I have been somewhat curious as to what people eat and loose weight while eating. For the past couple of weeks I have been eating bran flakes in the morning, normally a sandwhich at lunch time (chicken or tuna) and soup at tea time. I drink at least 2 litres of water a day and I go running most evenings for an hour (hard work!)

I have been told that what I eat isn't enough calories and that my body is in starvation mode.

What would ideal meals for a day be?

I have porridge made with fruit and yoghurt for breakfast, either bean chilli or lentil soup (or similar) for lunch, with yoghurt and fruit for snacks during the day, usually chicken and veggies in the evening, sometimes bean burgers or falafel, or a bean, tomato and quinoa stew. I drink mainly water (1 espresso per day during the week, a little alcohol at weekends), and exercise every day.

Everyone is amazed by how much I eat, but I figure that if I don't eat enough I won't have the energy to exercise as much as I want to, so I'd rather eat it then burn it off!

I am a porridge girl as well, so that's brekky. Lunch is usually a big salad with either a salmon fillet, chicken fillet or cottage cheese. Sometimes I have a large roll with salad and a protein source. Dinner varies a lot. Tonight was a turkey stir fry with plenty of vegetables with brown rice.

I exercise six days a week. Tonight I went swimming, and I did an aerobics class at lunch time.

Please read this very informative thread about starvation mode.
http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/show...tarvation+mode


You may also want to look here
http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=75580
to see what those people are eating.

Any time you see a little footnote about fitday in someone's signature, you can click on it and see what they eat.
But you really must read that starvation mode thread!

I have porridge as well - and I add in some berries (raspberries at the moment), a couple of brazil nuts for the selenium and a couple of spoonfuls of mixed seeds mix (I got it from Julian Graves). At lunch I have homemade lentil and veg soup or homemade low fat hummus and wholemeal pitta with some salad. In the evening I have 100g of grilled, steamed or baked chicken, fish or low fat meat and 150g of low GI carbs like sweet potato or brown basmati rice, plus a HUGE amount of low GI veggies, never less than 3 types and usually 4 or 5. I also have fruit 'snacks' during the day - just a pear at mid morning and maybe 4 oz of grapes mid afternoon. I also have a half pint of skimmed milk towards bedtime because it helps me sleep.

It sounds a lot but it is always within my calorie allowance for the week.

Porridge for brekky too! I cook it with an egg in for an easy protein source. OR sometimes scrambled eggs with bacon OR bacon omlette OR bacon on rye bread

Morning meal - nuts and fruit or soy nuts and fruit or about 3 servings of fruit depending what I'm doing at lunch.

Lunch - chicken and rice with veggies or a HUGE chicken and bacon salad or scrambled eggs

Afternoon meal - a ball of Mozzarella and 1 wholewheat pita OR a yoghurt and fruit OR cottage cheese in a pita

Dinner - 1pt milk with 2 scoops protein powder OR 2 pork medallions with rice or corn or sweet potato OR egg fried rice with bacon OR some other concoction!

Exercise - 5 hours kickboxing, 1.5 hours running, 1.5 hours weights.

Kcals per day approx 1800 but turns out to average 1900. I'm Zig-zagging my calories and BOY has that made a difference! Check out http://strengthnspeed.tripod.com/Nut.../ZigZagCal.htm

cereal for brekkie would prefer porridge but I have no microwave and am too lazy to make it on the stove.
Mid morning I always have a bio yogurt

Then lunch soup with a bread roll, or sometimes I have a sandwich (with no butter on the bread) or a jacket potato and salad

Dinner: pasta with veggie substitute, tofu, veggie omelete, sometimes a big salad,

on that lines anyway.

Today I'm having a veggie cutlet with jacket potato and veg for lunch and then for dinner I'm having a mushroom omelette with a salad.

Blimey what's this, Porridge -eaters Anonymous?

I have to admit to also having a porridge thing... I use 40-50g of organic jumbo oats, 2 fl oz milk (soy or skimmed), the rest water. I add 1 tbsp of mixed seeds - looks weird but tastes great! Sometimes I have a sliced banana on it, sometimes not. Oh and 1 tsp organic honey because my old aunty always said a tsp of honey a day was the secret of her longevity...

If I'm hungry mid morning, I have 1 piece of fruit or a probiotic yog.

A typical lunch could be omelette made with 2 eggs (yolk and white), small amount of milk, sometimes 1 oz Philadelphia Extra Light or upto 1 oz half fat cheddar grated on it, with salad... Or falafels and salad.... Or cheese and salad sarnie made with wholemeal bread, no fat (I don't even eat marg), 1oz low fat cheese and lashings of... yes, salad!

If I'm full I leave it there. If not, I'll follow it with a low fat chocky mousse, or a yog (if I didn't have one earlier) or a different fruit. If I don't have a pudding after lunch, I have that later as a mid-afternoon snack. If I had pud with lunch, I don't have mid-afternoon snack.

Dinner - most typically 4- 6 oz fish (oily or white, I don't care!), 1 starchy thing (either 100g low fat oven chips, or 1 slice wholemeal bread or 50g quinoa, rest of plate filled with veg - carrots, sweetcorn and green stuff! I love spinach - could eat it all day!
Pudding - 1 of the following: yog, fruit, Weightwatcher's pudding (I limit them as they're full of additives), Yorkshire Vanilla Low Fat Ice cream, Rosemary Conley low fat Choc Mousse - whatever I fancy that's not too fatty, really!

Evening snack : 20g bar Green & Black's Organic Choc or 1 small KitKat
If it's not my chocky craving time of the month, then I might have 2-3 organic oatcakes with organic honey

1 - 2 glasses of wine, some nights (maybe 3-4 glasses over 7 days)


I had a rule from when I started this diet - I NEVER go to bed hungry! I refuse to! And, as you can see,, I don't starve myself. I aim at 50-60 mins exercise 6 days a week - walking, jogging, swimming, cycling, and/or yoga/dance or aerobic DVD to keep it varied. If I work out really hard one day, I just walk the next day. If I work my upper body hard one day - I do the lower the next!

I also do holistic stuff - meditation, Reiki, you name it.


Your cals are way too low, as you say - you'd probably be doing OK if it wasn't for the evening meal. You could have a 3 course meal with the soup just as the starter - and still lose weight, on what you're eating!

I couldnt get the starvation mode link to work.
Im very curious about this as Im concerned that I might fall into the catergory by accident and my bf also

its really easy to do I've done it before then started eating 500 cals mroe a day and theres a lot you can have with 500 cals and then suddenly started losing again.

you've also got to be really careful when exercising because you can burn alot more than you think. I walk about 90 mins a day with a huge back pack on up a big hill so i can get away with little treats as a result.

I didn't work for me either. I think I used an advanced search, put in 'starvation mode' and chose only titles .... it's a thread started by a poster called alberta.
Wanna try that?

Or I could just bump it up! It should show up in 'new posts' now.

I found it, finally!!! It didn't show up on new posts, because it is now 12 hours since you posted that, and I couldn't find it, I gave up after 7 pages!!!

let me try posting the link again

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/show...tarvation+mode

Hmmm im confused also about starvation mode now. Am I eating enough:

I am 266lbs and eat 1200 - 1500 calories each day. I alternate each day so one will be 1200 one will be 1500. I weight train and do 2 hours of swimming a day. Am I eating enough? I try to make it rich in protein but have a combination of everything.

I went to that ZigZagCal listed above and it says I should be on 2000+ a day??

Thanks guys

Mel

Hi Mel - have you tried working out how many calories you are burning when you exercise? I use the NHS Direct calorie calculator and when I checked your weight against two hours of swimming it says you are burning 1532 cals. So, yes, you may well not be eating enough.

Apparently (and I'm not a dietician but I've read it lots of times) you shouldn't eat less calories than your basal metabolic rate. I'm 5ft 6 and weigh 216 lbs / 15st 6lbs - and according to FitDay my basal metabolic rate is 1668. I do the zigzag thing - well, sort of - the theory seems like a good one to me because nobody I know who is naturally slender eats exactly the same amount of calories each and every day. I've adapted it to fit in with my life - I allow myself 1500 cals per day plus free non starchy vegetables. I worked out 1500 cals per day over 7 days (total 10,500) and then use the complex zigzag which means that Mon, Wed and Fri I have 1,100, Tues I have 1,500, Thurs is 2,100, Sat is 2,000 and Sunday 1,600. I love it - it means that I know I'm never more than a day or two from being able to treat myself a little.