eating more is difficult

For the last three weeks i have been doing turbo fire and insanity. Everything was going well, but after some significant research i found that sticking to the nutrition guide of these programs was essential for proper weight loss.

I was previously eating around 1200 calories, however at this point I've calculated my requirements to be 1790 calories.
To be honest i find myself cringing at the thought of eating that much calories. All my life I've strived to eat less, now it's all about eating more.

Im here planning my meals for the day and i can't even seem to make it past 1000 calories or so while achieving my protein, carb and fat requirements.

all in all, its a bit frustrating, but at the same time i know its necessary. Any advice will be appreciated.

Replies

  • grimendale
    grimendale Posts: 2,153 Member
    Since starting Insanity, I've been eating about 2100 calories a day (up from about 1500 previously) and I have still lost a visible amount of fat. I know the high number seems scary, but you really do need the fuel to keep up with the intensity. If you don't give yourself enough fuel, your body will start burning muscle tissue to make up the difference, which you want to avoid. I don't follow the diet exactly (I'm a vegetarian), but I try to hit the 40/40/20 breakdown with my calories and make sure I get enough. Add nutrient rich, high calorie foods like nuts and cheeses (particularly if you need more dietary fat). You can also use protein powder in milk so soy milk to add some extra protein and calories without feeling too full. Feel free to browse around in my diary if you want to see some of what I have been eating to get the 2100 I need.
  • thanks, im also a vegetarian so i think your diary will be very useful in getting an idea of what i should be eating.
  • CarlKRobbo
    CarlKRobbo Posts: 390 Member
    Eating more is a worrying thing if you want to loose weight\fat, but consider this, I've lost 1LB in the last week (Trying to bulk, so boooooo!!!!!!), consuming 3000 Calories 5 days, and Just under 4000 for 2 days...

    Keep at it, and don't be worried about upping the calories as you train, you'll burn it all of, and more importantly, recover better, therefore train better.

    I'm not a veggie, and I do an IIFYM diet, so my diary is probably useless to you though... ;-P
  • mark2605
    mark2605 Posts: 23 Member
    Aaaargh cannot bear these HOW DO I EAT ALL MY CALORIES IT IS SOOOO HARD posts. 99.9% of people here - I'm excluding the obvious eating disorder cases - are here because they have or had in the past a problem of eating too much, and with constraining their eating.

    Why are you on a weight loss board in a weight loss forum if you struggle to eat enough?
  • WillowWindow
    WillowWindow Posts: 100 Member
    Nuts, nuts, nuts. 1/4 cup of almonds has around 290 calories and 1/4 cup is nothing. Cashews are even higher. Then there are walnuts, pistachios, and peanuts to name a few. If you snack on nuts you should be able to get a lot of calories in a small amount of food. And nuts are very heart healthy and great for vegetarians.
  • glovepuppet
    glovepuppet Posts: 1,710 Member
    you don't need to eat more. you just need to eat more calorie dense foods.
    an avocado takes up the same amount of space in as an apple.
  • glovepuppet
    glovepuppet Posts: 1,710 Member
    Aaaargh cannot bear these HOW DO I EAT ALL MY CALORIES IT IS SOOOO HARD posts. 99.9% of people here - I'm excluding the obvious eating disorder cases - are here because they have or had in the past a problem of eating too much, and with constraining their eating.

    Why are you on a weight loss board in a weight loss forum if you struggle to eat enough?
    because people switch from 'bad' food to 'good' food. and a lot of the food they eat now is high fibre/low cal, so eating vast amounts of it makes you feel bloated.

    silly you!
  • massage_gal
    massage_gal Posts: 76 Member
    Keep up your fiber with whole-grain breads, and healthy fat foods like almonds, walnuts and avocados! I find I am able to eat a lot of cantaloupe in one sitting, and that is a great food to eat. I made some oat energy bars filled with good fats and healthy stuff, they are a little high in calorie, but a wonderful after-dinner snack. Next time I make them, I will substitute the cranberries for toasted walnuts, which will up the calories even more.

    Oat Energy Bars:
    2 cups oats
    2 cups coconut flakes
    1 cup natural almond butter
    1 cup ground flaxseed
    2/3 c chopped dried cranberries
    2/3 cup raw honey
    1/2 c. plain greek yogurt
    3 scoops chocolate protein powder
    2 teaspoons vanilla
    1 teaspoon cinnamon

    Lightly toast oats & Coconut in frying pan, let cool.
    Mix all ingredients thoroughly.
    Press into 9x13 pan.
    Store in fridge or freezer. If you freeze I recommend cutting ahead of time.
  • WillowWindow
    WillowWindow Posts: 100 Member
    Do you know the calorie count of the energy bars? I'm always looking for new recipes. :)
  • PepperWorm
    PepperWorm Posts: 1,206
    Keep up your fiber with whole-grain breads, and healthy fat foods like almonds, walnuts and avocados! I find I am able to eat a lot of cantaloupe in one sitting, and that is a great food to eat. I made some oat energy bars filled with good fats and healthy stuff, they are a little high in calorie, but a wonderful after-dinner snack. Next time I make them, I will substitute the cranberries for toasted walnuts, which will up the calories even more.

    Oat Energy Bars:
    2 cups oats
    2 cups coconut flakes
    1 cup natural almond butter
    1 cup ground flaxseed
    2/3 c chopped dried cranberries
    2/3 cup raw honey
    1/2 c. plain greek yogurt
    3 scoops chocolate protein powder
    2 teaspoons vanilla
    1 teaspoon cinnamon

    Lightly toast oats & Coconut in frying pan, let cool.
    Mix all ingredients thoroughly.
    Press into 9x13 pan.
    Store in fridge or freezer. If you freeze I recommend cutting ahead of time.

    BUMP.
  • Phrick
    Phrick Posts: 2,765 Member
    Do you know the calorie count of the energy bars? I'm always looking for new recipes. :)

    I entered it in the recipe calculator using the following variables -

    1) unsweetened coconut flakes
    2) 2/3c whole dried cranberries, as there is no database entry for chopped ones
    3) Gaspari Myofusion Elite Milk Chocolate for the protein powder

    and assumed 24 bars are made from the recipe. That works out to

    237cal / 9g protein / 14g fat / 22g carb / 79g sodium
  • nilbogger
    nilbogger Posts: 870 Member
    Aaaargh cannot bear these HOW DO I EAT ALL MY CALORIES IT IS SOOOO HARD posts. 99.9% of people here - I'm excluding the obvious eating disorder cases - are here because they have or had in the past a problem of eating too much, and with constraining their eating.

    Why are you on a weight loss board in a weight loss forum if you struggle to eat enough?

    Thank you! I think this every time this topic comes up. I struggle to eat LESS food, so if there were a way I could eat more for y'all, I'd do it.
  • Thanks for posting this. You are a rare person to be honest about this. I know how hard it is to love exercise and do so much of it that you are falling way behind in calories. I don't like junk food and am mostly vegetarian so even less calories there.. Its tough HUGS

    I struggle with the same thing and a eating disorder called restrictive eating. Which I found out about by accident. Some of us actually are too careful about what we put in our bodies. :wink:
  • sozisraw
    sozisraw Posts: 418 Member
    Keep up your fiber with whole-grain breads, and healthy fat foods like almonds, walnuts and avocados! I find I am able to eat a lot of cantaloupe in one sitting, and that is a great food to eat. I made some oat energy bars filled with good fats and healthy stuff, they are a little high in calorie, but a wonderful after-dinner snack. Next time I make them, I will substitute the cranberries for toasted walnuts, which will up the calories even more.

    Oat Energy Bars:
    2 cups oats
    2 cups coconut flakes
    1 cup natural almond butter
    1 cup ground flaxseed
    2/3 c chopped dried cranberries
    2/3 cup raw honey
    1/2 c. plain greek yogurt
    3 scoops chocolate protein powder
    2 teaspoons vanilla
    1 teaspoon cinnamon

    Lightly toast oats & Coconut in frying pan, let cool.
    Mix all ingredients thoroughly.
    Press into 9x13 pan.
    Store in fridge or freezer. If you freeze I recommend cutting ahead of time.



    Bump for the recipe! Thank you
  • WillowWindow
    WillowWindow Posts: 100 Member
    Thanks for the energy bar calorie count! I'll try them. :)