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Old 12-11-2009, 08:05 PM   #1  
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Default I think... (calories and being sensible)

I might not be eating enough calories to be able to burn them off. My current estimates of how many calories I eat in a day seems to have me in the 600 to 750 range. Breakfast is 2 eggs and 4 small potatoes* fried in about 1 Tbsp. of Becel margarine. Lunch is a drink, sandwich and one serving of crackers or dried fruit. Supper is usually one serving of meat, a serving of vegetables and either a serving of rice, potatoes or pasta. (Tonight's dinner was home made beef stew with 2 large carrots and 8 small potatoes cooked in a LARGE pot. I had one bowl with a piece of bread and butter.) I've started drinking iced tea instead of soda, so that's a huge calorie reduction right there.

My problem seems to be this:

I have low blood pressure, otherwise known as hypotension. My doctor recommends a diet with increased sodium, but I do believe I may have gone overboard by eating potato chips, pretzels, sugar coated candy and drinking two to three cans of soda per day.

However...

As of yesterday I haven't had any junk food of any kind and I've had 2 cans of ginger ale. I opened a can of Pepsi this morning, drank about an eighth of the can and promptly poured the rest down the sink. It gave me such a HEADACHE!!! And this afternoon when I got thirsty, instead of going for the ginger ale, I made a 28oz bottle of iced tea (4 Tbsp. of powder to 1L of water). I can't drink plain water, there has to be something in it. I can dilute the iced tea by only using 2 Tbsp. of powder instead of 4.

What is a sensible caloric intake for a person who's 5'4 (5'5 on a good day) with a starting weight of ~220 pounds? (I don't own a scale so I don't know how much I weigh.) People I meet actually say I don't look it when I tell them I'm over 200 pounds... Instead of making me broader across the hips and stomach, it all coalesces ON my stomach so it sticks way out in front.

* - By small I mean petite or baby potatoes. 4 of those have 80 calories and I usually cut them into smaller pieces so they go further in a meal. Budget and meals both demand this.
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Old 12-11-2009, 08:26 PM   #2  
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2 eggs and 4 small potato's plus becel is around 250 calories
drink? what kind of drink
sandwich? could be high or low depending on WHAT
crackers? what kind... dried fruit? could be high or low in calories
one serving of meat... what kind of meat? How large of a serving? One large chicken breast is 320 calories!
veggies... low calories usually
serving of rice/potatoes or pasta are usually around 150-200 calories depending on what kind...

so you MIGHT be eating 600 calories. But I REALLY doubt it... we need more info!

A sensible caloric intake with a weight of 220? Start at around 1600ish would be my advice
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Old 12-12-2009, 07:09 AM   #3  
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I'd say you need to count your calories more formally. Your estimate looks low to me, too--but your food choices don't look too bad. Try a tool like FitDay or The Daily Plate (both online).

How much you should eat depends on your age as well as height and weight, and also how often you do physical activity/exercise. I'd suggest a couple hundred calories higher per day than cfmama suggested, but she has had great success.

Jay
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Old 12-12-2009, 05:55 PM   #4  
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I will second fitday. It really helped me a lot! It really depends on what goes into your sandwiches, the size of the potatoes and carrots, seasonings, type of beef (rump roast, loin etc), and also the drinks will have calories too.

The problem with not bringing in enough calories is that your body will start to hoard every last bit of energy you put into your body, which actually usually leads to weight gain! If you really are only bringing in 700 calories, at your weight, I'd be a bit worried, especially if you are dieting without the supervision of a clinical practicioner.

I think a decent caloric intake level for you would be around the 1600 mark too, I wouldn't go less than this to start with.

Good luck though! Maybe add in some extra protein snacks in during the day to get you started! Celery with peanut butter, handful of seeds or nuts etc.
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Old 12-13-2009, 05:20 PM   #5  
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MisfitRycher View Post
I might not be eating enough calories to be able to burn them off. My current estimates of how many calories I eat in a day seems to have me in the 600 to 750 range. Breakfast is 2 eggs and 4 small potatoes* fried in about 1 Tbsp. of Becel margarine. Lunch is a drink, sandwich and one serving of crackers or dried fruit. Supper is usually one serving of meat, a serving of vegetables and either a serving of rice, potatoes or pasta. (Tonight's dinner was home made beef stew with 2 large carrots and 8 small potatoes cooked in a LARGE pot. I had one bowl with a piece of bread and butter.) I've started drinking iced tea instead of soda, so that's a huge calorie reduction right there.
No, there is no way that is in the 600-750 calorie range for the entire day. Just on an eyeball, I can see that the potatoes, sandwich bread (2 slices), crackers, and one serving (cup?) is probably 600-750 calories, not including everything else. Now, that's a good thing, because 750 is really less than half of what you should be consuming Go to fitday.com and track what you are eating. You might also want to look at the sugar content, those drinks (iced tea, pepsi) are filled with sugar.
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Old 12-13-2009, 07:40 PM   #6  
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To clarify, which I should have done earlier:

When I say one serving, I mean I go by what's printed on the side of the box. Ritz crackers: 6 crackers is 100 calories. So that's how many I have. Mini Breton cheese crackers: 20 crackers is 100 calories. Crispers baked crackers: 15 crackers is 100 calories.

The potatoes are so small I can fit 5 or 6 in my hand and curl my fingers around them. I've cut out all soda but ginger ale and I try not to drink that unless my stomach is nauseated. Iced tea is 4 flat Tbsp. per 1L of water. That's less than a centimeter of powder on the bottom of my water bottle. Reading the iced tea container tells me every 4 tsp. has 70 calories. And there are 3 tsp. in a Tbsp. so each container of iced tea I drink has 210 calories. That's a lot... So cutting back to 2 Tbsp. is a good way to go. (Especially since those 4 tsp. have 17g of sugar!)
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