I had a melt down today... worse feeling in the world.

trying2bepretty · February 2012

By melt down, no, I don't mean I went overboard & shoved my face with food. It's quite the opposite..

I'm a 20 year old female, 5'7" and 155 lbs. I started off at 165 a few months ago before I began exercise and diet. I went down to 158 by eating healthier and making frequent trips to the gym. This is my second week going and I am spending 4 days at the gym doing around 30-45 minutes of cardio and lifting some weights.

Before I began to exercise, I didn't eat enough as it is... and now that I'm exercising, my body is demanding me to eat more, and it's REALLY hard for me to find good foods that have a lot of calories in them. This morning I flipped out and had an emotional melt down and cried my eyes out because I'm so stressed. I'm not one to "count" calories, and I can't really sit down for 30 minutes and plan meals/prepare them for the next day. I'm a full time college student and work on the weekends, so the fact that I even MAKE it to the gym is a sacrifice.

I don't want my body to go into starvation mode and prevent me from losing weight, or even holding onto it. It sucks because I try to eat healthy, but the things have NO calories in them, and I'm not just going to sit there and gobble them down because my body cannot take that.

I spoke with my Mom who knows a nutritionist, and yes, I have been eating a LOT of protein to help my muscles & I try to stick to a lot of veggies and fruits, but it's so hard to know how many cals are in vegetables...

This is an example of what I have eaten today so far:

Vegan Vegetable & Hummus Wrap - 380 cals
Cheese stick - 80 cals
Hard boiled egg - 70 cals
Smoothie with one scoop protein powder, one cup of low fat milk, one cup of blueberries, and some mangos - 400 cals
Handful of almonds - 160 cals
One slice of whole wheat toast with a slice of turkey - 200 cals
Banana - 100 cals
Half of a tblspoon of peanut butter - 95 cals

& for dinner I might have fish so that is 240 if I cook it with olive oil. I was also going to add some vegetables, so that would be around 100

This brings me to 1825 cals.. I was told I should eat 2000. To be honest, I don't even KNOW how many calories I should really be taking in. All the online calculators tell me 2000 with my activity, but I feel like that's too much....

trying2bepretty · February 2012

Can someone please actually read this and help me???

ALH1981 · February 2012

This looks like a great diet - I'm not sure what you are asking? How to consume more???

Im a big fan of WHOLE foods (ie. nothing artificial so really stay away from shakes/bars etc as much as possible so my suggestions would be:)

Why not try:
- avacado
- nuts
- nut butter
- shakes/smoothies with protein power, banana oatmeal?
- treats from the health food store (like vegan truffles made only from nuts, cacao, and agave)
- brown rice, quinoa, whole wheat pasta
- eggs (including yolk)
- cacao
- manuka honey
- lean meats (beef, chicken fish, turkey - unprocessed)
- greek yogurt
- banannas

Hpoe this helps honey!

jrusso28 · February 2012

It sounds to me like your eating well.
If you entered your information accurately into MFP and the recommendation is 2000 calories a day I would run with it and see how that works for you.

If your at 1800 and you need to be at 2000 your not far off.
Grab some peanut butter and some veggies and enjoy those final 200 calories.
Glass of chocolate milk after a workout helps too.

Your body wont go into starvation mode unless your seriously under on your calories.
Eating only 1000 calories and exercising would put your body into starvation mode.
And even then it doesn't happen after screwing up once, you would have to be doing that all the time.

Don't obsess over every calorie, a few over or under is not a problem.
It should be more about getting healthy and feeling great, building good habits.

Ask the folks on this forum for food ideas too.
Most of us didnt get fat by not eating, the majority of us know food, all too well

techigirl78 · February 2012

MFP works in that you choose how fast you want to lose weight and enter that into MFP. Then you eat all the calories including those you gain from exercising and log it. For someone your size, you probably want to target about .5 lbs per week. It will tell you how many calories to eat for someone with your activity level.

After a workout, try to include a protein shake or a protein/carb mix - like peanut butter with apples. It will keep the calorie burn going for longer and will increase your calories to the level needed on days you workout.

Veggies have almost no calories, that is why most people say you can eat so many of them. If you want to add calories to veggies, put on some olive oil or some cheese.

Avocadoes have higher calories and a lot of nutrition. Try eating some more nuts or peanut/almond butter if you are still under.

Try to get 1g of protein for each lb of lean body mass. I'm 5'5 and mine is around 100, so I would expect yours is higher, so maybe try 120g protein per day.

For someone your size, maybe focus on measuring yourself rather then your weight. If you are eating right on working out, the measurements should go down, but the weight may not come off as quickly due to muscle gain depending on how fit you are.

trying2bepretty · February 2012

Thanks for bringing me into the light guys.. I feel a little better. This is a slow and steady marathon... not a sprint to the end. My goal is to lose about one pound a week. I want to become 130 by July. I think that is a reasonable goal if I keep my eating and exercising well.

Doing coursework late at night w hen I'm back from the gym is gonna be the real issue next.. lol

therealangd · February 2012

Your diet looks fantastic. 1800 calories is great.

You are doing great.

I'm sorry you had a melt down.

I had a melt down today... worse feeling in the world.

Replies

Categories