| Spots
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Make sure you are eating enough calories. I'm down 3 pounds today! This is the beginning of the third week with increased calories for me and it seems to be working. I'm still a bit shocked.
My advise is to check your calorie intake :wink: I know this is not a calorie counting woe, but you gotta do what you gotta do right?
Happy Valentines Day! 8) |
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Mon Feb 14, 2005 5:52 pm |
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| Kimboroni
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I would suggest first having us take a look at your meals before going the calorie-counting route, since we might easily pick out something that is going astray. Usually it's leakage from other diets-- deprivation, low-fat, low-carb, or some combination of those. If we don't have any suggestions, then checking your calories can be a helpful way to troubleshoot.
Spots is so correct about low calories being a typical problem. Some common pitfalls that lead to that situation are:
Avoidance of nuts
Not having adequate canola or olive oil (or mayo or a "good fat" salad dressing) at every single lunch and dinner, with fat at breakfast optional
Skipping meals or snacks, including dessert
Not eating enough protein
Occasionally, people end up getting too many calories, from common pitfalls like these:
Eating too many nuts
Going overboard with the good oils
Counting foods like avocados and olives as veggies rather than as fats
Eating too many meats and cheeses, thinking it's a low-carb diet
If you aren't sure about the recommended amounts for foods, most answers can be found in the food lists in my FAQ. Also check out the meal templates for help on designing your own meals. |
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Tue Feb 15, 2005 10:16 am |
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| Spots
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Quote: Usually it's leakage from other diets
Thanks Kim, as usual excellent advice. :wink: I was logging my foods in a diary and on fitday and thought I was doing everything right. I was within the guidelines but my portion sizes were off a bit. I don’t think I was eating enough protein. After I picked up one of those little food scales I realized that. And I believe leakage from other diets was a part of the problem with me. :oops: I was under the notion that I should be ingesting around 1200 calories a day. That was way off for me. |
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Tue Feb 15, 2005 4:51 pm |
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| Meg C
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| I think this is great advice. I've been following the portion sizes of the recipes in the SB diet book, and some days not cheating even the tiniest smidgen. Having the total diet mentality. And I'd wake up the next morning feeling starving but not any skinnier. My intuition told me I wasn't eating enough, but I wanted to follow the plan precisely to lose weight as quickly as possible. I read your post yesterday, and thought, huh... that sounds interesting, and too good to be true. Then I looked up basal metabolism rate, you know, what it takes just to keep you breathing, and calculated mine to be at least over 1450 calories per day. The days I thought I was being especially "good," I was barely consuming 1200. And I was exercising too. So now I'm going to lighten up on trying to not eat and see what happens. |
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Tue Feb 15, 2005 6:02 pm |
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| chyna_doll
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I have a problem with the calorie portion of my diet.
i *THINK* i am eating too few calories b/c i do 1 hr cardio workout 4-5 days a week and i input my day's meals into fitday.com and i got around 900-1000 calories. I am going to try and increase it. Its not hard but i am always scared that if i eat more, i'll gain the weight i lost. :(
Does anyone know how many calories i should consume? I read on Shape magazine that i should take my weight and mulitpy it by 15(for moderate exercisers). And i think its a lot of calories so i dont agree with the figures. |
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Tue Feb 15, 2005 6:42 pm |
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| Spots
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Chyna_doll, here is a link that Redrox posted. There are many calculators on the net if you google "calorie calculator". I was very suprised that most of the calculators told me I needed approx. 2300 calories to maintain my current weight. And the sites also tell you for weight loss, eat 500 calories less than your maintenance number. So for me that would be 1800. www.caloriesperhour.com is a great site for this kind of info.
http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm
I was shocked when it told me for rapid weight loss, I should be consuming 1800 calories. That was more than 1 whole extra meal for me. I increased to between 1500 & 1600 a day and so far I'm loosing. And yes, it does seem like lots of food some days. |
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Tue Feb 15, 2005 9:08 pm |
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| CatherineL
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Don't know whether or not this is any help, but here's a calorie calculating method I use from a slimming guide I have.
You should take your daily calorie allowance (a), add your calories used in exercise (c), subtract your total calories consumed (b) and the result (d)should be as close to 0 as possible. a+c-b=d.
Em |
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Tue Feb 15, 2005 9:08 pm |
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| chyna_doll
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Thanks for the info!
I went to that site. It says i need to eat 1998 calories to maintain and 1199 calories for extreme fat loss. :shock: Say if i choose the extreme fat loss option, thats WAY too few calories for someone whose a moderate exerciser. I need to energy!!
Catharine, i tried your method, it keeps coming up with weird numbers because i dont know what my daily calorie allowance really is. :S
Nonetheless, thanks for the help! |
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Thu Feb 17, 2005 4:11 am |
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| Kimboroni
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Yeah, that's one of the problems with calorie counting-- there's really no way to tell exactly what your calorie needs are. A calculator can make an estimate based on certain factors, but it can't possibly include enough factors to give the exact number. If you have a lot of muscle, or a lot of fat, or a slow metabolism, or a fast metabolism, etc., then the numbers will be wrong. They could be very wrong. Our bodies aren't standardized, so a standardized approach to calorie-counting won't work for everyone.
One thing that we need to do is learn how to trust our own hunger more. That means learning the difference between stress-eating and eating from hunger-- this can be very hard to do! Or learning not to eat when you're bored. But I think that learning the blood sugar management that is part of SB helps us get some of those emotional eating issues better under control. It can take some time, so give it a real chance.
Also, SB is naturally low in calories because of all the veggies, and also because of cutting out all the fatty and sugary junkfood. Most diets require that. The magic of SB is that you're learning better carb choices and how to incorporate them into a balanced diet with adequate proteins and fats. So if you're consciously trying to limit calories by cutting down on proteins and fats, that's how it swings to being below what you need to support your life-- it's counterproductive to try to limit calories. Don’t think "low-cal," because it already is low-cal if you’re following the basic guidelines, such as eat lots of veggies but don't eat a whole cup of nuts.
The nut limit is pretty important, but some people (especially most men and heavier women) might actually need a few more nuts just to get enough calories-- maybe 1½ to 2 servings. Like the other limits and suggestions, it's just a guideline to get you thinking about what a "normal" portion is. Another example-- if you are small and can't get in any protein if you eat 2 cups of veggies, then decrease the veggies so you can get some protein in. These are just my own personal observations from seeing the variety of people who go on SB. Balanced meals are so important, and they should work out to a good number of calories if you're in the right frame of mind. |
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Thu Feb 17, 2005 9:31 am |
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