New to Calories

Riverofbeauty

Hi,

I'm a 19 year old female (5"4 - 5"5). I've never been extremely large or anything, in fact I'm quite small, but I have always struggled with carrying a lot of weight around my stomach. People assume I'm really skinny, because I cover my stomach weigth well, and have skinny arms/legs etc.

2 years ago, my mum and I realised we were going down a road we didn't want to be, and started the south beach diet. We had huge success, and felt so much healthier etc as well as losing most the weight we wanted to.

I'm back to 'normal' eating now, but I do try and limit my 'bad' carbs most days, especially if I've eaten lots the day before. I've recently started going to a pump class twice a week (I'd never lifted weights before in my life). So I decided to start looking at calories more than carbs. I do want to lose a little bit more from my stomach, but only a kg or 2 all together. I put down that I want my net calories to be about 1400. Yesterday it said that I ate 1000 calories. I really don't understand. Here's a quick run down of what I eat so you get the idea (I eat often throughout the day, and tend to snack a lot, yesterday was one of my better days, but is fairly similar to what I eat on weekdays):

Breakfast: 1/3 cup hubbards Fruitful breakfast, with 1T of Craisin Trail Mix and 1/4 cup yoghurt.
Snack: Chewing gum and feijoa green tea with coffee mate.
Lunch: Whole grain filled roll with roast chicken and coleslaw. A medium sized red apple.
Snack: A kiwi fruit and a raspberry green tea with coffee mate, and chewing gum. (sometimes have a muesli bar or carrot sticks here too).
Snack: 2 whole huntley and palmers sesameal crackers with peanut butter.
Dinner: Avocado, red pepper, olives, cucumber (basically a salad without lettuce), and a medium portion of pasta bake lasagna.
Dessert: None last night, but would normally have a cadbury drinking chocolate or something.

I'm generally pretty healthy in my weekdays. Weekends, not so much. I usually have takeaways once a week, and a starbucks or ice cream or chips etc. Is it okay to eat less on weekdays if you have a few more in the weekends? (I'm guessing it doesn't work like that!)

I know this is a silly question to some, when people generally have the opposite problem. But how can I eat more calories? I know nuts are good, and I do eat those some times. I have heard a lot of sites say that you can't lose weight on so little calories. Is this true, and could it be why I'm having difficulty losing the last bit of fat around my stomach?

Sorry for the long post, and any information is welcomed. Just remember, I'm new to calories so you might have to explain things a little more in-depth! Thanks!