looking for some advice on how to eat more calories?

vmessyness

i'm trying to lose weight, and become a healthier person. i'm currently 247, and i've calculated my BMR and am aiming for about 1950 cal/day, which for me is plenty. however since i exercise about 600-700 calories/day, i am trying to eat back at least *some* of those calories. the problem is, and believe me i never thought i'd have this problem, i am really having trouble eating over 1950 cal/day. i just don't find i'm hungry enough, and i'm trying to stick to healthy foods. i am trying to incorporate some more nutrient/calorie dense stuff into my diet recently (like consuming more avocado, nuts, olives etc.) but i'm still falling short. any tips?

Pebble321

Plan ahead... if you plan out a day's worth of meals then it is easier to see where you can get more calories in... who knew that would ever be a problem!!

Pidders89

This isn't really going to help but i'm having exactly the same problem!!! xxx

TavistockToad

Plan ahead... if you plan out a day's worth of meals then it is easier to see where you can get more calories in... who knew that would ever be a problem!!

i agree. if you know you are working out in the afternoon, add some cals extra to each meal, and make it up that way... a banana with breakfast, a boiled egg with lunch and a handful of nuts is an extra 300ish cals straight away.

If you open your diary people would be able to give you more tips & ideas. x

LabRat529

Plan ahead... if you plan out a day's worth of meals then it is easier to see where you can get more calories in... who knew that would ever be a problem!!

I like this suggestion.

It sounds like you're already doing the other things I'd suggest- nuts, avocados, oils.

The only other thing I'd add is try for some liquid calories? Grape juice, more milk (if you drink it), that sort of thing.

Or there's always chocolate! YUM!

And, while I'm a HUGE fan of eating at a MODEST calorie deficit... if you're eating 1950 calories a day, your net is at least 1250 and you're obese (forgive the term please, I'm just using the medical classification, and I'm obese too), so you've got a pretty big reserve of excess fat. Obese individuals do okay on a bigger calorie restriction. As you get closer to your goal weight, you'll want to decrease your deficit, but at this stage... if you're not hungry and you're already adding in nutritious, calorie dense foods... I really wouldn't worry about it. If you're hungry, you should definitely eat though.

Good luck with your journey!

snuggllepuff

I buy a lot of protein powder and add two scoops per shake. I'm trying to gain muscle so the powder that I'm currently drinking now is called Platinum Hydro Builder which has a combination of whey protein and creatine. Two scoops has 260 calories and 60 grams of protein. Plus it tastes like chocolate pudding.. so that's a plus!

Lolli1986

Nuts and fruit always bump my cals well up.

I don't know... do you -really- need to eat more than 2000cals a day? I know all the numbers and 'eat your BMR' etc... but... we store fat so that we can use it. Fat is cals sitting right there in our body ready to run our metabolic processes, if I am not mistaken. I was under the impression that the minimum 1200 cals is recommended due to nutrient intake, not due to calories themselves.

If you're struggling to get in more cals, why do it? When you're at your goal weight you probably won't be eating more than 2000cals, so why do it now? Sites other than MFP (such as fat2fitradio) recommend eating like the person you want to be.

Django1977

Hey there,

for me as I get into nutrition it was ackward to eat 5 - 6 times equal meals per day. But I figured out if you do that for about 4 weeks it will become a habbit and you will get hungry at the times you are eating. Just try it out.

I can only tell you what I did. I changed about 50% of my meals (maybee a bit much heh) to wholegrain... I eat when I wake up oatmeal and then wholegrain bread with light cheese. And I eat about every 2 - 2.5 hours even I am not hungry. Change your eating habbits away from white things (white flour, white pasta, white sugar etc etc.) to wholegrain. That will help.

For me it was more a mentally problem. I thought that I eat too much calories. But when you did the math and checked your bmr and your tdee you will be fine. I lost 28 pounds so far since last year. And about 12 pounds only as I changed my eating habbits to wholegrain and 5 - 6 times eating per day + cardio + weightlifting...

I hope I helped a bit.

Cheers

Django

LottieLou13

I've been upping my calories over the last couple of weeks and am now at 1500. I plan out my weeks food ahead and if I need some extra calories for one day I will add in a glass of fruit juice, or some dried fruit. (my diary is public - so you can see what I mean).
That way I don't get to the end of the day and still have like 200 calories left and not feel hungry enough to eat them. Also I look forward to certain days because I know what I'm having.
The hardest thing was going from 1200 to 1400, I never thought I could eat that much more food, but once you add in the fruit juice, dried fruit, cottage cheese etc then calories bump up a bit