Vegetarian having hard time getting to calorie goal

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doxielover2013
doxielover2013 Posts: 25 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am vegetarian (will eat eggs and cheese, but trying to cut out the cheese). When I first started MFP I was logging everything I ate plus weighing it on a very very very old scale, and exercising 6 days a week and not losing weight or inches. I ask about that and got some great advice (Thank you everyone!). I replaced my scale with a digital scale (that does grams too) and started drinking Weightless Tea to address my water retention issues. This has resulted in my weight to go down :bigsmile: but no change in inches....yet. However, I am also trying to watch my sodium very carefully in order to keep water retention to a minimum. This is causing me to not make it to my daily net calorie goal. I usually eat something higher in cals which ends up higher in sodium putting me over my sodium goal but just under my calorie goal. I eat very little out, I cook my meals at home, usually from frozen veggies since fresh seems to go bad on me too quick. I live too far out in the country to go get fresh veggies every couple of days. Once this awful winter is over I will have my garden back and will have the freshest veggies possible but until then I am stuck with frozen. I do not use canned veggies but I do use canned beans which I rinse to reduce the amount of sodium. The biggest thing is that I am not hungry and am making myself eat just to get up to goal. Many days I haven't even reached 1200 net cals by the end of the day but am not hungry! I literally eat every couple of hours through out the day, then when evening gets here I scramble trying to increase my net cals so I have made it to my goal. To do that I end up eating things I wouldn't normally eat AND I am eating when I am not even hungry!

My diary is open, any suggestions you may have will be greatly appreciated! :smile:

Oh, the only thing I drink is water and herbal teas. I always get 8 cups or more of water in a day, I just forget to log the water! Also, I just got the new scale this week so I am now able to know how many grams of a recipe is a serving, before this week I was trying to divide up the recipe evenly into the # of servings. So I know the cals were off before this week.
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Replies

  • Iknowsaur
    Iknowsaur Posts: 777 Member
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    I don't understand how you got into a position where you need to lose weight if you're not hungry.
    I really hate these posts .-. Sorry.

    Edit - You're probably severely underestimating your calories. And eating below 1,200 calories a day is not only unnecessary but can be poor for your health and detrimental to your weight loss. All you need to do is eat at a deficit to lose weight, so what you eat (within reason) really doesn't matter. I would also be skeptical of that tea you mentioned.
  • lemonsnowdrop
    lemonsnowdrop Posts: 1,298 Member
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    Eat some peanut butter. Reaching calorie goals isn't as hard as people make it out to be. :|
  • laurie04427
    laurie04427 Posts: 421 Member
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    I'm also a vegetarian that eats eggs/milk products too. I've lost about 11 pounds (some before I joined the site). So far no plateu (*knock on wood*) if you want to check my diary to see where we differ. I don't eat enough fruits/veggies but so far it's been working.

    (Edit: i eat occasional fish so I'm not technically vegetarian but I mostly eat like one.)
  • Mof3wc
    Mof3wc Posts: 126 Member
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    I am vegetarian (will eat eggs and cheese, but trying to cut out the cheese). When I first started MFP I was logging everything I ate plus weighing it on a very very very old scale, and exercising 6 days a week and not losing weight or inches. I ask about that and got some great advice (Thank you everyone!). I replaced my scale with a digital scale (that does grams too) and started drinking Weightless Tea to address my water retention issues. This has resulted in my weight to go down :bigsmile: but no change in inches....yet. However, I am also trying to watch my sodium very carefully in order to keep water retention to a minimum. This is causing me to not make it to my daily net calorie goal. I usually eat something higher in cals which ends up higher in sodium putting me over my sodium goal but just under my calorie goal. I eat very little out, I cook my meals at home, usually from frozen veggies since fresh seems to go bad on me too quick. I live too far out in the country to go get fresh veggies every couple of days. Once this awful winter is over I will have my garden back and will have the freshest veggies possible but until then I am stuck with frozen. I do not use canned veggies but I do use canned beans which I rinse to reduce the amount of sodium. The biggest thing is that I am not hungry and am making myself eat just to get up to goal. Many days I haven't even reached 1200 net cals by the end of the day but am not hungry! I literally eat every couple of hours through out the day, then when evening gets here I scramble trying to increase my net cals so I have made it to my goal. To do that I end up eating things I wouldn't normally eat AND I am eating when I am not even hungry!

    My diary is open, any suggestions you may have will be greatly appreciated! :smile:

    Oh, the only thing I drink is water and herbal teas. I always get 8 cups or more of water in a day, I just forget to log the water! Also, I just got the new scale this week so I am now able to know how many grams of a recipe is a serving, before this week I was trying to divide up the recipe evenly into the # of servings. So I know the cals were off before this week.


    I'm confused. There is only one day that was below 1200 in your diary in the last 1-2 weeks, the rest are pretty far over.

    If you do want to up your cals there are a few easy ways to add them. Use butter or oil to fry your egg in the morning. Have a spoonful of peanut butter, eat a handful of nuts, or granola, or even add in some fruit as snacks.
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    My suggestion would be less bread and refined carbs, and more beans, tofu, nuts and whole grains. You need more protein.

    This will likely also help with the water retention problems you are having.
  • doxielover2013
    doxielover2013 Posts: 25 Member
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    I don't understand how you got into a position where you need to lose weight if you're not hungry.
    I really hate these posts .-. Sorry.

    Edit - You're probably severely underestimating your calories. And eating below 1,200 calories a day is not only unnecessary but can be poor for your health and detrimental to your weight loss. All you need to do is eat at a deficit to lose weight, so what you eat (within reason) really doesn't matter. I would also be skeptical of that tea you mentioned.

    I am looking for help not sarcasm. No I am not underestimating my calories. I am going by the gram weight of the food to calculate the calories and going by what the package says is the calories per gram. I measure everything that I put in my mouth. Many overweight people eat way less than healthy weight people and still gain weight or maintain current weight. I am trying to get to 1200 cals and do so whether I am hungry or not because I know it isn't good to eat less than that. My question was how to increase calories without increasing sodium intake. I have 1 egg a day, 1 bagel a day, and the rest is veggies and beans. This fills me up but does not have a lot of cals in them. I eat a mostly vegan diet I guess you could say with the occasional slice of cheese or egg.
  • fitness_faeiry
    fitness_faeiry Posts: 354 Member
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    I had a peek at your diary, Stop eating foods high in sodium like all the processed and packaged foods i.e. Potato crisps,
    and Bagels and bread.

    You have possibly reached a plateau. Your diet looks low in protein - this is possibly why you are not noticing much change in your body size. Did you know a child needs more than 1200 calories per day? I recommend upping your calories and focusing on getting your macros right.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,868 Member
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    Don't cut out cheese...eat more fat. Dietary fat doesn't make you fat and is an essential nutrient. I don't know why you're trying to be veg and trying to cut fat too. That's not really going to work very well.
  • oiseau17
    oiseau17 Posts: 142 Member
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    It's REALLY easy to add calories without a lot of extra food or sodium. Olive oil, butter, avocado, peanut butter, nuts, for starters. I looked back a week or so in your diary and it looks like you're eating plenty and have some pretty high calorie burns recorded. What are you doing to burn an extra +600 cals a day? You might be overestimating your exercise.
  • doxielover2013
    doxielover2013 Posts: 25 Member
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    The reason why the cals are over is because I am forcing myself to eat in the evenings and I am eating stuff that I wouldn't normally eat just to get my net cal close to the 1560 goal that MFP set for me. Normally I would eat veggies with no salt added and beans. I am trying to transition to vegan but am having a hard time getting in enough cals.
  • nordakota
    nordakota Posts: 48 Member
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    Try adding a few more nuts or seeds...
  • doxielover2013
    doxielover2013 Posts: 25 Member
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    Don't cut out cheese...eat more fat. Dietary fat doesn't make you fat and is an essential nutrient. I don't know why you're trying to be veg and trying to cut fat too. That's not really going to work very well.

    I'm not trying to cut out fat, I want to cut out cheese because I am trying to transition to a vegan diet. I am not ready to leave the eggs behind because of concerns about not getting enough vitamin B6. I do use olive oil and coconut oil in my cooking, so definitely not cutting fats.
  • doxielover2013
    doxielover2013 Posts: 25 Member
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    It's REALLY easy to add calories without a lot of extra food or sodium. Olive oil, butter, avocado, peanut butter, nuts, for starters. I looked back a week or so in your diary and it looks like you're eating plenty and have some pretty high calorie burns recorded. What are you doing to burn an extra +600 cals a day? You might be overestimating your exercise.

    I am doing TapOut XT for my workouts. I am using a heartrate monitor to get the amount of cals I am burning. TapOut is a very intense workout. I have been doing it for a month and still am not able to keep up with them!
  • Iknowsaur
    Iknowsaur Posts: 777 Member
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    I don't understand how you got into a position where you need to lose weight if you're not hungry.
    I really hate these posts .-. Sorry.

    Edit - You're probably severely underestimating your calories. And eating below 1,200 calories a day is not only unnecessary but can be poor for your health and detrimental to your weight loss. All you need to do is eat at a deficit to lose weight, so what you eat (within reason) really doesn't matter. I would also be skeptical of that tea you mentioned.

    I am looking for help not sarcasm. No I am not underestimating my calories. I am going by the gram weight of the food to calculate the calories and going by what the package says is the calories per gram. I measure everything that I put in my mouth. Many overweight people eat way less than healthy weight people and still gain weight or maintain current weight. I am trying to get to 1200 cals and do so whether I am hungry or not because I know it isn't good to eat less than that. My question was how to increase calories without increasing sodium intake. I have 1 egg a day, 1 bagel a day, and the rest is veggies and beans. This fills me up but does not have a lot of cals in them. I eat a mostly vegan diet I guess you could say with the occasional slice of cheese or egg.

    Your idea of your diet seems to be very different from the reality of your diary. You eat close to 2,000 every day, not 1,200. You eat a lot of processed carbs and packaged foods, and very little protein. You eat eggs and cheese every day, so saying you're basically vegan is just silly. Anyway, vegan does not necessarily equal healthy, nor does it necessarily equal weight loss. The only thing that matters is a deficit. The tea you drink a few times a day is a waste of money. And you seem to be overestimating your exercise calories. MFP is very generous with burn amounts, and you seem to be eating back most of your exercise calories. I would eat back maybe 20%.

    Eat more protein. Make better use of your calories.

    Don't ask a question if you don't want honest answers.
  • doxielover2013
    doxielover2013 Posts: 25 Member
    Options
    I had a peek at your diary, Stop eating foods high in sodium like all the processed and packaged foods i.e. Potato crisps,
    and Bagels and bread.

    You have possibly reached a plateau. Your diet looks low in protein - this is possibly why you are not noticing much change in your body size. Did you know a child needs more than 1200 calories per day? I recommend upping your calories and focusing on getting your macros right.

    Those are the things that I am turning to in order to get my cals up to my daily goal. I am looking for other ways to do that. The suggestions of avocado and nuts were helpful and I will be adding those. to replace the chips and bread.
  • acarmelo1
    acarmelo1 Posts: 76 Member
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    Eat some Chicken!!!, Your body will thank you.
  • krennie8
    krennie8 Posts: 301 Member
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    honestly i don't see any need to force feed yourself. If you aren't hungry, you aren't hungry. More than likely though once you eat light one day, you'll want a few extra calories the next (so if 1200 net one day, maybe 1300-1400 the next or potentially more).

    i wouldn't worry about it. As long as you aren't eating less than 1200/day before accounting for your exercise calories you're prob fine.
  • Iknowsaur
    Iknowsaur Posts: 777 Member
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    Eat some Chicken!!!, Your body will thank you.

    You don't have to eat meat to be healthy >>
  • oiseau17
    oiseau17 Posts: 142 Member
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    Don't cut out cheese...eat more fat. Dietary fat doesn't make you fat and is an essential nutrient. I don't know why you're trying to be veg and trying to cut fat too. That's not really going to work very well.

    I'm not trying to cut out fat, I want to cut out cheese because I am trying to transition to a vegan diet. I am not ready to leave the eggs behind because of concerns about not getting enough vitamin B6. I do use olive oil and coconut oil in my cooking, so definitely not cutting fats.

    Are you recording those oils in your diary?
  • doxielover2013
    doxielover2013 Posts: 25 Member
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    Your idea of your diet seems to be very different from the reality of your diary. You eat close to 2,000 every day, not 1,200. You eat a lot of processed carbs and packaged foods, and very little protein. You eat eggs and cheese every day, so saying you're basically vegan is just silly. Anyway, vegan doesn't not necessarily equal healthy, nor does it necessarily equal weight loss. The only thing that matters is a deficit. The tea you drink a few times a day is a waste of money. And you seem to be overestimating your exercise calories. MFP is very generous with burn amounts, and you seem to be eating back most of your exercise calories. I would eat back maybe 20%.

    Eat more protein. Make better use of your calories.

    Don't ask a question if you don't want honest answers.

    My burn is off of my heart rate monitor not MFP's amounts I am starting to lose weight again so I am in a deficit. I am eating in the evening to bump up my cals to that point but that is raising my sodium intake. My QUESTION was about sodium intake and how to reduce it. I have one egg a day and I am trying to cut out the cheese I didn't say I was there yet. Through out the day I eat all veggies with the exception of breakfast which is a thin bagel and one egg, sometimes with cheese in order to up the cals. Dinner this week had 3 meals with cheese, lunch I added the buns to the chickpea burgers to up cals or I have leftovers from dinner. I said I was trying to transition to vegan...I obviously have not made it yet. I am looking for helpful suggestions not to be slammed because you hate these types of posts! I am on a journey just like you and am trying to find my way the best I can. Sometimes that requires asking questions that people that have been here awhile have seen already or they have already figured it out. If you don't like this type of post then ignore it, don't slam the person looking for help.

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