My food diary says I'm eating WAY too little....really?

pland54 · November 2012

Hey everybody,

This is my first post. I was recently diagnosed with PCOS, which puts me at a high risk of diabetes and heart disease, which already runs in my family. So...I need to take nutrition and exercise very seriously. While most people with PCOS are overweight and need to lose it, I'm part of a subtype called 'lean PCOS'. I'm 5'6" and weigh 110 lbs, so I need to diet to treat my condition WITHOUT actually losing weight, which can be tricky. If I am underweight, some of the issues I have with this condition (like menstruation problems and hair loss) can get worse.

I just started using myfitnesspal and according to the nutritional information, I'm eating less than 1,000 calories every day. This is really surprising to me. I just wanted to outline a typical day of food, and see if anyone can give me any input...

Breakfast- A bowl of cereal (usually corn flakes) with 2% milk and a cup of hot tea
Lunch- A turkey sandwich on sliced olive bread with about 8 pringles
20 ounces coke
Dinner- 1/3 to half of a baked chicken breast, 1 cup pasta (that amount when cooked), and 1 cup cooked veggies
20 ounces water
Sometimes a couple biscuit cookies or a glass of chocolate milk at night

While my food choices might not always be the healthiest (I'm working on it, haha), I thought that the quantity of what I ate was fine, because I've maintained the same weight for years....also, my husband (6', 165lbs) eats about the same as I do, except a little more for dinner.

What do you think? Am I doing something wrong wit the food journaling, or am I really not eating enough?

runnninginmd · November 2012

That fills you up? That doesn't seem like it'd be anywhere close to even 1000 calories... Add some snacks or something.

jacksonpt · November 2012

I can see that being really low. That's a pretty low fat day, which is where the bulk of your cals are going to come from. Can you add a slice of toast with peanut butter to your breakfast? Maybe a handful of your favorite nut/seed as a snack? Or fattier meats for dinner (beef, pork, some fish)?

Sabine_Stroehm · November 2012

If you have PCOS you might want to consider a low glycemic diet. Lots of folks have had good success with that. But you'd have to make some pretty significant changes.
I'm 5'6" and weigh 132. And I'm 47. I eat about 1500 calories a day.

skittles1928 · November 2012

Could you clarify why you need to eat so little? Are you full on that much? Are you specifically trying to maintain that weight? To only eat 1000 calories a day doesn't give your body a lot of fuel to work with. Most people of your height and weight would need at least 1500 calories to break even every day. The fact that you haven't lost any more weight on such a low calorie diet suggests your body has adapted to so few calories that it's not very willing to dip into the reserve (and there's not much reserve to dip into).

Try to add a few snacks in. They can be healthy. A packet of tuna, a cup of grapes, a couple of extra cookies, etc. That in a day would probably be able to get you 350 extra calories. It might help your condition if your body had a little more fuel to work with (or not, I'm no doctor).

firelle · November 2012

If I ate like that, I'd be a bag of skin haha... I love food!

Try finding out what maintenance for you is? Maybe another 500 cals? Avocado, tuna, salmon, tilapia, nuts...

TavistockToad · November 2012

if you want to eat more try a whole chicken breast... your poor husband!

me and my husband eat 400g of chicken between us for our evening meal!

AmyP1974 · November 2012

I've had very good results controlling PCOS through a primal/paleo diet...might be something to look into for you. It looks to me like you need to add some fat into your diet. Maybe a snack of full fat yogurt, nuts, or egg salad or deviled eggs made with lots of mayo!

Madholm · November 2012

Less than 1000 seems too low for a daily intake. Anything less than 1200 most people consider unhealthy because you aren't eating enough to get your essential nutrients and risk deteriorating your lean body mass. Since I have a penis I don't know anything about PCOS, but I'm sure you'll get a million different suggestions about how to treat it with food.

CM9178 · November 2012

Hey everybody,

This is my first post. I was recently diagnosed with PCOS, which puts me at a high risk of diabetes and heart disease, which already runs in my family. So...I need to take nutrition and exercise very seriously. While most people with PCOS are overweight and need to lose it, I'm part of a subtype called 'lean PCOS'. I'm 5'6" and weigh 110 lbs, so I need to diet to treat my condition WITHOUT actually losing weight, which can be tricky. If I am underweight, some of the issues I have with this condition (like menstruation problems and hair loss) can get worse.

I just started using myfitnesspal and according to the nutritional information, I'm eating less than 1,000 calories every day. This is really surprising to me. I just wanted to outline a typical day of food, and see if anyone can give me any input...

Breakfast- A bowl of cereal (usually corn flakes) with 2% milk and a cup of hot tea
Lunch- A turkey sandwich on sliced olive bread with about 8 pringles
20 ounces coke
Dinner- 1/3 to half of a baked chicken breast, 1 cup pasta (that amount when cooked), and 1 cup cooked veggies
20 ounces water
Sometimes a couple biscuit cookies or a glass of chocolate milk at night

While my food choices might not always be the healthiest (I'm working on it, haha), I thought that the quantity of what I ate was fine, because I've maintained the same weight for years....also, my husband (6', 165lbs) eats about the same as I do, except a little more for dinner.

What do you think? Am I doing something wrong wit the food journaling, or am I really not eating enough?

I don't really know what you should be eating for your particular dietary needs, but based on the list you gave above, it sounds like you just need to flat out eat more food. Basically, add in some healthy snacks throughout the day. The breakfast sounds similar to what I usually eat, but between breakfast and lunch, add in a fruit or vegetable. With lunch, add things on to your sandwich besides just turkey and have another healthy snack with lunch aside from the chips, then another healthy snack between lunch and dinner. For dinner, I would eat a lot more than that personally but that's just me - and I always have a snack or two after dinner as well.

So yeah, eat more healthy snacks throughout the entire day.

pland54 · November 2012

Thanks for the responses everyone- wow, I'm actually surprised...I honestly didn't think I was eating too little...I was questioning the nutrition calculator! I have eaten like this for years and years, and I don't allow myself to be hungry. I've never been overweight, so I've never been hesitant to eat if I felt hungry. My husband doesn't complain of hunger either, he eats when he wants....I promise I'm not witholding food from him!! Because of my PCOS (and likely insulin problems), I try to eat at the first sign of hunger....the question then is, why am I not more hungry??? The fact that you all think it's way too little food is alarming to me.

I will start gradually increasing how much I eat, adding in more protein.

One more thing- I thought I should clarify about the chicken. I think I remember that a healthy serving of meat is the size of a deck of cards, and the chicken breasts I buy are huge! One chicken breast is easily 3 times the size of a deck of cards.

jacksonpt · November 2012

Using hunger as an indicator to eat is hard. Some people are never hungry and thus would never eat... some are always hungry and would never stop eating.

Either way, it's about being happy AND hitting your goals. You don't have to eat more food, or eat more often if you don't want. You just need more calories. 1 serving of peanut butter has far more cals than 1 serving of chicken breast, but is 1/4 of the volume (less quantity, more cals).

It's a bit of a learning process... but you'll get it as you log more and more.

Mathguy1 · November 2012

Hey everybody,

This is my first post. I was recently diagnosed with PCOS, which puts me at a high risk of diabetes and heart disease, which already runs in my family. So...I need to take nutrition and exercise very seriously. While most people with PCOS are overweight and need to lose it, I'm part of a subtype called 'lean PCOS'. I'm 5'6" and weigh 110 lbs, so I need to diet to treat my condition WITHOUT actually losing weight, which can be tricky. If I am underweight, some of the issues I have with this condition (like menstruation problems and hair loss) can get worse.

I just started using myfitnesspal and according to the nutritional information, I'm eating less than 1,000 calories every day. This is really surprising to me. I just wanted to outline a typical day of food, and see if anyone can give me any input...

Breakfast- A bowl of cereal (usually corn flakes) with 2% milk and a cup of hot tea
Lunch- A turkey sandwich on sliced olive bread with about 8 pringles
20 ounces coke
Dinner- 1/3 to half of a baked chicken breast, 1 cup pasta (that amount when cooked), and 1 cup cooked veggies
20 ounces water
Sometimes a couple biscuit cookies or a glass of chocolate milk at night

While my food choices might not always be the healthiest (I'm working on it, haha), I thought that the quantity of what I ate was fine, because I've maintained the same weight for years....also, my husband (6', 165lbs) eats about the same as I do, except a little more for dinner.

What do you think? Am I doing something wrong wit the food journaling, or am I really not eating enough?

First off, if you are hungry, you need to eat. Second, some of what you are listing here has a lot of room for calorie differences. Let me explain roughly what I would guess you are eating and where the difficulties that our replies may have.

Bowl of cereal - How many cups are we talking about? one cup? two? You need to use a measuring cup and let us know how many cups. If you are taking a cereal bowl and filling it, it'll be about 2 cups. Calories for 1-2 cups is 120-240.

2% milk - (same issue as cereal). I cup of 2% milk is roughly 130 calories so 1-1 1/2 cups is 130-200.

Turkey sand on olive bread - Depends on how much turkey you are eating. 2 slices of olive bread is 150/slice so 300 for the bread (unless you take one slice and cut it in half). As for the turkey, you didnt specify how much you ate. I'm guessing you ate around 50-100 calories worth of turkey but without weighing, there's no way to tell (or at least state how many slices)

20oz of coke - 250 calories (assuming regular not diet coke)

8 pringles - about 75 calories

1/3-1/2 chicken breast (since your later post said they were huge, I'm guessing you are eating 4-5 oz) so that comes to 167-210 calories

1 cup of pasta - about 100 calories (that's plain. did you use butter? Sauce?)

1 cup of veggies - about 35 calories (that's plain. Did you use butter?)

Buscuit cookies - Probably around 50 calories each x 2 = 100 calories.

Assuming this is all you eat, you are eating somewhere between 1327-1610 calories/day. Given this spread, we have no way of knowing if you are eating at 1327 or at 1610. Seeing as you stated that you eat less than 1000 cal/day, most of us will tell you to eat more (are you measuring your food?). Seeing as we cannot see what you are logging in your nutritioin plan, I cannot accurately comment on what you should do.

weloveourboys · November 2012

Thanks for the responses everyone- wow, I'm actually surprised...I honestly didn't think I was eating too little...I was questioning the nutrition calculator! I have eaten like this for years and years, and I don't allow myself to be hungry. I've never been overweight, so I've never been hesitant to eat if I felt hungry. My husband doesn't complain of hunger either, he eats when he wants....I promise I'm not witholding food from him!! Because of my PCOS (and likely insulin problems), I try to eat at the first sign of hunger....the question then is, why am I not more hungry??? The fact that you all think it's way too little food is alarming to me.

I will start gradually increasing how much I eat, adding in more protein.

One more thing- I thought I should clarify about the chicken. I think I remember that a healthy serving of meat is the size of a deck of cards, and the chicken breasts I buy are huge! One chicken breast is easily 3 times the size of a deck of cards.

If you are not hungry then don't eat. If you are hungry, eat. I think what you listed for a day sounds pretty reasonable provided that you're not active, ie. you don't exercise. Are you trying to lose weight or maintain? If you are trying to maintain and you are satisfied with the way you've been eating then I'd just stick with it.

deksgrl · November 2012

Thanks for the responses everyone- wow, I'm actually surprised...I honestly didn't think I was eating too little...I was questioning the nutrition calculator! I have eaten like this for years and years, and I don't allow myself to be hungry. I've never been overweight, so I've never been hesitant to eat if I felt hungry. My husband doesn't complain of hunger either, he eats when he wants....I promise I'm not witholding food from him!! Because of my PCOS (and likely insulin problems), I try to eat at the first sign of hunger....the question then is, why am I not more hungry??? The fact that you all think it's way too little food is alarming to me.

I will start gradually increasing how much I eat, adding in more protein.

One more thing- I thought I should clarify about the chicken. I think I remember that a healthy serving of meat is the size of a deck of cards, and the chicken breasts I buy are huge! One chicken breast is easily 3 times the size of a deck of cards.

Well, if you buy 1 pound of chicken and you eat half and hubby eats half, then you ate 8 ounces of chicken. Put that in your food log and see if that is a lot more than what you logged.

The best way is to get a food scale so you know for sure.

pland54 · November 2012

Thank you, I guess I need to take some time to really do some measurements, and get a more accurate picture of my calorie intake. Like a few of you, I've always abided by the 'if you're not hungry, don't eat' mantra, except for making sure I eat at least 3 times a day. Still, I understand that people do adjust to eating less than they really should be eating. My weight is consistent and so is my eating, so I suppose in any case I'm safe to start experimenting with changes. Thanks for all the input....consensus seems to be that it's too little food for most people, so I will add some healthy snacks and go from there.

My food diary says I'm eating WAY too little....really?

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