Not Enough to Lose

Opening your diary and/or letting us know more about your specific goals might help. My general advice is two-fold.

One, take a look at your diary and nutrition reports and see if you're hitting 100% of everything. Getting enough fat, fiber, and protein is especially important, but also look to things like calcium, vitamin C, iron, etc. That might give you a better idea of what kinds of foods you need to increase.

Other than that, including some more calorie dense foods would be an easy way to boost your calories by a few hundred calories. This is a generic list and doesn't account for your personal definition of healthy, but anything here can be included in a balanced diet (as long as there are no allergies, medical conditions, obviously):
avocado
cheese
full fat diary
Greek yogurt
ice cream
peanut butter
dark chocolate
less lean cuts of meat
seeds (chia, flax, sunflower, etc.)
nuts
olive oil
coconut oil
butter
beans and lentils
protein shakes, bars, and smoothies
hummus
beef jerky
cornbread
tuna
full calorie condiments
full calorie sauces & dressings
sour cream
guacamole
whole grain pasta
rice
bacon
whole eggs
quinoa
fruit and fruit juices
pretzels
bananas
scones
muffins (bran, blueberry, banana nut, etc.)
potatoes (sweet, red, gold, purple, white, etc.)
granola
coconut
salmon
edamame
honey
molasses

MoHousdon wrote: »

jillmarie125 wrote: »

Are you sure you are measuring and weighing everything correctly? My food today is very "clean" for me...meaning lean meats, veggies and fruit. I will have no problem getting to 1750 cals by end of day. My first guess would be that you are not weighing everything.

If you are, then I would say have a spoonful of peanutbutter. Thats always good.

But again, I just want to say something about weighing food. I buy prepackaged apple slices. The bag says 56g, when I weighed them they were 118. More than double.

119.
I don't weigh anything. I have just started keeping a food diary and am extremely green to this whole nutrition/calorie counting thing. I'm not anywhere near my recommended protein, almost always go over on my sugars. Sometimes I go way over on my fat and carbs, but that's when I don't eat very well. I know that and I'm working on it but bad eating habits are really hard to break. Now don't hear me saying I eat horribly because I really don't, I just don't eat "clean". Another issue is that even when I do have a relatively healthy day (no soda, junk food, or other "dirty foods), I am so full by the end of day, I would make myself sick eating anything else. I just don't want to get discouraged and give up.

ok- right now focus on getting your calories. Once you find a good balance with that, then work on macros (fat, carbs, and protein.) Everyone needs to start somewhere. And it can be a lot to do all at once. Aim for your calorie goal by adding a few things you enjoy. But I would really purchase a food scale. You can find them for under 20 dollars. Start by weighing meats and logging that correctly. You might be surprised.

MoHousdon wrote: »

According to iifym, I should be consuming 1573 calories a day to achieve my weight loss goals. I thought this would be a piece of cake (no pun intended). However, I'm finding it very difficult to achieve this goal while eating the "right" kinds of foods. I'm not hungry at the end of the day even when I'm still 300 calories short of my daily intake. As a matter of fact, I am stuffed and can't eat anything else. Does anyone have helpful advice as to how I could get the necessary calories I need to burn unwanted fat, all while eating healthy?
I appreciate your feedback.

Are you perhaps being too restrictive in what's a "right" kind of food?

When I first started this I was experimenting with changing my diet some and breaking some bad habits and basically was eating just meat and vegetables (cooked in olive oil, but only a spray). I was reasonably full, in part because I was really motivated, I think, and in part because I'm a volume eater, so a full plate would be satisfying regardless of the calories, but when I started logging I was surprised at how low my calories were.

That caused me to go back to a more normal pattern with my eating (which I'd intended to do anyway) and I started eating more dairy, the occasional avocado, and more starches and fruit, especially, and got more open to including more olive oil or even a little butter, if it would benefit the taste, and, as I understood my calorie limit and what would fit, other foods for taste/fun, like cheese in my omelet or ice cream after dinner.

There's a temptation sometimes to overdo it and cut carbs or especially fat too low.

One thing I did learn from the mostly meat and veggies time is that if you are going to cut out other higher calorie foods (like the starches) you have to increase your serving size of meat. One of my mistakes was continuing to think of 4 oz as a normal serving when I wasn't eating many other calories.

Among other things, you don't want to have in your mind that you are eating "diet" menus IMO, or it won't be sustainable. The way I'm eating now is basically how I like to eat usually, and healthy. If your menus are causing you to struggle to reach 900 calories per day, or whatever, that's not sustainable and probably not a reasonable definition of healthy.

MoHousdon wrote: »

Thanks Jillmarie125! It's very stressful trying to stay within my calorie goal and getting all my macros right for the day. It's exhausting!

It can be exhausting. It's second nature to me now...but I remember being where you are.

MoHousdon wrote: »

LiveLaughLoveEat1 wrote: »

MoHousdon wrote: »

jillmarie125 wrote: »

Are you sure you are measuring and weighing everything correctly? My food today is very "clean" for me...meaning lean meats, veggies and fruit. I will have no problem getting to 1750 cals by end of day. My first guess would be that you are not weighing everything.

If you are, then I would say have a spoonful of peanutbutter. Thats always good.

But again, I just want to say something about weighing food. I buy prepackaged apple slices. The bag says 56g, when I weighed them they were 118. More than double.

119.
I don't weigh anything. I have just started keeping a food diary and am extremely green to this whole nutrition/calorie counting thing. I'm not anywhere near my recommended protein, almost always go over on my sugars. Sometimes I go way over on my fat and carbs, but that's when I don't eat very well. I know that and I'm working on it but bad eating habits are really hard to break. Now don't hear me saying I eat horribly because I really don't, I just don't eat "clean". Another issue is that even when I do have a relatively healthy day (no soda, junk food, or other "dirty foods), I am so full by the end of day, I would make myself sick eating anything else. I just don't want to get discouraged and give up.

you need a food scale to weight all solid foods and use measuring cups for all liquids.

I'm sure I will eventually do that, just not yet. Thanks.

Then I totally wouldn't worry about the fact you're under, because in reality you're probably not. So you're doing fine.

MoHousdon wrote: »

lemurcat12 wrote: »

Hmm, I checked your diary and your logging seems inconsistent, but I'm not sure if you are doing what I suspected on days you are having trouble meeting your goal, as the days I saw didn't seem to be the days you were referring to. Are there days representative of that?

My logging was inconsistent or non-existent this weekend because I was out of town and without internet. Also, I went to a carnival with some friends and there's really no way of tracking carnival food accurately, so I didn't. I'm hoping I will get better about accurately tracking what I'm eating so I know what I should be eating. I have noticed that even though I'm not a huge sweets eater, I'm getting way too much sugar on most days and little to no potassium which is not good.

I'm not being critical, just trying to understand the problem by looking at what you are eating when you have trouble meeting your goal.