Low Cal Diet, please someone review....

[2angelsinheaven]

Going to try low calorie diet, using slim fast maybe or might us local smoothies instead... how does this sound?

Breakfast-
LoCal/LoFat Smoothie- 80 calories
Apple- 65 calories

Lunch-
SlimFast- 200 Calories
Tuna Salad on Toast- 100 Calories (tuna, miracle whip free, relish and light wheat bread)

Dinner (one example, but all my meals are the same calorie count or close to it)
Chix Breast- 170 Calories
Spinach- 30 Calories
Salasa (for Chix Breast)- 15 Calories
Whole Wheat Rice- 150 Calories

Total Calories- 810 for main meals
and add one or two snacks from below.

Snacks
Rice Cake- 15 Calories
SF Jello- 15 Calories
SF Ice Fruit Pop- 60 Calories
Nectarines- 65 Calories
Smart Popcorn- 100 Calories

Also would be drinking 8-10 glasses of Water or Crystal Light, which if CL will add up to 40 Calories.

Does this sound sensible? We have alot of weight to lose and tried Atkins before with great sucess but it isn't working this time and we have a crazy schedual so figured this might work better. On a lo-cal diet what fat grams should I stay under?

 

[sap1227]

I am pretty sure that you should never go under 1200 calories per day (can someone confirm this or correct this???).

Christy

 

[bicker]

1200 calories is typically considered the minimum folks should eat without medical supervision.

I would suggest you be very choosy about your smoothies and meal replacement shakes. (For highest quality, the number of grams of protein should be high, versus the number of calories. For example, the shakes I use are 25 gm of protein at 190 calories.

 

[littlegreydonkey]

Please don't eat that small an amount of food. 810 calories a day is an incredibly low calorie diet (usually only recommended for people who have to have serious operations and fast to get the weight off) and it will actually work in reverse. If you drop calories too low the body actually slows down the metabolic rate (the speed at which we naturally burn calories) and you weight loss slows. You'll also canabalise muscle as well as fat which makes it harder to keep the weight off long term

Realistically no-one should drop below 1400 calories a day (that's enough for even someone of 10 stone (140lb) to lose 1lb a week without exercise). But if you want something very specific, go online and find something called The Harris Benedict Equation. This allows you to workout exactly how many calories you burn each day - you should then drop 500 a day from this is you weigh less than about 12 stone already (168lb), and possibly 1000 a day if you weight more than 12 stone. It might make for a slower weight loss, but it will mean that the weight you're losing is more likely to be fat not lean muscle (which you don't want to get rid of) plus you won't be as hungry so you'll be more likely to stick to it - and you can burn off more calories adding in some walking or other exercise each week. Good luck

 

[lizdotcom99]

Helen.....there you go with those words again Can you please put stones in the pound equivilent? I can't quite remember what exactly a stone weighs.....but I know I like stone weight MUCH better that pound weight!!!

And I agree....calories are WAY too low!!! You might want to talk to those that have or are doing weight watchers....it really is a great program. I seem to get too carried away with portion size....and SBD/Atkins seems to be working....at least for now!! Good luck with finding something that works for you!!

 

[MelanieC]

Yikes, that is definately not enough calories per day. Please seek medical advice from your doctor on how low you should go. You can actually cause your metabolism to shut down and your body to store fat for later use if you cut your calories too drastically.

What about something like WW's? Its basically the same principle as eating low calories, but they take into account what you weight now (the more you weight the more you can eat and loose weight) and they adjust it as you loose. You'd be surprised how much you can loose by eating healthy and eating the right amount of calories designed for safe weight loss.

Drinking shakes as a meal replacement will not teach you how to loose weight and will make it easier for you to put on the weight after you are done. I think it's much better to loose weight in a manner that you can do for a lifetime. Making it a healthy lifestyle change is a much better way to go.

 

[2angelsinheaven]

Well I know the calories seems very low but how to go about adding almost 500-600 a day when the food choices are so low to begin with. I'm thinking that the amount of food must have something to do with weight loss as well.
I'm not using SFast as a meal replacement, more as a fill in since I can't have a full meal sometimes due to work (may be in the ER, on the road, etc) and so sometimes I can't "eat" and I was thinking this would help. But I will add a tuna salad, etc to the meal.
Anyone have a better low cal menu?
I looked at the Sfast website but the menu they give is 1,700 calories and is a TON of food, no way I would eat all that in a day.

 

[Christine]

Well I know the calories seems very low but how to go about adding almost 500-600 a day when the food choices are so low to begin with. I'm thinking that the amount of food must have something to do with weight loss as well.
I'm not using SFast as a meal replacement, more as a fill in since I can't have a full meal sometimes due to work (may be in the ER, on the road, etc) and so sometimes I can't "eat" and I was thinking this would help. But I will add a tuna salad, etc to the meal.
Anyone have a better low cal menu?
I looked at the Sfast website but the menu they give is 1,700 calories and is a TON of food, no way I would eat all that in a day.

I am on a 1600-1700 calorie diet and have lost about 10 lbs between the beginning of January and mid-February. It is definitely NOT a ton a food. As the others have said, if you do 800 calories your body is going to go into severe starvation mode. You will probably drop a lot of weight at first, but then you're going to get into trouble. If you are overweight and have some moderate activity, you WILL lose weight on 1700 calories per day. For me, that is a bowl of cereal with milk and fruit at breakfast, a Lean Cuisine at lunch with a 1/2 cup soup. A snack between lunch and dinner (cheese/crackers or fruit, or yogurt), and what I would consider a normal dinner (1 serving of meat and heaps of veggies). I then have a Weight Watchers ice cream bar in the evening.

 

[MelanieC]

I really think using Slim fast is not a good option. You are much better off learning to eat real food. If you work in an ER and in the car a lot, you are better off learning to deal with working around this problem now instead of trying to get a quick fix. Your going to "drink" your meal but still will feel that sense of "need" to eat. I think a lot of people who drink those shakes can do well initially, but then it gets old and you start feeling deprived.

Do you have a refrigerator at work? If not you could get a small cooler and get some ice pacs. You could take some plain nonfat yogurt add in some pineapple chunks (that were in pineapple juice-pour the juice off). Its very filling, full of protien and carbs from the pineapple.

Try coming up with things that you can not have to cook but that are healthy. Cheese and crackers. Try to learn to do combination foods. Things that have healthy carbs and protien so that you keep your blood sugar level all day. Carry some nuts (weigh them out and put them in baggies). I take a half an ounce of nuts and eat half in the morning and half in the afternoon. Then I have a piece of fruit with it. Keeps me balanced and I'm not strung out on the sugar in the fruit. I have some protein to balance and I didn't overdo it on the nuts.

The key is learning to eat healthy. Learning to eat in moderation and learning to plan. Planning your day will get you through each day one day at a time. Don't get overwhelmed with the big picture. Do one day or week at a time. You can do this!

Also, remember that after your first initial large loss (not large for everyone) you will settle down and probably only loose 1-2 pounds a week. Sometimes less, and sometimes maybe slightly more.

 

[Sandy22]

By eating this low amount of calories you risk PERMANENTLY messing up your metabolism. That's a pretty big risk to take!!! On your proposed eating plan, I would be starving by dinner time and would probably binge eat all night long

Why don't you increase the daily calories and then incorporate exercise to work off those same calories?

 

[sskem96]

My endocrinologist put me on a 750 cal a day diet a couple years ago. I was a size 12-14 and wanted to lose some weight, so I asked him for a diet plan. Well, I was able to follow it for about 2 months, lost 10 lbs the first week because of the drastic change, then the loss slowed down. I ended up losing 17 pounds, and then gained that back PLUS 27 more in the next year. It totally screwed up my metabolism. I'm doing Weight Watchers now and it's really a good plan. I still weigh a little more than when I started the "crash diet", but I feel alot better than I did 22 pounds ago! I've been bad the last few weeks, so I came back to the WISH boards to get some inspiration and get me back on track!