New here and letting this diet destroy me

seththealmighty
seththealmighty Posts: 51 Member
edited November 8 in Introduce Yourself
Hello,

I'm new to the website in full. I used to just keep an Excel spreadsheet for a calorie counter that I had to manually fill out and throw in some simple formulas, back when I tried to gain weight. Now that I'm older, sit around on my *kitten*, and ever so unmotivated to work out............I am going on a diet to LOSE weight - and let me tell you it is difficult.

It's not difficult in the sense that I have to eat so little to reach my 1200 net calorie goal, but just the opposite. I am finding it extremely difficult to reach that mark. Hell, I had trouble coming up with more than 500 calories to eat. Finally came up with a decent days schedule, falling just 300 calories: 125 carbs: 35g fat: 25g protein - short of my goal, leaving that empty in case i feel the need for a snack.

I eat my breakfast and lunch, but then I don't even feel hungry for dinner, which now would cut me short about 700 calories from my goal. I feel bad for you people on high gain diets trying to shove in 3-4k calories.

Anyways, cheers. I'll be eating my dinner for a midnight snack I guess.
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Replies

  • castlefuzz
    castlefuzz Posts: 99 Member
    you can always add me.I was told by my doctor and I dont know if this will help ya.For me I was told dont eat after 10 or midnight ah heck I cant rem. Hope that helps I am here for support and encourage people feel free to add me.You will get there never give up on your goal
  • River83
    River83 Posts: 10 Member
    Wow. That's awesome. I had the opposite problem. I kept going over, now some days i'm over by hundred and less or under a hundred or less. Great job I guess. Keep up the great work.
  • libbydoodle11
    libbydoodle11 Posts: 1,351 Member
    You are 28 years old, how did you come up with the 1200 calories per day?
    That seems like such a small amount of food to exist on.

  • Try peanut butter. It's higher in cals, a couple tablespoons is like 200 cals or so. Plus it bumps up your protien and is rich in HEALTHY fats. 25g of protien isn't very suitable, you should be having at least 100 to 150 grams a day.
  • mellyo77
    mellyo77 Posts: 214 Member
    1200 calories does seem very low for a 28 year old male veryyyyyy low
  • bajoyba
    bajoyba Posts: 1,153 Member
    I will admit that this concerns me a bit. As a moderately active 28 year old female, I lose weight on 1700 calories a day. 1200 calories seems very low for a 28 year old male with only 25 pounds to lose.

    If you're having trouble eating enough, you may need to re-evaluate what it is that you're eating. Are you eating a lot of low-calorie, high volume foods? If you haven't already, try eating more full-fat or calorie dense foods like nuts, seeds, nut butters, butter/olive oil, avocado, cheeses, salmon, and full-fat versions of foods like dairy products and salad dressings rather than low-fat or 'light' versions. And don't be afraid to leave room in your diet for treats. :)
  • ThePhoenixIsRising
    ThePhoenixIsRising Posts: 781 Member
    Ok.......
  • DragonShoe_GCole
    DragonShoe_GCole Posts: 137 Member
    Tinabob777 wrote: »
    If you can't eat enough to even reach 1200, what were you eating to get to a point of needing to lose?

    Exactly what I Planned to ask. OP????
  • seththealmighty
    seththealmighty Posts: 51 Member
    To answer some of the questions: I'm used to only eating one meal a day. Always was too lazy and didn't care to eat breakfast or lunch. So going to multiple meals is a huge change for me.

    It is 1220 net calories, which means after my workout. So total if I just do cardio, I need to eat right below 2,000 calories. If I do weights on the same day, then possibly upward to 3,000 calories..........although I just started and only did an hour of cardio at 188bpm average today.

    I do eat a lot of low calorie food such as tuna, egg whites, rotisserie chicken. Hell, I had to add wheat beer to my breakfast just for some more calories :lol:

    To the guy that said don't eat after 10. It is 9:45 and I am hurrying to eat my dinner and shove it down my face then xD
  • Tinabob777 wrote: »
    If you can't eat enough to even reach 1200, what were you eating to get to a point of needing to lose?

    That question.

    My maths are confused.
  • ThePhoenixIsRising
    ThePhoenixIsRising Posts: 781 Member
    To answer some of the questions: I'm used to only eating one meal a day. Always was too lazy and didn't care to eat breakfast or lunch. So going to multiple meals is a huge change for me.

    It is 1220 net calories, which means after my workout. So total if I just do cardio, I need to eat right below 2,000 calories. If I do weights on the same day, then possibly upward to 3,000 calories..........although I just started and only did an hour of cardio at 188bpm average today.

    I do eat a lot of low calorie food such as tuna, egg whites, rotisserie chicken. Hell, I had to add wheat beer to my breakfast just for some more calories :lol:

    To the guy that said don't eat after 10. It is 9:45 and I am hurrying to eat my dinner and shove it down my face then xD

    Sooo before you could eat enough in one sitting to gain weight and now you can't eat enough in a whole day to net 1200 cals gross 2000 cals?

    Things make even less sense, and I didn't think that was possible!
  • seththealmighty
    seththealmighty Posts: 51 Member
    ohhhh. forgot to add, whoever mentioned something about 25 grams per day? No, I was mentioning that I was 25 grams short of my goal.
  • seththealmighty
    seththealmighty Posts: 51 Member
    Sooo before you could eat enough in one sitting to gain weight and now you can't eat enough in a whole day to net 1200 cals gross 2000 cals?

    Things make even less sense, and I didn't think that was possible!

    This confuses me as well. My weight slowly goes up though. Maybe the one meal a thing and sitting on my *kitten* slowed my metabolism up.... a lot. Oh well, I find it easy to relatively kick things back to the way they were. I once lost 10lbs in a month while on a pork and noodle diet while living in thailand, from very basic workouts. haha
  • ThePhoenixIsRising
    ThePhoenixIsRising Posts: 781 Member
    Sooo before you could eat enough in one sitting to gain weight and now you can't eat enough in a whole day to net 1200 cals gross 2000 cals?

    Things make even less sense, and I didn't think that was possible!

    This confuses me as well. My weight slowly goes up though. Maybe the one meal a thing and sitting on my *kitten* slowed my metabolism up.... a lot. Oh well, I find it easy to relatively kick things back to the way they were. I once lost 10lbs in a month while on a pork and noodle diet while living in thailand, from very basic workouts. haha

    So were you asking for help or just making a thread for the giggles?
  • seththealmighty
    seththealmighty Posts: 51 Member
    Kinda both? Making a thread to introduce myself and making small talk by explaining my problem. This is the "introduce yourself" subforum, isn't it? The explanation of the problem, more or less to find out how serious is falling short of the calorie goal. Will it just make me sore as *kitten* from my body not being able to recover from the daily workout?

    I made my diaries public. I'm not sure if this allows you to see what I eat for the day or not, but if it does, now you have an ideal of the diet I made up for my first day.
  • MyChocolateDiet
    MyChocolateDiet Posts: 22,281 Member
    Beer for breakfast...you will rule MFP. #nextlevel
  • seththealmighty
    seththealmighty Posts: 51 Member
    edited November 2014
    lol. Kind of a joke between me and someone else, but since wheat beer is been told to help recovery after cardio, figured a hefeweizen wouldn't hurt too much after doing 6 miles for my first workout. So far so good. No soreness, although I can't contribute that to the beer. :wink:
  • MyChocolateDiet
    MyChocolateDiet Posts: 22,281 Member
    edited November 2014
    A hefeweizen never hurt anyone...anytime. Did you put orange slice in it?...b/c, breakfast!
  • ThePhoenixIsRising
    ThePhoenixIsRising Posts: 781 Member
    Kinda both? Making a thread to introduce myself and making small talk by explaining my problem. This is the "introduce yourself" subforum, isn't it? The explanation of the problem, more or less to find out how serious is falling short of the calorie goal. Will it just make me sore as *kitten* from my body not being able to recover from the daily workout?

    I made my diaries public. I'm not sure if this allows you to see what I eat for the day or not, but if it does, now you have an ideal of the diet I made up for my first day.
    If this is your first day you're fine. It is common at the start of a diet for your enthusiasm to take over. Give it a few days and you will find those cals easer to eat. If you still have difficulty in a week just add more cal dense foods like full fat dairy, avocado, nuts/nut butters, and ice cream.
  • seththealmighty
    seththealmighty Posts: 51 Member
    edited November 2014
    Someone told me to look into making smoothies using oats. That would let me hit the calorie and carb mark, and maybe closer to the fat and protein mark if I use milk. Have any recommendations on a smoothie recipe site so I can mix it up? I'm no kitchen genius
  • MyChocolateDiet
    MyChocolateDiet Posts: 22,281 Member
    Jamba juice has one...but u will feel quite full. Try theirs see if it helps u hit ur cals befire u break ur head, budget, and possibly blender trying recipes.
  • beachinit46
    beachinit46 Posts: 7 Member
    it is definitely not hard to gain weight or not be able to loose it on a under 1200 calorie diet. this has been my struggle. I was a much healthier weith some 12 yrs ago after a weight loss struggle that I thought I was winning. I was walking to work and dropping pounds like a knife through warm butter! I was wrong. I had stage 3b/4 cancer and that was burning up my nutrients. anyways, after 3 yrs of that my weight was great, but on the way home from my last treatment I was in a horrific accident and In a coma for some months and a rehab facility for a while after that. then a year in bed followed up by 4 years in a wheel chair. all that not moving and still eating put the lbs on. I tried everything, weight watchers, hungry girl, nutrisystem, all of it. nothing seemed to work right. I ended up mixing parts of the weight watcher program and parts of hungry girl stuff and you can get ALOT of food under 1200 calories realy! the thing is they are mostly all fruits and veggies and low or no fat and when I finaly went to a dietitian I was told you NEED some of those fats and protiens. and NOT to be afraid of the carb!! I was struggeling with there being such a high carb count in some of the fruits like grapes, apples and necturines. my body had long ago gone into starvation mode and yours may be doing the same thing. myself...I was SHOCKED!! holy smokes, starvation mode lol I thought she was CRAZY! I mean look at me lol I couldn't see that at all but almost a month in and determined to stick out her plan and give it an honest try as none of my plans work. I am surprised to admit I DO NOT know it all lol adding the fats and protiens and even the carbs has helped and It is hard for me to believe adding calories helped me loose weight
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,159 Member
    Sooo before you could eat enough in one sitting to gain weight and now you can't eat enough in a whole day to net 1200 cals gross 2000 cals?

    Things make even less sense, and I didn't think that was possible!

    This confuses me as well. My weight slowly goes up though. Maybe the one meal a thing and sitting on my *kitten* slowed my metabolism up.... a lot. Oh well, I find it easy to relatively kick things back to the way they were. I once lost 10lbs in a month while on a pork and noodle diet while living in thailand, from very basic workouts. haha

    You may have hit the nail on the head with the metabolism comment.

  • seththealmighty
    seththealmighty Posts: 51 Member
    Not sure if my metabolism changing or my body coming out of starvation mode, but day 3 now and I heard my stomach growl for the first time in 2 years probably (lol); not only just growl, but growl nonstop throughout the day.

    Body is getting used to shoving down the calories and asking for more. It's a shame that MFP calorie counter doesn't factor in weight lifting like it does cardio. Not sure how I should factor this in. Get a HRM to wear while "strength training?" Probably cutting my body even more short of calories on days that I do both cardio and weights because I'm just going by what I can see on the charts.
  • jesusarolon
    jesusarolon Posts: 208 Member
    bajoyba wrote: »
    I will admit that this concerns me a bit. As a moderately active 28 year old female, I lose weight on 1700 calories a day. 1200 calories seems very low for a 28 year old male with only 25 pounds to lose.

    If you're having trouble eating enough, you may need to re-evaluate what it is that you're eating. Are you eating a lot of low-calorie, high volume foods? If you haven't already, try eating more full-fat or calorie dense foods like nuts, seeds, nut butters, butter/olive oil, avocado, cheeses, salmon, and full-fat versions of foods like dairy products and salad dressings rather than low-fat or 'light' versions. And don't be afraid to leave room in your diet for treats. :)

    I agree 100%. I eat around 1400 calories and loose 2 pounds a week. Although I'm about to slow down to around a pound a week. But anyway 1200 is too low.

  • dubird
    dubird Posts: 1,849 Member
    As for eating late, my doctor's advice was not to eat two hours before sleeping, not after a certain time. I usually end up staying awake until about 2-3am, so not eating after 10pm would really mess me up! So, if you spread out your meals over the course of the day and evening, you could eat later if it works for you.

    MFP does actually have an entry for weight training, but it's only moderately accurate. The good news is it tends to underestimate, so it's worth listing just so have an estimate to see.
  • seththealmighty
    seththealmighty Posts: 51 Member
    Wierd. When I put in my workouts yesterday, it gave me calories burned for cycling, but not for the weights. Havn't tried it yet today, but will be inputting both again. Guess I'll see if it works this time or not
  • VeryKatie
    VeryKatie Posts: 5,961 Member
    edited November 2014
    Maybe you're overestimating how much you're burning during exercise. Most people do if they don't realize that MFP values and exercise machine values are way too high.
  • 0somuchbetter0
    0somuchbetter0 Posts: 1,335 Member
    If you want to eat once a day, eat once a day. If you want to eat after midnight, eat after midnight. Timing doesn't matter -- the only thing that matters for losing weight is burning more than you consume.

    As for inputting calories burned, look for "strength training" under cardio exercise. Also, the values that MFP gives you aren't very accurate. If you want a more accurate estimate, get a heart rate monitor.

    BTW I see we're neighbors -- I live and work in Bethesda.

    Good luck.
  • johnnylakis
    johnnylakis Posts: 812 Member
    I have developed this problem lately. I find that a workout will spur my appetite. But yes, the catch 22 is that you burn calories going to the gym.
This discussion has been closed.