Is this healthy?

Damn that is alot of replies, wasn't expecting it. The problem is I have tried many things in the past to lose weight, and they've never worked. I don't understand how people are losing weight at 2000 calories a day, as that is a ton of meals when my main meal consists of 2 large portions of fish, and 300g of vegetables, and is only 350 calories.

I understand about protein intake, as my father was a bodybuilder and alot of his friends still are (he is starting again too), but cannot afford to take in any more at the moment as college is sapping the majority of my savings. My diet is:

9AM-11AM breakfast - 2 Múller Lights, 1 wholemeal roll with ham + lettuce (320 calories)

12AM - 2PM lunch - 1 can of tuna, 3 egg whites (180 calories)

5PM-7PM dinner - 2 portions of fish, 300g of vegetables (350 calories)

11PM-2AM night food - 3 egg whites, whole meal roll with cheese (200 calories)

Sometimes I don't eat at night, which is when my daily intake drops to around 800. I have of course considered training my entire body but not sure what the point is when I'm only taking in half the protein I should be should I want every muscle to benefit. This is why I'm looking for good ways to exercise cardio, however if it is beneficial to train everything on low protein intake, then how would you go about doing it?

Thanks.

PS: How do I change my profile to male? Did not even see the option when signing up.

For weight loss, not at all. The only thing that is affected by meal timing is how you feel. Some people just generally perform better if they eat smaller meals more often, whereas others are fine with fewer, bigger meals. Figure out what works best for your body and your work/school schedule, and do that.

Just for reference, because a lot of people have skewed perceptions about what a "normal" caloric intake is -- I'm 5'4", older than you, 128 pounds and a girl, and I lose on 2000. I'm thinking about going down to 1800 for a few weeks, but I'll be whining like a little kid with a skinned knee the whole time. If I tried to live on 1000, I'd either be chewing paint off the walls or killing people.

The goal should be to eat as much food as possible while still losing weight, not to survive on the bare minimum you possibly can. Think about it this way: as you get lighter, you're probably going to have to drop your intake at least once. If you start at 1000, where would you go?

If you drop your calories too low, you WILL lose muscle mass. Dude, you're 22, male and just starting to lift -- you have a GOLDEN opportunity to strip off some fat while keeping all the muscle you have. Don't waste it by starving yourself.

Epic reply thank you, great advice and gave me a pretty good chuckle! Definitely nowhere to go down from 1k, unsure on 1.8k though, is probably still low.. Thoughts?

Beer for breakfast?



And "what's the point" of training your entire body if your protein intake is low? Oy! You need some serious education on nutrition, buddy. You have absolutely no clue how to do this. And high protein foods aren't all expensive. If you ate a decent amount of calories, your protein intake would go up quite a bit.

LOL!!! No I'm not sure if it's a british brand but it sounds like it is, but they are yogurts. Beers haha.

I'm shorter, older (and rounder than you) and I don't even eat that few calories!!! I would say definitely recalculate your calorie intake. You do want a deficit, but not that much when you're exercising the way you are. I would also say balance is key - not an overabundance of one thing or the other. A good balance of carbs, protein, and fats (healthy ones...there is such a thing) is a good way to get to the goal you set. I used to think protein heavy dieting was the way to go, but I was SO wrong. Do some research. I've since balanced my diet and lost 12 more pounds. I think you need a HUGE reevaluation of where you are and what foods you're eating. Everyone's posts about men needing more calories than women (because of the metabolism difference) is spot on. As a woman, I eat 1220 calories a day. Boost your intake, you'll boost your metabolism and you'll be healthy. Skinny is NOT healthy.

I feel as though people seriously underestimating how big I am on here, but balance is definitely key, all I've been doing for the last 2 hours is research,and thanks

you're right on skinny not being healthy though, I'd rather be fat than skinny.

First rule of MFP - some people are mean, or rather they can be pretty blunt. Its always worth doing a little bit of research before asking a question to avoid getting your *kitten* handed to you.

When you enter your dets into MFP what daily goal does it set you? This would probably be a good place to start,

then use this as someone else has posted - don't automatically go for 2lbs a week - I think from what you have said 1lb loss a week might it.

If you have 75+ lbs to lose 2 lbs/week is ideal
If you have 40-75 lbs to lose 1.5 lbs/week is ideal
If you have 25-40 lbs to lose 1 lbs/week is ideal
If you have 15 -25 lbs to lose 0.5 to 1.0 lbs/week is ideal
If you have less than 15 lbs to lose 0.5 lbs/week is ideal

make sure you log everything including your exercise & most people advise eating back your exercise calories -although I have seen many people say they don't. Its a pretty good app and is definately worth giving it a go following the goals it sets based on the info you have entered, you can always tweak it once you have given it a week or 2.

Feel free to send me a FR, happy to help with any non- judgemental advice. Not that I know anything about body building but doing ok on the weight loss so far ( 3 months in)

Good luck with it!

It sets me 1,340 Calories / Day which doesn't sound good according to people in here. Will use this site as a log, seems pretty good, saves jotting it down on paper that i'll inevitably end up losing heh. Sent you a FR btw, thanks.

being short and 14.6 stone I'm fat as ****, can't ever imagine how 2000 calories would allow me to lose weight, I've never eaten much more than that when I'm not dieting

When I see this, I have to wonder if you're weighing all of your solid food and logging accurately, choosing accurate entries from the database, etc., because if you're a 5'7" male, I don't see how you could reach nearly 15 stone (over 200 lbs) at the age of 22 if you "never eat much more" than 2000 calories, unless you have a medical condition you don't know about or aren't telling us about, or if in the past you really have eaten more than 2000 calories fairly regularly. That's just not enough time in your life eating what is essentially maintenance or maybe a tad over now and then. Or does "never" only refer to the last few months of your life, and you were eating significantly more at some earlier period? I'm a 5'4" woman in her 50s, I now weigh about two and a half stone less than you, and I could still lose weight slowly (maybe a pound a month) on 2000 calories a day net (that is, 2000 plus "eating back" any calories I burn from exercise).

I'm not trying to be mean; I'm just saying that this particular line in your post, combined with other statements about your stats, suggests you don't have an accurate understanding of how many calories you have been eating in the past, which suggests your current understanding of how many calories you are consuming may be off, too.

I advise that you get a food scale if you don't have one -- a digital scale that weighs in grams and has a tare (zero reset) function, so you can put a bowl or plate on the scale, push tare or zero, weight the first things you're eating (e.g., rice), note the amount, tare, measure the next thing (e.g., broccoli), note the amount, tare, measure the next thing, (e.g., cheese), etc. (Fish, poultry or meat you should weigh separately before cooking - raw weight - on a different plate or bowl to avoid cross contamination.) Other than that, choose database entries with a lot of user confirmations, or ones that don't have an asterisk (those were entered by MFP rather than by users). There are a lot of inaccurate user entries in the database.

I got down to 13 stone at one point just by cutting out junk food while at college, but over the last year ive been from job to job with alot of inactivity in between. I don't weigh food but I never used to eat alot, just what i ate was very bad stuff, like entire 100g bar of chocolate a day, and until recently drank alot of alchohol mainly for the excuse of getting out the house when i was unemployed, as it is the only thing my friends do other than work, and that would usually end with a bag of chips or a kebab. have never monitored my calories until recently though so i could of been taking in a lot more than i thought, i just did not eat often in a day and when i look at the amount of healthy foods id have to eat to hit the calorie levels people recommend... it seems like ALOT more than im used to as far as quantity goes