If you go into your food diary on a computer, at the bottom of a day it tells you have many grams of each macronutrient you "should" eat. I think that for 1700 cal/day, 20% would be 85 g of protein. I'm not sure how many additional calories you're getting from exercise to figure out the additional protein there. You can definitely up that - try changing it to 25% or 30% and see how you feel - but I also think maybe you input something wrong because one slice of toast with PB and banana, one egg and some cashews should not add up to 85 g of protein.
orangeblossom, you can change your settings. Those are crazy.
ETA: screwedup, I just saw your previous post. Am I calculating the total protein wrong?
Protein is 4 calories per gram generally. So 20% of 1700 is 340 calories of protein. That would be 85 grams. So maybe it's not crazy low. I am just used to getting LOOOOOW carb (>50 grams per day) that it looks LOW to me. 85 grams would be plenty unless you're an extreme athlete.
If you go into your food diary on a computer, at the bottom of a day it tells you have many grams of each macronutrient you "should" eat. I think that for 1700 cal/day, 20% would be 85 g of protein. I'm not sure how many additional calories you're getting from exercise to figure out the additional protein there. You can definitely up that - try changing it to 25% or 30% and see how you feel - but I also think maybe you input something wrong because one slice of toast with PB and banana, one egg and some cashews should not add up to 85 g of protein.
orangeblossom, you can change your settings. Those are crazy.
ETA: screwedup, I just saw your previous post. Am I calculating the total protein wrong?
Protein is 4 calories per gram generally. So 20% of 1700 is 340 calories of protein. That would be 85 grams. So maybe it's not crazy low. I am just used to getting LOOOOOW carb (>50 grams per day) that it looks LOW to me. 85 grams would be plenty unless you're an extreme athlete.
Yay, I have learned something about nutrition through my research lately! I thought I was doing it right but then saw your post and thought maybe I'd totally effed it up, haha.
Post by BeagleMama on Aug 11, 2014 15:08:00 GMT -5
You've gotten some great suggestions but I'll reemphasize the importance of fat and protein to help you stay full. I used to do Weight Watchers on and off but now on 2 months of a low sugar, low carb diet I've had great success (this book!).
This whole diet thing is new to me. So if anyone has recommendations on better lo-cal meals, I am all for it.
Normally I grab whatever is in the refrigerator or in the pantry. It's really healthy... Ha
I'm calorie counting right now and here are some of my go-to meals that are are fairly low-calorie and filling:
Fajitas: I slice a couple of boneless, skinless chicken breasts into thin slices, cook on the stovetop in a tiny bit of oil and add half a packet of McCormick fajita seasoning. When the chicken is cooked through I throw in sliced onions and bell peppers. I roll them up in a whole wheat tortilla, add salsa and skip the cheese. These are really good left over too!
Stir fry: Cut up a boneless skinless chicken breast, cook in oil, when the chicken is cooked through, add to the pan a bag of stir fry veggies from the freezer section of the grocery store. I make brown rice and top with a stir fry sauce called Saigon Sizzle (brand is House of Tsang) It's pretty spicy, which leaves me feeling satisfied.
I also like marinated chicken on the grill; I usually eat it with a sweet potato or something.
I think the trick is to build a repertoire of healthy meals and snacks so that love so you don't feel like you're depriving yourself. That will take time, but there are so many healthy cooking blogs out there that you're bound to come across a lot of good ideas online. I wish you the best!
I'm in about the same place as you. I've been doing 1580 calories per day as suggested by MyFitnessPal. In the past month I've lost 3.5 lbs.
My goal is to be sure the "if everyday were like today you'd weigh x lbs in 5 week" number is lower than my current number. I'm not stressing about bad days but try to only have 1 per week.
I know I could join WW or do some fad to lose more quickly, but I want this weight to stay off.
More to your question- it will get better. You'll slowly learn what foods will fill you up for fewer calories.
If you go into your food diary on a computer, at the bottom of a day it tells you have many grams of each macronutrient you "should" eat. I think that for 1700 cal/day, 20% would be 85 g of protein. I'm not sure how many additional calories you're getting from exercise to figure out the additional protein there. You can definitely up that - try changing it to 25% or 30% and see how you feel - but I also think maybe you input something wrong because one slice of toast with PB and banana, one egg and some cashews should not add up to 85 g of protein.
orangeblossom, you can change your settings. Those are crazy.
ETA: screwedup, I just saw your previous post. Am I calculating the total protein wrong?
You can actually change the goals for carb, protein, etc %s? I wasn't trying to stick to it at this point, because I knew it was crazy.
I'm about 150 (clothes off) and 154 (doctors office) and 5' 3.5". I'd like to lose at least 10lbs, and I have it set to 1.5 lbs per week.
Breakfast - slice of whole wheat toast with peanut butter and bananas
Morning snack (after run) - Boiled Egg and a handful of cashews.
Lunch - spinach Ravioli with tomatoes
Afternoon Snack - cashews
Dinner tonight - Baked Salmon, Broccoli and Brown Rice.
I think you need more fruits and veggies. They tend to have lower calories and lots of water to help fill you up. I might consider something like an apple with 2 tsp of peanut butter as a good snack. I also found plain popcorn a good option to since it is very filling. I'd also find that pasta kills my diet. I love it but it is very calorie rich. I cannot eat it regularly and still drop pounds. I'd consider switching your lunch to something else in the short term. I find that things like salad with a see-through dressing (so Italian or many vinaigrettes are fine, no ranch or white dressings) dressing and grilled chicken, tuna or egg salad or even PBJ on whole wheat with fruit work for better for lunch for me.
Ravioli was leftovers from dinner last night. I'm going to try other options normally.
I would look at other fruits and veggies to eat versus the cashews too.
Cashews are good for you but are pretty calorie dense so you don't get may of them in 100 or 150 cals. But you can eat a lot of fruits or veggies to fill you up.
My daily goal is 1470 and without exercise, I have a hard time hitting that. Like right now I am 170 over so I will be getting my ass on the bike when I get home so I can have the dinner I planned.
Post by upupandaway on Aug 11, 2014 18:27:18 GMT -5
It does get better...maybe a week or so to adjust? And look, everyone is different but I find if I don't have a lot of variety in my diet I do better staying on track. For example, on Saturday I buy 5 lbs of chicken breast, stick it in a container with a low cal marinade, let it sit for 24 hours, and then on Sunday BBQ it all on the Weber. Then I divide 4lbs into 12 little takeaway container along with 1.5-2 cups lightly steamed broc and zucchini. They have under 200 calories each but are A LOT of food and I have 12 meals ready to go. I cube the remaining chicken to use in some other meal later in the week. I also do little containers with ground turkey breast made with low sodium taco seasoning and use those over salad, mixed with black beans or I add a scrambled egg and a tsp of sour cream. Breakfast is 1/2cup oatmeal and blueberries and a strip of bacon or a hard boiled egg (of which I also keep several in the fridge). It is a lot easier to stay to your goal calories if you know in advance what you'll be eating.
Post by upupandaway on Aug 11, 2014 18:30:24 GMT -5
Oh, one other thing that kills appetite for me is a green food supplement like Vitamineral Greens. It's got spirolina and wheatgrass and a bunch of other gross things but WOW...take a tablespoon or two with a half cup of fruit juice (it tastes absolutely awful...apple juice or pineapple juice is the only way I can choke it down)...and I don't have any stomach grumblies all day.
I was 202 in a March 2013. By October 2013, I shocked myself by losing 60 pounds. I have kept it off without really trying. I did do WW online until August 2013. You can do this!!!! My appetite did adjust. My taste buds have adjusted as well. I can't get over how sweet things are,my that I used to love(extra cream/extra sugar in my coffee makes me gag now. 2% milk and sometimes sugar, sometimes not). It took some time to get used to. I still love cake and ice cream.
Oh, one thing that helped me was always eating the same breakfast and similar lunch when I was at work. Dinner and snacks are always different. If you have a food scale, use it:)
You can do this! If I can, anyone can. I still could lose 10-20 pounds(gotta love being 5'1'). My next step is to add exercise. I have not tried to lose weight in in over a year.
What are you eating? What does a normal day look like?
On my calorie counting diet?
Breakfast - slice of whole wheat toast with peanut butter and bananas
Morning snack (after run) - Boiled Egg and a handful of cashews.
Lunch - spinach Ravioli with tomatoes
Afternoon Snack - cashews
Dinner tonight - Baked Salmon, Broccoli and Brown Rice.
This whole diet thing is new to me. So if anyone has recommendations on better lo-cal meals, I am all for it.
Normally I grab whatever is in the refrigerator or in the pantry. It's really healthy... Ha
I have been thinking about what you said about being hungry. I calculated the Weight Watchers points of your meal (I made some assumptions on portion size) and wonder if you are not eating enough. The lowest allowed points in WW is 26. I calculated your day @ 36
breakfast = Bread = 2, 2tbl spns of PB = 5, banana = 0 = 7total Snack = Egg = 2, 1/4c cashews = 6 = 8 total Lunch = 1 cup of spinach ravioli = 5 Snack = 1/4 c cashews = 6 Dinner = 4oz salmon = 5, 1c brown rice = 5, brocolli = 0 10 total
Breakfast - slice of whole wheat toast with peanut butter and bananas
Morning snack (after run) - Boiled Egg and a handful of cashews.
Lunch - spinach Ravioli with tomatoes
Afternoon Snack - cashews
Dinner tonight - Baked Salmon, Broccoli and Brown Rice.
This whole diet thing is new to me. So if anyone has recommendations on better lo-cal meals, I am all for it.
Normally I grab whatever is in the refrigerator or in the pantry. It's really healthy... Ha
I have been thinking about what you said about being hungry. I calculated the Weight Watchers points of your meal (I made some assumptions on portion size) and wonder if you are not eating enough. The lowest allowed points in WW is 26. I calculated your day @ 36
breakfast = Bread = 2, 2tbl spns of PB = 5, banana = 0 = 7total Snack = Egg = 2, 1/4c cashews = 6 = 8 total Lunch = 1 cup of spinach ravioli = 5 Snack = 1/4 c cashews = 6 Dinner = 4oz salmon = 5, 1c brown rice = 5, brocolli = 0 10 total
Your portions are very accurate. I'm impressed. =)
I may have to bump my protein intake and see if that helps any. I am already feeling less hungry today then I was yesterday, and I haven't eaten nearly as much. I think extra protein is helping.
I reached my recommended protein in MFP by my morning snack. (protein is a stick with you, right?)
I have been drinking quite a lot of water. I've had two liters so far today. My body really is used to me eating whatever I want... So, not a good habit.
I've thought about doing weight watchers. I just don't know if it will work well enough to warrant the cost?
I love Weight Watchers. It worked for me and it worked for lots of people I know. I had to learn how to eat healthy portions and how to chose foods that would sustain weight loss.
For example, I would make a "salad" at the salad bar and think "I'm being healthy!". When I did the WW points, I learned that the big scoop of nuts, cheese and croutons were killing my efforts. My salads turned into all-veggie versions, with a touch of salad dressing.
I really liked how I could plan a whole day of eating and know that it was completely okay to have a meatball and pasta (both measured portions) at dinner. It wasn't all what I 'couldn't' eat, it was a balanced approach of choices.
They also do a lot of strategies that have nothing to do with food. The weekly weigh-ins and groups kept me accountable and on-track for the long-term. And the pace of weight loss was manageable, sustainable and doctor-recommended.
And yes, the cost made me REALLY accountable to the program. If I am paying $40+ bucks a month for a program - I am going to DO THE PROGRAM. Cheating really took-on a whole new level of aversion.
As for being hungry (on WW or any plan) - use your calories to choose foods that will fill you up and NOT spike your blood sugar. A piece of bread and butter was just NOT an option for me for breakfast anymore because I would be starving and craving more carbs. Sure, I could count the "calories" and be okay, but it was awful until lunch. I started making choices to use my calories/Points to make the food I ate tasty (dressing/dip for veggies, olive oil for roasted veggies) and changed my idea of a meal - hard boiled eggs for breakfast - no butter, no toast; oatmeal with raisins - no sugar, no cream. Those were my basic, simple go-to breakfasts (at 8 AM). Then a small snack (hummus, cottage cheese) at 10 AM, then a packed lunch (lots of soups), then an afternoon snack, etc.
I'm calorie counting right now using my fitness app and on days I workout I eat about 1700 calories, non workout days are 1400. (I do 1 hour of bootcamp daily). In the beginning I felt hungry and got a headache but my body adjusted.
My breakfast is usually a fruit smoothie - 1 cup frozen mixed berries, 1/2 cup juice, individual greek yogurt, 1 scoop whey protein blended with a piece of toast. Snacks are a hard boiled egg, protein bar and peach Lunch today is a chicken marsala steamer basket and then dinner is spinach stuffed pork chops with corn on the cob and cut up fruit.
The other thing I had to keep telling myself (until I believed it) was that this is a LIFESTYLE change, not a diet. The word diet makes me want to rebel and eat what I shouldn't.
What are you eating? What does a normal day look like?
On my calorie counting diet?
Breakfast - slice of whole wheat toast with peanut butter and bananas
Morning snack (after run) - Boiled Egg and a handful of cashews.
Lunch - spinach Ravioli with tomatoes
Afternoon Snack - cashews
Dinner tonight - Baked Salmon, Broccoli and Brown Rice.
This whole diet thing is new to me. So if anyone has recommendations on better lo-cal meals, I am all for it.
Normally I grab whatever is in the refrigerator or in the pantry. It's really healthy... Ha
I suggest adding a serving of fruit or veggies to your snack in the afternoon. And def fruit at lunch and dinner. I think weight watchers is a great way to learn and track making healthy choices.