I don't think I am eating enough,yet I am not losing weight!

[Lexie]

Hey everyone....

I no I am not consuming enough calories per day. I should be eating between 1200- 1500 a day and I eat about 800. I am recovering from an Eating Disorder, and I try to make myself eat enough, but the only real meal I have is dinner. I can't bring myself to eat more then 800 cals a day, yet I am not losing weight. I excercise for between 30 mins - 45 mins a day doing cardio and below is my general diet:

Breakfast: Mango and Apple Juice
Lunch: 150 gm of Udon Noodles
Dinner: Beef or Chicken Stir Fry With Hokien Noodels Or Rice.

Can anyone offer any advice on what I should change or do in order to start losing weight? Thanks for listening!!!!

[Groovychic]

My suggestion Lexie would be to eat 5 small meals a day. I think you need to eat a decent breakfast. At least eat a piece of fruit for breakfast. A lot of days I have a banana. Sometimes I have 2 bits of toast with banana on it if they are a wee bit over ripe, and other days I will have all-bran with a sprinkling of saltanas and a few spoons of yogurt and hi-lo milk. It actually tastes alright!!! I also normally have metamucil. Mind you lately I have been forgetting to have it and am only having it every 2nd or 3rd day. Must get back into the habit of having it every day. Probably having a bowl of vegie soup made with no oil, a large tossed salad with a piece of wholemeal or multi grain bread, would be good for lunch. Thats why I try to do. As for dinner. I just eat whatever I cook for the family. I just try to have a smaller portion. Doesn't always work. But I always dish the peas, corn and carrot out first onto my plate so that I get a good helping of that before I put potato and whatever meat I have cooked on the plate! And I always eat the peas, corn and carrot mix first! I figure they are the most healthy for me. I always leave the potato until last so that if I am full I have eaten the healthier stuff first and can leave the rest! Plus you do need to have snacks during the day. Whether it be a carrot or apple or a few nuts. Just get yourself some healthy stuff that you can grab and nibble on between meals. Your metabolism is already low and not eating much is going to basically stop it because it has gone into survival mode. So that is my suggestion. Nibble on healthy food and exercise. Maybe split the exercising to twice a day. I find it's good to exercise about 11 in the morning, or first thing in the morning before I have breaky and then if I can get on the treadmill again then about 4.30 in the afternoon is good. Tho this pattern for me is changing because I am doing an hour in the morning now. The saying also is that you don't burn any fat for the first 20 mins of exercising. So you should look at doing a minimum of 30 mins or so when you do a session. If you have a pedometre or treadmill that counts the distance then join me in the walking challenge. Seems to be only Ed and myself doing it at the moment!!!

[Dolly]

Groovychick has given some good tips there. I find I'm usually more successful in losing weight if I have a little from each food group at a meal (well balanced)
starch
protein
fat
fruit/vege

This food pyramid might help you to work out how much you should be eating - http://www.mypyramid.gov/mypyramid/index.aspx
And the forums home page also has a lot of great tips - http://www.weightloss.com.au/index.html

[carleyjt]

Groovy said it all pritty much. By the sounds of it you need to get your metabolism back to normal before you can start losing weight. Also your body is probably in starvation mode as it is not getting any nutrients before you are exercising so it is storing the fat instead of burning it. Also the best advice i ever learnt is 'it is better to have a big breakfast than a big dinner' that way you have more chance of burning it off during the day. I regularly keep my dinner and eat it for breakfast. Sounds odd yes i know but it seems to help. Another thing i do is i dont always feel like breakfast so i have a vitamin shake. It fills me up until i feel ready to eat and is full of goodness. Especially with a banana mixed in.

Good luck and hopefully your body can start to heal itself so you can be the person you want to be

(My mum was an anorexic and she is suffering badly now so i have an idea of where you are coming from)

[Ed]

Hi Lexie,

the suggestions above are spot on, try to add some snacks in-between meals to keep your metabolism burning.

In addition to eating to keep your metabolism up, don't forget that you can also drink protein shakes, fruit juices, etc to do the same.

Drinking calories might also be easier psychologically for you than eating calories.

Ed.

[Lexie]

Thank-you all so much for your very insightfull and helpfull advice. I think I will try to snack on healthy food during the day to get my calories up and keep up metabolism going. Perhaps multigrain toast for breakfast with vegemite may kick start my day. Thanks again, I will try to fix my metabolism with all your great advice!!!


Lexie

[Butterfly_Dawn]

I agree with Dolly about breakfast. Breakfast is called that for a reason, as you are breaking an overnight fast. Over night, your metabolism slows right down and breakfast is what starts it ticking again. If you really can't stomach solid food at that time, try a healthy smoothie with some light yoghurt (natural), oats and fruit of your choice (I like strawberries, or mango and banana) all blended up. That way at least you're putting something in your tummy that's going to be fueling and wake the body up.

And then as everyone has said, little, regular meals can keep the metabolism going.
Cheers,
tegan

[KimE]

Hi Lexie

I am on a set food plan that is 1200 calories a day which consists of breakfast, snack, lunch with fruit, snack, dinner. The snacks in the afternoon are usually something healthy, low fat yoghurt, small muesli bar that sort of thing. The snack in the morning is almost always fruit. I'm not suggesting you go on this plan just trying to give you an idea of the breakup. I have noticed others who post there usually have a similar break up ie. 5 meals a day. I find I am eating every 2 - 2.5 hours and this is working for me.

I did read somewhere that 1200 is the minimum calories your body needs to get all the nutrients required so that is something to take into consideration.