Am i getting enough calories?

sfhawke7w

i am a 35 yr old female, weighing 14 st 3lbs, bmi is 33.7. So have started a weight loss challenge, with a local gym, we met with a nutrionist and he told me everything i already knew, have followed weight watchers for the last week. exercise i am doing something everyday. I am just worried that i am not eating enough calories have used online calorie counter and am getting just under 1500 a day.

typical days food

Breakfast - porridge made with water, soya milk and a banana

Snack - fruit apple or banana, a vitalinea low fat yogurt

lunch - Homemade Soup with one slice of mccambridges brown bread or Knorr spicy tomato soup (1/2) pack with slice of mccambridge. Apple

Snack - Banana

Dinner - Salmon or roasted veg (fennel, courgetter, peppers, red onions,) or chicken with roasted veg and rice

am trying to use brown rice or basmati rice, am trying to eat red meat maybe twice a week. i am drinking over 2 litres of water a day.

exercise - Cardio 10mins warmup on treadmill, than 15mins on x trainer and mix of 15mins on rower or recumbert bike, than do some core work takes me about 55mins in all

weights - session - chest press and incline chest press lifting 15kg on smith machine, than lunges, squats and calf raises with 20kg on smith machine. 2 sets of 10reps than i do bicep curls, triceps, supported bicep curl, one arm row using 6 kg weight. tricep dips, shoulder press with 6 kg. lateral raise and front raise with a 4kg. then do crunches,

so trying to do one of this each day and if can get for a swim i manage about 10 - 12 lengths of 20m pool am trying to learn to breath while doing front crawl so am slow.

any advice would be great thanks.

RentDayBlues

Average calorie intake for a woman should be 2000 calories per day.

In order to loose 1 pound per week, you need to reduce your daily intake to 1500 which is more than sufficient. Weight loss is about less calories so why are you worried if the nutritionalist has set this diet?

sfhawke7w

nutrionist didnt give us a diet to follow, he give me a list with tips

ie drink at least 2-3 litres a day (which i do anyway)

foods to Avoid, foods to reduce, foods to increase

the thing is i know all this it is getting it from paper to actually working it.

reckon am getting about 1500, according to the calorie counter site i am using so will keep going was just concerned as havent lost anything in the first week, but maybe my body is just adjusting as i have messed with lipotrim over the last year a couple of times so think my body is just confused.

thanks

rubadub

RentDayBlues wrote: »

Average calorie intake for a woman should be 2000 calories per day.

True, but the problem with this is that the average calorie intake for the average Irish person is around 3500kcal. So I expect the majority of people are not at what it should be. This is the problem with many diets like lipotrim, they assign the same ~450kcal to you whether you are a 9 stone woman, or 50 stone, which is ridiculous. It is like giving the same dinner to a toddler and a 6'6'' builder who is built like a gorilla and working all day long.

RentDayBlues wrote: »

In order to loose 1 pound per week, you need to reduce your daily intake to 1500 which is more than sufficient.

Yes, if your basal metabolism really is 2000kcal. 3500kcal is said to make or loose a lb of fat. So reduce your intake by 500kcal a day to get this. But best to workout your metabolic needs yourself. I found it best to eat 250kcal less, and exercise 250kcal more.

At 14st you are probably a little over the 2000kcal estimate, esp. since you are training. This page has a calculator to estimate your daily calorie usage http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=50956807&postcount=19

it uses kg, 14st3lb is 199lb which is 90kg

I was trying to get to 1800kcal myself, so aimed for 1500kcal a day, knowing full well I would have bites here and there that added up to 300kcal :pac:

sfhawke7w

by using that calorie counter this is was i get

2265 add 303 for exercise = 2568 so supposed to take 15% off that which gives me 2182calories a day.

so if i go by that figure i am eating way less than i should be, is that right?

rubadub

That sounds about right. Remember it is only an estimate, if you stick to that and find you are losing more or less fat than you expect you will have to adjust it accordingly. Most doctors will say no more than 2lb fat loss per week, any more and you are usually eating into muscle or losing fluids.

Since you are supposed to be ~2500, going to 2000 should in theory lose 1lb of FAT per week, I say fat and not weight. Since you are weight training you might put on muscle which could even out your fat loss, so do not be disheartened if you lose no actual "weight", you could well be losing fat.
Have a read of this thread to have it explained more
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055549625

I would do your lifting after a brief 5-10min warmup on the rower. This way you have more energy to lift to your best ability.

Check out www.stumptuous.com for discussion on lifting aimed at women, and www.exrx.net for general info

I would ditch the machines and stick to freeweights, i.e. barbells & dumbbells.

sfhawke7w

thanks rubadub, thought that 1500 was low because was finding was still hungry.

am doing about 5mins on rower before the weights and dont use machines all free weights, the smith machine is more support than anything as the bar is controlled.

thanks, now have to figure out how am going to get good food of 2000 a day.

any tips?