). Eat more avocados. Bananas are like 90-110 calories a piece. Eat a steak, or some chicken if you've decided you're afraid of steak.

Snack on nuts, full-fat milk products like Greek yogurt and cheese. Granola bars. There are a million ways to add calories to your diet.

I agree with all of these suggestions. Olive oil, nuts/nut butter, avocados, and bananas are definitely some tasty ways to increase calories. And maybe have a snack between breakfast and lunch and lunch and dinner, like a banana or yogurt or nutrition/granola bar. And even with that, you may still be able to sneak in a couple of pieces of chocolate

Aaron_K123

Have a can of raw unsalted almonds around for just such occasions. Quality protein, quality fat, ton of calories for the weight. Seriously a handful of almonds is like 200 calories easily and they are pretty snackable.

Don't succumb to the idea that eating under your goal is a good thing. Your goal is your goal, try to hit it. If you find yourself naturally coming under that's great because itll be easy to just pop a few almonds and be set. Its harder when you find yourself consistently over your goal.

If for some reason you hate almonds any nut will do basically.

mg_alva

So what did you eat that got you to the point of wanting to lose weight?

Let's see. Huge burgers, large fries, whole tray of chinese food, super large breakfast sandwiches, huge portions and double helpings of mom's cooking. All that and more to the point of being more than full. I don't think those are things I should be eating or doing now

You can still have half a tray of Chinese food, or moderately sized breakfast sandwiches, or a normal portion of your mom's cooking. You didn't get overweight just because you ate things deemed unhealthy, but because you ate lots of them. In addition, there are lots of more health-conscious ways to add calories to your diet. Cook with butter or olive oil (or your preferred oil of choice). Eat more avocados. Bananas are like 90-110 calories a piece. Eat a steak, or some chicken if you've decided you're afraid of steak.

Snack on nuts, full-fat milk products like Greek yogurt and cheese. Granola bars. There are a million ways to add calories to your diet.

I agree with all of these suggestions. Olive oil, nuts/nut butter, avocados, and bananas are definitely some tasty ways to increase calories. And maybe have a snack between breakfast and lunch and lunch and dinner, like a banana or yogurt or nutrition/granola bar. And even with that, you may still be able to sneak in a couple of pieces of chocolate

I definitely snack between each meal. I guess what I'll do now is instead of getting fat free yogurt I'll buy the next one up and see how I do with that. When I use olive oil, I've been using half the serving size, so I'll up that too

them_and_me

Sounds like you're jumping to the opposite end of the spectrum and trying to cut out everything and anything deemed unhealthy. Do you feel a diet like this is sustainable? You don't have to cut out everything you enjoy, you just have to eat less of it so you're still hitting your calorie targets. When you get your tray of chinese food, portion out and calculate what you can have to eat that fits with in your daily calories and put the rest away.

Hope you can find the right balance for a healthy weight loss

I think I should blame my sister. She's made fear salt even. I definitely acknowledge that I am taking the "healthy eating" idea too far. I just don't know how to balance it all out and meet in the middle. It's easy to become overweight. It's not so easy when you've been eating a certain way for years and then try to change those habits all of a sudden. I will talk to my doctor on Friday and see in what direction he can point me to

Talking to your doc is a great idea to make sure you approach your weight loss in the healthiest way for YOU. Great suggestions from everyone here as well.

Do you plan out your food for the day or just wing it? It helps a lot for me to know what I'm going to be eating and calculating it out before I stuff it ALL down the hatch I know how much to eat and I stick to it.

mg_alva

Have a can of raw unsalted almonds around for just such occasions. Quality protein, quality fat, ton of calories for the weight. Seriously a handful of almonds is like 200 calories easily and they are pretty snackable.

Don't succumb to the idea that eating under your goal is a good thing. Your goal is your goal, try to hit it. If you find yourself naturally coming under that's great because itll be easy to just pop a few almonds and be set. Its harder when you find yourself consistently over your goal.

If for some reason you hate almonds any nut will do basically.

I love almonds. I have a jar of almond butter in my fridge right now. I love all things nut except peanuts/peanut butter. My sister has made me afraid of cheese as well. I should stop listening to her:grumble:

mg_alva

[/quote]
Talking to your doc is a great idea to make sure you approach your weight loss in the healthiest way for YOU. Great suggestions from everyone here as well.

Do you plan out your food for the day or just wing it? It helps a lot for me to know what I'm going to be eating and calculating it out before I stuff it ALL down the hatch I know how much to eat and I stick to it.
[/quote]

I've just winging it, taking sometimes so long to think about what I'm gonna eat that I just settle on steamed veggies and a bland chicken. But on Sunday I decided that I would find 2 or 3 recipes that I really liked at the beginning of each week, make the whole recipe (which are usually 4 serving per recipe) and eat them as my meals throughout the week. That way I know what I'm eating, enjoying it, and balancing my nutrition without so many headaches

mg_alva

Sounds like you're jumping to the opposite end of the spectrum and trying to cut out everything and anything deemed unhealthy. Do you feel a diet like this is sustainable? You don't have to cut out everything you enjoy, you just have to eat less of it so you're still hitting your calorie targets. When you get your tray of chinese food, portion out and calculate what you can have to eat that fits with in your daily calories and put the rest away.

Hope you can find the right balance for a healthy weight loss

I think I should blame my sister. She's made fear salt even. I definitely acknowledge that I am taking the "healthy eating" idea too far. I just don't know how to balance it all out and meet in the middle. It's easy to become overweight. It's not so easy when you've been eating a certain way for years and then try to change those habits all of a sudden. I will talk to my doctor on Friday and see in what direction he can point me to

Talking to your doc is a great idea to make sure you approach your weight loss in the healthiest way for YOU. Great suggestions from everyone here as well.

Do you plan out your food for the day or just wing it? It helps a lot for me to know what I'm going to be eating and calculating it out before I stuff it ALL down the hatch I know how much to eat and I stick to it.

I've just been winging it, taking sometimes so long to think about what I'm gonna eat that I just settle on steamed veggies and a bland chicken. But on Sunday I decided that I would find 2 or 3 recipes that I really liked at the beginning of each week, make the whole recipe (which are usually 4 serving per recipe) and eat them as my meals throughout the week. That way I know what I'm eating, enjoying it, and balancing my nutrition without so many headaches

them_and_me

I'm sure your sister's heart is in the right place. There are a lot of common misconceptions about weight loss and nutrition out there that science has laid the smack down on.

Pre-planning what I'm going to eat (for the day) has been a huge help for me. Give it an earnest try and I hope it will work for you too!

mg_alva

Thank you

jennifer_417

Here's a simple way to think about it: High calorie =/= unhealthy. Eat what you like, just eat a a deficit, and you will lose weight.

Sheilav99

I do the same thing quite often. I'll worry a little too much about keeping my main meals lower calorie, then I end up with a lot of extra calories to make up. Whole almonds, avocado, low fat cheese, small portions of ice cream, I've even eaten a salad later at night to make up calories. Just read labels carefully to know how many calories you're getting, as well as other things like fat, sodium, carbs, etc.

Talk to your doctor about your sister's well intentioned advice. My doc told me cheese is great, but suggested getting reduced fat cheese. She said non-fat might be the best, but it doesn't taste very good, so low fat is ok.

LKArgh

Based on your diary, adding a normal lunch would be a good idea. The few days I have checked, you are completely skipping lunch except for an avocado. If time is a problem, add a grilled cheese sandwich, or some grilled chicken or even a yoghurt.

Fiery_Vixen

I've lost about 19 lbs since the beginning of the year and the only thing I've changed is my portions. I still eat the same processed crap I did before....just less of it. If I had drastically changed my diet like you have and ate just healthy food, I would have given in and binged long ago cause I can't live without salty and sugary foods. Now I'm not knocking healthy food, I really should eat more of it, but you're just setting yourself up for disaster if you put yourself through such a drastic change in diet. I had like 700 calories left for the day, so you know what I ate? An A&W Rootbeer, a small bowl of Mac and Cheese and a few pieces of chocolate...and you know what? I'm still going to lose weight, because although everything I ate was junk, I still came in underneath my allotted net calories for the day.

StevenH74

How did your sister make you afraid of cheese?

mg_alva

Based on your diary, adding a normal lunch would be a good idea. The few days I have checked, you are completely skipping lunch except for an avocado. If time is a problem, add a grilled cheese sandwich, or some grilled chicken or even a yoghurt.

I have lunch everyday. Sometimes it's dinner I skip, but that was because I would workout after work and felt it was too late to eat. Now I work out during my break right before lunch so I can come home after work and eat dinner. I've never skipped lunch. But even now that I'm regularly eating something for dinner, I'll still be off quite a big number

mg_alva

How did your sister make you afraid of cheese?

Haha. I absolutely love cheese.. so when I mentioned that, she said it's really fattening. So then I was avoiding it. Now I'm not. I bought Sargento ultra thin slices and get my cheese fix with little to no guilt

mg_alva

I've lost about 19 lbs since the beginning of the year and the only thing I've changed is my portions. I still eat the same processed crap I did before....just less of it. If I had drastically changed my diet like you have and ate just healthy food, I would have given in and binged long ago cause I can't live without salty and sugary foods. Now I'm not knocking healthy food, I really should eat more of it, but you're just setting yourself up for disaster if you put yourself through such a drastic change in diet. I had like 700 calories left for the day, so you know what I ate? An A&W Rootbeer, a small bowl of Mac and Cheese and a few pieces of chocolate...and you know what? I'm still going to lose weight, because although everything I ate was junk, I still came in underneath my allotted net calories for the day.

I love salty things too. Now I'm trying not to eat so much of it. For one, high blood pressure runs in my family. I was avoiding that too (thanks to my sister) but I just can't do without it. Now instead of eating bland crap, I add enough to give it good flavor, but not so much like before either.. atleast with that I've learned how to balance. And I've changed my diet so much to the point where I ate Chinese on Saturday and I felt so uncomfortable and bloated. Lol... guess I'm not used to it anymore

suey2k1

How is this a problem? Go have an ice cream bar!! A Hamburger!! A large french fry!! There are a dozen things you can eat to make up 600 calories and all of them taste good! TWO slices of pizza!! I could do this all night...

Ridiculous. The whole point is to eat HEALTHILY not just fill up on crap to boost your calories. Nuts are good. If you add some nuts or seeds to all your meals during the day or have a couple of snacks that should do it. i have 24 raw almonds and a small pear as a snack. That's 210 cals. Have something like that a couple of times a day and bingo! Cals restored :O)