Please help! How Can I Improve?

lt13171
lt13171 Posts: 11 Member
edited December 2014 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone, I'm 5"2 and weigh around 111 lbs and am aiming to lose about 5lbs. My fitness pal have recommended me to aim for 1250 calories a day. I have a healthy lifestyle and exercise regularly. This is my average diet on a day, what would you change to help with the process of weight loss? Any advice is very appreciated.

Breakfast
35g Special K (124 kcal) with 100ml skimmed milk (35 kcal)

Morning Snack
Sun bites (120 kcal).

Lunch
1 medium slice Hovis 50/50 bread (94 kcal)
10g Flora light (30kcal)
Light Blue Cheese Triangle (25 kcal)
80g Slices of cucumber (8 kcal)
100g Crunchy sweet leaf salad (24kcal)
Smoked salmon trimmings 40g (80kcal)
Activia 0% yoghurt (68kcal)

Afternoon/Evening Snacks
Banana (90 kcal) with tbsp Reduced fat peanut butter (137 kcal)
2 Ryvita crackerbread (38kcal) with 2 seafood sticks (34 kcal)
Alpen lite bar (65 kcal)

Dinner
Courgette 140g (28kcal)
Yellow Bell Pepper 140g (43 kcal)
Red onion 45g (15 kcal)
1 Cod fish cake (106 kcal)
1 rich tea finger biscuit (23 kcal)

Evening snack
Yakult Light (27 kcal)

Drinks
Normal tea with skimmed milk, green tea, lots of water


Replies

  • concordancia
    concordancia Posts: 5,320 Member
    Figure out how much skim milk you are actually drinking with your tea. That could be 100 or more calories right there, depending on how much tea you drink.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    Can you open your diary?
  • lt13171
    lt13171 Posts: 11 Member
    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    Can you open your diary?

    Unfortunately I am a new member to my fitness pal so my diary is empty apart from today (which I posted above). However I do tend to eat quite similar things most days.

  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
    1250 calories seems pretty low to me. I think that's too aggressive of a cut for just 5 lbs. Did you set your settings to lose .5/lbs a week? If not, you probably should. Also, don't forget to eat at least a portion of your exercise calories.

    Also, 5 lbs will put you on the very low end of the BMI scale. While you'll still technically be in the healthy range, it'll be hard to lose those 5 lbs, so you'll need plenty of patience.

    Just to note, I'm also 5'2, and although I weigh more than you, when I was losing weight, I ate a heck of alot more than 1250 calories to lose weight.
  • lt13171
    lt13171 Posts: 11 Member
    Ninkyou wrote: »
    1250 calories seems pretty low to me. I think that's too aggressive of a cut for just 5 lbs. Did you set your settings to lose .5/lbs a week? If not, you probably should. Also, don't forget to eat at least a portion of your exercise calories.

    Also, 5 lbs will put you on the very low end of the BMI scale. While you'll still technically be in the healthy range, it'll be hard to lose those 5 lbs, so you'll need plenty of patience.

    Just to note, I'm also 5'2, and although I weigh more than you, when I was losing weight, I ate a heck of alot more than 1250 calories to lose weight.

    Thanks very much for commenting. I set my fitness pal to lose .5lbs a week and it recommended 1250 which does seem low, but slightly concerned that if I eat more that I'll start to put on weight. I would say normally I eat around 1400-1500 and that maintains my weight generally but I have not lost any weight at all for a couple of months now eating that amount.
  • skinny0000
    skinny0000 Posts: 90 Member
    You said you were a new member? I would give yourself a few weeks or a month of logging and learn as much as you can about nutrition. You will learn...
  • ana3067
    ana3067 Posts: 5,623 Member
    I'm guessing you eat more than you think. Especially since 1500 could likely be enough to maintain when NOT exercising.

    Buy a food scale if this is something that you think could be a possibility. Otherwise what you eat doesn't matter, nly how much you eat. If you look through my diary you will see that I sometimes eat really terrible food. I've lost about 25lbs.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    lt13171 wrote: »
    Liftng4Lis wrote: »
    Can you open your diary?

    Unfortunately I am a new member to my fitness pal so my diary is empty apart from today (which I posted above). However I do tend to eat quite similar things most days.
    No need to have a restricted diet. Eat at a caloric deficit and you'll lose weight.
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    Food scale will make a big difference. Weigh everything, you'll be surprised :)
  • lt13171
    lt13171 Posts: 11 Member
    Thanks everyone for the advice - I do use a food scale but will make an effort to use it all the time. Is there foods that you would recommend changing in what I posted above?
  • obscuremusicreference
    obscuremusicreference Posts: 1,320 Member
    lt13171 wrote: »
    Thanks everyone for the advice - I do use a food scale but will make an effort to use it all the time. Is there foods that you would recommend changing in what I posted above?

    It looks like you get lots of protein and lots of veggies. Your day looks nutritionally better than mine, to be honest. If it fits your caloric goal, keep it up! Don't feel bad about your food choices.

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