Like the title says.. Something doesn't quite add up.

My Livejournal food journal (http://www.livejournal.com/users/darkbeauty_k/)

Here is my food intake for the past few days. I realize now that a cheat meal does not equal a cheat DAY :p . I have continued my 2 mile walk 4 days a week. I'm looking to join Curves (a gym for women.. I think).

All of the calculators say that to lose 2lbs a week, I need 2500 calories a day.. that's at mostly sedentary activity levels since I didn't know what my daily walk would count as. It also says my BMI (?) is 58.3 or so. Bad bad bad.

If this is all true.. then I can't seem to get enough calories packed into a day. I get tired of planning and eating all the time. Food consumes my every thought.

I have also noticed that even if technically I'm not eating "right".. I feel a lot better. Just the type of food I am eating is quite a bit healthier. Not as many stomachaches.

So what in the world am I doing wrong? Is it just low self esteem? Lack of self confidence? Or a genuine screw up?

From a quick look at your food log, it seems you're only eating about 1000-1200 cals per day. Is that correct? That is very low for most people. Can you post up some of your stats? Height, weight, age, BF% if you know it?

If you've calculated that you need 2500 cals, why are you only eating 1000-odd?

Sorry, need more information.

Masher

From a quick look at your food log, it seems you're only eating about 1000-1200 cals per day. Is that correct? That is very low for most people. Can you post up some of your stats? Height, weight, age, BF% if you know it?

If you've calculated that you need 2500 cals, why are you only eating 1000-odd?

Sorry, need more information.

Masher

My height is 5'4". My weight is *sigh* 335 lbs. I'm 25 years old. I don't nkow my BF%.

Honestly.. I went to the store and bought what i thought was "good for you" stuff. I wanted plenty of calcium since my diet has been completely lacking in it due to lactose intolerance. I also wanted to make sure that i at least ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Before this, I only ate 1 meal per day and it was usually huge and bad for you.

I'm just trying to work this all out, get healthy and beautiful, and change my life. I've read and read in here and don't understand a lot of it. I'm probably making it more difficult than it is.

I'm only eating between 900-1200 calories a day because I can't seem to fit more in! LoL. I've been driving myself crazy. I'm eating 3 times a day at least. I can't figure out how to fit more calories in for some reason. I feel like I'm eating all day and it's still not enough. I try to buy as healthy as possible and as low calorie as possible. Then when Iput it all together it doesn't work.

Well you'll need to fit more in. The size of meal you're having is about right, but you need to have more of them. 6 meals a day is the consensus on this forum.

At 335lb in weight, you will starve on a diet of 1200 cals per day never mind any less. Your body is eating its own muscle and keeping the fat until better times come along (i.e. when you give it more food!). Most people would say 10 times your weight in lb is what you should be eating per day. So lets say 3300cals. That's 550 cals per meal. You need to eat somewhere in that region. Believe me.

I know you're saying it's hard to do, but let's look at a typical day at the moment (copied from your food log).

Lunch-ish 5:30pm <---- what??? You're not eating ANYTHING til 5.30pm?? Where is breakfast and meal two? There's 1000 cals you can fit in if you can find time. Promise me you will always eat before 5.30pm. You can't full me by calling that lunch. That's dinner!!!!!!!

Cereal - 170
Fat free, Lactose Free Milk - 40 <-try adding banana to your cereal
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210 Calories Total


Dinner 7:00 :

Chicken - 190 <-Don't be afraid to have 2 chicken breasts. Very good for you
Brown Rice - 150 <-Nice choice
Green Peas - 123<-wow, a lot of peas :) very good
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463 Calories Total


Snack 9:00 pm:

Apple Sauce (unsweetened, cinnamon) - 50 calories
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50 Calories Total

**This isn't a snack. That's just sauce. Go get some real food. How about a couple of real apples if you like the sauce??

Snack 11:30 pm:

Low fat cottage cheese (1/2 cup) - 90
Canned Pineapple (no sugar added, in juice) - 80

**I had this the other day - I wasn't too keen. Do you like it? If not, why are you eating it? On the plus side, cottage cheese is full of protein and very good for you. Have more of it if you like it.

**Nice choice in the pineapple, cos it has no added sugar. Try adding some fresh fruit - it's better for you. Have some toast with it. Use real butter - that's a great source of calories, but make sure you measure it.
_______________________

170 Calories total


893 Calories So Far Todayl <-FAAAR to little. You'll starve, then fall off the bandwagon and go back to drinking gallons of Dr Pepper.

Another way to look at things. You said your BMR figures came to 2500. OK divide that by 6 and you get 417 calories per meal. Now lets think Breakfast, mid morning, noon, mid afternoon, supper, night. OK, Now you work up a plan, think out of the box, your concern is to get calories to the 2500 or so total.

Assuming you don't have diabetic problems, for now don't worry about macro levels (protein, carbs, fat). try to stay balanced, and away from simple sugars. Portions are important. Why not look at say Heathy Choice Frozen Dinners - they average about 320 calories, easy to prepare, and you have the calorie/portions/balance whipped. This stuff is simple, don't make a big thing of food. Don't make a production or dwell on food. Just watch calories and eat clean good food. Get rid of bad stuff in house.


Now for the important thing: Exercise. Walk everywhere you can, park as far from stores as possible. Dance, move, stay active. TV and computer should be held to 2.5 hours a day at most. Curves is a good starter program for first 6 or so months.Stick with their plan, but add activities on your own, keep up the walking, increasing distance/time. While watching TV, stand up and walk in place for 10 min. That type thing. Let s knock off 20+ lbs by Xmas. :tucool:

Questions?

Hi!

First of all, congratulations on starting a new program of eating! I don't think you're "messing up" at all, except in terms of how much/often you're eating. It takes a lot of getting used to, when you've been eating so few times per day. (I ate in exactly the same way for a long time.)

You're making healthy choices in what you eat from what I can tell, so it seems that your biggest obstacle is getting more good nutritious calories in. Planning out 5-6 meals per day seems daunting, so why not think about the 3 meals you're eating, double them (more chicken, more cottage cheese, etc.) and split them into 2 meals each? Eat half of what you've made, then 3 hours later, have the other half.

Eating clean takes a lot of the "calorie angst" out of an eating plan. I found that, when I eat clean foods, I have so much to eat I'm amazed I don't blow up at the end of the day. However, I've been steadily losing weight on more food over the past 3 weeks or so than I have ever lost on a "diet."

And remember...you've made a big group of friends and supporters just by deciding to post here!

Now for the important thing: Exercise. Walk everywhere you can, park as far from stores as possible. Dance, move, stay active.

By far the most important thing you can do is raise your activity level. Just to amplify what he has said here:

Work your legs. When you are heavy, your legs tend to be stronger, so they are a good place to start working out. Walking, stairs, steps, all things where your legs have to support your body weight, are actually very powerful exercises. They just take a while to work. But if you get right to it, then the results come sooner.

WELCOME and congratulations for taking this initiative.. It means more than you may know.

I lost 40 poudns with the forum (which was all I needed to) and the one problem that come reoccuring and hindering my progress was trying to put all the information together at once. People were saying different things and it was hard to distinguish the expert truth from someone's mere opinion (though many of the good and with great intentions). My biggest advice to you (from things I put together that I think are true) would be:

1) Diet (what you eat) is 80 percent of fat reduction. Not just watching your macros (ie. carbs, fats, proeteins) but the type of food.
-For carbs, don't eat twinkies (obviously) or even bagels, but whole wheat items, and vegatables. Try to stay away from sugar in general... , except for after working out
-Protein, go with lean meats, ie fish, chicken, turkey, extra lean beef, eggs......
-Fats.... just know liquid is better.. ie oils/nuts
I like to think of it this: look at how our bodies have been for the last who knows how many millions of years... we lived and adapted to eating things like fruits, vegatables, meats, nuts,... ONly recently have we added things such as breads and rice (recently in the greater scheme of things) and only in the recent past have we added processesed, chemically altered/included foods.... This might sound silly but ask yourself "would a caveman eat that?"

2) Find out how many calories you need and like RTESTES said, spread it out over 6 meals.... There is more to this than meets than eye. When you eat food, your body expends more calories (digesting,...) This process keeps your metabolism up (as far as I understand) for 2-3 hours after you eat. Anyone who eats 5-6 meals a day will be eating every 2-3 hours, hence your metabolism will be elevated slightly throughout the day and your body will use your food, not store it.

3) do cardio in the morning in a fasted state. (except for water of course)... By doing this, you use your stored fat for energy and will burn more fat than doing it after a meal. Another positive about cardio in the morning is that after a good cardio session, I beleive your metabolism is raised for 6-8 hours... On top of the food digestion every 2-3 hours, this elevates your metabolism even more so.

4) MOST IMPORTANT THING... stick with it... Losing weight is not like buying something new nor does it have immediate satisfaction (other than knowing that you have committed yourself to a new way of living)....consistency is the only way.... Many people (including myself) do it for a while (4 weeks to 2 months or so) and then quit because the results aren't coming "fast enough" or just get stuck back in old routines... The only time to change is to realize that it's every second... Something I tell myself over and over again is a quote from vanilla sky (kind of corny) is something like "every passing moment is a chance to turn it all around".... That's some pretty powerful stuff. EVERY passing moment..... If you fall off a little know that YOU can get back on just as easy if you fell off.

5) take pictures and measurments... either every week, other week or month. 2 weeks after I was at a 42 waist/215lbs... I forgot that I had taken measurements and was looking in the mirror day after day and stepping on the scale only to see disappointment... Then when I got my pictures developed (pre digitial camera) I thought the same and got depressed... then when I took my measurements, My waist had dropped to a 39!!! The opposite has happened as well,, where my measurements don't change but I look better via pictures.. Anyway.. this is a great way to track your progress and use for motivation... For a year, I had my starting picture, next to a picture of what I wanted to look like (i still do now again) and used that as motivation

6) I would see a personal trainer.... if not consistently, then at least at road marks (beginning and maybe a meeting each month)... make sure this trainer is credible and can help you with diet, weights AND cardio routine... I am no spokesperson but I do use www.vizualxcellence.com (so does john now) and must say that the 200 dollars I spent have been the best 200 ever...


Okk.. sorry i went a little overboard on this post and again, the (disclaimer)information above is not from a doctor or a professional. So if I am wrong, please correct me anyone..and thanks for putting up with another forum members ramblings.

I wish you the best of luck and definitley use these forums... for advice, motivation, or just a way to kill time....

GOOD LUCK!!!!!

:gl:

Thanks for all the advice everyone :)

It will be Monday before I can buy any more food. I've run out of money again for this week. I'm working on at least preparing extras and splitting up my meals.

It's hard for me to eat that 5-6 times on work days though. I work 9 hour shifts. 1 hour lunch after 4 hours. I'm not allowed breaks in between. I work in the garden center at my local Home Depot. It's an exhausting job. Just walking from my car to the break room to clock in is 1/4 mile. Repeat that at minimum 4 times a day (to and fro, (lunch), to and fro, (home). That's not to mention all the walking I do during the day. Plus I spend nearly all day loading and unloading heavy bags of mulch, soil, rocks and then all the pave stone. So is it bad that I don't excercise on those 3 days a week? I don't think that I could manage that physically just yet. Some days it's all I can do to stand long enough to take a shower before bed (foot pain mainly).

I don't know. The giving up of bad food isn't all that traumatic to me so far. I really don't like to eat unhealthy. It's just easier. I mean.. I'm not craving potato chips or anything. I usually prepare easy unhealthy meals because my husband doesn't like.. chicken, rice, whole wheat anything.. no compromises. He says he will die happy and eating what he likes (he's triangle shaped.. wide shoulders, short, small stomach, hips, legs.). He doesn't understand that you can be thin and still be unhealthy. So anyway, I'm happier eating this way now. I just buy him frozen pizzas, hamburger helper, burritos, and stuff like that and he's happy.

I'm sorry for rambling so much. I'm just excited and I need the change. I would love to be beautiful one of these days. I would love to be able to do my job and not cry at the end of the night because my feet hurt. I would love to be able to go rollerblading and play baseball. Who knows, running might be a fun thing (never been able to run). I love skiing.. but I live in Texas instead of Alaska so that's not possible ;) . I just like being active but lately I've not been able to be. I never think of myself as a fat cow. I carry my weight rather well and do things that other people my size can't. I'm remarkably healthy as well. I forget sometimes. It's just when I look in a glass door reflection or in the mirror that I get the shock and disgust. I want to get rid of that.

It's hard for me to eat that 5-6 times on work days though. I work 9 hour shifts. 1 hour lunch after 4 hours.


So is it bad that I don't excercise on those 3 days a week? I don't think that I could manage that physically just yet.

my husband doesn't like.. chicken, rice, whole wheat anything.. no compromise He doesn't understand I just buy him frozen pizzas, hamburger helper, burritos, and stuff like that and he's happy.


Exercise, building muscles, will raise your metabolism. Think about this, you have been doing all that walking at job and etc. What results did you get from it?

Believe me, exercise to change the body is entirely different. Yes, you must make the extra effort or you can stay away from mirrors. It is always a matter of individual choices, some are harder than others. We often have to make them without the support of others.

Read everything you can about diet and exercise. :gl:

As you can see from my avatar I have the opposite problem to you, but from what I've heard from posts many of the issues are the same so I can connect at quite a good level.

I'd like to congratulate you going for this. You really will feel a lot better for it and you seem to be noticing that already.

Interestly my food intake also used to be rather chaotic, and I'd eat huge but all in one go. I thought I was taking in many more calories than I actually was. In fact that has been the hardest thing to correct - getting it disciplined.

If you've only been at this a short time then your body probably needs to adjust. For example, I never used to be able to eat breakfast, but after doing so for a week or so I started to crave it when I woke up.

What time are you getting up? You're having breakfast very late, but perhaps you are a night owl and don't wake up early. If not, make sure you eat something first thing. That will get your metabolism going.

How long have you been doing this?

Are you recording your changes in someway, and have those measurements changed since you began.

Finally, don't worry about the huge amount of information here. There IS a lot, but you don't need to know it all. Just learn a little bit every day and apply it.

Oh, and keep us all updated on your progress!

Best of luck.

Reeze