I eat between 1800-2000 calories a day (depending on activity). I also have at least one treat meal a week which probably skews the daily average upwards. I eat about 200 grams of carbs a day.
Personally, 1400 calories a day would be tough for me (as far as hunger/satisfaction/meeting all my daily nutritional goals). It's all very individual, though, if it works for you, it works for you. When I did raise calories a couple of years ago, I did it very slowly, over a period of 2 months (from 1400 to 1800).
Congratulations, Anne! That's definitely not why I feel "unperky"
I'd feel a whole lot perkier if the sun would appear. It's just so gray here all the time.
Lily, I maintain on about 1450 calories with one moderate cheat meal a week. I'm starving all the time, but if I eat more, I gain. I just came back from my annual physical where I discussed this with my doctor. She was appalled at how little I eat and how much I exercise and told me to eat more if I'm hungry. Since I've tried that and know exactly what will happen, I'm not going to go there. She also suggested I see a GI specialist about malabsorbtion- but I DON'T want to absorb MORE from my food. Then I'd have to eat less! If you aren't hungry and are doing no weight training, it sounds like your experience is in line with mine and Meg's in terms of what we can eat vs. what the calculators say we should be able to eat.
I do 4 intense weight workouts per week and 4-6 cardio sessions, and work as a personal trainer. The math says I should be able to eat more, but it doesn't seem to work for me.
Glory and Mel thanks. I have tried eating more and it tends to increase my weight. I might could get by with it more if I were to exercise a little more. I'm doing fine right now but I have noticed that the more I exercise, the hungrier I am. My regular doctor said that 1400 calories isn't enough. My specialist said that with being obese before, that this may be all my body can handle without gaining. I am walking 1-2 miles at least 5 nights a week and using elliptical about 15 min's 3 x a week.
The calculator said I should be able to eat 1700 calories a day and maintain, but that is too many for me. I feel more reassured now that others that are maintaining aren't able to eat a lot more than I do. I don't ever starve myself. I do turn to an extra piece of fruit or more salad if I'm feeling very hungry. DH and I usually eat out once a week and I am more lenient with my food on this night. But, I tend to always not eat much that day, knowing that I'll make up for it that night.
Lilybelle,
I've written here before that I'm trying to up my calories. I tried a few months ago and got freaked out because I saw the scale going up, so I knocked 'em back down again. This time I decided to stick it out a little bit, because last time I really didn't account for the extra weight of the extra food. If I eat a few ounces more...I might weigh a few ounces more on the scale in the morning. It's been about 2 weeks now, and the weight seems pretty stable at this point. I'm not absolutely sure how this slow calorie rise is going to work out, but I'm giving it a try because more calories also means more nutrients (as long as those are healthy calories).
Lily, I maintain on about 2000-2200/day, more if I exercise. I found out that I'm an 8,000 steps a day person even when I don't exercise, and I exercise a lot. I'm also not the lightest of maintainers, so that also helps keep it high. I do know it is a very individual thing. For weight control, for me, I find that a calorie is a calorie whether it comes from fat, carbs, protein or alcohol, but some calories do more to fill me up than others, mostly minimally processed plant-based foods. In particular I like to get a lot of fiber, and ideally eat about 9-10 servings of fruits and veggies a day. My lunch box is more like a lunch suitcase as a result. I'm not a big fan of low carb diets, my ideal ratio is probably 60/25/15 carbs/fats/protein, but I know they work for many people, and it is hard to advise someone to stop something that is working (but keep eating that oatmeal--it is good for you!).
If you want to try eating more, maybe give it about a week to see if it stabilizes while your body sorts out its new fluid balance? An extra 200 cal/day over 7 days is less than 0.5 lb of body fat at the worst case, easy enough to pull back if it isn't working for you. But I'm sure the calorie calculators don't work for many people, so you may end up right where you're at.
There are no good answers. Only trial and error. And make sure you keep a record so you know what works and what doesn't.
Thanks Anne, I do love having the oats and I feel like with them and an apple each day that I'm having less tummy troubles. Lunch is almost always a salad and dinner is always grilled or broiled meat, fish or chicken with salad and green veggies. I am backing off on my cheese and fats to accomodate for the higher carbs that I am now getting. I do love fruit and especially like to have fresh pineapple, cantalope, strawberries and such. Even though I try to watch my carbs, I have included a lot of fruit from the start. I think the area I lack most in is wheats. I may simply not get near enough fiber in my meal plan and this causes a problem for me. My weight came off fairly steadily using the low carb approach and it is hard to change what I know worked for me. I have been trying to think of foods that are still low carb that I could experiment with a little on upping my calories.I don't want more meat, more cheese and certainly no more EGGS. I literally buy green beans by the case, eat lots of brocolli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts , cucumbers, bell peppers, squash and cabbage and sauerkraut. I have added eating a sweet potato occasionally and I really do like this. I think I'm going to find my maintenance book and see if I can come up with some new food ideas. I know that with maintenance I am supposed to be able to add more grains and have things like brown rice and whole wheat pasta (which I've never tried) . I really think the fear of gaining has kept me from trying to add new foods to balance out my food plan. I have had people recommend soy milk but this doesn't sound good and I haven't tried it yet. I 'd like to find a good brand of high fiber cereal to try when I get some soy milk. (I haven't had a bite of cold cereal in over a yr. and a half).
I maintain on about 1500 calories a day, more if I exercise. In fact, I don't understand how maintainers who don't exercise do it. On a day that I lift and chalk up some cardio time, I can easily burn 300+ calories, which means I can eat 300+ more calories. And I do. I am also something of a "twitcher." I pace when I talk on the phone. I am up and down at my desk 90 times a day. I walk fast. I move fast. And lo and behold, I've discovered this is a good thing for weight control!
I, too, am not the lightest of maintainers and, I eat everything as long as it's clean and healthy. Carbs. Protein. Good fats. Red wine
I can't remember if you use protein powders or shakes, but one idea to incorporate soy milk in your diet is to use it in smoothies. A great mid-afternoon pickup for me is a protein-powder shake made with soy ... it's an instant infusion of energy.
I"m playing hooky this morning. My gym bag is packed; my workout lined up and ... I'm not going. No energy. Instead, it's my fingers that are working out as I type. I"m going to regret this later on, but for now, it sure feels good to sit here in my PJs. I may even wear them to work.
Well, it's time to be up and at 'em. Have a good one everyone.
Lily, it might make you feel better to know that the average maintainer in the National Weight Control Registry maintains on 1400 calories per daty and an hour of moderate intensity exercise. That's just an average, of course, but you're really not out of line with what a lot of people in our shoes have to do.
My maintenance calories are in line with Mel's, as are my exercise, height, and age. I've played around enough with my calories over the past five years to discover what happens if I increase them or decrease exercise - I gain. No question about it.
I suspect that maintenance calories are affected a lot by age and hormones. Metabolism slows down in your 40s and 50s and it's not just from a loss of muscle. You can compensate for muscle loss by lifting weights, but changing hormones come into play too and make us pack on fat around the middle (the 'menopot' or 'menopausal donut'). There's a reason why most women in their 50s and above are now at least 10 or 20 pounds overweight, even if they've never had weight problems in their lives before.
Robin, I honestly don't understand how someone our age could maintain without exercise either! Geez, without exercise I'd have to be eating 1000 calories a day or something ridiculous like that.
Lily, I don't track my calories every day but I have been lately to try to get rid of a couple pounds I gained. The number I eat each day really does vary quite a bit. On an average day it is between 1400 and 1900. On Saturday I have my cheat meal so it is probably more like 2300 for that day but I figure I have enough 1400 days to make up for it. I try to get a lot of fiber too but somehow even with trying to eat a high fiber diet and taking fiber supplements many days I still only end up with 23 grams of fiber. I do eat oats, and whole wheat bread, and lots of fruit and veggies. But I am also a sucker for pasta and rice.
I have eaten more at various times, especially if I am exercising a lot. I haven't been doing very hard workouts lately because of various medical issues though, and I work as a software engineer so my job necessitates sitting at a desk for eight hours a day. On weekdays I really don't get much physical activity in unless I go to the gym (I used a pedometer one day and only came up with 1000 steps! ), but on the weekends I try to do activities that involve a lot of walking. When I was running 3+ miles 3-4x/week and doing an hour weights workout two more days a week I was eating 1800-1900 calories every day.
Hi everyone. I had a sleepless night, so I got out my books and came up with some new food ideas. I had gotten in such a rut of eating the same thing every single day. I made me a new notebook to log all my food, exercise and WI's in so that I can keep track. (I used to do this faithfully and had gotten complacent with it). Here is what I came up with to change up my meal plan.
1. adding some almonds or walnuts to my Oats.
2. protein smoothie with unsweetened berries , splenda and soy milk
3. adding spinach and asparagus to my veggie list
4. 1/2 cup of wild rice per week
5. 1/2 cup of whole wheat pasta per week
6. 1/2 cup fat-free refried beans per week (will be great with my LC enchiladas)
7. Cheerios for breakfast twice a week with soy milk (didn't realize I could have these and will have to definitely measure them)
8. plan to make wheat pancakes with SF syrup
I actually think my body can handle more carbs than I'm getting as long as they are added in slowly and in foods that are lower on the glycemic index and lower in calories.. I have noticed that when I eat extra fruit or veggies that it doesn't make me gain weight. Change is hard and scary. I think I have really dropped the ball on adding back in the foods that I'm allowed on maintenance. I reached goal and of course wanted to stay there so didn't change my food plan. There are a lot of food options that I'm now supposed to have that I haven't tried. I never really got to the point that I know for sure what my carb and calorie threshold should be. While making these changes I am supposed to lower my use of fats. I am going to start with now using reduced fat salad dressing since I eat tons of salad. Butter and cooking oils haven't been a problem. I do use olive oil in my veggies and think it makes them taste better. Also reduced fat cheese could help. I have read about the laughing cow cheese wedges and am going to try this. I no longer have any desire for bacon/sausage and eggs of the morning. I am burned completely out on that. (I really miss cereal and pancakes). I can certainly see that I will need to spend more time at the grocery store reading labels with these changes. I'll let you all know how it goes. A person can only live happily for so long eating only Eggs, meat, chicken, cheese , salad and green beans.
I am going to track both carbs and calories while making these changes. I know my carb level will go up, but I plan to keep calorie level at 1400 for starters since I'm maintaining at this level for now. If no weight gain from the changes for the next month, then I will try to increase to 1500 calories and go from there.
I am a big coffee drinker and use splenda in it with heavy whipping cream (it is carb free) but has 50 calories per tablespoon. This definitely needs changed. What do you coffee drinkers use for cream?
Thanks Anne, I would have never thought of using that. I used 1% milk this morning to try to change from the heavy whipping cream.
I'm happy to say I had wheat pancakes with SF syrup and a tiny bit of PB . They were great. Had not had a pancake in forever.
I plan to watch my weight carefully. But it makes sense that if I was only eating 1400 calories anyway, that I should be able to incorporate these new foods and not gain weight if I stay at the same calorie and activity level. At least it seems that way to me. I am going to set me up a fitday account. I am on here every day anyway. Will someone post the fitday link for me please?
I agree that if your calorie and activity levels stay the same, you shouldn't gain fat. But it's possible that you might see a few temporary pounds of water weight because carbs hold water (every gram of carbs holds on to 3 - 4 gram of water). That's why low-carb dieters have such impressive initial losses - they're dumping a huge amount of water when they stop eating carbs. When you start eating carbs again, you hold a little more water. No big deal. So if the scale goes up a bit for no good reason, don't panic! Just stick it out while your body gets used to a little more carbs. Remember, it's water, not fat.
Thanks Meg, that makes sense and I hadn't thought of it. I'll hold out and see what happens. I did dump 16 lbs. the first 2 weeks when I started doing LC and knew it was mostly water. Thanks for the fitday link. I set up my acct. now and posted my late breakfast/lunch. This is really interesting and I think I'll like using fitday. My cal's didn't come out exactly like I had them written on paper (from reading the labels) I had 410 written down and it says 476 on fitday.
If you're looking for some fun whole grains to add to your menu, I would recommend quinoa (it's pronounced keen-wa). It's one of the rare sources of vegetarian protein that is "complete."
It cooks easier/faster than brown rice (but with the same 1 cup quinoa/2 cups water ratio) and has an interesting, nutty taste (and an interesting appearance!).
I use quinoa and whole wheat couscous in place of brown rice in wraps or under roasted vegetables. You should be able to find quinoa in the bulk goods section of the grocery store.
gray here all the time.
I do eat oats, and whole wheat bread, and lots of fruit and veggies. But I am also a sucker for pasta and rice.
), but on the weekends I try to do activities that involve a lot of walking. When I was running 3+ miles 3-4x/week and doing an hour weights workout two more days a week I was eating 1800-1900 calories every day.
