i have a really close co-worker that is very obsessed with working out and dieting. she's not that thin but she is very muscular, i feel like she has a slight eating disorder and the reason i say this is because one morning we had donuts in the office and she ate one donut and 10min later said she wanted to throw it up because she felt bad she ate it. okay it was jus one donut! and trust me she the room for one. she is very strict and hardly ever cheats. she does boot camp in the morning and running in the evening. i walked in the evening's with her for about a month and almost DIED!

to the point: she says i should eat no more than 1500 calories a day and workout every single day as she does butmy sparkpeople app/website says i should eat between 1540-1890 a day and work out 3x a week burning at least 287 with each workout to lose 2lbs a week.

she started me doing special k and i lost 5lbs the first week but then i got tired of the cereal for dinner and replaced it with a 200cal sandwich for the 2nd, 3rd & 4th week and didn't drop a pound, so she told me to go back to the cereal for dinner and i ended up losing 2lbs the fifth week. i don't see why the cereal for dinner makes that big of a difference since it's more calories than my sandwich but hey the scale doesn't lie. side note: i eat special k every morning for breakfast.

my question for you guys is to i trust her or the spark?

Neither one of them actually knows. Go with whatever you can stick to and check the results. However, don't base your decision on a particular week's weigh in as scales don't necessarily respond on the same time table as your dietary changes.

thanx for the response, i'm glad someone is listening

i agree with caryesings - also keep in mind, you cannot eat special k every night for your entire life! i would set up my diet in a way that i would want to maintain - even after my goal weight was reached.

hi Jana,

I kind of see those calorie things as a guide...before I started counting calories, I tracked what I normally ate for awhile. I was eating a lot more than what those guides said I could eat for maintaining my weight. I was eating about 2,000-2500 calories a day. I took that as my starting calories and dropped down to 1500 to lose.

In regards to your coworker....there is nothing magical about staying at 1500 calories. If you were eating 3000 before that would be cutting your day in half and be pretty hard to do. 1500 is a sort of target number for a lot of diets because it's a decent amount of food and most people will lose weight eating at this level.

As far as the cereal...eating a 200 calorie dinner doesn't sound exactly healthy to me, but I suppose if you eat larger breakfast/lunches it doesn't really matter. I don't personaly think cereal is even that healthy (the calories are kinda empty), and it would be healthier to eat a 200 calorie bowl of vegetable soup for dinner. There is nothing special about cereal other than it's a refined carb and you might be able to burn through it more quickly than something with fats and protien. Or maybe they add some protien into special k nowadays?

What did you eat the rest of the day with this cereal for dinner diet? That's probably a lot more important of a factor than the 200 calorie dinner, as those must have made up a large percentage of your calories for the day?

I agree that neither could be right. Every body is different.

I've been losing at 2000 calories per day. Slow but steady. (i also don't workout regularly...shh..lol) I'm sure once I get to a lower weight I will have to do both to continue to lose.

Maybe eat 'normal' for a week and track it and see where you are at now and aim for 500 less calories than that per day.

Good luck!

Don't take advice from a girl who clearly has ED issues. Ever. Her mind knows "weight loss" but not health. Don't confuse her "muscles" with an extremely low body fat that just reveals the muscle. You both have the same thing under the skin. This is a skewed perception of ED girls.

And yes, Spark is correct...

There isn't a magic number - - do not let this person tell you what to do. The only thing we all have in common here is that we have to burn more than we take in. 3500 calories = 1 pound. Break that down, and you will have to create a 1,000 calorie deficit A DAY to lose 2 pounds a week through some combination of calories in (food) & calories out (exercise).

Sounds easy, but it can get a little dicey. So you have to play around a bit. Figure out what the right calorie level is FOR YOU. The one where you are still losing & do not feel deprived. Focus on the composition of your food - not just calories, but nutrition. Eating enough protein/good fats/fiber is really important to your satisfaction at lower calorie levels. And as for exercise, just make the habit & see how its going. If you aren't losing at the rate you'd like to, you can always add in more days/longer durations/higher intensity.

Anyway, do not let this person get in your head. sparkpeople & other sites like that are great starting points, but you'll have to tweak it for yourself no matter who (or what) you listen to.

Best of luck to you!

thanks ladies!

here is a quick view of a day of eating for me:

breakfast - bowl of special k and 1 cup 1% milk (265)

snack - utz halloween pretzels (50)

lunch - michelina's lean cuisine (salisbury steak or 4 cheese lasagna), big bowl of romaine lettuce and 4tbls of light creamy ceasar dressing (323)

snack - utz halloween pretzels (50) welch's fruit snacks (80) (130)

dinner - bowl of special k and 1% milk (370)

snacks - welch's fruit snacks (80)

that's a total of about 1218

the welch's fruit snack are equal to one serving of fruit. whenever i buy fresh fruit it always sopils before i can eat it so i use those as my fruit serving for the day.

when i started CC i went on the spark and clocked in a typical tuesday, wednesday and friday for me ,which included 2 99cents burgers from sonic on tues night, 10 boneless wings and fries from wingstop on wed night and about 4-5 slices of pepperoni pizza from dominos on fri night. i usually had baked potatoes with about a 1/2 cup of cheese & ranch for lunch on those days (i kno dat's ALOT!) and they were all tipping over 4000cals a day so i kno i'm eating way less! and i was kinda starving when i first started but that was over a month ago and i'm used to eating less now bcuz my stomach really only growls in the morning before breakfast.

i agree sacha but i guess since she is a nurse i jus kinda thought she knew wat she is talking about. i was very confused.

thursdays are always more in the 1700 range bcuz this is my and my bff's only night to eat and have girl talk bcuz she works night's and is always off on thursdays.

my weekends vary very much, sometimes they consist of jus one 'pretty large in calorie' meal at a resturant that i'll eat about 4-5pm since my days start so much later on sat & sun.

but one thing is def a fact: since i started CC i have never gone over the 1890cals that the spark says i should have!

in five weeks i've lost 7lbs and 2inchs off my waist. my workouts have not been as steady as they should be but i am truly working on that.

and again thanks for all the help ladies, you guys are great!

Are you sure that your michelina's dinner and four tbsp's of dressing are 323 calories????

I would really recommend adding in more protein to your diet rather than so many refined carbs - remember that higher protein can help preserve muscle while burning fat. You don't want to lose pounds from muscle.

I recommend replace the fruit snacks with real fruit. They are NOT a fruit equivalent. Start the week after your grocery shopping with the fresh fruit amount that won't spoil on you, the end of week go for frozen, canned, or dried. Dried fruit helped me stop eating fruit snacks because I got the same intense chewy sweetness. Just be careful with portion sizes cause very tempting to eat too much or these goodies.

the day i eat the 4 cheese one's it's 413 total for it and the salad.

My opinion is that you sound like you are depriving your body of essential nutrients that your body needs to function properly. I also think you might not be taking in enough calories. Your body is like a car that it needs fuel for it to run and then there is always all the maintenance that goes with keeping that car from stalling and breaking down.

You would benefit your body more by providing it with what it needs. I am not sure if you know how to cook but, I would try spending at least one day and figure out what your body likes. There are things that are good for your tummy and then there are things that are good for your mouth. I would recommend finding things that are good for your tummy that will satisfy those tastebuds in your mouth. And definitely give your body more fuel to function. Not a good thing to go through your day and realize you have brain fog because you didn't get the proper nutrients and minerals.

Some breakfast ideas would be a bowl of steel cut oats with some fresh strawberries and a sprinkle of splenda and a glass of your 1% milk. Or maybe a whole grain bagel with a few slices of smoked salmon and some stone ground mustard or even some low fat or fat free cream cheese and a small cup of mandarin oranges (packed in water). Or even a fried eggwhite sandwich on whole grain toast and a cup of fresh strawberries and a bit of yogurt mixed with a bit of splenda. Most of these ideas are about 300-500 calories.

Some snack ideas that usually hold me over is a few turkey roll-ups (with diced tomatoes, jalapeno peppers and pepperjack cheese inside). Hummus and veggies are absolutely delish. And if you need a heartier snack I would just pop the roll-ups or the hummus in the microwave for a minute and then it seems like I am eating a meal and my mind is convinced that it will hold me over.

Lunch is an easy one for me..... salad with veggies and then whichever protein I have with it I just heat that up and top my salad with it.... salad and veggies are great fillers... you can get alot of it without all the sodium.

Dinner.... Since I am an atkins follower I usually have one of my oopsie rolls with some sort of protein. I do stay away from sugars, flour, and potatoes.... but we do eat whole grains and can have oats.....

Simply saying you should try and stay away from packaged foods and definitely get in more calories. It's too bad your friend has you questioning your choices.... you are on the right track by acknowledging that she has a problem. Don't let her mistakes become your own. As other's said every body is different.

When I am in weight loss mode I eat around 1900 calories a day. If I want to maintain I am usually around 2600 a day. A calorie is definitely a calorie but would you rather put 1900 calories of cereal in your body or would you rather have 1900 calories of fresh fruit, veggies, whole grains, and protein. The choice is always yours. You are the only one controlling your body.

Again, this is only my opinion. I hope this helps, it was only meant to give you other options. I wish your friend the best of luck and I hope she has a resource to get some help. Maybe let her know you are a subscriber here and maybe she, too, will become better informed on how her body works. I am glad she has a friend like you to help her.

AppleBuddy

As someone who used to have an eating disorder, I never would have taken advice from me back then. I would have told you that a person could consist on diet mt. dew, a poptart and cigarettes. You're the only one who knows your body. I do agree with other people, it doesn't really seem like you're getting enough fresh food. I used to eat frozen entres for lunch and dinner all the time. I would always end up feeling unsatisfied and end up ruining my diet. Now that I cut out frozen entres, I feel more satisfied, am not eating all that sodium and actually don't eat as many calories. It takes a while to play around and know what works for you. As bonnie said, think about how you want to eat for the rest of your life, not just while you're on a diet.

(((HUGS))))

thanks ladies!