Struggling to meet my 1200 calorie goal :(

So you used to overeat.

Then you underate.

You don't like fast food.

All this establishes.... what, exactly?

Ah you're right.. back to the point then??


Unlearning what society teaches us regarding diets and proper nutrition is hard. Once we decide to eat healthy trying to figure out what is right *for ourselves* and what isn't is hard. It's not as simple as "eat this not that" esp when what really works is eating more of the right foods. Since all diets pretty much tell you to eat less. You grow up being told to eat less. Your friends tell you to eat less. etc.. Unlearning that and in effect going against the grain is hard. Figuring out what your body needs and then overcoming learned behavior (eat diet foods, eat less, don't eat after whatever time) is hard. Eating under a healthy calorie margin is easy to do when you switch high caloric low quality food for low calorie high quality foods. It a process. Simply shoving the road map or "eat more" down someones throat isn't helpful. Asking them how they got fat is counter productive.

Uh huh.

What does work is dispelling the myth of healthy vs unhealthy food - an attitude that apparently landed you in the hospital.

No.. what landed me in the hospital was eating under 800 calories a day for an extended period of time and drinking a lot of beer. Then when I started paying attention to food I realized that I wasn't eating properly. When I started eating properly I struggled for months to eat over 1200 calories, struggled to eat more often, struggled to reach the goals i knew I had to meet. All the while people like you told me how stupid I was for simply not "eating more" and kept throwing the road map in my face saying follow this. Never mind that i simply can't eat if i'm not hungry. Never mind that road map thing went against everything I was ever taught about weight loss my entire life. I'm still not hungry. I had to create hunger. I had to figure out how to eat in the morning (hence the smoothie suggestion). If I got over full i'd skip my next meal, not because I wanted to, but because I was too full. Not healthy.

My point is.. it's a process. You have to learn things and do it one step at a time. Maybe her first step is reaching 1200 a day.. mine was reaching 1000 a day. If you really know that much, you should help. Not try to cram something brand new down someone throat, or say well that's impossible since you got fat somehow or something else unhelpful. If I can't eat 1200 calories a day how in the world am I going to eat a TDEE? hmmm?? I'm not.. and just the thought of it is going to make my head spin. (and it does). Will I get there one day?? Probably. doing it the right way, eating the right way and doing it one step at a time.

Because to answer your question "how did you get fat in the first place?" By over eating of course.. which is what it sounds like your advocating. At least to someone new to the nutrition and healthy living/eating world.

And maybe if you had someone to tell you that it was OK to eat some of the same food that made you fat in the first place you wouldn't have ended up in the hospital and struggling to eat 1000 calories.

You clearly have a very difficult relationship with food that seems to have required some professional intervention. Sounds like you had an ED and your needs were beyond what a site like this could provide.

Not everyone has an ED, or something like an ED. The first step for the OP is to understand that there are no evil, inherently fattening foods.

So now i'm an alcoholic with an eating disorder or at least I was. lol. You guys are funny. If you're not one extreme you must be another.. i forget sometimes how these boards work. I didn't and don't think fat was bad. You've got me confused with someone else. I never posted that. There wasn't professional intervention other then a day in the ER for a lovely diagnosis of "unknown" and tests that "proved" I was healthy and nothing was wrong with me. They even checked me for being drunk because the ER thought I was faking it, but changed their tune after i was there a few hours.

When I first started tracking everything my calories dropped and I wasn't trying to decrease them. When I got them up and added exercise bam netted negative. I still struggle with the net calories. I wont' eat fast food. It makes me sick. I don't like sugar, so i don't add it to things or eat things that are full of it too often and I don't eat processed food because they taste like crap. That does not mean I have an unhealthy relationship with food or that anyone else does.

It's simply not always as easy as you all try to say it is. Yes, OP should increase her calories. Yes she can do so by adding in full fat foods and other items to beef up her meals and by eating high protein foods to help reach her nutrient goals. That's what I did. Same struggle different starting point. Just like it's hard for some people to reduce how much they eat to create a deficit it's hard for others to increase what they eat to actually be healthy. It obviously happens more then you all want to believe as there is a thread started on it almost daily. I actually think it's harder because increasing your calories goes against everything you've ever been taught about weight loss. Right or wrong.

Ok so I promised myself I wouldn't bite on your comments and respond...But my mother taught me to thank those who help me so I am hear to thank Dat for making my point. Additionally, I wanted to add some value to folks wanting to understand this paradox as it was noted earlier that I did not add any scientific evidence.

The French paradox is awesome but very explainable. btw the term was coined by Serge Renaud of the Bordeaux Uni in case you were wondering.

The basic tenants are that the French consider food an event, a party if you will. They eat very high levels of sat fat in controlled portions.
1. they eat animal fat
2. short chain sat fat such as found in butter and cheese
3. fish at least 3x per week on avg
4. fresh, unprocessed ingredients (remember this one cause it comes back later)
5. lower levels of sugar
6. avoidance of fast food (part of my original point), deep fried food, soda, and prepared food from boxes
7. 3 meals a day, no snacking

The American diet typically consists of:
1. highly processed foods (hi McD's, M&M's and Mac and cheese)
2. fat from veggie oil/soybean oil
3. sat fat from hydrogenated fats
4. 3 meals plus snacking
5. disproportionate serving sizes compared to the rest of the world (except the Fiji islands)

Now that being said, there are some compelling compensating factors for the French paradox as follows:

1. In a 1999 study by Malcolm Law and Nicholas Waldin (published in the British Medical Journal) they hypothesized that there was as much as a 20% discrepancy in the way the French report cases of CHD, resulting in misleading statistics (I happen to think the paradox is real)
2. Professor Roger Corder identified something called polyphenols, more specifically oligomeric procyanidins, which are found in wines from the Tannat grape, grown in the Gers area of southwest France. His research suggests that polyphenols in wine reduce the absorption of malondialdehyde thereby reducing arteriosclerosis.
3. A study published in 2012 by Canadian Nutritionist Kate Rheume-Bleue suggests that high levels of vitamin K2 prevent plaque from calcifying in your arteries (and we know what happens then right).

If that's not enough to explain the difference between American and French diets (well most of Europe if we are being fair), then take a look at the following books:
The Dukan Diet
The Fat Fallacy
The French Don't Diet Plan and
Cholesterol and the French Paradox

So I started by saying I wanted to thank Dat for making my point that sat fat in American diets leads to higher risk of CHD. Eating McDonald's, Kraft Mac & Cheese and other prepackaged foods without applying the other principles of the French paradox is setting yourself up for an increased risk of CHD (btw: if you applied the other principles, you wouldn't be eating that stuff to start with).

Does that satisfy your criticism of me and my "research and knowledge" on the topic? It's nice to have friends with big brains (so yes he does exist).

So now i'm an alcoholic with an eating disorder or at least I was. lol.

By your own claim, you were drinking so much beer you didn't even get enough to eat and you ended up in the hospital because of it. Then it took months of recovery just to learn to eat enough food.

Not sure what else you could call that.

yep. but the beer wasn't the cause of the under eating. Otherwise I'd have only under ate when I was drinking. But anyway I'm tired of playing with you.

My advice stands and it's good advice and it actually works.

Ok so I promised myself I wouldn't bite on your comments and respond...But my mother taught me to thank those who help me so I am hear to thank Dat for making my point. Additionally, I wanted to add some value to folks wanting to understand this paradox as it was noted earlier that I did not add any scientific evidence.

The French paradox is awesome but very explainable. btw the term was coined by Serge Renaud of the Bordeaux Uni in case you were wondering.

The basic tenants are that the French consider food an event, a party if you will. They eat very high levels of sat fat in controlled portions.
1. they eat animal fat
2. short chain sat fat such as found in butter and cheese
3. fish at least 3x per week on avg
4. fresh, unprocessed ingredients (remember this one cause it comes back later)
5. lower levels of sugar
6. avoidance of fast food (part of my original point), deep fried food, soda, and prepared food from boxes
7. 3 meals a day, no snacking

The American diet typically consists of:
1. highly processed foods (hi McD's, M&M's and Mac and cheese)
2. fat from veggie oil/soybean oil
3. sat fat from hydrogenated fats
4. 3 meals plus snacking
5. disproportionate serving sizes compared to the rest of the world (except the Fiji islands)

Now that being said, there are some compelling compensating factors for the French paradox as follows:

1. In a 1999 study by Malcolm Law and Nicholas Waldin (published in the British Medical Journal) they hypothesized that there was as much as a 20% discrepancy in the way the French report cases of CHD, resulting in misleading statistics (I happen to think the paradox is real)
2. Professor Roger Corder identified something called polyphenols, more specifically oligomeric procyanidins, which are found in wines from the Tannat grape, grown in the Gers area of southwest France. His research suggests that polyphenols in wine reduce the absorption of malondialdehyde thereby reducing arteriosclerosis.
3. A study published in 2012 by Canadian Nutritionist Kate Rheume-Bleue suggests that high levels of vitamin K2 prevent plaque from calcifying in your arteries (and we know what happens then right).

If that's not enough to explain the difference between American and French diets (well most of Europe if we are being fair), then take a look at the following books:
The Dukan Diet
The Fat Fallacy
The French Don't Diet Plan and
Cholesterol and the French Paradox

So I started by saying I wanted to thank Dat for making my point that sat fat in American diets leads to higher risk of CHD. Eating McDonald's, Kraft Mac & Cheese and other prepackaged foods without applying the other principles of the French paradox is setting yourself up for an increased risk of CHD (btw: if you applied the other principles, you wouldn't be eating that stuff to start with).

Does that satisfy your criticism of me and my "research and knowledge" on the topic? It's nice to have friends with big brains (so yes he does exist).

To pretty much sum it up, they have a balanced diet. is that processed foods cause more of the problems.
There are other factors such as activity level which the average american doesnt have.

You are strictly pointing at saturated fat as the culprit. What you are saying