What needs to change in +my diet

Manolo Blahnik

Ok, I'm a 18 year old female, 5'7 and 135 pounds.

My typical diet every day is

Breakfast - Cereal with full fat milk, tea with sugar, white toast and butter
Lunch - An apple
Dinner - Usually meat potatoes with butter and vegtables

Then throughout the day I'd eat about three bars of chocolate everyday.

The thing is I'm feeling very run down and wondering what I need to change in my diet, what I'm lacking

Also am i going overboard in relation to calories

amazingemmet

not enough calories really, ditch the white bread in favour of brown, eat more for lunch, more meat/protein lose the chocky bars infavour of a healthier snack.

Manolo Blahnik

I've tried in the past to give up chocolate but I couldn't - sad I know

Sometimes I skip breakfast and not eat until about 4 o'clock in the day. It's hard to eat in the mornings without feeling sick.
What food has protien

Hermione*

I gave up chocolate for all of Lent, it's not that hard if you stick to it. I imagine your problem might be that the type of chocolate you eat is very high in sugar and low in cocoa solids. If you switched to dark chocolate (ideally over 60% cocoa solids, it'll say it in the ingredient listings) and limit yourself to one or two squares a day, there's not as much harm to your system as three cadbury's bars. You're possibly more addicted to the sugar in your chocolate than the actual chocolate itself. Dark chocolate is actually a little bitter, but much yummier - I never eat Cadburys anymore, I always notice the sweetness of it.

t-ha

Manolo Blahnik wrote:

Ok, I'm a 18 year old female, 5'7 and 135 pounds.

My typical diet every day is

Breakfast - Cereal with full fat milk, tea with sugar, white toast and butter
Lunch - An apple
Dinner - Usually meat potatoes with butter and vegtables

Then throughout the day I'd eat about three bars of chocolate everyday.

The thing is I'm feeling very run down and wondering what I need to change in my diet, what I'm lacking

Also am i going overboard in relation to calories

I don't know what your goal is but I'm going to assume it's fat loss because that's the usual around here.

Your lunch is too small. Your dinner is probably too big, meat & veggies are not usually the problem here (i.e. the spuds are usually the problem here).

The bars of chocolate are not a good idea. If you're insulin response to sweet/sugary food isn't top notch it will cause your energy levels to peak and dip throughout the day (as in peak when you eat it, then dip). Find something else to make up the calories you'll lose from ditching them out of your diet (if they're full size bars then that's alot of calories). Have a sandwich at lunch, and snack on the fruit instead. If you're missing the seratonin from your chocolate, get someone you like to give you a hug three times a day

In general, use wholegrains rather than more processed foods (so wholegrain bread instead of white, porridge instead of sugar puffs etc.). This will keep your energy levels steadier during the day and should set you feeling right.

Edit: and take up a sport, the fact that you can go for lengths of time with little food doesn't say good things to me about your current metabolic rate... kickstart it with a sport.

Manolo Blahnik

Yeah I'd say it's the sugar it's come to the stage where I get headaches and feel extremely weak if I haven't had my fix I sound like a drug addict or something. But that's what it is really - a drug thing is i'm a fussy eater and don't like white or dark chocolate
Thanks for the advice t-ha yeah i suppose i'd like to loose weight i'm not overweight just would like to Be skinnier yes they are full sized Bars I can't go a day without them I like the hugging idea

Hermione*

I'm not sure how much you need to lose weight - I'm about your weight, maybe a little lighter tbh, and an inch taller. More likely I'd imagine you need to lose fat, and build muscle tone. Sorry if that's presumptuous, and I don't mean it in a bad way at all, I'm just saying focus more on how your body feels and looks rather than the numbers!

Chucky the tree

Stick in about 3-4ltrs of water a day aswell.

dudara

Manolo Blahnik wrote:

i suppose i'd like to loose weight i'm not overweight just would like to Be skinnier

You're 5'7 and under 10 stone, you really don't need to be skinnier or lighter. What you do need is to start eating more sensibly. Cut out that chocolate. The fact that you eat three bars a day just jumped right off the page at me. No wonder you feel tired, your insulin levels are spiking and dropping the whole time.

eat more for lunch than just an apple. Chicken and tuna are great sources of protein, and protein makes you feel less hungry for longer.

Dragan

I don't think any had pointed this out to you yet but the fact that you feel like **** and eat like **** are pretty much directly related.

You feel bad, eat chocolate, feel good for 30 mins and then feel bad again. Your body needs to be fed to function, your not doing this and when you give it chocolate you are giving it brief fluries of energy before it crashes again.

Eat a sensible, healthy diet, broken up throughout the day. You say you feel sick in the morning? To be honest so would i if i was eating like you!!!

Sounds rough cuz it is. You know exactly what the problems are already, you just need to come to decision to fix em.

justsomebloke

I would go with dragan. The reason you are feeling liek crap is that all you are eating is crap. For example on a day that you don't eat breakfast all you are probably having is 3 bars of chocolate and an apple untill you have dinner.
the reason you probably eat so much chocolate is that it gives you a sudden energy buzz and yu think it is going to help you get through the day, where as if you where to balance up your diet you would have a lot more energy through out the day and also you wouldn't have the come down that you are experiencing now.
Question do you eat breakfast at home or at work. If you eat it at home try and put it off till you are in work if possible as it is easier to get into a routine of eating breakfast in work, then for a snack have soem fruit at say 11 or so, then a good lunch then maybe a nutrigrain bar or even a bar of chocolate bar at around 3(usualy i'd say cut them out completely but in your case if you can cut the portion down to 1 a day it would be a start). then home and dinner. Also drink plenty of water as it may help increase you're energy levels during the day

Hermione*

Something I find fantastic, but which may take you a while to get into, is a slice of fresh lemon in hot water in the mornings. I find it really reviving. I love coffee, but ever since I started having this in the morning I've been able to hold off a lot longer til I get my first coffee. And lemon's good for you

Manolo Blahnik

t-ha, I never saw your edit - I go running twice a week if that's anything

I eat breakfast at home but some times I skip it if I'm late for college

Okay how about this

Breakfast - Porridge with banana slices brown bread toast and tea

Lunch - sunflower seeds, apple and 1 bar of chocolate

Dinner - Fish, vegtables and brown rice

I drink water constantly when I'm not eating about 3 litres that may be a bad thing

Manolo Blahnik

Hermione* wrote:

Something I find fantastic, but which may take you a while to get into, is a slice of fresh lemon in hot water in the mornings. I find it really reviving. I love coffee, but ever since I started having this in the morning I've been able to hold off a lot longer til I get my first coffee. And lemon's good for you

Cool I'll try that.. although I don't really like lemons

justsomebloke

you are still going to be eating far to little for lunch, actaully you will be losing a lot of calories from not easting the 2 other chocolate bars i.e. the sunflower seeds won't give you enough energy. you will need to get more food into you as your body would jsut store all the fat is has.
Why can't you have an actual proper meal for lunch. Ideally you should be looking to have 5 medium meals a day.

Manolo Blahnik

:eek: I thought that was loads as it is. I'll find it really hard to eat more than that. I'll try sqeezing in a chicken and lettuce roll from dunnes or something for lunch

Hermione*

You wouldn't believe how much I eat in a day! Maybe three slices wholemeal bread, a liitle dark chocolate, cheese, salad, maybe four or five pieces of fruit (my suger fix, plus I study late so I need the enrgy), nuts, seed crackers, a yoghurt, some vegetable soup (usually my supper-ish snack at 7/8), loads more probably. Whern I eventaully get home at about 11, I might have two multiseed ryvita with hummus (carbs late at night are generally a bad idea but Iwalk home, so I'm hungry :rolleyes:), can't remember what else I eat now that I'm tryint to hink of it. :rolleyes: My point though is that you can actually eat quite a lot once you eat the right things, not eating has probably slowed your metabolism a lot.

Chucky the tree

If you find it hard to eat how about a Meal replacement drink.

Boru.

If you want to send me your details, I'll write you up a full two week meal plan template to get you up and running with a proper diet. Hell, I'll even do up your grocery list for you if you want. Pm you email address and I'll send you out the form.