What do you eat.

canroadrunner

I've been reading on other boards,the complaint that they just can't eat as many calories as this board suggests or that they just aren't hungrier than 1200 calories (or less if they don't eat back exercise calories). I confess that when I first started this journey and had to sometimes find close to 800 calories between dinner and bedtime that there were times I just could not get anymore food into my mouth. Not good since I usually have a high calorie burn with exercise and NEEDED to eat it back.
I eat pretty clean, I think. Very little processed food or sugary type stuff. (My one vice is the sugar free latte - I don't count the sucralose as "clean".)
So, I got sneakier. I was already eating 5-6 times a day but I added additional calories to each one.
Example: for my morning snack I upped from .5 oz of nuts to 1 oz of nuts.

I also snuck in "good" fats which didn't add a lot of bulk but a lot of calories. I was eating very little fat previously.
I added an oz of sunflower seeds to my oatmeal along with a tablespoon of ground flax seed. (also gives extra fiber).
I added an extra tsp of olive oil to my salad, along with some avocado.
I find the good thing about my plan is that if I don't have to eat extra to get to BMR or if I have a higher calorie treat in the day, I can just not add the olive oil or avocado at my evening meal to adjust.
I also do the protein shakes after workouts and I'm not afraid of eating peanut butter anymore (which I avoided when I was low calorie) if I want a PBJ for lunch.

If Lucia or Kiki see anything glaringly wrong with this plan, I hope they will tell me.

Also, how to the rest of you up your calories without feeling stuffed?

ellie78

I'm actually trying something pretty similar. I've added almonds to snacks, avocado and I do more cooking with healthy oil instead of doing everything dry. I actually drink a lot of my calories in the form of milk or juice as well, I know its not the greatest way, particularly the juice, but I do try to go with natural products without a lot of added sugars and so far its been fine.

I have to agree it is great to be able to leave out the bulk sometimes and have a treat For me that's usually eating out, it is fantastic to sit down at a restaurant and not have to scour the menu for what looks like has the least calories and instead just focus on a good, healthy meal.

gemiwing

Man, I loooove food : )

Here's what I changed in order to reach my new calorie goals-

Eggs- I eat whole, real eggs. Three to five a day.
Peanut Butter
Nuts- lots of nuts!
Protein shakes WITH calories. No more 'diet' shakes- I get 300+ cals or I don't drink it.
Cheese- one ounce is 100 cals
Red meat- has tons more calories than chicken or turkey. I missed hamburgers! They're delicious to have again
Butter- real butter. it's heavenly!

This is why I laugh when people tell me 'so sorry you're on a diet! you must not be able to eat a THING!"
lol

ANewLucia

I've been reading on other boards,the complaint that they just can't eat as many calories as this board suggests or that they just aren't hungrier than 1200 calories (or less if they don't eat back exercise calories). I confess that when I first started this journey and had to sometimes find close to 800 calories between dinner and bedtime that there were times I just could not get anymore food into my mouth. Not good since I usually have a high calorie burn with exercise and NEEDED to eat it back.
I eat pretty clean, I think. Very little processed food or sugary type stuff. (My one vice is the sugar free latte - I don't count the sucralose as "clean".)
So, I got sneakier. I was already eating 5-6 times a day but I added additional calories to each one.
Example: for my morning snack I upped from .5 oz of nuts to 1 oz of nuts.

I also snuck in "good" fats which didn't add a lot of bulk but a lot of calories. I was eating very little fat previously.
I added an oz of sunflower seeds to my oatmeal along with a tablespoon of ground flax seed. (also gives extra fiber).
I added an extra tsp of olive oil to my salad, along with some avocado.
I find the good thing about my plan is that if I don't have to eat extra to get to BMR or if I have a higher calorie treat in the day, I can just not add the olive oil or avocado at my evening meal to adjust.
I also do the protein shakes after workouts and I'm not afraid of eating peanut butter anymore (which I avoided when I was low calorie) if I want a PBJ for lunch.

If Lucia or Kiki see anything glaringly wrong with this plan, I hope they will tell me.

Also, how to the rest of you up your calories without feeling stuffed?

This is glearingly absolutely on point...this is how I started to get in more caloires. I love all kinds of nuts, addng the immediate protein drink to feed muscles right after a lift session, a tbls of olive down the hatch, pb, all of it is excellent. We need the fat!

Honestly when you eat so little for so long it is quite a challenge to start eating so much more. But in my example below you will see it can be done...:
1oz almonds. 190 cals
Protien shake. 180 cals
Greek yogurt. 140 cals

Three snacks in between 3 meals of 450 a piece gives you a whopping total of 1860 cals.

raevynn

I added 2 oz of raw nuts (only raw... and a mix of sprouted almonds, walnuts, and cashews) to my "second breakfast" with my usual fruit. I figure it slows down the fruit sugar, and gives me more protein and good fats.

I put raw flax oil on my baked yams. If I'm shy some calories, I'll make it TWO tbls instead of one.

A serving of instant oatmeal (organic, oats and flax from Trader Joes) will up it 100 or so.

I now go with a full 2 tbls of veganaise on my vegan BLT lunch sandwich.

Low sodium refried beans on organic corn tortillas. Great filler. Full of something called "resistant starch" according to a "woman's world" article *insert eye roll*... yes, I read it sometimes... but, the thing is, resistant starch is supposed to minimize cravings, and I figure the protein isn't hurting me in the least, and neither is the fibre.

Since I tend to eat a lot of fresh produce anyway, and fruit - dear goddess, I love fruit - this helps me net ~2000 calories.

Raynn1

Im still working my way up to eating all of my cals, and trying to find where I can add extra cals in is definitely a challenge. But I have been doing a few things..

Added 1/2cup more steel cut oats to breakfast
Added granola to greek yogurt for snacks
Drinking milk (trying to drink more)
More nuts on salads.. in oatmeal etc

Trying to eat full fat products instead of light/fat free

iron_jj

I recently upped my intake even more, it wasn't easy but eating lots of small meals and lots of healthy snacks help me reach my calorie goal.

- Oatmeal with peanutbutter (peanut butter in general with a sliced apple nomnom)
- Protein shakes with sugar free yogurt, fresh fruit, skim milk and whey powder, usually 300-350 calories per shake
- 1 cup greek yogurt with a scoop of whey and fresh fruit
- Whole eggs
- Almonds
- Avocados
- Olive oil (I love to roast my veggies in it with some garlic, you can easily get some calories in there)
- No more fat free cheese

SmileyJ23

Well I've only been at this for a few days now but here's what I have done/plan to do:

-Add extra eggs. Now I can have two eggs at breakfast instead of one
-Adding milk to my protein shakes-they will certainly be creamier
-Cashews/Almonds/Peanuts - I have always loved them and now they will fit my eating again
-Bigger/better snacks!
-More meat at dinner/lunch etc. And I'm looking forward to skin on my chicken every now and then.


I am just so grateful to find this group and those who have increased calories and see progress. Since restarting my journey in Oct 2011, I was able to lose about 44 pounds on my own. That included a month of only a 1 pound loss. Since the last month or so has just been a stall. No loss no gain and this time around no inches either. In the back of my mind I had always figured that I needed to eat more. But here I was just going with the cals MFP was suggesting which was getting lower and lower. I had to manually set myself at 1580 cals a day with a 40/30/30 split. When I had a couple weeks of just being super hungry. I knew I had to start eating back some exercise cals! That has helped some but sometimes the hunger was still there.

So I am excited to see how this goes. I am patient so I know that won't be a problem.

SmileyJ23

I recently upped my intake even more, it wasn't easy but eating lots of small meals and lots of healthy snacks help me reach my calorie goal.

- Oatmeal with peanutbutter (peanut butter in general with a sliced apple nomnom)
- Protein shakes with sugar free yogurt, fresh fruit, skim milk and whey powder, usually 300-350 calories per shake
- 1 cup greek yogurt with a scoop of whey and fresh fruit
- Whole eggs
- Almonds
- Avocados
- Olive oil (I love to roast my veggies in it with some garlic, you can easily get some calories in there)
- No more fat free cheese

Didn't think about the cheese. I can go back to full fat for some and incorporating more of it.