Help I have trouble eating under 2000 cals a day!

xilka

I eat between 1800-2300 cals x day. Exercise at least 50 minutes, 6 x week.
I tried eating less, but that just doesn't work for me. I need FOOD.
So, just exercise more. You say you're on your feet most of the day,
so your TDEE is probably higher than mine - I'm 1750 without exercise at 5'0 ft.

Less calorie deficit and more exercise has worked for me. Good luck!

timpicks

Obesity is an epidemic in the US and most developed countries because the "normal" for eating is unhealthy. Almost all of the eating habits that I grew up with were literally killing me. It took me a long time to incorporate that fact into my daily life. Until you do and make fundamental changes to your eating habits, weight loss will be a frustrating mirage. I'm not going to spend time detailing specific options because it doesn't seem like you are receptive at this point, but my diaries are open if you want to see what I do. My solution may not work for you, but there are many ways and they all start with coming up with a new and healthy normal. Good luck.

ApexLeader

we should take what you are eating, mix it with the stuff that all the people who write "help i'm having trouble reaching 1200 calories" are eating, and then we'll have a perfect diet for both groups of people.

Pixi_Rex

It sounds like your definition of "normal" needs to change. 900 calories for one meal would be normal for, maybe, a linebacker. Or an unhealthy person. I think I eat like a "normal" person. I don't restrict anything, if I want it, I have it. And I am usually right where I need to be for calories. If I am going to eat more I exercise and "earn" some more calories. Check out my diary, it is open.

I must be a line backer because my dinner is usually around 900 calories maybe more depending on my day.

OP, I am sure this has been mentioned already but do you have your daily totals calculated to account for an active job? Figure out your TDEE-20% and go from there. I easily eat between 1700 - 1900 calories a day after exercise and when I last weighed in I was still losing ( i gave up the scale while doing Insanity). Seriously though if you are honest to god that active you may need to eat 2000+ calories a day.

ljcazan

First of all, you're eating the wrong things. And eating like a "normal person" is the reason obesity is such a problem in this country. You have the wrong mindset. Also, for the first few days, you'll feel hungry, but then your body will get used to it and you wont have the hunger pains. I workout and run a lot, and can eat 12-1400 calories a day and feel great! It is all about HOW you eat your calories. A burger and tacos probably isn't the best choice (although they are DELICIOUS!!). If you were to pick high fiber, multi-grain, low calorie tortillas, you could scramble egg whites, some black beans, salsa, mmmm....satisfy that taco craving for breakfast at a much lower calorie expense. If you choose foods rich in nutrients and lower in calories you can actually eat more! Try perhaps a sweet potato instead. I like eating that stuff just like th enext person, don't get me wrong. We all wish we could eat whatever. But if weight loss is your goal, you HAVE to cut calories as well as exercise. There just isn't an easy way around it. I have found that until I was determined enough to have that dedication in my diet, I never saw results before. It is hard, but if it is really something you want to do, you'll muster up the strength to do it. Good luck to you! And remember, don't deprive yourself. I've always said, one "bad" meal won't make you fat, just like one "healthy" meal wont make you skinny. You just can't have the "bad" meal every day...or every week. Small treats once in a while!

jcfromtb

Looking at the original poster's diary, it looks like there is a lot of "quick add" entries. I think if you take the time to enter every piece of food that enters your body, it makes you hold yourself accountable for what you eat, it makes you AWARE of the nutrition (or lack thereof) that you are consuming, it also makes you responsible for your end result. I went from 205 to 260 over 4 years, lost a ton of weight (back down to 225), and gained most of it back before starting to log my food in MFP. Since then, not only have I lost weight, but I am super conscious of what enters my body.

Regarding the "900 calorie breakfast" on page 1. Flour tortillas, ground beef, cheese, sour cream, potatoes... man, that sounds delicious... but it's a TERRIBLE breakfast. If you would take the time to log each of those items, you will notice a couple things. TONS of CARBS, TONS of FAT, MINIMAL PROTEIN... thats a cocktail for weight gain. Flour tortillas, garbage for you, refined wheat. Potatoes, nothing but empty carbs. Ground beef, ok for protein but high in fat. Cheese and sour cream, really? BBQ chips? Come on now... I work long hours, am surrounded by junk food and food trucks, the cafe sells delicious sandwhiches and wraps... but its all garbage. Pack a small cooler with fresh veg and fruit, greek yogurt, grilled chicken, hell, throw in some lowfat ranch to dip it all in. Do you think "Matt_Wild" looks like that because he made excuses of why he cant eat healthy? Heck no, you have to want to change.

I am... well, was... a carb junkie. Bread, english muffins, bagels, tortilla chips, taco shells... but as I spent an hour in the gym 3-4 times a week with a personal trainer, burning hundreds of calories at a time and only lose a pound a week... something was wrong. Carbs! Instead, I eat a cup of egg whites with some turkey sausage crumbles added in. This will make a HUGE bowl of breakfast... if you want some taste, put a tbsp of salsa in with it. If you're not willing to change your relationship with food, you won't lose the weight.

maggie500

Healthy people don't eat a breakfast of eggs, "toast, pancakes or waffles" a slice or two of bacon or sausage maybe both and lets not forget the condiments butter and syrup etc... . Yes, that is offered as breakfast often, but very few people could eat that every day.

I struggle with not feeling starving on 1500 calories - in fact, I do feel starving, even though I eat pounds of fruit & veggies. However, I just started and I'm assuming that I will get used to it.

One thing that helps me feel less starving is to make sure I get a small dose of starchy carbs (like 75ish calories), mixed with fat & protein. If I don't get those starchy carbs, I don't feel good. Everybody's metabolism and body is different. SOme people function better on a high protein diet, others on high fat and others on high carbs (scientific research shows this) - you need to figure out which one is best for you and adjust as much as possible to help lose weight. I definitely function better on high carbs - not good for weight loss, so i make sure I eat complex carbs, lots of fiber and a good amount of protein and fat.

If you're working long hours, you need to pre-pack meals and snacks. There is no way around it. Figure out what healthy snacks work for you (i like celery & PB, carrots & cream cheese (weird, I know, but it works for me), fruit & cheese or nuts. Quick lunch? Nuke a sweet potatoe and instead of using sour cream, use low-fat cottage cheese (NOT fat-free).

It does take planning to eat healthy.

If you are going to have Doritos, snack cakes and stuff like that, limit it - pack small portions ahead of time and cut down the frequency.

The thing that helps me stay on track best? Don't start and don't have access to your binge foods. By that I mean, don't grab that first tortilla chip at the Mexican restaurant, because I don't know anyone who can have just one. DOn't start. Candy is my weakness, so I don't keep it in the house. I'll keep a bag of hard candy because it satisfies the craving but I can't pig out on it.

If vending machines are your weakness, pack your snacks and meals ahead of time and go to work with no money - seriously. Do that for a month (just suck it up for the month - it's only a month) and you'll be out of the bad habits.

I know I'm getting too long - last thing. Your meals are not remotely normal. They are normal for someone headed (or having) for serious health and obesity issues. They are not normal for a healthy person. You need to learn what normal is.

Find a healthy eating plan to teach you - there a zillions out there. MFP must have some. If not SparkPeople does. Follow their meal plan for a while until you learn what is nutritious and what is normal. If you have to increase the quantities of the healthy foods (protein & veggies, not carbs), definitely do so to feel satisfied. The important thing is that you will learn normal portions of healthy foods.

You can do it. It's not easy, but if you set your mind to it, you can do it. And think of being on your feet all day as an advantage in burning calories. I'm stuck at a ocmputer for 8-10 hours per day.

boboff

I note the comment on the calorie heart monitor thing.

So is there a device that actually monitors what calories you are burning when working?

Seems like a great opportunity for an MFP invention, a watch that accurately logs the calories you are burning over a 24 hours period, then you just plug it into your "exercise" section, set your goal calories at minus-"what ever" and you could see actual "burn"

The reason I ask is I bought one recently, it hasn't arrived, but I was hoping it would give me a steer on what I am actually using up during the day ( We have a small holding and the work is often domestic, but often physical, digging, chopping wood etc, honestly some days it's like Rocky III! other days more South Pacific.....Gonna wash that man right outta my hair)

jcfromtb

I'm stuck at a ocmputer for 8-10 hours per day.

Same here...

One other note that I forgot to add in my novel up above. Start training your body to consume small quantities of food multiple times a day. Forget breakfast, lunch, and dinner... its a bad policy. Eat something small at 8am, then a pice of fruit at 9:30, then maybe some yogurt at 10:30. Have a salad at 11:45, maybe a protein shake or bar at 1:00. Even if I sit down and eat a LEGIT breakfast (eggs, bacon, slice of toast)... Im STARVING again 60 minutes later because my body craves that little shot of energy and calories every 60-90 minutes. Took me about 10 days to fight the urge to start eating my arm after having a small portion of food every hour to hour and a half, but now it makes me feel amazing throughout the day.

rustyguy

OP, I love burgers but I make them with ground turkey, use fat free cheese, load them with veggies and eat them on sandwich thins instead of buns. Make sure your snacks include protein, like Greek yogurt, load up on vegetables and stick to your plan.

You can do it.

alittlemopo

I don't know how in the heck you think 900 calories EVERYDAY for breakfast is normal?????????? It isn't.

You obviously really didn't want advice or you wouldn't be shooting down everything that everyone has suggested.

You are eating far, far too many carbs and starchy items why on earth do you need two tacos AND a potato for breakfast??????? and burgers with bread AND potatoes.

Try some greek yogurt with fruit and a hardboiled egg, lots of protein and not a whole lot of calories.

The "normal" american diet is why there is such a high obesity rate in this country.

I think a new definition of normal would help you get your meals in order.

Figure out your BMR and TDEE maybe 2000 calories really isn't enough. You obviously do not have a sedentary job.

Jorra

A baked potato for breakfast isn't normal. Eat some vegetables. Try eating 100g of broccoli and tell me you aren't full. That's only 34 calories.

hikezilla

Instead of sugary, or salty, or fried snacks and meal components, I've been going out of my way to make sure I have a bag or two of baby carrots, celery sticks, greek yogurt, sliced peppers, and other low fat/low calorie foods to munch on. I'm pretty sure I had a physical addiction to corn syrup sweetened foods because once I cut all that out I had headaches and general lethargy for about 2 or 3 days. I have increased my green, yellow, red vegetable intake by about 20 times compared to how I used to eat. I have lost a few pound, stayed reasonably full, and honestly I can think more clearly and I seem to be in a better mood. Now if I can just figure out a way to LIKE exercise.

LaCubana9

My love, do yourself a favor and go onto EatMore2WeighLess.com and do some RESEARCH! I too was starving myself at 1500 calories a day IN VAIN because I only lost 6 lbs during the whole 2 months of Insanity! Reason being, I was STARVING my muscles off, not fueling my body correctly for the workouts I do, and triggering my body to hold onto all my fat and poundage because it KNEW I was starving it. I now eat between 2000 -2100 calories a day and am steadily losing! To date, I've lost 99.5 pounds and have 24.5 pounds to go, but will NEVER dip under 2000 calories a day again! Eating at such a low number will make you lose muscle along with fat, THEN your boy will think this amount of calories is NORMAL after months of doing it, so when you get to your goal and start to eat normal, you'll gain all your weight back. Do yourself a favor and train you body to lose weight with just a 15 - 20% deficit of your body's Total Daily Energy Expenditure. You WILL learn to calculate this, along with BMR and body fat percentage to make sure you are losing the correct way. Slap some muscle on ya and stay fit forever!

Cyclink

So is there a device that actually monitors what calories you are burning when working?

The FitBit tries to do that.

Like most devices, it takes a wild guess and is not exactly lab accurate. It's basically a pedometer with a little extra data about you.

The problem with most heart rate equations, even if they use VO2 max, is that the amount of oxygen you are burning has 3 major components: percentage of oxygen extracted from the blood, quantity of blood in each beat, and the number of beats per minute.

Heart rate monitors only know the last one, leaving 2 of the 3 variables unknown. That is one wild guess.

ms_leanne

Potatoes.......full of starchy carbs, fat if fried and generally quite high in calories with large potatoes.

I find baby new potatoes lower in calories and I sometimes slice and grill them with a little black papper an fry light.

pennsciteach

Okay- sorry just had to put in my two cents.

No- you are not eating normally for your metabolism.

Two - you say you feel like you are starving. As a chemist I have to say this is probably not because you are hungry - you are thirsty. The "pains" and "growling" are the same for both, you just have with bad habits conditioned your body to drain fluid from solid food. My guess would also be that you have bowel issues as well.

You need to change your breakfast - nothing that salty in the morning. No beef at all. To get the volume you want switch to egg whites, have the entire carton if you want. To get the conditioned salt taste - use fake bacon bits- but once you are used to it drop the amount. Three - add tomatoes, onions, peppers, whatever strong tastes you can use to up the fiber volume and taste to lose all of that salt. My husband had similar problems - he now goes thru a bottle of tabasco every two weeks.

You can get cheese flavored egg beaters - but don't add cheese, you are upping your need for water without giving your body any.

Next - drink an entire glass of water with or after your meal. Your body is starving for fluid, so much that it has been squeezing it out of everything you eat causing you to overeat.

If water makes you too queasy add a little mio or something, or one splenda - it helps. Try to drink at least a pint of unsalted / unsweetened / uncarbonated fluid between each meal. More would be better - the more activity you use the more fluid you need, - and not iced tea, coffee, or soft drinks, they are diuretics.

You might feel like you are going to throw up in the beginning. Your stomach and intestines are used to working hard to get fluid and those types if contractions can make you feel ill with a stomach full of fluid. Oh- and no, absolutely no cleanses of any type!

You might "gain" at first even though your calories will be less - this will be because your body is going to hold onto every drop of that fluid for fear that you will dehydrate it again. For women - this can take an entire menstral cycle plus to lose - but don't quit. Your fluid issue is actually a more important issue than your weight right now and will help your weight issue in a few weeks.

Oh - and if you take any meds - there is a reason it says take with a glass (8 ounces per pill of water) - because your meds react with that much water to work. This is why BC can make you seem like your are gaining weight - your body is trying to desperately hold in to the fluid it needs to bond the hormones.


If you want to talk, just message me.

Good Luck.

JessHealthKick

Don't see why you post this if in the first sentence you bash all the typical advice. You don't want to eat healthier, you don't want to eat less, you don't want to prepare your food, you want to snack on what you want... what do you want us to tell you? All I can say is to try and exercise more and drink more water.

ZyheeMoongazer

Its always hardest at first. When I first started counting my calories and being serious about getting healthy, eating within my goal was so hard. Here are a few on my suggestions that have helped me.

1. Research what your true BMR and TDEE is. Eat more than your BMR but less then TDEE. 1200 is below BMR for most people (unless you are a petite person maybe).

2. Drink lots of water. You can "trick" your body into thinking its full.

3. Have a large salad before dinner every night (limit the salad dressing, I like to just use red wine vinegar). Then eat your dinner, you will find you eat far less.

4. Add exercise as often as you can, and eat back those wonderful calories. But in a sensible way.

5. Treat yourself to a "cheat" day once a week or every other week. Have cake, burgers, fries, beer, etc. Just because you are trying to get healthy doesn't mean you have to stop living. You just can't eat all those unhealthy foods everyday.

6. If you have a bad day, don't stress over it. Just move on and aim to do better the next day.

funhouse77

Before you do anything, you need to change the way you think. About food, exercise, health everything. Your 'normal' eating habits got you here, you have to say goodbye to all of that, and re-configure your mind to what is 'normal'. You don't have to just eat carrots and grass for crying out loud, do you think we all do that?

If you want to change your body, your going to have to change your attitude to food. Simple.