Could someone tell me what's wrong with my diet?

lizzyvera

I KNOW my diet isn't balanced but I can't fit all the servings from the food pyramid, especially with protein. I'm quite small. Lately I've been very tired. Any suggestions?

muesli with supermilk (about 40g muesli)
2 slices of brown bread with peanut butter
half a melon
carrot and chickpea soup (very thick and filling, not watery)
3 biscuits (well I know I shouldn't have them)
1 strawberry yoghurt
2 big mugs of tea with 1 tsp sugar each

Walked about 6 miles

ali.c

lizzyvera wrote:

muesli with supermilk (about 40g muesli)
2 slices of brown bread with peanut butter
half a melon
carrot and chickpea soup (very thick and filling, not watery)
3 biscuits (well I know I shouldn't have them)
1 strawberry yoghurt
2 big mugs of tea with 1 tsp sugar each

Is that all? Because that would be were your problem lies, its low on well everything. Never mind the 3 biscuits, First things first where is dinner? or the veg carbs and protein for that matter. Read the diet and nutrional stickies for all the information to plan and balanced diet.
The reason how come your tired ( and i know your small) is that if that is your honest to gods daily intake of food its is too low!

Cadrach

Are you a vegetarian? I agree, you're not getting enough food - especially given the 6 miles walking. You'll need a nice healthy dinner in addition to the rest, and then maybe you won't feel the need for the biscuits. The stickies are essential here - bear in mind that there is a delicate balance between cutting calories to lose weight and cutting too many calories and ****ing up your metabolism and ultimately not losing weight.

kmick

Your diet is filled with sugar which gives you energy spikes and lows.

muesli with supermilk (about 40g muesli) <muesli has loads of sugar>
2 slices of brown bread with peanut butter <Peanut butter is a crap food>
3 biscuits (well I know I shouldn't have them) <sugar and refined flours>
1 strawberry yoghurt<dunno if it is diet or otherwise if not sugar>
2 big mugs of tea with 1 tsp sugar each <sugar>

Suggestions
Make you own muesli with toasted nuts and seeds (much nicer) find a recipe on the interweb
Have cheese and tomato instead of peanut butter
Enjoy your biscuits (we all need a treat)
Have a sugar free organic yoghurt and add dried fruit to sweeten
Tea without sugar is much nicer (try reducing gradually - 3/4 spoon, 1/2 spoon, 1/4 spoon and eventually none. If however you are using this as a pickmeup then eat a wholemeal scone with it.

One other thing. If you eat half a melon every day your body will start to build up an intolerance. You should try and mix your fruit as much as possible. Also try an avocado and a kiwi as a treat once a week each.

One last thing what is your aim here? To get bigger? To feel better? To vary your diet more?

hunnymonster

There is nothing wrong with good (pea)nut butter. It's an asy way for the guys eating a surplus to get more calories into them. These calories are a mix of protein and plenty of good fats. Personally, I don't eat it but I'm trying to run on a deficit and I find it difficult to manage portions of yummy stuff like p'butter.

lizzyvera

The muesli has no added sugar but it has LOADS of dried fruit. That's a good point, I hadn't really noticed how much sugar I was eating. I'll try to eat more slow releasing foods like... an egg.
As for sugar in my tea, it's green tea and I've only started drinking it. I'll cut out the sugar though, maybe I'll get used to it.

Vegetarian? I suppose so! Don't like meat or fish, hate chicken. I'm not anaemic though, I give blood from time to time and they've never had a problem.

Can you lose your metabolism permanantly? My understanding was that it was a temporary measure during starvation. Obviously slowing down your metabolism would be bad for you because it means your body isn't doing all the reactions it needs to. I thought it would speed up once you ate properly again, unless you lost muscle but that would only be if you were starving or crash dieting.
I feel crap since giving up coffee (mainly for the sake of my teeth) but I didn't realise how addicted I was! I haven't felt fully awake in two weeks and now I think the caffeine was "masking" some sort of deficiency, and that I was always genuinely tired.
I slept 12 hours yesterday!

justsomebloke

kmick wrote:

Your diet is filled with sugar which gives you energy spikes and lows.

muesli with supermilk (about 40g muesli) <muesli has loads of sugar>
2 slices of brown bread with peanut butter <Peanut butter is a crap food>
3 biscuits (well I know I shouldn't have them) <sugar and refined flours>
1 strawberry yoghurt<dunno if it is diet or otherwise if not sugar>
2 big mugs of tea with 1 tsp sugar each <sugar>

Suggestions
Make you own muesli with toasted nuts and seeds (much nicer) find a recipe on the interweb
Have cheese and tomato instead of peanut butter
Enjoy your biscuits (we all need a treat)
Have a sugar free organic yoghurt and add dried fruit to sweeten
Tea without sugar is much nicer (try reducing gradually - 3/4 spoon, 1/2 spoon, 1/4 spoon and eventually none. If however you are using this as a pickmeup then eat a wholemeal scone with it.

One other thing. If you eat half a melon every day your body will start to build up an intolerance. You should try and mix your fruit as much as possible. Also try an avocado and a kiwi as a treat once a week each.

One last thing what is your aim here? To get bigger? To feel better? To vary your diet more?

ok if possible could you please make up your mind. you are complaining that muesli is high in sugar, however the sugar in muesli should only be coming from dried fruit , yet you say the OP should put dry fruit in her yoghurt so can you please make up your mind as to weather fruit is good or bad for you.

Also what is wrong with peanut butter, once you are buying one that is made purely of peanuts

Cadrach

In fairness, I think he was just pointing out that all of the meals were high in sugar. Muesli with no sugar added (some brands like Kelkin, or else a homemade brand) combined with a couple of pieces of fruit throughout the day is not a problem - it is important to get your quota of fruit. The problem is when it is combined with 2tsp sugar from tea, x tsp from yoghurt, y tsp from the biscuits, etc., without much solid food like meat/veg then a large percentage of this diet is pure sugar.

ali.c

Cadrach wrote:

In fairness, I think he was just pointing out that all of the meals were high in sugar. Muesli with no sugar added (some brands like Kelkin, or else a homemade brand) combined with a couple of pieces of fruit throughout the day is not a problem - it is important to get your quota of fruit. The problem is when it is combined with 2tsp sugar from tea, x tsp from yoghurt, y tsp from the biscuits, etc., without much solid food like meat/veg then a large percentage of this diet is pure sugar.

True but IMHO the Op diets has larger problems than the % of sugar.

Op what the are your goals? and how long have you been eating like this>

lizzyvera

I've never eaten any differently! I usually eat more veg that that day but yeah, I noticed when I went away with people that I hardly eat at all compared to them. Some of the guys ate twice as much as me!

I don't have any goals, obviously I'm not terribly interested in fitness! I was somewhat inspired by this forum and decided to try looking after my health. I like dancing (I mean for 4 hours straight mega clubbing twice a week) and hiking and I walk a LOT. I think I was running on caffeine.
Today was much the same except I had porridge instead of muesli, hummus instead of peanut butter, a peach and no biscuits. Oh and no sugar in my tea. Or dinner. Not hungry. Bit dizzy though!

mack1

Well it's good that you're inspired to think a little more about your health, from your diet posted I would agree with Ali.c - I would worry less about sugar intake and the biscuits and more about how little you are eating - which is shockingly small, your whole day is about 2 meals for me (not that that matters of course).

My girlfriend is similar in that she eats very little and like you suffers from fatige a lot - it's pure and simple, you are not eating enough to fuel your body throughout the day.

You should build up to eating more food, now that you are here read the stickies and add the right food to your diet, get into a routine of eating at regular intervals (hungry or not) and you will notice yourself having more energy and feeling better.

Best of luck!
M

Sangre

lizzyvera wrote:

Today was much the same except I had porridge instead of muesli, hummus instead of peanut butter, a peach and no biscuits. Oh and no sugar in my tea. Or dinner. Not hungry. Bit dizzy though!

By the way you don't need to ditch muesli. While even sugar free muesli has a lot of sugar in it the fact that its combined with fibre and complex carbs been you won't get insulin spikes and thus sugar lows. That being said porridge witht a tsp. of honey is a great start to the day.

I dunno if you should be ditching peanut butter, it seems to be your own source of protein. If you're veggi try adding snacks of mixed nuts/seeds during the day.

Aishling

Gosh, that seems very little food for one day. If you genuinely find that you are full up after this -which really amounts to 2 meals a day (even for me and I am only a 9 stone woman, and I would be lepping with the hunger if this was all that I ate) then fine.

BUT if you are eating this little to try and lose weight you will find it very hard as
a) you are not eating enough food
b) I don't see any unsaturated fat in your diet, this is very good for all the organs in your body and just as important for us weight conscious women :rolleyes: as if you have enough unsaturated fat your body is happy to giver up more saturated fat as it doesn't feel the need to hoard fat as much.

Ok that is the much unscientific sounding explanation ever, but I was going to gym for ages and nothing was happening and it wasn't until I paid a visit to a dietician (best AUS$70 I ever spent - I was in Oz at the time) and she told me that i wasn't eating enough unsaturated fat. Low and behold I ate a handful of nuts a day and a bit more fish and I really noticed toning and weight loss. Woohoo:D .

lizzyvera

I'm 8 stone... ish. Never below 7.5 or above 8.5 anyway.

I love nuts! I'll eat more of them. Very very very filling though. Diet went to hell over the weekend but now will start again.
Thanks for the help everyone.

shoegirl

sounds like a lack of protein in the diet.

Try substituting tofu, nuts and high protein wholegrains for some of the carbs. There is a lot of sugar and carbohydrates in the diet. I'd also suggest maybe eggs or fish instead of so much carbohydrates.

rubadub

Make your own museli, I just get regular odlums rolled oats, pour on skimmed milk and a few rasins. If you go to a health store you can get all sorts of dried fruits, or add fresh ones. Or even just "dilute" your fruit laden museli with rolled oats, 50/50