To wonder how you can get enough calories eating healthily?

[moutonfou]

I'm not trying to lose weight, but I'm trying to eat healthily - a few relatives have had heart/diabetes scares lately so I really want to cut back on excessive fat/salt/sugar and try to eat more lean protein, wholemeal, etc.

Today I've eaten porridge for breakfast; a pitta with chicken, feta and salad for lunch; chicken in a coconut marinade with rice for tea, and for snacks strawberries with full fat greek yoghurt, some cherries, and some cashew nuts.

And I'm still 500 calories under my supposed calorie needs which is only 1800. I also burn about 1500-2000 calories per week through exercise (didn't exercise today so the 500 deficit is before any exercise).

How am I meant to make up the calorie deficit without resorting to something easy like chocolate or crisps? I guess I could have just eaten more of everything, like two pittas instead of one, but I get full quite quickly. Took two pittas to work for that reason but just couldn't face the second.

On the other hand, could quite easily stuff my face with 500 calories of chocolate before getting full....

Your diet does seem a bit low on fruit and veg e.g. Below 5-10 portions a day which is recommended to have significant health impacts on cancer and heart deiase. Could you add and apple and a banana and a portion of kale, or some such?

moutonfoe
Haha yes..a good Freudian slip though.

Read John Briffa's Escape the Diet Trap... basically we've had it arse over foot the past few decades, we should be eating healthy fats, less carbs and minimal sugar. It's not so much about how many calories we eat... but what our metabolisms do with those calories. Eating lots of carbs, esp the high GI kind, leads to an insulin spike which signals your body to store fat around your abdominal organs.

Healthy fats are unrefined, so avocados, nuts, butter, full fat dairy, EV olive oil, fatty meats like pork belly, duck etc, oily fish, dark chocolate.

Avoid refined seed/vegetable oils such as soya oil, sunflower oil, trans fats, hydrogenated fats, margarine etc. Along with processed foods with them in such as bought cakes, doughnuts, crisps, deep fried foods etc.

Eat lots of non starchy veggies, moderate amounts of meat fish and fresh fruit, be generous with butter and olive oil. Cut back on starchy food like rice and bread etc, and only eat sugary food at celebrations (check the labels as 80% of packaged/processed food contains shocking amounts of sugar)

I could spunk 1300 calories on feta alone.

You must be eating toddler portions.

Pimp your porridge! Add dry fruit, nuts and seeds. A bit of avocado and mayo in your salad at lunch.
I'd echo others in thinking your calorie count is out.

SaucyJack I think the problem is I'm just not a savoury person. I love sugar so I'm trying to cut back and not really fancying enough of anything else to fill the calorie deficit.

I'd probably happily eat chocolate instead of meals if it was socially acceptable

When I gave up sugar for lent I had double cream in my porridge every day. Lush. Still lost 6 pounds

mouton I gave up the sugar because it felt unhealthy, after a week or so I didn't miss it. I'm back on it now and struggling not to binge. That stuff's poison

Mac and cheese with bacon will do it

Seriously though :
If you like sugar eat dried fruit : high calorie but better for you than chocolate or so they tell me

Mayonnaise out the jar with a spoon I've had to reluctantly follow some loosely based paleo diet over the past few years to help an under lying health condition, the lack of excitement in my diet means I don't get that hungry, so mayonnaise on everything!

Sorry, I missed the dislike of savory bit.

80%+ chocolate (Lidl or Aldi do some nice stuff) is good for calories, I'm not that keen on the bitterness, but it's not so bad washed down with coffee.

If you feel healthy and satisfied on that diet, why are you worrying about how many calories it contains?

How is that possible? I'm currently eating only 1000 per day, today I've had...

Full skimmed milk for my coffee's
2 Apples
2 Satsumas
1 portion of oven baked salmon
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Spring onion
Low fat salad dressing
1 fat free yoghurt.

That's it. If I'd had porridge and the rest of the stuff you did I'd be waaaaaay over.

I feel very jealous at all you perfect clean eaters who are able to easily consume less than 1300 cals a day. I'm a fat sugar addict. Although I eat healthy 80% of the time, i eat way too much choc/bics/cake. Very rarely able to eat less than 2000 cals :(

I don't believe people who eat ~1,300 calories can be full! I love a good salad or stirfry but if it doesn't have enough protein or fat I'm hungry within a couple of hours.

I'm a firm believer that low fat food items are worse for you that the original full fat versions, we all need some fat in our diet.

I really struggled to get enough calories when I started to try and eat low GL for my PCOS as part of my fertility treatment

I was already underweight and had to get my BMI up to start treatment

I really really had to work at getting enough calories when eating high protein and low GL, I did it, but I was eating massive portions and eating all the bloody time

I ate a lot of Greek yogurt and avocado, and no sugar peanut butter on ryvita

Mind you I was shocked at how much I needed to be eating to get 2000 calories a day. I had always thought I was underweight because I had a fast metabolism, but actually turned out I had been vastly over estimating how much I had been eating. I had to get my calories up without starchy carbs or sugar - so the above featured very heavily in my diet

I don't believe people who eat ~1,300 calories can be full!

Really? I have 800 cals a day. Today I had breakfast at 2pm, because that was when I was hungry. My husband had to remind me to eat dinner at 9:30pm because I just wasn't hungry (had lunch at about 5:30pm).

@TittyGolightly

Please can you tell me more about the feeling full on 800 calories? What do you eat? Genuinely interested.

Almonds x

I've had about 1100 and I'm not hungry

Breakfast - protein shake with skim milk
Lunch - 2 sausages (95% meat ones), bag of steamed veg, roasted kale
Tea - wrap with ham, cottage cheese, salad and pickle
Babybel and an apple as a snack

Ask me again tomorrow when I've ridden two horses and been to the gym

I follow the blood sugar diet.

Typical weekday is:

Breakfast:
120g full fat Greek yogurt, 80g frozen berries, 6g ground flaxseed.

Lunch:
Soup/lentil and feta salad/salad with tuna, cheese or hard boiled eggs/cheese and mushroom omelette with baked beans.

Dinner:
Veg/prawn curry with cauli rice/tuna steak or veggie sausages with stir fry/celeriac pizza/mushroom, spinach and goats cheese risotto (cauli rice)

If I need to add calories I'll have real coffee with double cream, some 99% chocolate and a few Brazil nuts, some cheese and celery sticks, hummus with veg or a sliced apple with some good peanut butter.

Am 3.5 stone lighter than I was in January and feel fantastic.

Thanks. You have given me inspiration - I always suspected that it's carbs that make me hungry!

I'm no nutritionist but eat healthily - because I like the food such as chicken, salads, vegetables etc.

To wonder how you can get enough calories eating healthily?

I don't understand this? to eat healthily does not mean you starve yourself and certainly no rationing yourself with something ridiculous like an 800 calorie diet.

I eat what I like which means most of the time I eat 'healthy' but yes, I do 'indulge' with a maccies or a pizza now and again - everything in moderation surely

I follow weight watchers and when I followed my calorie count of 30 points in fitness pal it tracked at 1200-1400 calories a day. That is with the new system with zero points for all fruit and veg. Personally I try to keep my fruit to two portions a day and eat unlimited veg. Some days I reach for chocolate to get to my required points. Ironically when I eat to my daily points I lose more than when I track below.

The first thing I would suggest OP is that you try keeping a precisely detailed food diary and list EVERYTHING you eat and drink. For example, you didn't mention any drinks (tea or coffee for example) in your breakdown of daily food. If you take milk with coffee or tea that can easily add 100 - 200 calories depending on type/amount of milk or cream etc...

Also, I hope you realise that set amounts of arbitrary daily calorie intake are just that - arbitrary and the more we discover about our biological responses to food, the more we are learning that the manner and speed in which we process food is different for everyone, to the extent that two people could eat the exact same slice of bread and receive different amounts of caloric energy from it. Our metabolisms, stomach flora etc... all change things from person to person.