Count me in as another fan of protein, fiber, and fat.

When I first started, my only requirement was to eat within a certain calorie range. But, as time went on, I noticed that eating a lot of protein, bulk (in fiber) and some fat is the magic formula for keeping me full and satisfied. I still don't have any set guidelines about how much, just that when I'm hungry I have a better sense of what will fill me up and keep the binges at bay.

The other important piece of information I've gleaned is that eating enough calories is very important. I need to feel full and satisfied, and not desperate for food. Going hungry is a recipe for disaster. If I'm hungry, I listen to my body's signals, and I eat. I have been able to keep my calorie level fairly high and still lose weight.

I am a non-fish vegetarian...so I eat dairy, but I dont eat any kind of meat, including fish.

when I eat pretzels..its not like I have a bag a day lol I eat them periodically throughout the week...

I also strongly disagree with this statement. To keep a healthy vegetarian diet, you may want to familiarize yourself with the range of vegetarian proteins, like:

Beans
Nuts
Tofu
Tempeh
Seitan/wheat gluten
Quorn brand products
Veggie burgers, crumbles, etc.
TVP (dried texturized vegetable protein)

And, for the non-vegan, also eggs and low-fat dairy like cottage cheese and yogurt. Add protein to snacks by eating fruits and veggies (or pretzels!) with hummus, peanut butter, or dips made with low fat yogurt or cottage cheese. Try ready to eat baked tofu in a sandwich with whole wheat bread. Throw veggie burger crumbles into chili or pasta sauce. Use Quorn as a substitute in traditional chicken recipes. Marinate tempeh for a few hours and grill or bake it, and serve it with brown rice or bulgur wheat and a veggie. Look at nutrition information on packaging and choose the version of the product you want with the highest protein for the calories.

You can get recipe ideas online at recipezaar, vegweb, cooking light, and many other sites. It's very possible to get adequate protein and not rely on carbs for calories as a vegetarian. It just takes a little extra attention. Good luck and enjoy!

I was thinking to up the protein too. However, when I read what you'd eaten so far, and that you were just going to have a bowl of soup for dinner, I had to wonder how many calories you're eating a day. Doesn't even sound like you're getting 1200...which you shouldn't go below. But you could probably even have more than that depending on your height and weight.

so how should I break up my calories..if I only eat 1200? should I eat 300 for each meal, and 100 for each snack?

and if I eat 1200 calories, and am active..I should lose? the normal person eats 2000 right? so 1200 is considerably less.

The calorie stuff really does depend on your height and weight: it's less a matter of what a normal person might eat (I, for instance, eat more than that to maintain my weight) than how many calories YOU can eat to maintain and lose weight. Have you had a look at any of the online calorie calculators to figure out your maintenance calories?

The idea with calorie counting is that 3500 calories = 1lb. So if you want to lose 1lb per week, you want to create a 500 cal/day deficit from the number of calories you need to maintain your current weight. For 2lb a week, you want a 1000 cal/day deficit. The deficit should ideally come from a combo of food restriction and exercise. So if your current maintenance calories are, say, 2200, you could eat 1500 a day, burn around 300 through exercise and still lose 2lb a week. Or, you could eat 1800 + burn 300 through exercise and lose a little more than a pound a week. The calculations never work perfectly, but they are a good place to start.

You might not need to go as low as 1200 to lose consistently, depending again on your height and weight. 47lb is going to take a while, and you want to do it sensibly so that you have a better chance of keeping it off.

You need to figure out how to divvy up your calories in a way that works for you. That might take some trial and error. The important thing is that you arrange the calorie distribution--and the foods that comprise your calories--in a way that will not make you feel super-hungry or tired and lethargic. That means lots of veggies and lean proteins and legumes throughout the day.

There's a great calorie-counting forum with tons of info here on 3FC. You might find it helpful to spend some time reading the stickies and the discussions to get a better sense of how it all works.

There really is no such thing as "the normal person". That's a statistical construct, not a real person. The caloric level on which you can lose is based on YOU. Several posters have said "depending on your age, height, current weight and activity level". You haven't posted any numbers (and that's ok, some people are shy about posting their statistics) so we are guessing. I don't know many women who can eat 2000 calories a day without a lot of exercise without gaining weight.

Figuring out what you can eat is really a trial and error approach. There are calorie calculators, but none are 100% foolproof because every body is different. Your metabolism may be a little higher or lower than "average", your perception of moderate exercise may be higher or lower than "average"....

You look a lot younger than I am, but here's what I've found are my guidelines (I'm 53 and just a hair under 5'3"):
I can lose weight on 1400 "clean" calories with a lot of exercise. I do about 45 minutes of moderate to hard cardio every morning, and 45 minutes of weight training 4-5 days a week (and yes, I work full time). "Clean" calories for me are no processed food, no added sugars, no white starchy carbs, lots of lean protein, lots of fresh vegetables, a little fruit, healthy fats in the form of olive oil and natural peanut butter. I eat 5 meals per day and always have protein/fat/carbs at each meal. Because I feel better with higher protein and lower carbs, my ratios are about 45% protein, 25% fat and 30% carbs. I'm not a vegetarian, but I do eat a lot of egg whites in various forms and lots of cottage cheese.

If I lower my exercise or raise my calories above 1500, I gain.

Since you are heavier and younger, why not pick 1400 as a starting point and see how you do? I bet you'll lose, especially if you add some exercise. And if you carefully plan whole food meals with protein, carbs and fats, you'll probably feel like you are eating non-stop at first

Welcome to 3FC!

Mel

ok...so according to this calorie counter I found I should be eating 2325 calories to maintain my weight...so in order to lose 2lbs a week I should eat 1325? so Im safe with 1200 a day, and can go a bit up on some days?

Ill read around thanks..but is that the basic idea?

I am 25...5'3" and 197(that pic is an old one) and I excercise (I think its cardio...sit ups and squats and stuff??) 30 minutes a night(thinking of doing 30 minutes twice a day) and walk a mile ever other day.

Well the exercise counts in the creation of the calorie deficit, so probably you could lose steadily at 1500, probably at around 2lb per week. Why eat less when you can eat more? Just don't drop below 1200 on a regular basis--your body needs all the nutrients.

We don't want you to be hungry any more, so choose your calories wisely. Veggies, protein, lite dairy, etc etc.

Good luck!


(Cardio is your walking, running, swimming, elliptical training, etc; squats, sit ups and the rest have a cardio component because they do get the heart rate up, but they fall into the general category of strength training.)

Oh, and also, 3FC has a vegetarian forum:

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/foru...ysprune=&f=121

Have you tried using a computer tool like FitDay to track your intake and calorie burn? www.fitday.com. There are other good sites as well--The Daily Plate is one.

For exercise tips, try the 3FC Fitness forums:

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=177

Jay

At your height and weight, I'd suggest starting out at something more around 1500 to 1600 calories a day, especially if you're active or exercising. If you go too low, you could stall your weightloss. It's not always as simple as well...if I need to lose 3500 to lose a pound, I just drop my calories down as low as I can possibly bare and meet that 3500 goal faster. There is more to it than that. The body will have a way of compensating if it feels you're trying to starve it. You can always try 1600 first, then adjust down 100 calories for a week and see what happens. Find the place that works best at keeping you satisfied AND losing weight.

Makinthechange, I can see that you are working very hard on this! I think you have gotten good advice. I especially agree with the calorie counting suggestions because it sounds like you aren't eating enough. What I want to do for myself is to learn to eat in a way that I can sustain for the long haul. I have tried starvation diets, and they work, but here I am back again because I didn't keep the weight off. We don't want that, do we?