This is a typical day for me. I aim for 1500 cals but always end up at 1600-1700 calories, especially at this part of my cycle, the week before my period I'm especially hungry.
I also have a huge sweet tooth and I need a daily sweet treat or I will be sad lol
Or is this okay? I'm pretty active, I go to the gym 4x a week and do 7-10k steps on average. Could I still lose weight eating like this?
by theRealSpamster
19 Comments
Oh, I just realized I logged a whole banana but I only had half. Good luck finding my waist 😌
Peanut butter can be swapped for powdered PB, you could cut back on the olive oil and make your own salad and get a much lower calorie dressing than the one in the kit.
I’m not a dietician, so take this with a grain of salt! If it were me, I would cut the peanut butter, bread, and banana at breakfast and switch to yogurt with frozen berries and flax or chia seeds. Peanut butter and bananas are caloric, but they don’t keep me full.
Lots of stuff. Cut the oil. Its a ton of calories. Switch out the bread for keto bread, switch out the pb for peanut butter powder. Make your own salad with ingredients you control rather than a premade kit. Egg whites instead of an egg.
how do you feel about peanut butter powder (i.e., PB fit or PB2)? you won’t have the crunch texture BUT it’s a pretty solid replacement when used with something like apples or toast. i can not take plain spoonfuls of it like regular peanut butter out of the jar 😭
I can’t fit peanuts or peanut butter in 1500. I feel like your breakfast is a lot of calories without much substance.
But it seems like an easy way is to kill the snacks, increase the volume of vegetables for a larger meal. Move the banana and hard boiled egg if you really want to eat between meals.
Swap out your oil for spray oil!
delightful bread is 45 calories a slice and tastes good, and spray olive oil!
Do you know what your BMR is? That’ll tell you if you can lose weight eating this diet. It looks really balanced to me, and with your activity, you’re only 32 calories over 1500.
Being in a small deficit for a long time has always been the easiest way for me to lose weight. It isn’t quick but it works better for me because I’m still satisfied with my food.
The chocolates
You are 5’6 & active. You probably can lose weight eating 16-1700 cal/day. It’ll just be slower. What matters is your TDEE vs your deficit.
For the oil, if you are able to, buy a spritzer then you can use minimal amount of oil (you can weigh the spritzer before & after to know how much you used) if you still want to use it.
Less snacks – get some miniature bars that are 20-30 calories each and limit yourself to 4/day. Have some low calorie ice cream, freeze a banana & make nice cream with it, have a chocolate pudding, etc. There are a few options to get your sweet tooth fix while lowering your calories in this area.
You eat pretty well. If this keeps you full on your level of activity then I wouldn’t be too concerned about lowering your daily intake a bunch of calories.
647 bread. 40 cals each slice
If you would like my opinion, I would really look at your snacks. That nutrigrain bar has 12g added sugar, 25g carbs only 2g of fiber and 2g protein. That’s essentially just dessert, then on top of the chocolates. The extra sugar will spike your blood sugar and you’ll end up having more of those hunger signals, poor satiety and empty calories.
Also protein wise, seems like you have pretty low protein intake? The muscle milk is 30g, egg 6g, PB 5g, 2g from the nutrigrain bar. Not sure about the salad. But if you’re going to the gym, i’m guessing you are weight lifting? Then you’re gonna need more protein at least 0.6-0.8g per lb for females. You may lose weight on the scale but you are also probably losing muscle. With all weight loss, will come loss of lean mass. By eating enough protein at least you can help mitigate the amount of loss. It takes a lot of time to build muscle so ya really don’t wanna lose it where you can prevent it. Peanut butter isn’t bad, you could sub it for PBfit (slightly more protein 8g, less calories about 1/2, less fat about 1/5th or so). Remember to eat more veggies, they have extremely low calories, good fiber and some carbs to really keep you full. You could endlessly eat vegetables (non-starchy) and you will barely make a dent in your caloric needs for the day.
I don’t eat 1500 calories, i’m on 2000 but i’m a 6’2 220 lb male. I’m on about a 500-700 caloric deficit at the moment. I eat a lot of lean ground turkey/chicken/beef + veggies (cauliflower rice, dark leafy greens, etc). I also DONT like vegetables so what I do is for example with spinach, i’ll blanch a whole bag of spinach, squeeze it somewhat dry, little bit of salt and half tablespoon sesame oil and I can literally eat a whole bag of spinach like that within a few bites. It’s like 100 calories, 5g protein, fiber and you get FULL.
Before workout I like to get some carbs in 1-2 hrs before. After lifting I’ll eat a light meal with some carbs within 1-2 hrs as well to replenish glycogen stores and to make sure I get enough protein to get the building blocks ready to grow muscle.
I have a sweet tooth too. I go for protein bars at times, I like barebells as it’s 200 cals/20g protein and they taste as good as a protein bar could possibly taste. Or I’ll go for low calorie ice cream. 90-120 cals and 5-6g protein per serving. I don’t drink soda but the flavored seltzer helps keep me from not going insane either.
Also, it’s tough to avoid oil if you are air frying, it is what it is. If you would care to just eat boiled sweet potato, that’s definitely better but if it’s making you feel like you’re going crazy then go for the oil and airfry. Fat is just a lot of calories compared to protein or carbs so keep that in mind. I still eat breaded/fried chicken, desserts and all those “unhealthy” foods here and there but I always make sure to weigh it and fit my calories around it. There’s a LOT of tips I have so let me know if you find anything helpful. I’ve been tracking/weighing my food for about 5 months now and I do have my cheatcodes/work arounds to maintain sanity while still losing weight AND not losing too much muscle.
Breakfast: PB is way too calorically dense consider pb2 or just cut it out altogether. Also consider a low carb bread thats only 40-50 cals
Lunch: too much olive oil, get an oil sprayer or just buy some cooking spray
Dinner: Cut the muscle milk and buy protein bars instead, when you’re on a cut you shouldn’t drink calories because it’s far less satiating than actual food.
Snacks: pretty obvious but im assuming this isnt a normal day for you.
We’re the same height and I think you should be eating more. Like, 1700 calories instead of 1500 so that the deficit isn’t too low for you. If you end up at 1600 calories then that’s what your body needs to have energy to workout.
Your foods aren’t high in protein and your breakfast doesn’t have a lot of protein so that’s why you’re so hungry only 2 hours after eating. Plus your snacks aren’t really nutritious which is why you’re not full after them. The nutrigrain bar, it’s basically the same as a chocolate bar in terms of its sugar content. It will spike your blood sugar and then give you energy, but then a few hours later you’re starving again. Instead of those snacks, what about high volume fruit like oranges?
You should add chicken, beef (even beef burgers work to keep you full when paired with vegetables) fish, and vegan protein. You can buy frozen chicken wings that are already seasoned, add loads of veggies and the meal will be under 500 calories and will keep you full.
If you need a sweet treat then incorporate protein powder into your desserts. Make it with yogurt, the powder, cocoa powder and add dark chocolate chips on top.
What about some eggs and toast for breakfast. I’ve been doing sourdough toast, chicken sausage and two eggs. It’s about 300 calories and about 30 grams of protein. If you don’t feel like cooking you can grab pre made a box of pre made breakfast sandwiches . This is the only type of breakfast I find filling.
Olive oil for oil spray
Are you tracking macronutrients? What are your daily targets? Making sure you’re getting enough protein will keep your fuller longer. Echoing others, removing calorie dense low volume foods will help: peanut butter, bread, oil, the snacks. Try a vegetable (mushroom, peppers) omelette or scramble in a low cal wrap for breakfast, a protein bar or fruit as a sweet snack, swapping pre-made salads for home made (with added chicken or turkey) as you’ll have more control over the ingredients.
For Bfast do two eggs and a serving of cottage cheese cooked with the eggs!! High protein will have you feeling so full.