I could eat a horse.....seriously!

Today is day 3 of being off gluten and dairy. I'm feeling 110% better already in terms of mood, anxiety, energy, stomach pain, etc. But since I've gone off gluten and dairy, I'm so hungry. When I ate bread before, I would get SO bloated and such an sore stomach that I had a hard time eating but now that my stomach doesn't hurt, I"m hungry.

I'm trying to stick to 1500 calories a day, sometimes less, sometimes more. That's my average. I haven't had dinner yet, but will in about an hour, but with my dinner and my snack I'm at 1,565 calories. I feel like I could eat at least 1000 more. I can't do raw veggies because of a jaw problem.

Today I had:

Breakfast: 1 cup applesauce, 1/4 cup hemp heart granola (homemade), cup of tea with 1 tsp sugar and 1 tsp half and half

Lunch: 2 slices homemade gluten free flat bread, 3 oz chicken breast, 2 tbsp bbq sauce, 1/2 cup shredded romaine

Snack: 100 calorie popcorn, diet pepsi, 1 tbsp peanut butter

Dinner: 5 oz chicken breast, 5 oz red potato, 2 roasted cloves of garlic, 1 cup mixed greens, 1/4 cup each of green pepper, red pepper, yellow pepper, grated carrot, and celery with 1 tbsp newmans balsamic vinegar dressing

Snack: 1 cup blueberries



When I look at my day, it looks pretty good. I only drink one diet pepsi every 2 or so weeks. Kids wanted a slurpee so I got a pop. I really enjoy the popcorn, so I'd hate to cut that out. The peanut butter I ate in hopes that it would fill me up a bit....didn't work.

Any suggestions? I'm 5'7, 200 lbs. Are my calories where they should be?

If you can find a way to fit in more veggies I think you'd benefit. Also maybe some more healthy fats, avocados, olive oil, and nuts, both of these will help your hunger levels. Swaping out regular sugar for natural sugar like honey could help too.

For me there's sometimes nothing I can do about my hunger except just ride it out, especially before TOM.

By posting what you're eating you should get a lot more advice from other members - hang in there!

More veggies would be my advice.
You're only having a total of 1.5 cups of lettuce a day. (since i consider that potatoes are a starch and don't get to count in the veggie world). Really, adding some to both lunch AND dinner could help you fill up without having a ton of calories. If you cant eat them raw, roasting can help. Or you can always steam things like broccoli or carrots to make them soft.

I think your breakfast could use a little help too. There isn't really any protein. I know when I eat apple-sauce, it just feels like empty calories: no filling power and i don't really recognize any decrease in hungry after eating it. What about eggs? You could add veggies to them and make an omlet. Canadian bacon is pretty low in calories for breakfast too.

As for the peanut butter, its up to you. But I know the type I use is almost 90 calories for 1 tablespoon, which is a lot for such a little amount of food. You could switch it to an apple or another piece of fruit to go with the popcorn. I find if I slice an apple up really thin and take my time with it, its super filling. Plus, apples have a ton of fiber

Clearly, you'll have to make your own choices. These are just a couple suggestions. Good luck!

Whoops, I also have slivered red orange and green peppers, diced celery, grated carrot in the salad. I measured it after adding that stuff and it's about 2 cups of salad.

I can defenitely do more veggies.

My breakfast, I could add an egg to my applesauce and hemp granola. But I don't want to give up the applesauce and hemp granola. The granola has walnuts and almonds in it, so lots of healthy fats in there.

My salads are 3 cups and I often have one at lunch and one at supper.

I had a salad last night at an event that had roasted veggies on it and was quite tasty and they were much softer than raw. I'm going to try doing that some time.

What about spacing things out so that you get another snack? I often have two snacks in the afternoon because it helps ward off afternoon hunger. Each one is only 100 calories, but it still seems to help.

How fast are your losing? If it's fairly quickly, you could consider increasing your calories for awhile. You might have to lower them again before you reach goal, but you'll have more skills by then to help make it easier. I've lowered my calories a couple of times and it never proved as difficult as I thought it would be.

Maybe cottage cheese instead of the peanut butter? Higher protein, lower fat, and you get a bigger serving size.

Good job working out how to make this work better for yourself.

I'm dairy free.

So the half and half is still dairy though?

Whereabouts are you in BC? Choices Market has a huge array of gluten-free choices. I try and make a trip out to the one in South Surrey so I can get some rare stuff.

Off the top of my head...

Not enough protein at breakfast (3oz & 5oz chicken at dinner is great!)
Maybe a bit too much sugar (applesauce, possibly the granola, bbq sauce are all sources of a lot of sugar).

And just MY opinion, but at 200lbs, I would recommend you eat more like 1800 calories ~ that way when you lose and begin to plateau, you can lower your calories again without creating too much of a deficit.

Good luck!

i know that whenever i am about to have a whoosh, i tend to feel ravenous. So, if i can just ride it out, i feel rewarded. However, if it is a daily thing, you should consider adding a bit more food, or going the more veggie route to feeling full.

also, how are you sleeping? If i am not getting enough sleep i tend to feel hungrier. Getting a normal night sleep deals with that issue.

The applesauce and granola was a red flag to me, as it was to others. Good that there's nuts in the granola, but at only 1/4 cup of granola and a whole cup of applesauce... do you eat that every day? If so, could you cut back to maybe 3 days a week and do something with more protein the other days? I loooooove cereal but now it's an "occasional" breakfast instead of an "everyday."

Your dinner salad sounds delicious -- how about eating half of it at lunch and half at dinner?

Like GardenerJoy, I plan for two snacks in the afternoon. It's my trouble-time, where I'm really prone to stuffing my face out of boredom/stress/hunger, so if I plan for two healthies, that's a big help.

I do try to get protein at each snack. I've found that 1/2 ounce of almonds is mentally more satisfying than a tbsp of pb or almond butter because I can eat one at a time and they crunch! Though I do love 1 tbsp of pb or almond butter on half an Arnold Whole Wheat Sandwich Thin with some sliced banana and ground flaxseed. Yum!

How much do you exercise? If you've got a good exercise program in place I would guess you could eat more calories. Why not give 1700 or 1800 a try?

The half and half is dairy.....I've really been meaning to give it up, but haven't. That's the only dairy I have and as soon as this carton is gone, I"ll give it up too.

I'm in the west kootenays.

No added sugars in the applesauce, granola has 1/4 cup of sucanut sugar in the whole batch (10 servings), rest of it is nuts, a small amount of oats, coconut, and hemp hearts. BBQ is homemade, no sugar.

I was trying 1800 calories and not losing at all. I stayed like that for 2 weeks, and no loss!

That's funny because this morning I woke up and was under 200!!! I had a big whoosh in the past 3 days.

There's 8 grams of protein in the 1/4 cup of granola. Isn't that an ok amount? I have been eating the same breakfast every day because it leaves me full until lunch time (4 hours later). It's after lunch that I'm so hungry.

Could defenitely do half the salad at lunch and half at dinner.

I was doing 1800 calories and doing the couch to 5K program with 30 Day Shred thrown in a couple of days and not losing at all. Did that for 2 weeks and I think I ended up gaining a few ounces. I've been walking at a moderate pace 2 or 3 times a week and am finally under 200 lbs. If I'm losing without rigorous exercise, is it vital that I do more?