My diet Diary (Very imaginative title! :D)

Pinky2

New member
Okay so here i go... Day 1!


Breakfast:
Half a bowl of Special K with Semi-Skimmed milk

Lunch:
Small hand full of brown rice
a dribble of soya sauce
1 chicken breast fryed with a little olive oil and cajun

Dinner:
Bowl of mixed lettuce, tomato and cucumber and half an avacado
4 sausages

Drinks:
2 mugs of green tea
1 middle sized glass of orange juice
1 pint of water

Today i've been pretty good i think... Not gone completely overboard with the food although i did eat 4 sausages instead of the 2 that i was going to have... cooked all of them... left them out to get cool and tempation got over me. :flame: However, i also think i'm not drinking enough water... will have to up my count of pint glasses. :)
 
Okay so here i go... Day 1!


Breakfast:
Half a bowl of Special K with Semi-Skimmed milk

Lunch:
Small hand full of brown rice
a dribble of soya sauce
1 chicken breast fryed with a little olive oil and cajun

Dinner:
Bowl of mixed lettuce, tomato and cucumber and half an avacado
4 sausages

Drinks:
2 mugs of green tea
1 middle sized glass of orange juice
1 pint of water

Today i've been pretty good i think... Not gone completely overboard with the food although i did eat 4 sausages instead of the 2 that i was going to have... cooked all of them... left them out to get cool and tempation got over me. :flame: However, i also think i'm not drinking enough water... will have to up my count of pint glasses. :)

Welcome to WLF! You are going to have to increase your calories, or your body will go into starvation mode, lowering your metabolism--and bringing your weight loss to a grinding halt. You need to eat at least 1400 per day--bare minimum. If you are male, I'd say at least 1600-1800. Also, unless you have the discipline of a monk, you will be too hungry to keep it up. What kind of exercising are you doing?
 
I haven't felt hungry today though... been keeping myself busy.. whats the point in eating if i don't feel the hunger?

At the moment i'm not doing much exercise except walking into town and back which is about a 10 minute walk or something. Once i get my car back then i will be driving to the gym and working out there.. probably doing swimming.

Oh and im a female. ;)
 
I haven't felt hungry today though... been keeping myself busy.. whats the point in eating if i don't feel the hunger?

At the moment i'm not doing much exercise except walking into town and back which is about a 10 minute walk or something. Once i get my car back then i will be driving to the gym and working out there.. probably doing swimming.

Oh and im a female. ;)

This is why you should not cut your calories so low:

This is a sticky post in the On Topic section by Steve who knows his stuff.

People will never get this on this board. Let's pretend your maintenance is 2500 calories per day. This means, you are eating 2500 calories worth of energy per day and you are expending roughly 2500 calories worth of energy per day. Results in a net break-even and theoretically, there is no weight gain or loss. Right?

BTW, 2500 calorie maintenance level would be for someone roughly 170 lbs. The bigger you are, the higher your maintenance level is.

INFORMED individuals looking to lose weight will cut calories by some small margin, say 10-20%. As they begin to lose weight, their metabolism will slow, even though they are going about weight loss in an appropriate fashion. You can't continue losing weight forever at your original deficit. Your metabolism catches up to you and it slows to a point where you won't see results. At this point, depending on a few factors, you could cut calories again to trigger another deficit based on your NEW maintenance level.

There comes a point where this will become counter-productive. You can't expect to continually play the "slashing calories" game and expect to be healthy AND expect to see results. There comes a point where you CAN'T eat any less and ideally, you don't follow the path this far! After a certain point, I recommend starting a cyclical diet where you bounce calories up and down. Or a diet including refeeds of carbs. There are multiple options you can execute once you come to this fork in the road.

Now, around here, most people cut calories originally by some ridiculous amount. Still using a maintenance of 2500 calories, I find many around here will slash to 1200, or something ludicrous like this. Why a 50% calorie slash seems OK to some of you I will never understand. Our bodies are very adaptive, finely tuned machines that are built to survive. And you better believe that you are sending many, many signals to your body that say, "Time to change physiologically because it looks like we are going through some hard times."

One of the greatest, actually, the greatest metabolic studies ever conducted was the Minnesota Starvation Diet. Here, they slashed calories by 50% off of maintenance to realize the impacts STARVATION had on post war and Jewish victims of the Nazis, and how to best go about rehabbing them. The sad thing is, I see a lot of people doing this same thing around here.

When you do this the right way, your body will adapt and progress will slow. What do you think doing it the wrong way does?

You say you don't understand how you can lose weight for weeks and then, plateau. That is because you don't understand how your body works. Your body adapts. The same technique, have it be a certain calorie intake, a certain way of exercising, or whatever have you will have to be manipulated and changed if you are going to realize continued success.

And for those of you who do things the least optimal way through starvation* are going to have a long, hard road ahead of you if your goal is actually looking and feeling good, and not just what the number on the scale says.

*realize that starvation does not actually mean eating nothing and being on the verge of death. i mean depriving your body of the basic macro and micro nutrients as well as sufficient calories in so that you are creating a below par atmosphere for your overall health and continued success.


There is a website called that is a great way to log your daily calories. I would check it out. I'm not saying that eating low one day is bad (it isn't), but if you consistantly eat less than 1400cals, you are really going to mess up your metabolism, and it will sabotage your weight loss. And when you start going to the gym, make sure you do strength training in addition to cardio. Once you start working out, you will definitely want to make sure you're eating enough.

I'm just trying to help you. Everyone I know here who has lost a significant amount of weight (including myself) has followed this eating rule. ;)
 
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wow... 2500 calories seems far far too high! What i don't understand however is why most diet's then suggest you eat 1200 cal a day? If it's so bad for you why do most of them suggest it? I don't mean to be rude... I don't really know that much about dieting except that you have to cut calories. lol

Breakfast:
bowl of special K with semi skimmed milk.
1 peach

Lunch:
I woke up late... so breakfast kinda took over lunch!

Dinner:
4 small crab cakes with a tomato sauce, spinach
1 side salad
2 chunks of chocolate

Drinks:
1 medium sized glass of orange juice
1 mug of green tea
4 small glasses of wine

Snacks:
1 brownie with a blob of vanilla ice-cream
 
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To experienced "losers" like BB and me (I've been on WL boards for 1 year now and read a lot of stories) 1200 sounds excessively low, especially for someone at your size and age. You're right, the number does sound very textbook but its not something that can be sustained and honestly, pretty much all the people I read about who did such a low calorie diet gave it up and gained the weight back.

I get so extraordinarily depleted on days I eat 1450 that I have to "refeed" the next day or two because I can feel my body just screaming for more food. I would think if you feel no hunger and can manage to keep that up, you already have a very slow metabolism and need to find a way to speed it up. I personally find calorie cycling really useful. This way when you really dont have much of an appetite, you dont waste the calories that you could have avoided (but you DID want that 4th sausage so clearly you did have an appetite). But this only works if you then eat lots more the next day or two to let your body know that food will always be coming down the pike soon enough. But whether you eat a high enough amount everyday, or you calorie cycle and over the course of the week eat a sufficient number of calories, you need to eat enough to lose weight. I personally believe its the only way to maintain your metabolism and keep the weight loss going and the weight off after that.
 
To experienced "losers" like BB and me (I've been on WL boards for 1 year now and read a lot of stories) 1200 sounds excessively low, especially for someone at your size and age. You're right, the number does sound very textbook but its not something that can be sustained and honestly, pretty much all the people I read about who did such a low calorie diet gave it up and gained the weight back.

I get so extraordinarily depleted on days I eat 1450 that I have to "refeed" the next day or two because I can feel my body just screaming for more food. I would think if you feel no hunger and can manage to keep that up, you already have a very slow metabolism and need to find a way to speed it up. I personally find calorie cycling really useful. This way when you really dont have much of an appetite, you dont waste the calories that you could have avoided (but you DID want that 4th sausage so clearly you did have an appetite). But this only works if you then eat lots more the next day or two to let your body know that food will always be coming down the pike soon enough. But whether you eat a high enough amount everyday, or you calorie cycle and over the course of the week eat a sufficient number of calories, you need to eat enough to lose weight. I personally believe its the only way to maintain your metabolism and keep the weight loss going and the weight off after that.

Cita is right. You might lose for a few weeks, even a month at 1200 a day. But after that, your body will become used to 1200 and your metabolism will lower so that you no longer lose weight at 1200cals. And even at 1200, it is next to impossible to get enough vitamins and nutrition that your body requires to be healthy. Depending on your height and weight, you should be eating between 1500--1800cal per day. Of course, the more you exercise, the more you need to eat. One of my friends here works out about 2-2.5hrs a day, so she eats between 1900-2300cal per day. And she is losing weight like crazy. Most people don't work out that much, so they would have a tough time losing on 2000+ per day--unless they are 300+lbs.

That 2500cals is maintanence--meaning that is what you would eat to maintain your weight--not lose. Many diets recommend eating 1200 b/c they don't understand how the body really works. And it's true. I can easily maintain on 2500cals--b/c I haven't lowered my metabolic rate. If you talk to some of the people here who have lost a lot of weight, I doubt you will find anyone who did it by consistantly eating very low cal. Like Steve said in that posting, sure if you only 500cal a day, you'll keep losing weight. But it's very unhealthy, and not the way you want to do it. This forum is about losing weight in a healthy manner, and adopting healthy lifestyles--not about starving yourself.
 
Sheesh BB, we are such pains in the asses! :rotflmao:

Hey Pinky, hope you're having a nice day :).

I know I might sound harsh, I just don't like it when people think the only way they can lose weight is by starving themselves. I'm trying to help her. If I didn't care, I'd just stay away. So Pinky, I hope you don't mind my advice. :D

Oh, I love your avatar, btw...:rofl:
 
hehe no i appreciate you guys help... afterall i want to loose this weight in a way that will stop me from putting it back on. I've done so many fad diets in my life that i know they just don't work. However... I'm not doing much exercise at the moment apart from some walking here and there and cruches at night time... i should really add that to my diary. lol

So therefore seeing as im doing very little exercise should i be eating like around 1200-1500 calories?? It seems like i can eat whatever to an extent! haha I'm not trying to starve myself... I'm trying to eat more greens and all that... i just find that most times i'm not really that hungry so therefore eat a little less.. I've been quite busy so haven't really had time to think about food.

Breakfast:
a bowl of special K with semi skimmed milk

Lunch:
1 sausage
bowl of lettuce, watercress, cucumber and 2 cherry tomatoes, drizzle of balsamic syrip
1 brownie (i knew my sister making these was a bad idea!)

Dinner:
1 sausage
bowl of lettuce, watercress, cucumber and 2 cherry tomatoes, drizzle of balsamic syrip
1/2 a brownie
2 petit filous (little yoghurt things... really nice. :))

Drinks:
1 glass of orange juice
1 pint of tea! (i measured my massive mug today and it holds a whole pint! hehe)
2 pints of water
 
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I'm a 22 year old female, weigh currently 194lbs (cries) and am 5ft 7in tall... oh and i live in england. :D
 
are you kidding me? even the the brownies and everything? I'm generally trying to eat healthier so having like salads with meat ontop of them.. surely thats good for me?
 
I haven't felt hungry today though... been keeping myself busy.. whats the point in eating if i don't feel the hunger?

At the moment i'm not doing much exercise except walking into town and back which is about a 10 minute walk or something. Once i get my car back then i will be driving to the gym and working out there.. probably doing swimming.

Oh and im a female. ;)

Have you ever calculated how many calories you used to eat before your "diet"? I would take that number and cut from there.
 
are you kidding me? even the the brownies and everything?

What does the type of food have to do with my statement?

I said your calories seem low for someone with your stats. I don't care if it is coming from pure sugar. The cal intake still seems low.

I'm generally trying to eat healthier so having like salads with meat ontop of them.. surely thats good for me?

I didn't say anything about the foods you eating being unhealthy. I said your calorie intake seems a bit low.
 
Okay okay... so i got the wrong end of the stick Steve. :rotflmao: My... aren't you a pushy male. ;)

Sorry i never updated my last day... went without a computer for a bit and can't remember exactly what i ate.. frustrating!

However... i know that i was trying to eat a little more calories then i was before... so i am trying to take what your saying into consideration. :)
 
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