Hi i was reading guamvixen's weight loss story, amazing to be honest, she looks fabulous! however i came across her diet:

"Breakfast: TWO flour tacos of bacon, egg, potato and cheese.

Lunch: Burger, or Chicken Friend Steak, the whole side, and a coke. (fast food, fried food, greasy pizza, the WORKS)

Snack: Carrot cake (every day, the deli in my building had the BEST carrrot Cake)

Dinner: Full meal. With a second serving, and of course desert.

Evening Snack: Usually some chips, or cookies, or a whole quart of ice cream."




Im 207 pounds, i was heaviest at 212 pounds...

im not saying i eat well but well this is my daily diet on average:

Breakfast: nothing (cereal on weekends, rice crispies)

Dinner: snack a jacks(packet of rice cakes x2) juice or water plus small milky way but usually miss out the sweets

Dinner: anything, mostly pasta with potato waffles, or small curry with rice or potatoes with fish fingers(no breadcrumbs), beans....just depends what i make

Snacks in between: sweets, maybe half a pack, a yoghurt, just depends but i never eat cake or ice cream etc i do tend to drink maybe 2 glasses water per day and pepsi max(diet)

Am i really eating enough to be 207 pounds?

i walk up a hill to and from university everyday, i also walk quite a distance to get to the bus station

Also can you improve my diet? i cant eat wheat so thats my problem, thats why i never eat sandwiches lol i eat junk as theres nothing else and i know no breakfast is unhealthy but i DO NOT like eating before travelling on the bus in the mornings

thanks

Hey Jessica, is this the way you've always eaten, or is this a recent thing?

It doesn't sound like you eat very much AT ALL! but, that's probably not a good thing... I hear you on the not eating breakfast thing, I HATE eating in the morning!

I'm definitely no expert, as I struggle with weight and eating healthy myself, but it sounds like you could probably eat more and lose weight if you ate things like vegetables. Anyways, good luck!

It's impossible to compare, really. Some people lose weight on 2000 calories a day while others gain on 1600 a day. Activity, portion size, and genetics are major factors in who can eat what and how much without gaining weight.

Is the typical day you describe your current plan for weight loss or is that indicative of what you were eating before you started here? If I were to overhaul your plan, here's what I'd do:

- Add breakfast. I totally understand not wanting to eat before a bus ride, but pack along a hard-boiled egg or two, some string cheese and an apple, a banana, something that you can eat while walking that can satisfy you until lunch.

- Add vegetables. Add vegetables everywhere. Quite possibly the most important advice I have gleaned from this site is to consider no meal complete without a fruit or vegetable. I would be famished if I ate so little. Vegetables and fruits add volume without adding a lot of calories. That leads me to:

- Smaller food isn't always better food. You aren't eating a lot of volume at all right now; you talk about eating a small curry, a small Milky Way--but a potatoe-y curry with rice or a candy bar are very calorie-dense foods. You might be eating a small amount, but still consuming dozens of calories per bite. Here's a link to a web site that shows pictures of 200 calories' worth of various foods; I found it really eye-opening.

- Add more water. Sometimes we feel hungry when we're actually thirsty; if you're only drinking a couple of glasses of water a day, you may find yourself feeling hungrier than you really are.

- Figure out how your body handles carbs. Try replacing carb-heavy meals with protein-heavy ones and see how you feel. Some people do much better with less carbohydrate-rich diets; others do just fine with a moderate amount of healthy carbs. Right now your typical day is very carb-rich; every meal contains a starch and if you're someone who doesn't lose well on a carb-rich diet, you could be foiling your own efforts.

You'll notice that my "makeover" actually added stuff instead of taking stuff away. I think that's key to long-term success--learning what you can add instead of just trying to subtract until you go crazy for want of something "on plan" to eat.

Some people get fat quickly, because a change in life style for any number of reasons means they start eating thousands of calories more than they burn, and the weight piles on. You see this sort of weight gain when people move out, when they get into a relationship, when a relationship goes badly, when they move, when they get sick, when they have children, when they take up drinking, when she change jobs, when they develop a binge eating disorder. The weight in these cases goes on in a year or two.

Other people gain weight very slowly, but it adds up: if you took two people who weighed the same and who ate the exact same thing, except one girl had a skinny latte (100 calories) every day, the skinny latte girl would be 10 lbs heavier after a year. After five years, she'd be 50 pounds heavier. In ten years, she'd be 100 pounds heavier. But she'd look at her now much skinnier friend and think "wow, we eat the exact same thing. It must be genetics".

You don't have to eat like the Fat Kid in a stupid movie to get fat. It's 100 extra calories a day or 700 extra calories a week. If it's not a skinny latte, it could be a margarita and beer on Fridays, or pizza night with the family once a week, or full fat milk instead of skim on your breakfast cereal, or dessert once a week. Weight can just creep on if you aren't watching it.

This isn't to say a person can't sometimes have pizza or beer or dessert. But if you aren't making cuts somewhere else, you will gain weight. And that weight stays, and the little add ons add up.

If you weigh 207 lbs, then yes you're eating enough to weigh 207 lbs, but that doesn't really tell you much.

It doesn't mean that you're eating more than someone who weighs 150 lbs or that you're eating less than someone who weighs 300 lbs.

Everyone's body really is different. There are skinny folks eating 7000 calories a day, and fat folks who are eating 1500.

There's no way to tell how many calories you need, except by counting your calories and doing the math. If you're gaining, you need to cut back. If you're maintaining (and you want to lose) then you need to cut back.

To make it more complicated (just because weight loss is), some ways of eating might change how many calories you need. For example, I find that I lose more weight on more calories when I eat low-carb. Something about low-carb allows me to burn more calories. Maybe it gives me more energy and I move more, maybe my body doesn't suck out every last calorie and some of my food is leaving undigested. Doesn't really matter, all I know is that I get to eat more calories to lose the same weight as on high-carb diets. Low-carb also reduces my appetite, so that's a bonus too.

I can eat 1200 calories of high-carb and feel like I'm starving to death (and feel like murdering anyone who looks at me funny) or I can eat 1800 calories of low-carb and feel satisfied and human. I'll lose about the same amount of weight on either one, but you don't really want to be around me if I'm choosing high-carb.

Hon, that's just not enough food.

There are plenty of sites and books that can help you plan nutritious meals. Do a bit of research--you can find all kinds of help.

If you don't like to eat before a bus ride, what about something like a breakfast shake?

You need protein in there somewhere! Lots of good, lean protein sources. Chicken breast, eggs, lean beef, shrimp, salmon...

What about some vegetables? Frozen green beans in a steamer bag are easy and nutritious.

That's just to get you thinking...

As for what other posters report that they are eating--well, you have to take some things with a grain of salt on any web site. No way to check up on it. And, just because one person says they eat "that much," doesn't mean it would be right for you.

If nothing else, try the USDA. You can find nutritional guidelines there, and they provide free downloads.

http://fnic.nal.usda.gov/nal_display...=4&tax_level=1

Good luck!
Jay

I think the other poster was reporting how they GOT fat--what their diet was like before they took control of it. The OP is wondering how she could weigh the same as someone who was eating so much more.

Oh, OK! My bad.

Jay

This is what so many people (often even overweight people) don't get, that overweight people don't necessarily eat more than thin people. Some do, some don't. If you took people of a single gender and height, and found all those maintaining their weight on 2000 calories per day, their weight ranges are going to rum the gamut from very thin to quite fat.

Eating more than you need doesn't mean you're eating more than anyone else. You may have "average" (whatever that is) needs and be eating more than average - or you may be eating "average" amounts, but have below average needs.

I personally can't say that I gained my weight on "average" amounts. I was hungry all of the time growing up. So was my brother. He was encouraged to eat because he was underweight (despite eating thousands of calories a day). Whatever he ate (even if it was 7000 calories in a day), he managed to burn off (He was more active than I was. My favorite hobby was and is reading, his was sports). I was put on my first diet in kindergarten (and started sneaking food). It seems like I was always being told not to eat. Even at 5, I understood that while it wasn't fair, he was skinny and I was fat, but it still felt like they loved him more (turns out he thought they loved me more because I got good grades and he didn't).

My grandmother never ate much. She was very tiny though and had thyroid issues. My mother didn't change her eating habits, but was thin until her late 20's. One of my younger sisters is following in her footsteps. She not only isn't eating any differently, she's still just as active, but she's gaining weight like Mom did (even in the same places that Mom did).

I've known so many people who are "exceptions" to the rules (that thin folks eat less and move more than fat folks).

And even if you eat a lot to GET fat, it doesn't mean you need as much to stay fat. I ate my way to obesity, but each diet seemed to shave a bit of oomph out of my metabolism. On what it takes to lose a pound or two a month, I once lost more than 5 lbs per week on (at this same weight).

I'm not whining. A lot of things in life aren't fair and you just have to deal with your situation no matter what it is. Just like you have to learn to live within your financial budget, you have to live within your calorie budget. And just as there's a lot of social pressure to buy things you don't need, there's a lot of social pressure to eat things you don't need, and some people find success easier than others. Not everyone who makes $150,000 a year is working harder than someone making $22,000 a year.

What you always need to remember is that your current diet doesn't always reflect a weight gain diet. I so often hear people say they should not be obese because they don't eat that much, but the thing is at some point you overate. It needn't be this year, last year, even within the last 5 years, say you go up from 140lbs to 200lbs and then eat to maintain 200lbs, no you don't eat "that much" you eat a maintenance diet, but you are maintaining the increased size. Somewhere in your past there is a sudden or gradual increase in weight that got you there, followed by a period of simply hanging onto it.

Contrary to what so many people would like to believe, no most obese people don't eat that huge an amount of food. It's really what separates the obese from the super-morbildy obese, the obese person generally has a time in life where the weight piles on followed by a maintenance or more gradual gain period. The super-morbidly obese person eats 6 cheeseburgers (e.g.) for breakfast and continues to eat 6 cheeseburgers for breakfast, indulging that addiction day after day after day and the weight carries on increasing, it's not just a moment of major increase (pregnancy, change of job, marriage, etc.) followed by a period of readjustment into maintenance as it is with the average obese person.

Try to eat something very small when you first get up to stimulate you into desiring breakfast. I never used to eat breakfast as it made me feel sick to go from a night of fasting to immediately eating a whole meal, even a light meal. Chewing some gum, eating a sugar-free boiled sweet, drinking a tall glass of water or milk, all these things should stimulate your digestion into life without making you feel like you are choking down a big breakfast, then try to plan for a decent-sized morning snack as early as you can tolerate it.

I think the issue is not "do you eat enough to weigh 207 lbs"...you could eat very little..like you do..and weigh 207lbs.. I think a bigger issue with your diet is what your not eating.
first..i dont know how your not starving.
Second...you have to fruits or veggies....they help you feel full and keep your metabolism going.
Breakfast is definitely a must!..i hate eating breakfast but i started to when i started trying to loose weight. I usually just have an egg and a piece of fruit or something. you need to kick start your day and wake up you body and tell it..start loosing weight!!
and you NEED protein..its the most important thing you need to loose weight! and don't eat any protein at all ..all day..and then you eat a bunch of carbs at night for dinner..that doesn't really make sense.
i've discovered that eating healthy is not about eating mouse sized portions of food. It's about eating healthy and balanced.

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Nola Celeste thanks for providing that website! its great

Mini Goal 1 - Christmas




Long Term Goal

We have a thread in the 100 pound club going right now about ways we used to eat. It's very eye opening and interesting. I discovered through that thread that I am like the OP here...surprised I ever got to 235 pounds by the way I ate. I've never binged. I just had issues with portion control, and honestly, my issues weren't that bad. I thought a full chicken breast was a portion, for instance. So I ate double what I should have of about everything...and that adds up. But I never had some of the behaviors like driving through the drive thru twice or hitting the driver thru and eating it all before going home for dinner or hiding in my car to eat or hiding food under my bed or eating a whole pizza by myself. I noticed several women whose high weights were LESS than mine ate that way. Honestly, it made me sad for myself! LOL! I had some bad habits, yes, but mine were all pretty normal to be honest. In that thread I posted I used to eat Long John Silver's two fish platter with fries hush puppies and a Mountain Dew AND extra crispies. What I didn't write was that I did that once a year because it was so bad! Eating that once a year did not make me fat.

Even now, I lose on far fewer calories than most women. And I workout a crazy amount. So many women here lose weight just by walking. Awesome!! But I'm jealous.

You know what though? It doesn't matter? So my road's a little longer and a little bumpier. I've lost almost 80 pounds. I can do this. I'm not broken. I just had to learn what works for MY body. I don't listen to online calculators telling me what my BMR is. It's wrong. I don't eat back my calories burned. I don't trust that I burn as many calories as the machine says I do.

I just do what works.

thanks for all the answers, they've helped a lot, i think RoseRodent is spot on, never thought of that, i was eating a terrible amount and havent adjusted my diet enough to lose weight....i really need to sort it out.

Since you asked for input...

try a protein breakfast. I eat a snack bar that is called THINK THIN. I believe it is gluten free so it should work with your needs. It is 20G protein and no sugar.

My body can not handle pasta. I know I used to eat 4-5 servings of it for dinner. Try to replace the pasta with a protein or veggie.