Struggling to eat enough calories!

jamesselby1982
jamesselby1982 Posts: 4
edited February 7 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone this is my first post so first of all 'hello' my name is James I'm 31 and live in the UK.

I've started to eat healthy foods for about 4 weeks now, cutting out booze and have been using MFP for over a week.

Based on my age, starting weight (80kg) and goal (70kg) it's calculated I need to eat 1690 calories a day. On average I've been eating about 1200 a day this includes my normal food.

Breakfast: Special K or Bitesize Shredded Wheat
Lunch: Chicken and Salad/Basmati Rice
Snack: Sci MX Flapjack or fruit
Dinner: Healthy <500 calorie dinner.
2 Litres of Water

Overall I'm trying to remove silly carbs from my diet, however eating the above I'm pushed to reach 1200!

Am I simply not eating enough? One thing that MFM doesn't seem to include is guidance on what foods to eat and when.

My goal is to get my body bat percentage right down, and build some muscle (gym membership). But I'm worried I'm going about this in the wrong way at the moment...thoughts?

Replies

  • ladymiseryali
    ladymiseryali Posts: 2,555 Member
    If you want to build muscle, you need to eat at a surplus, meaning WAY more calories than 1200. Skip the diet food like Special K. Have an omelette for breakfast. A big cheesy one! If you want to do lower carbs, try eating Paleo or Keto. Do some research on both and go from there. Also, meal timing doesn't matter.
  • Ian_Stuart
    Ian_Stuart Posts: 252 Member
    Ladymiserali is entirely correct. Focus on eating cleanly, (minimizing processed foods and empty calories) but eat enough to hit your calorie goals. Clean foods that are high in calories:
    Natural Peanut Butter, coconut oil, fatty fish (tuna, mackerel, etc...), fattier pork (pulled pork, anyone?) nuts, eggs.
    If you are still having trouble, you can simply supplement your food intake with a protein shake of some sort, but it is typically considered better to get your calories from actual food (Though I question this)
  • patrickfish7
    patrickfish7 Posts: 190 Member
    High protein, high (good) fat diet. Period.
  • jamesselby1982
    jamesselby1982 Posts: 4
    I did a form of Paleo in the past and it certainly helped me shift weight. But from a relationship perspective is was a nightmare, cooking a steak for breakfast didn't go down well.

    However I could do eat an omelette for breakfast. I'll have to get some good quality butter (any recommendations?).

    Surely there is a benefit to eating carbs/fat/protein in different volumes at different times of the day? For example I wouldn't want to eat all my protein in the morning, then fat and for dinner have a carb overload. Or do I simply need to try and keep each meal balanced between the 3?
  • Ian_Stuart
    Ian_Stuart Posts: 252 Member
    The long answer: http://www.thespartanwarrior.com/post/18029604390/nutrienttiming

    The short answer is it doesn't really matter.

    I do an intermittent fasting thing (leangains) and sometimes work out fasted and sometimes work out after my largest meal. It doesn't seem to have any real effect, which I think that article bears out.
  • jamesselby1982
    jamesselby1982 Posts: 4
    That's a great link! Plenty for me to read that's for sure.

    I'm going to try an increase my protein/fat intake, looking at coconut oil, organic butter etc.

    Anyone got any whole food lunch suggestions or snack suggestions? Also I'm sorry to say I don't enjoy oily fish, based on this maybe I should look at fish oil supplements?
  • Ian_Stuart
    Ian_Stuart Posts: 252 Member
    Peanut butter and banana smoothies are awesome because you can essentially tailor it exactly to your macro needs by varying the amounts of things. I do a scoop of Vanilla Protein powder in mine, but just a couple of bananas and a couple of tbsp of PB in a blender with either milk, coconut milk, almond milk, just ice, whatever you are aiming for. If I were trying to get to my calorie mark instead of stay under it, I would do 1 scoop of powder, 2 bananas, and a couple of tbsp of PB with whole milk. As it is, I do a banana, 2 tbsp of PB2, which is peanut butter with the fat removed (it tastes exactly the same) and coconut milk. About 350 calories for a nearly perfect meal.
  • KarenJanine
    KarenJanine Posts: 3,497 Member
    Skip the low fat 'diet' foods and as others have said, add some protein at breakfast. If you're struggling to hit your calorie goal aim for calorie dense foods such as avocado, nuts, coconut oil, peanut butter, etc.

    There's no reason to cut carbs. Aim to meet your protein and fat requirements but beyond that there is nothing wrong with getting the remainder of your calories from carbs. rice, pasta, sweet potatoes, etc are all good for bumping up the calorie content of a meal.

    There's also nothing wrong with adding whatever else you fancy, cookies, chocolate, ice cream, whatever (look up IIFYM - if it fits your macros) to help you reach your calorie goal.

    Also, it looks as though you are using the MFP method, so although it is giving you an allowance of 1690 calories, this is BEFORE exercise. It is intended that you eat back your exercise calories. e.g if you work out and burn 300 calories, log this burn. MFP will then expect you to eat a total of 1990 calories, giving you a NET of 1690.
  • clambert1273
    clambert1273 Posts: 840 Member
    Skip the low fat 'diet' foods and as others have said, add some protein at breakfast. If you're struggling to hit your calorie goal aim for calorie dense foods such as avocado, nuts, coconut oil, peanut butter, etc.

    There's no reason to cut carbs. Aim to meet your protein and fat requirements but beyond that there is nothing wrong with getting the remainder of your calories from carbs. rice, pasta, sweet potatoes, etc are all good for bumping up the calorie content of a meal.

    There's also nothing wrong with adding whatever else you fancy, cookies, chocolate, ice cream, whatever (look up IIFYM - if it fits your macros) to help you reach your calorie goal.

    Also, it looks as though you are using the MFP method, so although it is giving you an allowance of 1690 calories, this is BEFORE exercise. It is intended that you eat back your exercise calories. e.g if you work out and burn 300 calories, log this burn. MFP will then expect you to eat a total of 1990 calories, giving you a NET of 1690.


    ummmm cookies and ice cream..... :love: Had my Ben & Jerry's last night lol :bigsmile:

    You don't have to give up anything - I have just learned to really enjoy my 150g of ice cream :)
  • amy1612
    amy1612 Posts: 1,356 Member
    Kerrygold butter is supposed to be the holy grail of butter. I have omelettes most days.....smoked salmon, eggs and avocado are my go to breakfast.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,368 Member
    Ice cream.
  • jamesselby1982
    jamesselby1982 Posts: 4
    Well for lunch I had Seeds of Change Whole Grains, 130grams chicken breast and an avocado.

    Also popped out and bought some Coconut Oil...time to up those calories and especially fat/protein!
  • HollieDollieeeex
    HollieDollieeeex Posts: 116 Member
    PROTEIN up :heart:
This discussion has been closed.

Categories