Protein/food HELP!

Yes protein is very important for preserving muscle tissue while dieting.

However...

I looked at the past two weeks of your diary and it appears you generally net like 500-700 calories. You need to eat more, period. Yesterday you ate 1200ish calories with 800+ calories of exercise. That is not a healthy approach. I would say any potential negatives of protein shakes are not even on the same scale of as hazardous as eating so little. Even on non workout days, you still ate like 500-900 calories, so I assume it's not JUST that you don't understand how the site works in relation to exercise calories. At that low amount of calories, you are undoubtedly catabolizing muscle as we speak, so I would think protein sparing would be of crucial importance. Get some protein powder, and try to meet your goals. But mostly, you need to eat more. Like, yesterday.

About a month or so ago I upped my calories from 1000 to 1250 after reading a post on eat more to lose more and left it like that for a few weeks and gained weight the whole time (around 7# in 2+weeks). So I dropped it down to 950 and started to SLOWLY lose again. I have about 35ish pounds to go. Im obviously doing something wrong because Ive lost 1lb in 2+weeks. I will try the protein powder but Im worried about increasing calories again because of the last time I tried that. I dont know if I should have just given it more time and it would have corrected itself or if I would have continued to gain. Any thoughts??

I think your metabolism has slowed to accommodate the low calories you've been eating and it may take longer than 2 weeks to repair. The sooner you up your calories, the sooner you will be on your way back to a healthy resting metabolism. Unfortunately, some initial weight gain is to be expected in your case. Most of it will be water and will eventually go away on its own, some will be from water with increased glucose storage. I would say to get rid of your scale for a whole month and up your calories, making sure to get around 100 g of protein. You may gain a few pounds but it will eventually lead to you being able to eat a healthy amount of food while losing weight. The first month will be like a speed bump that you just have to get over.

Ok thats what I'll do. Ill put the scale away and hope for the best. I have to try something else because what Im doing isnt working!! How do I know how many calories I should have? Should I just set it at 1200 again and try from there?

What is your BMR? I suspect 1200 is even a bit low, probably a 20% cut from your TDEE (maintenance calories) would be best, but since your calories are SO low right now, you may want to step it up gradually and 1200 is probably a good step to take. My un-educated guess without knowing your BMR is probably 1400-1500 is going to end up being where you'll want to be.

Yes protein is very important for preserving muscle tissue while dieting.

However...

I looked at the past two weeks of your diary and it appears you generally net like 500-700 calories. You need to eat more, period. Yesterday you ate 1200ish calories with 800+ calories of exercise. That is not a healthy approach. I would say any potential negatives of protein shakes are not even on the same scale of as hazardous as eating so little. Even on non workout days, you still ate like 500-900 calories, so I assume it's not JUST that you don't understand how the site works in relation to exercise calories. At that low amount of calories, you are undoubtedly catabolizing muscle as we speak, so I would think protein sparing would be of crucial importance. Get some protein powder, and try to meet your goals. But mostly, you need to eat more. Like, yesterday.

About a month or so ago I upped my calories from 1000 to 1250 after reading a post on eat more to lose more and left it like that for a few weeks and gained weight the whole time (around 7# in 2+weeks). So I dropped it down to 950 and started to SLOWLY lose again. I have about 35ish pounds to go. Im obviously doing something wrong because Ive lost 1lb in 2+weeks. I will try the protein powder but Im worried about increasing calories again because of the last time I tried that. I dont know if I should have just given it more time and it would have corrected itself or if I would have continued to gain. Any thoughts??

I think your metabolism has slowed to accommodate the low calories you've been eating and it may take longer than 2 weeks to repair. The sooner you up your calories, the sooner you will be on your way back to a healthy resting metabolism. Unfortunately, some initial weight gain is to be expected in your case. Most of it will be water and will eventually go away on its own, some will be from water with increased glucose storage. I would say to get rid of your scale for a whole month and up your calories, making sure to get around 100 g of protein. You may gain a few pounds but it will eventually lead to you being able to eat a healthy amount of food while losing weight. The first month will be like a speed bump that you just have to get over.

Ok thats what I'll do. Ill put the scale away and hope for the best. I have to try something else because what Im doing isnt working!! How do I know how many calories I should have? Should I just set it at 1200 again and try from there?

What is your BMR? I suspect 1200 is even a bit low, probably a 20% cut from your TDEE (maintenance calories) would be best, but since your calories are SO low right now, you may want to step it up gradually and 1200 is probably a good step to take. My un-educated guess without knowing your BMR is probably 1400-1500 is going to end up being where you'll want to be.

Using the link from MrsBigMac (Thanks!) http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/#results It says my BMR is 1741. TDEE is 2089.

So you want to eat somewhere in between those two numbers. Set your calories at 1750-1800 for at least 4 weeks and see how it goes. Experiment with eating exercise calories back. Personally I only eat mine back if I'm hungry, but I always try to at least net my BMR.
It will take a bit for your body to adjust to the new intake, but once it does, you should start to lose again. Depending on how much you have to lose, it could be okay for you to NET your BMR for a while too.