Are my calories too low?

boogle

Looking for some advice. 5'5'' Woman, 11 stone on the dot. I've been inspired to try low carb after reading a lot from posters on here. So I've been doing it since Monday. I've counted my calories for the last 4 days just out of curiosity. I'm surprised at how low they are for each day (between 1200 and 1300) since I'm not feeling hungry at all. So I'm not starving myself intentionally or anything. Just as a indication for the week

Breakfast:
30g porridge + 200 ml semi-skim milk (I prefer the taste to full fat) + 15g raisins (I know its got carbs - I'm not cutting them out altogether and I think porridge is great)

Lunches:
Around 130g of either chicken breast, salmon fillet etc or, avocado/boiled eggs, all with salad and dsp olive oil. Kiwi or pear

Dinners:
Chilli con carne with lots veg and a full corn on cob
Chicken and haricot bean stew
3 egg ommelette with a little chorizo and cheddar

Snacks:
Organic yoghurt (not low fat) or handful cashews or some fruit

I'm not doing low fat stuff, and I don't feel hungry but I've seen some advice on here that suggests I should have around 1800 cals a day for weight loss. Is my current intake a problem? Thanks for any advice you may have.

Darkginger

Do you know how many carbs are in that menu? It's just that it looks far from low carb to me - the porridge, the milk, the fruit, the beans, the corn and the cashews add up to well over 100g to me (just a rough guess). It looks like a nice healthy way to eat, but I wouldn't say it was a weight-reducing menu, if you're looking for the additional weightloss benefits a truly low carb way of eating can bring - in other words, that won't induce ketosis, which is what give us low carbers a bit of a boost - less appetite!

If it works for you, great, but I really wouldn't call that low carb - low carb - for me, anyway - is anything between 20 - 50g carbs a day. That would mean losing all those foods I mentioned above and replacing them with fat and protein. Most low carbers don't count calories - and a lot of us don't count carbs either - we just eat foods without them That's why so many people who 'discover' low carb feel like it's an end to the dieting mindset - you can stop monitoring every mouthful, so long as you stick to low carb foods.

I'll offer you a couple of links to low carb forums - loads of support and information (and amazing success stories). I am totally convinced that low carb is do-able, sustainable, and easy - I get a little evangelical about it at times, so please excuse that! Anyway - check out these links:

http://forum.lowcarber.org/
http://www.lowcarbfriends.com/bbs/

All the best with your weightloss efforts

TaraFoxglove

Darkginger wrote: »

Do you know how many carbs are in that menu? It's just that it looks far from low carb to me - the porridge, the milk, the fruit, the beans, the corn and the cashews add up to well over 100g to me (just a rough guess). It looks like a nice healthy way to eat, but I wouldn't say it was a weight-reducing menu, if you're looking for the additional weightloss benefits a truly low carb way of eating can bring - in other words, that won't induce ketosis, which is what give us low carbers a bit of a boost - less appetite!

It looks weight-reducing to me. I eat a fair amount of carbs as well as fat and have lost a lot of weight recently. Low-carb isn't the only way to lose weight.

boogle

Darkginger wrote: »

Do you know how many carbs are in that menu? It's just that it looks far from low carb to me - the porridge, the milk, the fruit, the beans, the corn and the cashews add up to well over 100g to me (just a rough guess). It looks like a nice healthy way to eat, but I wouldn't say it was a weight-reducing menu, if you're looking for the additional weightloss benefits a truly low carb way of eating can bring - in other words, that won't induce ketosis, which is what give us low carbers a bit of a boost - less appetite!

If it works for you, great, but I really wouldn't call that low carb - low carb - for me, anyway - is anything between 20 - 50g carbs a day. That would mean losing all those foods I mentioned above and replacing them with fat and protein. Most low carbers don't count calories - and a lot of us don't count carbs either - we just eat foods without them That's why so many people who 'discover' low carb feel like it's an end to the dieting mindset - you can stop monitoring every mouthful, so long as you stick to low carb foods.

I'll offer you a couple of links to low carb forums - loads of support and information (and amazing success stories). I am totally convinced that low carb is do-able, sustainable, and easy - I get a little evangelical about it at times, so please excuse that! Anyway - check out these links:

http://forum.lowcarber.org/
http://www.lowcarbfriends.com/bbs/

All the best with your weightloss efforts

Sorry I suppose I'm getting confused with my terminology. When I said low-carb, I was counting that as the starchy carbs like rice,pasta,spuds etc. I don't know if I'd be able to totally give up most of the other carbs in the fruit and porridge and stuff. Those links are interesting - will look into some meal plans from there.

When you say you don't think it's weight-reducing, is the calorific intake not what would determine that? Or do you mean that the carbs I'm still eating could somehow compromise that?

Just to clarify, I'm not "calorie counting" either, I just kept a food diary and ate as much as I needed. I went back over it today and added up the cals just out of curiosity

To put everything very simply: If the calories you're using are more than those you're putting in, then you will lose weight. If, as you say, you're calorie intake is 1200-1300, you'd have to be very lazy not to lose weight. If you're not feeling the hunger, then just keep doing what you're doing.

Personally, I think the best way (as in healthiest, not necessarily fastest) to lose weight is to control calories while ensuring you're getting all your nutrients. A lot of diets these days are really good for losing weight, but don't really regard getting the right nutrition. (I'm not looking for debate here, I get that many disagree with me and there are some good diets out there)

I would advise that as your target weight gets closer, start to re-evaluate your calories. Hopefully you're teaming your diet with at least some moderate exercise, so I would say your calorie needs are quite a bit higher than 1300 kcals. The more fat you lose, the more energy you'll need to provide your body with, rather than relying on your fat stores to fuel you. So over time raise your intake a bit, but at the moment, if you're not feeling tired/moody, you're probably fine.