Am I Eating Enough Food?

DancingMoosie wrote: »

I find 45g carbs easy to hit. I ate 161g carbs yesterday without bread, rice, or pasta. Are you not eating any fruits?

AnnPT77 wrote: »

rorybees wrote: »

PAV8888 wrote: »

There is a tendency on a calorie counting site to equate "enough food" with CALORIES.

You're seem to be using the term in your post in regards to VOLUME of food; and not necessarily Calories.

It is pretty common for people who revamp their food choice with the help of logging to add nutrient dense but lower caloric content foods and reduce calorically dense and less nutrient filled foods.

Common. Not universal. It is just one strategy that helps people achieve a caloric deficit while feeling less deprived.

With stimulant medication (which is often prescribed on ADHD) your eating cues may be impacted because many stimulants have appetite suppression effects.

Your basic question in your OP was whether 1100 Cal (if accurately counted) is a good amount of calories to aim for.

My resounding answer is no. It would be too little to sustain your effort long term. And from your starting position you should be looking at the long term. In other words you should be thinking in terms of renewable 5 year plans that include both weight loss and maintenance.

Sometimes the more we know the more complicated we make things.

Your "big health money" will come from reducing down from morbid obesity.

Your second "big health money" will come from improving your food choices; but I would do this in conjunction with and NOT in preference of reducing overall weight.

Whether you achieve this by reducing carbs or not, unless an active diabetic, I would worry less about this and more on how to achieve sustainability of effort.

Large deficits may be sustainable short term especially if you have adequate reserves of adipose tissue, but longer term they will have side effects.

Again: while revamping the menu may help achieve and maintain an appropriate caloric deficit, at least initially and until you're well into a groove (and even then) the deficit and caloric balance will come first in terms of achieving weight management. The type of food choices you make WILL, of course, make caloric balance easier or harder to achieve for you, and will contribute, or not, to your long term health by providing you with appropriate nutrients.

Anytime I see people creating deficits that substantially exceed 25% of their TDEE even while obese... I inwardly cringe as I do believe them to generate more side effects and be less long term sustainable than deficits in the 20% range...

At your current weight, if you track close to population estimates, I would expect you to be able to lose weight fairly rapidly while eating closer to 2K Calories than 1100.

Thank you so much for the reply!

And you're on point with where my mind is at, not sure if I have articulated that well enough in my posts above though! I did not think 1100 was sustainable. But, with Doctor Google, everything I read from any editorial article was suggesting lower caloric intake in that very low 1100-1200 (sometimes lower) count. But some websites suggested a rounded out diet of 1800-2000 calories for someone my size.

I'm not looking to have a low calorie diet intentionally. I'm big enough that my mere existence requires a pretty high calorie intake just to maintain. I think hitting around 2k will be the way to go. I'm just now trying to figure what I can add to my meals (but probably just snacks) to add 900 more calories. I love beans so I'll probably add more of those to my diet!

I've been learning this past week that unless I am intentionally eating things like bread, rice or pasta for a meal, it is actually really hard to eat the volume of food it takes to hit my 45 carb limit per meal when its coming primarily from beans and starchy vegetables.

Do you like, and can you eat, nuts, nut butters, seeds, avocados, full-fat dairy (yogurt, cheese, etc.)? Those tend to be less filling (well, avocados are kind of filling, maybe, because fiber), still have a good nutrient profile, and are a bit more calorie dense from fats/protein.