Help....Am I eating enough?

[Enchantedlilypad]

I have been attending a gym for around 4 months and I go around 4 times a week, I didn't join wanting to loose weight I just wanted to tone up. I am 30, 5ft 6 and weigh 9st 7lbs which I am happy with (I was actually 10st when I started so I have lost a little bit of weight)

My problem is i am always hungry! Some days I'm ravenous like I could eat everything in sight. I feel like I eat enough but maybe I don't? A typical day for me looks like...

Breakfast- porridge with oat milk, some kind of fruit and nuts/peanut butter etc.

Lunch- 2 egg omelette with salmon/prawns, veggies and maybe some feta cheese or soft goats cheese. A fruit salad

Dinner- stir fry with rice noodles and tofu, fish with brown rice and veggies, risotto, vegetable pasta dishes, jacket potato with tuna salad etc. More fruit.

Snack around 8pm- bowl of muesli, coconut yogurt, toast with peanut butter and jam, veggies and hummus.

I drink 3 cups of tea a day and sometimes a smoothie aswell.

I feel like this is a lot of food but I'm still hungry, I don't want to unnecessarily eat but I also don't want to keep loosing weight! I do struggle with an eating disorder but it is managed now. I am pescatarian and try to limit lactose as I'm intolerant to it if I consume lots of it.

What do you eat in a day? To maintain your weight or if you go to the gym? It would be helpful for me to see some other people's diets.

Thanks so much!

I used be that ...and tired
The only thing that worked for me was animal protein - chicken
I was a vegetarian (no fish) but couldn't live healthy in it

@TammyJones oh really? That hasn't crossed my mind before, I have been pescatarian for 11 years and always felt fine. I don't seem to be tired just hungry! How did your body adjust to eating animal protein again?

One thing that might help which may sound counterintuitive is to shorten your 'eating window'. Having an evening snack is best avoided. (Im finding it much better now to have just a milky coffee in the morning, decent lunch. Mid afternoon snack and dinner and no eating after that).

The other thing maybe is to rebalance to have less carbs and more of the other things.

I would double the quantity of veg you are eating, which will give your insides something to do!

I think the porridge will ve setting you up to be hungry throughout the day. Try replacing it with something higher in protein e.g eggs, greek yoghurt with nuts, fish etc

Yeah, I think the idea of porridge being a healthy breakfast applies if you're a crofter or cable tosser.

I totally thrived
I used to get terrible sugar cravings.
(I was hungry all the time )
my cravings disappeared over night.

That's such a perfect diet. Where's the junk food? I couldn't live on that.

You could try a protein shake if you don’t want to eat meat. Or mix the powder into your porridge/muesli.

@lljkk I don't actually like junk food, the only junk food I like is chocolate so I do eat that sometimes (once or twice a week) but as for greasy takeaways, they make me feel sick.

What other people eat will be very variable based on their jobs, metabolism, exercise levels, height and so on.

In the gentlest possible way, I don't think giving food advice to somebody with an eating disorder is wise via the internet. I think you need to speak to a professional irl who knows you and your condition.

What do you do at the gym 4 times a week? There's a big difference in the calories you'll burn doing a 30minutes weights session and 2 hours of cardio or a couple of energetic classes. I don't do well on high protein / low carb diets and if I ate that lunch I'd have the shakes by mid afternoon. You're eating more for supper than you are for lunch so I'd move some of those snacks to earlier in the day if you're always hungry.

You don't seem to drink very much, the body can confuse thirst for hunger. Apparently milk is really good for after exercise.

This^^

This. It worries me that you are losing weight and are hungry but that you don't seem to want to eat more.

I think you may be eating too little. Have you tried tracking macros/ calories on MyFitnessPal for example? This is VERY general but most women who trains tend to need between 2000- 2500 calories, if not more, and just by looking at your diet I don’t think you get that unless you’re eating huge portions.
I would also add more protein in your breakfast, I top my porridge with Greek yoghurt and I throw an egg in there too- You can’t taste it! I eat around 2600 cals a day, I’m 5’6, 65kg, (42 years old!) doing about 10 h of exercise a week, weights and cardio.

Looks enough -- drinking enough to stay hydrated?

Nobody here can tell you if you're eating enough but I would say if you're losing weight you don't want to lose and feeling hungry then probably not! Maybe with an ED past you don't want to work out your TDEE and calorie count some example meals but if you can add in 250 calories a day of healthy fat or protein you'll stop losing and feel better.