I am gonna sound like an echo saying you need to eat more!!!

BUT!!!!!

That doesn't mean you can add one high calorie or high carb treat to boost those calories up!!! My suggestion would be checking some of the Clean Eating, Whole Foods, or Super Foods posts. Eating fresh or minimally processed food, whole grains, veggies and lean protien really is the key to success along with regular exercise. Beware of items that boast being low fat or fat free, many times they have lots of added sugar and just as many calories. Sugar free stuff is sometimes higher in fat. I won't get on my soap box where artifical sweeteners are concerned. The jury is still out on that one, I just know I, personally, am better off without them!!

Eat Breakfast!!! Good carbs and good protien!!! Make that a priority!!!

Congrats on your progress so far!! You didn't put the weight on overnight (sometimes it may seem like it) it isn't gonna come off overnight, and it isn't healthy to try to take it off overnight!!

Stick around this is a great community...lots of information, advice and support!!

Thank you Kate.

Hi Terano,

I am STARVED just by reading about how little (I should say next to nothing) you eat! I would drop dead after 2 days. I always wonder how the people who don't eat breakfast (or not even lunch) do it. Aren't you hungry?

Cheap meals:
How about some oatmeal? But I don't mean any of the prefab packets - just buy one huge bag of oatmeal and make it the oldfashioned way. Also, make large batches of soup. You can portion soup into tupperware and defrost as needed. Lentil soup with some veggies and bit of chicken thrown in (you can skip the chicken but personally I like it there) - very nutritious and healthy.
Do you have any farmers' markets in your area? They typically sell veggies by the bushel for much cheaper than when bought in small quantities. For example, you could buy tomatoes and make your own pasta sauce and freeze the excess for later. (Speaking of pasta - that is typically pretty cheap, too, but if buying any, buy whole wheat pasta only).
Chili should not be too costly to make - though go for some low cal version. My own chili is more of a sloppy joe thing - I brown some ground meat (typically, I mix beef and turkey), add to it two cans of beans, some chopped tomatoes and a generous amount of salsa and of course some crushed garlic. Season to taste. Served a small sweet potato, you will have several lunches or dinners out of this.

Good luck.

Thanks so much Tomato! Yes, I do get hungry during the day but only when I think about it (your recipes didn't help, lol). I just try to down tons of water and that tends to fill me up a bit.

That chili sounds soo delicious. I'm going to have to make it. I have oatmeal at home so I'll have to FORCE myself to get up even earlier to eat breakfast before going to the gym. I like the idea about making soup. It would be very easy to make a huge batch and then just freeze it all in tupperware and bring it for lunch and just microwave it. Great idea, thanks!

Opinions vary on this, but I think you really ought to eat before you go to the gym. It doesn't have to be a big honking breakfast... but it should be something with protein about half an hour before you begin your workout. You can grab something simple like a Kashi TLC bar and a glass of 1% milk--that's plenty of breakfast. You'll find your workouts go better and you'll feel better.

You may also be hungry after your workout. Try to eat every 2 or 3 hours--after your workout, when the time rolls around, plan something more substantial, say, 300 cals worth. It could be a couple of softboiled eggs and one piece of toast without butter or some oatmeal... you get the picture.

Jay

I'm never hungry before my workouts but I usually am STARVING afterwards.

I just went and bought a container of no salt added cottage cheese. If I eat the whole thing it'll be 320 calories, 6g of fat, 16g carbs and 180mg of salt. Is this okay?

Um... why would you eat the whole thing??? That must not be what you mean.

How many grams of protein?

Eat before the workout even if you don't feel hungry. It sounds to me like you're someone who can use the discipline of eating at regular times--your "hunger meter" is a bit off... Just suggestions!

Jay

My hunger meter is WAY OFF. I ate almost the whole thing (it was only 1.5 cups worth). There was 56grams of protein.

That's all I've had all day so far, that isn't a lot is it?

Now tell the truth--are you putting us on? Surely you can't think that that constitutes good eating habits!

Jay

No I KNOW it's not good eating habits but when you thought I was joking about eating the whole container you made it seem like it was too much.

Look on the outside of the container. In the Nutrition Panel, it should say what the serving size is, and how many servings are in a container. One thing that's useful is to make sure you know this information for the foods you eat. Try to stick with serving sizes.

Also, check out the Calories from Fat just underneath the total calories. In general, it's best if that number is around 25% or less.

So, 1.5 cups of cottage cheese isn't the worst "meal" one could have--you've got a good amount of protein, some fats, some carbs. But good nutrition usually means having some variety of food types.

Just as one example, a Grilled Chicken Primavera dinner from Lean Cuisine has 220 cals, 45 from fat; fats 5 gm, carbs 24 gm, and protein 18 gm. But also, you get chicken, pasta, broccoli, asparagus, cherry tomatoes, and a creamy garlic sauce.

I'm not saying you should go out an buy Lean Cuisines--I'm just giving an example of a more balanced type of meal.

What concerns me more is that this is all you've had so far today, and it's 3 p.m. in Oregon... Yep, spread the food out during the day more!

Sorry if I seemed to be laughing at you--I didn't mean it in an unkind way, I just really didn't think that was all you were eating.

Jay

Hi Terano,

One more suggestion (and sorry if I am making you hungry). Here is what I eat a lot in summer: In a teflon pan, saute some diced onion until glassy (I do use a bit of oil, but I use olive oil exclusively). Add diced lean turkey kielbasa ( a small chunk, maybe 2" long. Let the sausage brown a bit. Add two red bell peppers, sliced very thinly (I slice them on mandoline [don't confuse with Mandalinn, our lovely moderator :-) ]), one or two zucchini, two or three tomatoes and about 1/2 package of tofu. Add a bit of ketchup, some sweet & hot chili sauce and other spices (chili powder, gulash spices) to taste - whatever you prefer. Let is simmer for a bit and add an egg. Mix it all thoroughly - it will be a very colourfull mishmash. Serve with chopped coriander on top.
You can combine a red bell pepper with Hungarian (light green) peppers - they are a lot cheaper, at least here.
I used to make it sans tofu but I am trying to learn new ways of using tofu (lots of protein) in my cooking. Again, this will provide at least 4 lunches, depending on the amount of veggies used - and it's almost all veggies, except for the tiny amount of sausage (just enough to fool your tastebuds).