I'm a newbie & just introduced myself on the newbie thread. I've calorie counted for a whopping 2 days and I totally fell off the wagon already because I"M HUNGRY!!! What am I doing wrong? I kept reading posts here about some of you being full with so few calories and I thought I could do it, too, but oh, man, I'm struggling already!
So here's what I'm trying to do:
5'3", 154 lbs, 39 yrs - trying to lose 22 lbs
1400-1500 calories per day goal
Exercise - I exercise 4 to 5 days a week for an avg of 45 mins (using The Firm DVDs, I combine weight training with cardio)
I was trying to eat plenty of veges and other vege dense foods, along with proteins like beans & hummus (I'm a vegetarian)...but never stopped feeling hungry. Only the doritos and cookies this afternoon make me finally feel full (yet blew away the calorie count for the day)
Last edited by healtheeme; 09-23-2008 at 02:21 PM.
Reason: typo
Can you give us a typical day of food? Particularly as a vegetarian, it may be that you don't have enough protein going on. I find that protein is ESSENTIAL for staying full...especially in combination with some healthy fats and lots of fiber.
So give us a sample menu and we'll see what we can come up with. It may be, though, that your body is going to have to adjust to the lower calorie level, and you'll have to "muscle through" for a week or two.
It may also be that you have a bit of a refined-carb hunger cycle going on. See, when you eat refined carbs, your body pumps out insulin, which then facilitates the use or storage of the sugars in the refined carbs. But that "insulin flood" can make your blood sugar drop TOO low (basically, it'll crash), which will make you crave more starchy stuff that'll get your blood sugar up fast (like cookies). So you crave those things...problem is, when you eat them, you set yourself up to repeat the problem, because eating the cookies will result in another insulin spike, another crash later...you get the idea.
A lot of people need to go "cold turkey" on the refined carbs for a while to break this cycle. The first couple days are the worst - after that, the cravings for refined carbs and the wicked hunger tend to go away.
I'd add a piece of fruit to that breakfast (it seems a little skimpy).
I'd take the mozz stick from dinner & pair it with the celery as the first snack.
Probably would've added something like some grapes to the second snack.
Was the hummus store-bought or did you make your own? If you make your own, you can control how much oil to use, which often brings down the calories & fat content.
How many calories are in the corn muffins? Most corn muffins... muffins of any kind, really have far too many calories for their worth.
Did you drink diet soda? Usually a can of diet coke sets me off. I can be fine all day, then have a diet soda ... and then - watch out! I can eat a house!!!
Make sure that you drink enough water. I drink at least 4 - 25oz. bottles of S. Pellegrino each day.
And, as a long time vegetarian, I recently gave it up to lose weight. It's really hard to get protein on a veggie diet. I now eat egg whites and some chicken, and it seems to be working.
Personally I find that steel cut oats stay with me better then cold cereals. To my 1 cup of cooked oats I add, 2T raisins, 1T ground flax seed, 2T soy milk, 1/2t cinnamon, and 1t honey. Along with my supplements and coffee (black) it comes out to around 300 calories and I don't get hungry for about 3 hours.
I think you should add some protein with your celery. Peanut butter, cheese, hummus, or a boiled egg... just celery wouldn't fill me up at all.
How about having some tofu or tempeh with your kale instead of soup? Marinated tofu is unbelievably good cold.
Also, what about having a small handful of raw nuts and some cheese as a snack. Pretzels don't fill me up very well, unless I get the high protein kind, but even then they are a treat due to the salt content (I watch my salt intake since I'm salt sensitive.)
For dinner why not have 1 cup of chili on 1 cup of brown rice and a nice big salad with lots of veggies to fill you up?
Also, it looks like you aren't eating enough throughout the day. Dinner shouldn't be half of your calories. You should spread your calories out evenly through the day. I know this is hard, I'm guilty of this too.
Another thing to consider. I'm not sure if this is true in your case, but when I first started, what I thought was hunger was actually thirst. I truly didn't know what thirst felt like. So make sure you drink lots of water.
Breakfast: 1 cup Oatmeal raisin crisp cereal w/ 1/2 c. skim milk
Snack: 1 cup celery
Lunch: 1 cup steamed Kale w/lemon juice, Whole can of Progresso Garden Vegetable Soup
Snack: 10 pretzels & 2 Tbsp hummus
Dinner: 2 cups Vege Chili (just brimming with beans!), 2 corn muffins, 1 mozzarella stick
Desert: 1/2 c. light ice cream & some popcorn
total calories: 1485
(and I was really hungry!)
In my opinion, you were hungry because you ate so lightly for breakfast/snack/lunch. Cold cereal never fills me (and often triggers carb binge hunger), celery is like air and kale + vegetable soup are practically calorie free. Except for the milk in the cereal, you had no protein until the hummus. Dinner looked better, but I wonder about the calorie count of the corn muffins (most muffins are little calorie bombs).
I would increase protein for breakfast, and like another poster said move the cheese string down with the celery. Add some sort of good protein source to lunch (beans in the soup?) and you should have a better day tomorrow.
I didn't eat flesh for years. I eventually gave it up while dieting because it was just so hard to get the protein I needed. I'm not advising you to eat meat, I'm just letting you know I understand it is a challenge.
Are you okay with eating veggie burgers and the like? When I was vegetarian (had to quit b/c of protein reasons, too) I used to have veggie sausage or 1/2 a veggie burger with breakfast. Peanut butter is also a good way to add protein.
Your breakfast does seem light-I make it my largest meal, with cereal/oatmeal, a 6oz V8 juice, a piece of fruit and 2 slices of turkey/hard boiled egg (or vegetarian equivalent) plus lots of water. A big breakfast sets my eating for the rest of the day, if i miss it I've got the major munchies.
More protein should help you feel full longer.
I agree with the others but wanted to throw out a breakfast idea. 1 cup of nonfat plain greek yogurt (it's thicker than regular yogurt) is 120 calories but has a whopping 22 grams of protein. You might want to combine that with a little honey or sweetener, some berries and a little high fiber cereal. That would give you a good protein-packed breakfast with reasonable calories. It keeps me full for several hours.
And definitely add protein with every snack/meal you eat.
There aer soem old threads about what people eat on a regular basis. I was pretty clueless about a lot of healthy choices and found that thread really helpful. You might want to search it out for some ideas.
For lunch, I eat a flame grilled boca burger with a low carb tortilla and shredded broccoli and maybe some dijon mustard. It's yummy, low cal and very filling. Just hang in there and see if you can modify your diet with the above suggestions. You can do this! Don't let one bump throw you off course. Stay focused on your goal and you will find a healthy way to get there!
Wow, what a lot of good ideas and encouragement! I truly appreciate it and am feeling a little better/more motivated. I'll have to do a little more planning (which I knew I'd have to do - just didn't want that to be yet another excuse for not getting started right away). I'll be using these ideas in my plans. Keep 'em coming
Your dinner is really top heavy for your daily calories. You feel like you are starving all the time...because you are! You need to up those morning calories -- especially that morning snack and get some fruit in there, and WAY more protein early in the day to see you through.
I do low fat yogurt with high fiber/low sugar ceral (All Bran Buds or such) and half an apple mixed up all together for breakfast. Yummy! (Around 300 calories)
I am a BIG fan of protein bars for snacks. Not because they are necessarily the best nutritional choice, but because with my schedule I can carry one in my purse for snacktime--so I am assured not to go too long without food. Personally, I love the Caramel Blast Balance Bars. They have 210 calories and 15 grams of protein. They keep my going and going without hunger until lunch. Oh, and I feel like I am cheating because they are simply amazing -- like a Snickers bar. However, I am not a person who suffers from carb withdrawal -- at least that I can tell, and they are definitely not low sugar. So just beware if that is a problem for you.
I generally have a chicken salad for lunch with lots and lots of veggies. Vast quantities of veggies to fill me up--go for bulk! As a vegetarian, firm tofu, garden burger crumbled up, etc. could be substituted for the chicken. Cheese perhaps? A little olive oil and vinegar for dressing. (350-400 calories).
I always do an afternoon snack -- generally small. An apple or other piece of fruit. Maybe a little cheese or peanut butter if I am feeling hungry. Or, hummus and veggies. (150 calories)
Dinner, of course, depends -- but the two corn muffin thing? I would have definitely skipped them or at least one of them and moved those calories earlier in the day. Try to rethink dinner so that it does not have to be the "big meal" of the day -- really you should eat lots of little meals all day long so your metabolism stays up. Every time you eat, your metabolism rises -- so eating often and keeping your calories steady -- as long as you do not eat too much -- this will not only help make you feel less hungry, it will also help you lose weight. My dinners usually have around 350 to 500 calories.
Total: Between 1400-1600 daily (I recently raised my calories to 1700 a day because I was actually losing too fast. I didn't want to keep losing more than 2 pounds a week and I had averaged almost three for a couple of weeks straight. You may find that you can eat more calories than you think...don't start so low that you end up quitting and binging on bad stuff two day into it. That is counterproductive.)
Calorie cycling! You can find websites to help you come up with a weekly plan. Basically, you have light calorie days each week and high calorie days -- but it evens out to some daily average for the week as a whole. That way you will have slightly hungry days -- but you always know that in a day or two you get to have a higher calorie day. This also helps trick your metabolism into not "getting used" to a steady lower calorie intake...added bonus!
Good luck! It really does get easier. Even after just a week or so, your body adjusts and eating less becomes more and more of a habit. Oh, and I find that if I exercise in the evening, for some reason that helps me not get the nighttime munchies -- I don't know if it is just a mind over matter thing or what.
Yeah, reiterating what everyone else has said - spread those calories out and def. get more protein in there.
I eat 1500 cals a day and I'm eating a LOT more than you are, and getting 120g of protein a day, too. Here's what I had on Monday:
Breakfast: McCann steel cut oats w/ 1 serving of cheese (250 cals / 10 g protein)
Snack: medium apple and a boiled egg (150 cals / 7 g protein)
Lunch: Albacore tuna (a whole can, which is 2.5 servings), light mayo, mustard, on a bed of baby spinach (275 cals / 46 g protein)
Snack: V8 Juice (75 cals / 2 g protein)
After workout snack: Protein drink (120 cals / 26 g protein)
Dinner: stir fried veggies w/ broccoli, onion, carrot, celery, mushroom, garlic. Steamed shrimp (2 servings) (550 cals / 52 g protein)
Snack: Frozen low-fat vanilla yogurt (90 cals / 4 g protein)
Total cals for the day: 1510 cals / 147 g protein
For you, you could sub veggie protein or tofu or even a veggie burger for the meat products here. You might not get quite as much protein, but still a good bit.
Ok, I'm starving
