A little background: I'm 24 years old, 5'5", 142 pounds.

I'm trying to get down to 125 and well as tone up my body. My workout consists of weights 3x per week (for about 50 minutes each time) and then 40-60 minutes of cardio 4 to 5x per week.

I'm trying to stick to about a 1500 to 1600 calorie diet but find myself STARVING about 2 hours after breakfast and 1 and a half to 2 hours after lunch. Can you give me some insight as to what I'm doing wrong? Not enough fat? Not enough protein? Too much of something? Thanks!

Sample menu:

Breakfast - Apple, 4 oz of Dannon Light and Fit Yogurt w/ added Fiber

Snack - Mini bag of 100 cal. popcorn

Lunch - Apple, Soup at Hand soup, 5 crackers (just enough to put in the soup), baby carrots and about a 1 TBS of ranch to dip them in.

Snack - 1 TBS of low fat PB

Supper - Grilled chicken breast, small baked potato, and some type of other veggie.

Dessert - Sugar Free Fudgesicle

Hi - almost every day for breakfast I have some kind of protein oatmeal. That is 1/4 cup oatmeal with 1/4 cup fiber one, one scoop of protein powder, 3/4 cup skim milk, and about 20-40 calories worth of fruit (blueberries, raspberries, mixed berries, cherries, whatever I have in the freezer).

Yesterday I changed up my routine and had kashi golean crunch with skim milk and some fiber one and blueberries. About the same calories and fiber, but not as much protein. In two hours I was completely ravenous, whereas the oatmeal + protein tends to hold me longer.

Just my experience - also I get hungry if I'm not eating enough. At 5'5" you may need to increase your calories to 1700 or 1800. I'm 5'4" and I do very poorly with endurance, wt loss, and hunger below 1500 myself. 1600 may be that cut-off for you.

Also - your meals don't look like 1600 calories to me -

breakfast = 200 calories tops, 100 cal popcorn, lunch 3-400, snack 120, dinner maybe 500...., fudgesicle is 40. I calculate 1360 - try beefing up your breakfast with another 100 calories, and add something like a string cheese (80 cal, 7 g protein!) to your morning snack and maybe that will help. IF you really are eating 1600 total then move a dinner item to breakfast.

Oh wow, you are right! I tend to overestimate my calories to be on the safe side LOL I'll def. try your breakfast trick tomorrow to see if it keeps me from wanting to eat my hand at 10:00 am :eat:

:spaz:

Breakfast - Apple, 4 oz of Dannon Light and Fit Yogurt w/ added Fiber

No protein here...add sources of protein or fat to keep you full longer.

Snack - Mini bag of 100 cal. popcorn

Choose a healthier snack here, again something with protein or fat to keep you full.

Lunch - Apple, Soup at Hand soup, 5 crackers (just enough to put in the soup), baby carrots and about a 1 TBS of ranch to dip them in

Same thing...no protein. Maybe add some chicken into your soup.

Snack - 1 TBS of low fat PB

Good, the fat should keep you full for a while.

Supper - Grilled chicken breast, small baked potato, and some type of other veggie.

Good.

Dessert - Sugar Free Fudgesicle

I also think you're not getting enough calories. Try bumping it up for a while to see how your progress (and hunger) change.

Good luck! :tu:

Personally, I don't think your meals have enough volume to be satisfying.

When I'm on low calories for cutting, I want all of my meals to be as huge as possible to keep me full and trick my body into thinking it's getting more than it actuall is. Peanut butter, while a healthy fat, is erm...just a tablespoon of goo. Liquids (soup, fudgsicle) also don't keep you full very long.

Add more protein as suggested earlier, and think about having some huge leafy green salads with calorically cheap veggies like Romaine, cukes, and spinach to bulk up your meals.

Try something like this salad my sister came up with. The thing is the size of your head, but it's only 268 calories.

http://maggiewang.com/?p=186

Caro’s BBQ Ranch Chopped Chicken salad: (healthy alternative to California Pizza Kitchen version)

2 TBSP Wishbone Just 2 good Ranch dressing

2 TBSP Kraft Low Carb BBQ Sauce

1/6 head iceberg lettuce, chopped into ½ - ¾ inch pieces

1 cup spinach, chopped into ½ - ¾ inch pieces

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 green onion, chopped

½ cup bean sprouts

2 TBSP yellow corn

2 TBSP black beans

1 TBSP parmesan cheese

3 oz chicken breast, cooked and cubed into ½ inch pieces

1 Roma tomato, chopped

Optional ad ins: Chopped avocado, tortilla strips, low fat shredded cheese

268 cals, 26g carb 28g prot, 7g fat (2g sat), 6g fiber (does not include optional items)

Toss spinach, lettuce, celery, corn and beans with ranch dressing and plate. Arrange tomatoes around the outer edge of plate and top salad with bean sprouts and green onions. Top with chicken and parm & drizzle BBQ sauce on top.

I totally agree with what everyone else has said. And may I also add. Eat COPIOUS and I mean COPIOUS amounts of high water content vegetables and fruits. You can eat alot, fill up and still not really go over your cutting calories.

One of my favorite snacks for a midmeal is two pieces of string cheese and a piece of fruit like apple or orange. Or 1/2 c. of cottage cheese and some Danon Light n' Fit yogurt. Or try about 14 almonds and 1/4 c. of raisins. Another one of my favorite snacks.

Breakfast should be one of your larger meals of the day. Shoot for around 350 calories. Example, I usually have 6 egg whites, ( 102 calories) apple ( 81) and 1 c. of oatmeal ( about 145 cals. )

Try to include a little protein in everyone of your mini meals. It will help with the fat loss and keep your a little fuller for longer.

Good luck in your quest for fat loss! :gl:

I agree with everyone else-more calories, more protein. I also think the quality of your food is a big factor. Your body gets nothing from the fudgesickle, crackers or the popcorn and very little from the fat free peanut butter. It's 400 wasted calories, which leaves about 900-1000 healthy ones. If you are going to do peanut butter-do all natural, then at least you get the benefit of healthy fats. For snacks-try low sodium turkey breast, cottage cheese, salads, veggies-more protein for sure.

I believe in listening to what my body tells me-if I am always starving, then my body thinks it needs nourshment and something in my diet is off, usually my protien.

hey - the fudgsicle has a gram of protein... and can kill a chocolate craving in long melt of 40 calorie chocolate goodness. It's worth its weight in gold...

hey - the fudgsicle has a gram of protein... and can kill a chocolate craving in long melt of 40 calorie chocolate goodness. It's worth its weight in gold...


:lol: I agree!!

Thanks so much everyone! :bow: You've all given me so much good advice!!

:claphigh:

And causticmuse - Thank you for the recipe, that salad sounds HEAVENLY!!

Hey - I totally agree with everyone else about what you're eating, needing to eat more veggies and fruit, more water, and higher quality for the calories you're eating. I'm a former dancer (stopped due to disk problems :p) and currently into tae kwon do and yoga, and kayaking when I can. I'm 5'3" and 116-118lb. I try to min. my calorie intake, but still eat healthy, cause i'm going 24/7 and need to have energy!

However, if you need more of a guidline I would suggest getting "The Dancers' Body Book" available at Barnes and Nobles or Boarders. It's written for ballerinas and other dancers, or anyone trying to trim up. It's got a weight loosing recipe section with menues and recipes for 7 days of 1200-1300 calories per day, and then a maintainance section with recipes for 7 days + at 1500-1700 calories per day. The food's good, things like cereal and fruit for breakfast, shrimp or chicken salad sandwich for lunch, fruit and/or yogurt/cottage cheese, anglefood cake, or popcorn as a snack, and typically fish or chicken, veggies, a starch/fiber and wine for dinner. Everything is min. calories, so you're only eating 1300 calories a day on the weight loss menues, but still getting plenty of food that still tastes good.

Also it has motivational and stick-to-it advice (like giving in to a small piece of chocolate when you first crave it as opposed to letting it drive you nuts and then splurging on a huge piece of choco. cake), exercise advice, and lots of pictures of fit, trim dancers as further motivation. If I feel the need to seriously splurg, I pull the book out and look at a couple of the dancers i'd like to look more like, and that usually gives me the motivation not to give in.

Also, while this probably isn't recommended, I've noticed if on a really busy day (when i tend not to eat as much anyway) if I can cut my calories to 800, maybe just once a week, or several times just for one week out of the month, then that weekend (NOT the day after the cal cut, cause you'll tend to overeat, that next morning you need to start with something filling like oatmeal) allow myself a no-counting day (not way overeating, just eating kind of whatever) the combination actually helps me take off a couple pounds more quickly.

Anyway, hope this helps! Good luck!!!

Cheers!
Nicole