New to MFP please could someone look at my food diary?

Hi and welcome!

It looks like you should be adding more to your breakfast. I usually have fruit and protein such as an egg and banana with toast or you could have oatmeal and fruit. Also, I would suggest adding some vegetables to your diet. It is an easy way to get have more food and not add a lot of calories. How about a salad or steamed or stir-fried veggies? Instead of fish sticks, have some unbattered fish, or canned tuna or salmon?

You would be suprised how much you can eat and still reach your calorie goals. Don't forget to add some exercise!!
Also, check out the food and recipes section, there are some great ideas.

You would get so many opinions on this, so how would you be able to figure out who is right? I would recommend a nutritionist, but then again you would have differing opinions. Perhaps best to listen to your body, how it feels with whatever the food is.

There's no way you can keep up a diet like that. Think of it as finding a new way to eat healthily. You should set your calories to only losing 1 pound a week and get as close to those calories as possible everyday. You need 3 servings of calcium a day. You need at least 5 fruits and vegetables. You needs lots of protein, and you need some good fats. Hard boiled egg for breakfast is great, but you need more. Maybe add a piece of whole grain toast and a fruit and skim milk. Also, eating small frequent meals is best to boost your metabolism. So at least every 4 hours, eat something with carbs and protein. Don't be afraid to eat. Your body needs it!

@chevy88grl--yes, they'll get lots of different opinions, but generally speaking, if you have seven different opinions, but they all share at least one common theme, that might be something to look at.

In this case, I agree with everyone that is encouraging at least 1200 calories per day. It is a truism that if your body thinks it's starving, it'll shut your metabolism down. It's a natural reaction for survival. Eating enough calories tells your body you're not truly starving, just cutting back a bit. There are also issues with getting all of the nutrients your body needs as the calories go down. Symptoms of malnutrition can show up pretty early if you're missing out on anything. Although, I will balance that with saying you have to have really low calories to severely miss out on nutrients, but sometimes long term mild malnourishment can cause more damage because you don't notice the effects until after the damage is permanent.

Overall, what you're eating looks good to me and relatively balanced. There just needs to be a little more of it and maybe a little more protein, although protein consumption is sometimes subjective depending on who you talk to.

BTW--I did look at three or four days of your diary. One day is never representative of a person's entire diet. Imbalance on one or two days is not going to hurt you so long as there is decent balance overall.

It looks pretty awesome to me. Certainly at the upper end of diaries I've seen in terms of quality. Well done and keep it up.

@chevy88grl--yes, they'll get lots of different opinions, but generally speaking, if you have seven different opinions, but they all share at least one common theme, that might be something to look at.

In this case, I agree with everyone that is encouraging at least 1200 calories per day. It is a truism that if your body thinks it's starving, it'll shut your metabolism down. It's a natural reaction for survival. Eating enough calories tells your body you're not truly starving, just cutting back a bit. There are also issues with getting all of the nutrients your body needs as the calories go down. Symptoms of malnutrition can show up pretty early if you're missing out on anything. Although, I will balance that with saying you have to have really low calories to severely miss out on nutrients, but sometimes long term mild malnourishment can cause more damage because you don't notice the effects until after the damage is permanent.

Overall, what you're eating looks good to me and relatively balanced. There just needs to be a little more of it and maybe a little more protein, although protein consumption is sometimes subjective depending on who you talk to.

BTW--I did look at three or four days of your diary. One day is never representative of a person's entire diet. Imbalance on one or two days is not going to hurt you so long as there is decent balance overall.

Um... I'm confused? I didn't comment on her getting a lot of different opinions. I simply commented that I feel she's doing well overall, but needs to work on more protein and getting those daily calories closer to zero. I think perhaps you have my response confused with another?

your food choices look good just need to eat a little bit more to meet your cal goals. your protein goals seem pretty low, think MFP standard is 55% carbs / 15 protein, 30 fat. ive set mine to 40/30/30 to increase protein.
if you exercise, you should eat back some or all of your exercise calories as the allowance MFP gives you already includes the deficit for you to lose the lbs per week you set as your goal.
for protein you can add lean meats (chicken or turkey are best), fish, yogurt, lower cal cheeses like cottage cheese, mozzarella, feta, nuts, eggs.
healthy fats are things like olive oil, avocado, nuts, natural unsalted peanut butter.
adding these to your diet should also help bump up your cals to the 1200 net.

I've put in a post about not losing in weight and many people tell me to eat more than the 1200 kcals that MFP advises. On here, they're saying the opposite and telling you to get as close to the 1200 as you can.

People on my post tell me to increase my calorie intake so I'm definitely going to give that a go and see what happens. I'm still confused about all this 'exercise calories', eat them, don't eat them?? No idea! lol

I've not read all of your diary dates, but having 1 egg for breakfast isn't a lot. Aren't you hungry afterwards?

I used to live in Slough Where abouts in Berks are you? I then moved to Marlow, and now in Yorkshire lol.

If your calories are set to 1200 calories a day and you are losing very slowly or not at all, most people will recommend upping your calories. For a lot of people, 1200 calories a day is simply too few calories. You want to create a calorie deficit in order to lose weight, but creating too large a deficit is counter productive. You have to give your body enough nutrients to survive. You have to give it enough fuel to perform basic life functions and for it to feel comfortable enough to lose weight. Eating too little will make it feel like it is starving and will stop weight loss (or slow it considerably). The key to being successful on this journey is to find the ideal number for YOU. MFP's recommendations are a good place to start, but aren't set in stone. For me, MFP doesn't give me enough calories. I've learned through trial and error that I need more calories per day. I adjust my calories to where I know they need to be and all is well.

As for exercise calories, MFP already figures in a deficit when it gives you your daily calories. Since it thinks you aren't going to workout, when you do workout and add in your exercise -- you should eat at least a portion of those calories back to avoid having too large of a calorie deficit each day. Unlike most sites (or diet plans), you don't use your exercise for a deficit. Some people find they only need to eat back some of their calories and still lose weight, other people find they do better not eating any and then there the other group of people who have to eat back nearly every last one.

It's all about figuring out your own body.

They're all giving you great advise. I'm a family doc and hink his program is awesome for people. It's important not to starve yourself! Your body needs a good combo of all 3-protein, fat, and carbs. If you work out, you need to eat more! And you need to try and stay closer to the calories you're alotted for a day. It's important for your body to not feel it's starving, it'll go into shut down mode and hold onto what you do eat not knowing when's getting another meal. You should be realistic about what you can handle as far as exercise weekly. Don't kill yourself. This is a lifestyle change not a diet you won't want to continue in a few weeks/ months. Hang in there, ou didn't gain everything in a day, nor will you loose it. But this is defintely a healthy way!

This is a new concept to me...but try eating your exercise calories. so if you burn 200 from exercise (assuming that the 200 calories estimate is accurate or close to it) add that to the 1200 that MFP is giving you and try that for a few weeks and see if that helps. If it doesn't don't lose hope, add another 100 and then try for a few more weeks and document the results. that's the only way you're going to figure out what works for YOUR body. try not to go below 1200 and if you work out try not to avoid taking in those calories. aim for 50% (carbs) 30%(Protein) 20%(fat) ratio. include protein at 15g in all meals to stabilize your Blood sugar through out the day...that's one way to prevent diabetes. it is also good to include food high in fiber(again to stabilize blood sugar). snack on vegetable if you are having the munchies. occasionally it is okay to have a free meal so you don't free deprived, but I would limit this to one meal per week or even per every two weeks. Keep your head up and you'll get there.