Newbie here...need help with diet...I eat too few calories..

First: welcome aboard. Second: The books that I have read all say don't skip breakfast. It's essential to get the metabolism going. Don't skip meals any other time either. The body goes into "starvation mode" to protect itself. You start storing fat and you have less energy to get through the day. Check out my diary by clicking on my picture and then the Diary button. The books also say eat 5-6 small meals a day and eat protein with each meal to prevent insulin spike and crash later.
Good Luck

Before you start cutting foods out of your diet, you should start by adding a few foods to your diet for a couple weeks. In the process, you will reduce or cut out the foods that are bad for you. Some of the foods you should add are eggs, oatmeal, protein shakes, fruits, and vegetables. For the first two weeks, try to eat 2 eggs a day. You can hard boil eggs ahead of time and eat them first thing in the morning. Breakfast is very important and should be eaten within an hour of waking up. Oatmeal is also great but make sure you are eating plain oatmeal. You should eat 2 servings of fruit and 3 servings of vegetables a day. A protein shake each day is also a good snack and can be combined with fruits and vegetables to help reach your goal. Look for a good tasting whey protein. I like J. Robb but there are several on the market. Make sure you pay attention to the label so you are not adding fat and sugar with the protein shake. Try to eat fish at least once a week. If you eat red meat, eat lean red meat cuts. If you are not a fan of meat, you can look to beans for a good source of calories and protein. You should eat smaller meals but eat often. Your goal should be 5 small meals a day. Stay away from sugar and simple carbs like white breads and rice. Eat whole grain starches but even these should be avoided in your later meals. Soups are good but make sure they are not made with flour, cream based, or contain too much sodium. Many soups are high in sodium and can cause fluid retention. Eating too few calories can have an opposite affect of what you desire. Depriving your body of nutrients will cause it to store fat and actually make you gain weight. This is part of the problem with most diets. If you want to lose weight, you need to change your lifestyle, not starve yourself on a diet. Proper nutrician and exercise is the key to long term results.

Hi

I am new here too! Glad there is information for those of us who eat too few calories. I didn't do it on purpose while being a full time caregiver to my dad before he passed I was under so much stress that anytime I ate I felt sick didn't take long and I stopped eating I would sometimes go for days without eating at all!

Anyway I eat fairly well mostly fruits and veggies and very few processed foods have a tough time getting the protien I need but have been adding eggs and nuts to my diet and that seems to help some, There seems to be a buunch of contridictory information out there on how many calories you need to get your body out of starvation mode and back to buring calories. Some information says to take your wieght x10 and maintain that for 30 days or so and then begin increasing activity and begin burining more. Other things say you must eat at least 1200 per day to keep body from going into starvation mode others say take the weight you want to be x10 and that is the correct number of calories. Anyone have a good source of info that has worked well for them?


Thanks In Advance for your help!

Any under eaters find a good source of information that works?

Thanks in advance for the help