Do you think i'm eating enough?
 

Well i posted this before but im still not sure if im getting enough calories...and i dont want to be in starvation mode...

Every day, I have cereal which is about 150 cals, then inbetween eating that and my dinner, i would have some fruit or sometimes a light salad with just tomatoes, leaves and salad cream. then, i have my dinner which normally averages to about 500 cals and then i eat again a few hours after that and i would usually have fruit....

Im never exactly strict when adding up the calories but i would estimate and try to reach 1000 -1200...

I have lost weight eating like this, but, like before, i have hit a brick wall and my weight isnt shifting...A long time ago, i think i went into starvation mode becuase i was only getting about 600 a day and i only did it for a few days but my weight got down to a certain level and just stopped. I realise that my current weight not shifting could be due to a number of things....

help!

Mark, I'm sure everyone is going to agree that you aren't eating enough calories. You 5'11" and 180. How much are you suppose to weigh? How much physical activity do you get? You have done great with your weight loss, but I would worry that you are losing too much muscle and dehydrating yourself. You do drink a lot of water every day right???? From your diet it looks like you need some protein.

I went to a nutritionist who did my resting metabolic rate and said that it was at 1700 calories. I was eating 1200 to 1300 a day at that time and not seeing any progress. I came home and upped it to 1400 calories because I have been trained that 1200 is the target range. I still wasn't really losing. Then I upped my calories to 1600 and lost 3 pounds in one week. Of course hormones were playing with me as well, but that is a different story. :rolleyes:

i drink loads of water, well not loads but 1.5ltrs or there abouts, the reccommended amount...

I just found this on the internet:

"1) Calculate your BMR
This is your base number of calories a day you burn just by being alive and doing activities like breathing."

It gives you the forumla : Men: BMR = 66 + (6.23 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years)

which works out to be

66 + (6.23 x 181) + (12.7 x 71) - (6.8 x 19) = 1 966.13

then


2) Calculate your Activity

If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2

1966.13*1.2=2 359.356

then

3) Lose Weight

Approximately 3,500 calories equal one pound of weight. If you ate an excess of 3,500 over what you need to maintain, you would gain one pound. That’s one extra Big Mac a day for a week right?

So to lose weight, I need to create a calorie deficiency. The bigger the deficiency, the faster I’ll lose weight. So, combined with exercise, which would burn additional calories, a goal of 2,000 calories a day is good. It will be slow but steady weight loss - about a pound every week.

One thing to note though. Part of the BMR calculation is your current weight. As you lose weight, you need less calories per day and therefore need to continually adjust your daily caloric intake as you lose weight. 2,000 calories a day may be a good goal for me now, but, for example, when I’m 180 pounds, I need to cut that to 1,900.


So how many should I be eating?

Do you exercise? If you exercise, I'd increase your calories to about 1800 a day--that would probably put you in the 2lb/week category. If you don't exercise, start! If you don't do weight training, start! You want to do your best to ensure that you're losing fat rather than muscle.

Definitely you need to be eating more; 1000 a day is far too few and too many of your calories are coming from fruit! That's sugar. Healthy sugar, but it's still sugar. I'd start by adding protein to your lunches. Cook up some chicken breasts and throw a few ounces on your salad each day. Add egg whites into your breakfast rotation, and make sure you get plenty of protein with your dinner. I'd also suggest taking in some extra calories in the form of healthy grains. This might be some brown rice or barley or something like that with dinner or lunch.

Taking in so few calories really can be counter-productive; there is no virtue in eating fewer when you can get away with eating more!

Also, since you're getting close to your goal, you might find it helpful to start thinking about how you're going to maintain your weight loss once you get there. This will mean having a healthy, balanced and *satisfying* diet, otherwise you risk binging or falling off the wagon.

Good luck :)

My son, who is currently 5' 7 1/2" and current weight is 158, consumes 1600-1800 calories per day while losing. He just started up soccer practices again and has been somewhat active over the summer (got very sick with a double ear infection and sinus infection, so he was out of commission for a couple of weeks).

Your calories, to me, are way too low and not something you can maintain for life! Bump it up a bit and exercise.

You need to create a balance of calories in and out. You are going into starvation mode by getting too few calories, even though you think you arent. Your body needs a certain amount of calories everyday, and 1000 isnt enough. I think its a good idea to start eating more (but still healthily) and to bump up the exercise :) You've done really well so far and you're so close to your goal!

I believe the recommended minimum for males is 1800 (females is 1200) so I think your body metabolism has likely slowed down a bit if you've been eating like that for awhile You might want to figure out your maintenece calories and eat that for a few weeks until your body is no longer feeling like it has to hang on to everything it can get... then move to a small deficit (-500 calories) You can also weight train to help gain muscle which will boost your metabolism up. Frequent small meals is also supposed to help keep it up.

Very low calories tends to work short term but in the long term it just makes things harder. (not to mention causes issues like gallstones etc)