need help with diet

[LuckyAmy1986]

Started calorie counting Monday - 1600

Typical day is greek yog with seeds, nuts, fruit, honey
Lunch - egg on sourdough with avo or feta/ lentil chilli
Dinner - seabass, sweet potato/some sort of grain with veg

evening - snack around 100 cal with a chamomile tea (can't not do this because if I have too long between meals, my acid flares up like crazy overnight)

have also started counting my steps so I wear a watch for my outside walks (after each meal) but take it off inside so probably doing 12kish - this is all i'm doing exercise wise.

So.... my aibu is........aibu to think that I should feel ok on this?

I don't! I am very hungry and I feel almost weak.

I have done 1200 a couple of times in my life (when younger) when I have needed to lose weight, so this should be easy, but it's not and I can't work out why.

I am 40. 5ft 5 and 12.7 stone. I want to be 10.7 stone ideally.

TIA for any help/advice

I wouldn't be walking 10k+ a day on that intake. I think you'll lose weight if you stop walking because your body is trying to do too much.

I'm 9.5st and 5'8. Very sedentary so eat accordingly 😆

Weekday
No breakfast
2x Crumpets around 11/lunchtime ish
Couple rice cakes peanut butter/cake at 4pm
Big veggie dinner at 8pm. I'm talking like around 300kcal brown rice, 2x ladles of chilli, avocado and cheese. (Prob why I'm not hungry in the am)

Weekend
11am brunch: tofu, avocado, baked beans, mushrooms, spinach, 2x tomatoes, maybe a slice of sourdough toast
7pm big sweet jacket potato, cheese and beans or a mumsnet mega salad (which is a genuinely enormous, heaped portion of: olives, artichokes, sundried tomatoes, cous cous, tofu, butternut/sweet potato, cucumber, tomato etc)

I'd recommend a veggie hot breakfast in the morning and having your current breakfast as 4pm snack or dessert.

Your food intake seems, on the whole, quite... unvoluminous... iyswim. Not filling and satiating. Add in some peanut butter 🤪

Sorry to be boring as well, but are you chewing enough? Like.do you have enough crunch in your food for your body to recognise that you're eating? Likening could still be starving after yogurt or a plate of mash because there's no satisfying crunch.

Yes it’s probably too low. Sorry if I’ve missed it but how active are you/how much are you walking? I’d recommend The Chub Club on Facebook, very sensible and supportive calorie deficit group. They’ll calculate you a sustainable deficit

Just seen you’re doing 12k steps a day. Yes 1600 is absolutely too low

She is doing 1600. She says so in the first line of her OP

Not boring, all helpful tips! it might be a point.

Hmm ok. Ill have a look at the facebook page you recommended :)

Give your body time to adjust and it will go away. When you make changes your hunger signals will often get worse before they get better, even though you’re not actually hungry. You’re simply in the habit of slight twinge of hunger = eat. Once your brain and body realise that this isn’t going to be the case anymore they will quiet down. Just like your body can get into other habits like waking up early, it can get into habits of expecting/demanding way more food than it needs. You just have to stick it out.

Yes, thank you. I've already had a conversation with the OP where I told her I'd made a mistake.

I think your current breakfast would keep you fuller than porridge - protein like nuts and seeds and Greek yogurt keep you full for ages. Also scrambled eggs is another good one - 3 eggs scrambled keeps me going for hours, whereas the carb hit of oats would make me crash and burn 3 hours later. (I know a lot of people say porridge fills them up but I find the opposite)

I can't stick with a diet if I'm hungry. One person's 1600 calories are not equal to anothers when it come to volume of food eaten in a day

I'd tweak your meals so that you get more food on your plate for the same calories. Eat a larger portion of vegetables, eat a bit less carbohydrate. Prioritise fibre rich food to feel fuller. Add a 5g fibre supplement eg chia seeds or phyllium husk twice a day with meals (do that slowly or you'll get digestive pain and bloating)

What are you drinking? What are you snaking on?

Thank you @Shitmonger i shall keep at it for now!

@ihatecatlitter scrambled eggs is a good idea, thanks!

@BalletSki do you know it's more the weak feeling than the hunger that's bothering me (but both are) i feel like if I felt good but hungry i'd have more chance riding it out,

Ok so drinks are tea in the morning, loads of water, normally a coke zero mid morning and a matcha with cashew milk mid afternoon. (all counted)

snacks could be a babybel light, itsu seaweed things, propercorn, lentil crisps, or celery (these all depend on how many calories I have left to play with)

I havent read the other replies but two things spring to mind just based on my own biology

Over many years I felt 'hunger' and only now realise it was acid, not actual hunger. Double check what you are feeling

Second thing, I would reduce your portion sizes and use the extra calories created from that, to add in snacks so you are eating more regularly throughout the day, I have to do that to avoid acid but equally it means you're topping up a bit more regularly throughout the day.

It’s always hard at first. Drink lots of water.
Aim for volume eating. If you are tracking everything in nutracheck you realise quickly what is good value for calories. I eat loads of tenderstem broccoli for example as it goes with most things and is low calorie.
Homemade Soup is another good one.
Focus on protein. Things like eggs, cottage cheese, prawns, salmon, chicken are my staples.
If you follow some fitness people on Facebook or instagram they do a you can eat all this for only so many calories. Good for ideas. This is a 1600 cal one.

Thank you. I do have GERD hence why I have to save some cals for a snack around 7.30/8, otherwise the nightime acid goes crazy. I will defo give eating more frequently a go.

is that one day? That looks like so much food! (Yum)

Heck chicken sausages, scrambled eggs, toms and mushrooms for breakfast are filling and big plateful but high protein/low calorie.
Are you actually hungry in morning. Brunch and dinner can work better.
Casserole with veg/chicken or stirfry veg and salmon also feature regularly on my rotation as they are volume for low calorie.

Yes one day 1600 cals. He does lots of variations. I follow a few similar fitness people for ideas, this is one on facebook.
It looks a lot but it’s mainly veg, eggs, 3% meatballs, quark, Greek yoghurt.

This is 1300. It’s cauliflower rice with the curry. Lots on instagram do similar what I eat in day type posts. I use for ideas.

@Springisnearlyspring the chicken sausages egg mushroom tomatoes is a great idea thank you

unfortunately I have to eat first thing or my gerd plays up :(

ill check out insta for some inspiration thank you!

I would recommend Team RH https://teamrhfitness.com/

I'm pretty sure they would have you on far higher calories than that. I'm 5ft 3, 64kgs but I'm on 1695 calories. 10,000 steps a day and x 3 resistance training per week. I don't always get all my steps and work outs done but I'm losing slowly, around 1/2 pound each week. I'd rather do it slowly and not starve.
So far today I've had:

Breakfast
All Bran with a protein shake and raspberries

Lunch
4 heck chicken sausages and 2 scrambled eggs
Clementine and some grapes
Glass of orange juice

Tonight I"ll have salmon, cauliflower rice and a heap of steamed veg. I'll also have greek yoghurt and a slice of banana bread. I honestly don't even think I'll hit my calorie target. So far today I've had around 800 cals. I am not hungry.

He's not for everyone as very blunt but he's brilliant.

I honestly think 1600 is too low and as you're starving you will not sustain. Have a look and see what you think.

Op is not much younger than me and shorter

if she can’t sustain on 1600 with so little exercise she will end up gaining it all back when she’s lost it

@Ang69 thank you. I thought I was being sensible and doing it slow on 1600 tbh! I am suprised I am finding it so hard, but I am going to give it more time. I have my fitnesspal set to losing 1.5lb a week atm. if I set it to 1lb a week it goes up 1o 1850 cals

@itsthetea sorry do you mean I should be able to manage on 1600 cals? Tbh i thought it would be easy...

Honestly it gets easier. If you are overweight and used to overeating then eating in a calorie deficit is always going to be a shock. Check tdee calculator but 1600 doesn’t sound unrealistic. I’m slightly taller and was classed as lightly active on 10,000 steps (remember fitbits or similar overestimate) and 1700 cals.
Once get used to it and prioritise protein and veg you’ll be fine. Honestly.