My W/M Nurse has told me to eat 1000kcals a day?

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Replies

  • castadiva
    castadiva Posts: 2,016 Member
    Er, what qualifications does this weight-management nurse have? Is she attached to your GP's surgery/is she a registered nurse, or just a 'nutritionist' - a title which really requires very little, if any, training? It seems like somewhat dubious advice to me, particularly as you have said that you are doing this for long-term health and aesthetics, rather than an urgent medical need to lose a large amount of of weight. Most health professionals would advise a slow and steady loss, rather than aiming to speed up weight loss, in the situation you've described.

    My suggestion would be to make an appointment with your doctor to discuss her recommendations. Take your food diaries along, and when in doubt - ask questions!! If you'd rather not, then ask to go through your food diaries with her, requesting specific examples of what she thinks you could remove from each meal.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    If you are eating healthily and losing weight steadily then I would carry on.
    Sounds much more sustainable than dropping to very low calories and dropping healthy items from your diet.

    Good luck.
  • BeautyFromPain
    BeautyFromPain Posts: 4,952 Member
    Ask her why..
  • uclown2002
    uclown2002 Posts: 79 Member
    Discuss her suggestions with her and/or your doctor, rather than a bunch of loons on the internet ;-)

    Here's the UK NICE advice on weight loss :-

    Adults

    1.2.4.29 The main requirement of a dietary approach to weight loss is that total energy intake should be less than energy expenditure.

    1.2.4.30 Diets that have a 600 kcal/day deficit (that is, they contain 600 kcal less than the person needs to stay the same weight) or that reduce calories by lowering the fat content (low-fat diets), in combination with expert support and intensive follow-up, are recommended for sustainable weight loss.

    1.2.4.31 Low-calorie diets (1000–1600 kcal/day) may also be considered, but are less likely to be nutritionally complete.

    1.2.4.32 Very-low-calorie diets (less than 1000 kcal/day) may be used for a maximum of 12 weeks continuously, or intermittently with a low-calorie diet (for example for 2–4 days a week), by people who are obese and have reached a plateau in weight loss.

    1.2.4.33 Any diet of less than 600 kcal/day should be used only under clinical supervision.

    1.2.4.34 In the longer term, people should move towards eating a balanced diet, consistent with other healthy eating advice.

    OMG. Where are the Starvation Mode Police!!
  • kellehbeans
    kellehbeans Posts: 838 Member
    Er, what qualifications does this weight-management nurse have? Is she attached to your GP's surgery/is she a registered nurse, or just a 'nutritionist' - a title which really requires very little, if any, training? It seems like somewhat dubious advice to me, particularly as you have said that you are doing this for long-term health and aesthetics, rather than an urgent medical need to lose a large amount of of weight. Most health professionals would advise a slow and steady loss, rather than aiming to speed up weight loss, in the situation you've described.

    My suggestion would be to make an appointment with your doctor to discuss her recommendations. Take your food diaries along, and when in doubt - ask questions!! If you'd rather not, then ask to go through your food diaries with her, requesting specific examples of what she thinks you could remove from each meal.

    She is a registered nurse.

    I know I am meant to lose it slowly, that is why I am so stumped as to why she wants me to lose it quicker. Is she making me eat less because I do very little exercise and I have a sedentary job?

    I'm absolutely sick of the doctors, so I may give this 1000kcals diet a crack for a week or two, and see the outcome, and ask her about it when I get back to see her. I am quite happy with what I eat at the moment, so I don't know why I should change it. I've read in a lot of places that 1000kcals should only be done for a week at a time as it is quite bad. I just have the NHS website up at the moment and they recommend 12. I hate mixed messages!
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    1000 calories with 80g of protein, 30g of fat leaves enough calories for 102.5g of carbs if you're looking for an illustration. That's 32P / 27F / 41C in percentages. You can set these in MFP at http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_custom

    If you want to reduce carbs you have to increase fats and protein, so use semi skimmed or standard milk not skimmed, have more ham and half a bagel, that kind of thing. Buy a pot of Fage Total greek yoghurt (full fat) and measure out 1/4 or 1/3 cup serving (60 or 80 ml). Get some oily fish in your diet 3 times a week. etc.
  • kellehbeans
    kellehbeans Posts: 838 Member
    1000 calories with 80g of protein, 30g of fat leaves enough calories for 102.5g of carbs if you're looking for an illustration. That's 32P / 27F / 41C in percentages. You can set these in MFP at http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_custom

    If you want to reduce carbs you have to increase fats and protein, so use semi skimmed or standard milk not skimmed, have more ham and half a bagel, that kind of thing. Buy a pot of Fage Total greek yoghurt (full fat) and measure out 1/4 or 1/3 cup serving (60 or 80 ml). Get some oily fish in your diet 3 times a week. etc.

    Thank you! That is very helpful.
  • Martina_Who
    Martina_Who Posts: 172 Member
    Do not follow her advice at all!
    Never ever go back to see her, she should be ashamed of herself giving out so called 'advice' like that
    God that makes me so angry, is it no wonder more and more people especially children have eating disorders if people in the medical profession behave like this.

    Use all the resources on this site and you will do great.

    Good luck and please do not go back to that useless idiot :-@ (unless it's to tell her shes useless at her job and damaging peoples health!)
  • kellehbeans
    kellehbeans Posts: 838 Member
    Do not follow her advice at all!
    Never ever go back to see her, she should be ashamed of herself giving out so called 'advice' like that
    God that makes me so angry, is it no wonder more and more people especially children have eating disorders if people in the medical profession behave like this.

    Use all the resources on this site and you will do great.

    Good luck and please do not go back to that useless idiot :-@ (unless it's to tell her shes useless at her job and damaging peoples health!)

    Problem is, I really like her and I love the fact that she is taking time to just tell me what i'm doing wrong. Although she only picks out days. I had 4 weeks of diaries and she never looked at the other 3.

    I'm pretty sure she is measuring me wrong too, I shall be doing this myself tonight!
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    Kidney beans like http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=259270789 are also good - make a chilli con carne perhaps - they have half the sugar and 1/3 less calories than baked beans.

    What's your current weight ? You look to be aiming to lose another 32 lbs
  • Ruthe8
    Ruthe8 Posts: 423 Member
    I am so stumped as to why she wants me to lose it quicker. Is she making me eat less because I do very little exercise and I have a sedentary job?
    I'm confused. Why didn't you ask her? Why would we know what she was thinking?
  • kellehbeans
    kellehbeans Posts: 838 Member
    I am so stumped as to why she wants me to lose it quicker. Is she making me eat less because I do very little exercise and I have a sedentary job?
    I'm confused. Why didn't you ask her? Why would we know what she was thinking?

    The point is, I did ask her, and she didn't give me an answer.

    @yarwell;; mmm I love chilli con carne. My current weight is about 172lbs.
  • momtokgo
    momtokgo Posts: 446 Member
    I'm not sure how the nurse works, but will you be seeing her on a semi/regular basis? I guess the difference is when people eat that little and don't know when to stop. Under the guidance of a health professional this kind of diet seems reasonable although I could never eat that little. Good luck :)

    I was seeing her every week, then it got to 2 weeks (which ended up being a month as she was ill one day and the receptionist conveniently cancelled my appointment the other week). I am now seeing her in 3 weeks time.

    I am one of those people that does not know when to stop when it comes to not eating enough. I will keep going until I eat basically nothing, which is not good.


    This right here should be your answer. If you know you have an issue with eating less and less and not being able to control it, don't go down at all. There is no reaosn too only eat 1000 calories.

    And I think shes way off the mark anyway, if you are losing now then keep doing what you are doing.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    For what it's worth, 1000 calories a day would give you a deficit of about 760 cals/day if you're sedentary and a theoretical loss rate of 1.5 lbs/week. As your BMI is close to 30 perhaps she's aiming for quicker results so you don't get bored with it.
  • sgarrard01
    sgarrard01 Posts: 213 Member
    I'd say report her to the General Medical Council (if your in the UK)....! There is genuinly no reason with your current losses to alter things from what they are, i'd say if anything exersize a bit more and eat back those calories to improve your overall wellbeing, and you could increase protein in favour of carbs to decrease muscle losses.

    If you do choose to go with this lunacy than please start measuring your body fat % and assess how this drops along with your lean body mass (using either calipers or a tape method), just so at the end of it you can see how much fat and muscle you lost. I.e if you lost 10lbs of fat and 3lbs of muscle... than you can now eat 90-150kcal less at maintainance than you could before because you lost 3lbs of muscle, this will aloso then take about 5months to put back on if you were weight training and eating to gain muscle!

    The way i look at it is would you rather...

    a) be really slim and skinny but put on weight when you eat more than 1500kcal or;
    b) loose weight more slowly, have a skinny 'fit/toned' look and maintain your weight at 2000kcal

    ?????
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    I don't understand. I thought 1000kcals was bad. I am only on 1,450 as it is now and I don't understand why my weight management nurse will tell me to 1000kcals. She has told me to drop 'one calorific item' from each meal (she also said drop 500kcals a day), so I guess the meat from meal times, banana from breakfast and maybe a yoghurt from lunch time.

    The diet I have been on has been working, but she appears to just want it to work faster. She said this 1000kcal a day will help speed up the weight loss. She also suggested more exercise (I know I don't do much, but I haven't come here for people to tell me to do more!) but she told me not to eat back my calories, she just told me to leave it.

    Should I try this 1000kcal diet? If so, what kind of diets are there for this? I thought I was eating healthily and doing fine but she seems just to want to speed up the process. I'm confused. :(

    DONT ditch the meat from your meals, protein is important, DO up your exercise, its good for your health regardless of the weightloss...

    DO consider ditching the nurse!
  • funkyspunky872
    funkyspunky872 Posts: 866 Member
    Good God, get a new nurse.
  • deniseblossoms
    deniseblossoms Posts: 373 Member
    I'm split. I can admit that I've been on a severly reduced calorie diet in the past and have lost weight and lived through it.

    I've done it where I've zig zagged my calories, Eat a couple days around 1000, a couple 1200, a couple at 1400 and at least one day that I would just eat. That worked great along with a fairly rigorous exercise program.

    But here I am, the weight is back. There's been a lot of studies that suggest weight loss is more sustainable losing with moderate deficits.

    I saw someone suggested getting a second opinion or maybe you could talk with her about YOUR concerns and see what the science behind her suggestion is...
  • OK_Girl
    OK_Girl Posts: 123 Member
    Has she even looked at your food diary?

    I've looked at your diary and I can see that your calories are all over the place:

    600 calories for lunch, 100 cals for dinner? Then another day you had a low calorie lunch and a high calorie dinner. Try to be more balanced. Also you eat alot of processed high sodium foods like ready made meats and potatoes. If I were you I would focus on eating better quality foods, and getting exercise, and not so much on how to live off of 1000 cals a day.

    You could live off of 1000 cals a day, and not be as hungry if you incorporated less processed food into your diet, and less calorie dense foods like bagles. For instance those bagles are 293 cals! You could have had half the bagel, and doubled up on the protien AND had an apple, and a green salad with the calories saved from half the bagel.

    The bread I eat is 80 cals a slice. 160 cals worth of bread in my sandwich.
  • Yogi_Carl
    Yogi_Carl Posts: 1,906 Member
    With all respect to you - but you say you like her (and that's great), but from what you are saying here you don't feel she is doing a thorough job (and that's bad). I wonder if you like her to the point you don't feel able to challenge what she is advising?

    I feel you could be more assertive and get her to spell out the reasons behind the advice and to advise on what foods to eat within this strict regime.

    A good advisor would not be upset by a patient asking questions about their own health.

    On the other hand, if she is just nice but giving out wrong advice it is time to consider whether it is worth continuing with her. It's your call I'm afraid.

    I hope this comes across as positive support (it is meant to be). You have a right to right support - not just a nice person but doing a half-job.

    (I work for the NHS as an advisor - not W/M though)

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