Please help

Ok. Ok. Let's back up a step here. I guess I'm still having a hard time understanding how someone who is 20 has absolutely no clue about nutrition. I'm not saying you should know everything. Please understand I'm not trying to be mean or rude or hateful .. I just truly don't understand how you could not know ANYTHING about what's healthy.

So .. I guess let's start from scratch.

Do you know what a calorie is? Do you know what protein, carbs, and fat are? Do you understand how your body needs vitamins and minerals to be healthy? Do you know what the various vitamins and minerals do?

What your mother suggested is a start, I guess, but it's still sadly lacking in veggies and healthy fats. Then again, if that's what your mom is suggesting, maybe it does explain something about why you don't know a lot about nutrition.

So let's just start with the basics, ok? What do you *think* you know about nutrition? Have you ever actually logged the food you eat into any kind of calorie/nutrition counting program to see what it is you're putting into your body?
 
I've never done that, I check the calories food has when I buy it and if it does't seem to be many I eat it. What veggies should I eat?

The milk I drink has many vitamins according to the package.
 
I've never done that, I check the calories food has when I buy it and if it does't seem to be many I eat it.
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How do you determine what seems to be "many"? Do you take into account the total number of calories you eat? Or do you just go item by item?

What veggies should I eat?
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All of them.

The milk I drink has many vitamins according to the package.
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Vitamins are great, but you still have to watch how much you drink.

Look, here's the thing:

Everything you eat has calories. Eating too many calories will cause you to gain weight. Eating fewer calories than you burn will cause you to lose weight. Ideally you want to eat enough calories to maintain a healthy weight, and within those calories, you want to get a balance of protein, complex carbs, and healthy fats.

You get that balance of nutrients by eating a variety of healthy foods: veggies, fruits, lean meats, complex carbs and grains, healthy fats like olive oil, some dairy, etc.

It's pretty much that simple.
 
Just to add to what Kara said, at your age, weight and height, your BMI is either 1600 (if you are female) calories or 1850 (if you are male) calories.

What that means is, if you do nothing but lay in bed all day you burn that many calories daily just by being alive. I'm guessing that you don't, in fact, just lay in bad all day so you will actually need even more. If you can tell us something about your daily activities (what you do for work, if you exercise, etc), we might be able to get a ballpark figure of how many calories you need.

Then it's a matter of hitting around that number with the types of food Kara suggested. I hate to tell you this, but yes, you will need to eat more, much more, then you have been.
 
I drink about 2 bottles of juice a day, the package says they have vitamin A and vitamin C. They are like 400 ml each. Should I drink water too? I consider food to be low calories when its under 200-300

I walk 1 hour at the forest tuesday-friday, I'm not sure how many calories are burnt with that, I also lift weights in the morning.

Does this sound healthy to you?

Morning: One day bread and milk, the next cereal, the next eggs.
12 pm: 2 days: low calorie natural chips (73 calories) other days: wheat toast
Meal: Mondays: pasta
tuesday: sushi
wedensday: vegetable soup
thursday: sushi or pasta
friday: chicken with tomato and lettuce.

sat-sunday: chicken, fish.

6 pm: one day apple, next one Banana.

night: somedays yogurt, others rice and beans.

My only "guilty" pleasure is a can of boost energy drink once a month, and sometimes a slice of pizza.

Do you think this plan will keep me on my current weight?
 
@ Mizzie:

Im male

Besides the 1 hour walks at the woods and the weights, I go to school 3 days a week, I study singing. On fridays we have a yoga-like class where we stretch and do sit ups and that sort of thing.

Usually once a week I go out to buy things and im usually out for like 2 hours, I take public transport.

I started eating today what I wrote above and my stomach hasnt hurt, looks like it will accept the new diet.
 
Aphex said:
I drink about 2 bottles of juice a day, the package says they have vitamin A and vitamin C. They are like 400 ml each. Should I drink water too? I consider food to be low calories when its under 200-300

I walk 1 hour at the forest tuesday-friday, I'm not sure how many calories are burnt with that, I also lift weights in the morning.

Does this sound healthy to you?

Morning: One day bread and milk, the next cereal, the next eggs.
12 pm: 2 days: low calorie natural chips (73 calories) other days: wheat toast
Meal: Mondays: pasta
tuesday: sushi
wedensday: vegetable soup
thursday: sushi or pasta
friday: chicken with tomato and lettuce.

sat-sunday: chicken, fish.

6 pm: one day apple, next one Banana.

night: somedays yogurt, others rice and beans.

My only "guilty" pleasure is a can of boost energy drink once a month, and sometimes a slice of pizza.

Do you think this plan will keep me on my current weight?
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you know what is missing? A whole lot of green things..you know, veggies outside of fruit.
 
lol I'm sorry but I just about died when I read those last two posts!!
Aphex - go see the Nutritionist next week and get a plan set up. Until then I don't think you will lose or gain much to make any difference.
 
Salad as a single meal or have it with the other meals?

@ Chubby: Im scared so I want to start right away, plus its better to have many opinions than just one, someone here said doctors are not always reliable.
 
Well, what do you think? Yeah, you are going to have to think for yourself. We aren't going to make meal plans for you. I guess I am wondering what you want from people here. People have given you links, given your proper advice and yet I don't know if it is sinking in. You don't have the simplist grasp of eating..and at 20 I don't know how the hell you survived without knowing how to eat.

Look, you said you are seeing a nutritionist next week. Keep eating and you will be fine till then.
 
Aphex, the best thing to do in this situation is Read....

Read and learn about your body, what it needs etc. Did you not do some biology in school? well if you did, it will be a bit easy to understand. U need to understand calories, nutrients, metabolism and malnutrition.
When you learn about that you will be able to make smart choices about what to do and what not to do. your body may be undernourished right now which means your body's chemical processes may not be going well. you may look slimmer but what is going on in your body may be abnormal.

if u don't start eating well soon, u may start seeing symptoms of malnutrition, and they aren't very pretty at all.

what you could also do (especially if you have started seeing symptoms such as brittle hair, hair falling out, weakness, fatigue, frequent colds and flu) is see your DOCTOR, asap!!!! u may need to go on some therapy or something.

Your body is yours, so is your life. its up to you o take care of your own body by treating it right.
 
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Most of the advice at the beginning was ambigious and sarcastic, it is until now you are telling me what is ok and what should I add to my plan.

Dania: I havent lost hair or felt weak, I had surgery in december and the blood tests said I didnt have anemia. So I think im still in time to fix it.
 
Again with the information you've provided, no one can answer the questions you're asking. Serving sizes are important. How much you're eating of each thing is important. What goes into a "vegetable soup" or "sushi" is important. None of those things tell us more than generalities aobut what you're eating.

But you do need more vegetables. Not just soup, but green veggies, leafy veggies. You need healthy fats in your diet. I have no idea if you're getting those.

Bread and milk is not a healthy breakfast. It's not going to sustain you through the day. Cereal by itself is not necessarily a healthy breakfast - add some fruit to that.

Look, just as an example, here's what I eat on an average day:

Breakfast: 1 serving greek yogurt, 1 cup blueberries, coffee
Snack: 1 medium gala apple, 1 piece low fat string cheese
Lunch: 3 oz albacore tuna on whole grain bread, chopped veggies, pickles.
Snack: boiled egg and a can of V8 juice
Dinner: grilled chicken breast (about 4 oz), steamed broccoli, baked sweet potato

That's an average day. Usually my breakfast and snacks remain the same. Lunch and dinner vary.

Today for lunch I had stir fry veggies with chicken and shrimp. Dinner will be grilled steak, roasted cauliflower, and a spinach salad.

Tomorrow for lunch I'm planning to go out with a friend - I'll probably have a turkey sandwich on whole grain, fruit, and a cup of onion soup.

Lots of veggies. Lots of fruit. Lots of lean protein. Minimal starch and grains (and only whole grains when I eat them).
 
My day has gone like this:

bowl of cherios with milk, tea with splenda
greek yogurt with strawberries and homemade granola
banana
wild mushroom ravolli in alfredo sauce with peas, peppers and chicken
several diet cokes
V8
salad with light amount of ranch including avacodos, carrots, cranberries
almonds
london broil with squash risotto


Sounds like a lot of calories?

Nope. Cause everything was in moderation. My whole day will be around 2000 calories when I need around 3000. Your results and needs will be different but seriously, you don't need to starve yourself and it isn't rocket science.
 
kara: Your dinner seems to be heavy, and I was told at night youre supposed to not eat much since during sleep you wont burn it off. The sushi has tuna or salmon with cheese. the soup has pasta, carrots, pickles and peas.

Are eggs a good breakfast? I could add banana to the cereal, or maybe strawberries.

Now that I read the 2 lists above mine sounds pretty decent to me.
 
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kara: Your dinner seems to be heavy,
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Heavy how? It's a lean protein and veggies. What's heavy about that?

I was told at night youre supposed to not eat much since during sleep you wont burn it off.
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Told by who? That's utter and complete BS. You can't segregate calories like that.

he sushi has tuna or salmon with cheese.
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Sushi can be extremely calorie heavy. Some sushi is made with oils, butter, and mayo. Cheese is high fat and high calorie.

Now that I read the 2 lists above mine sounds pretty decent to me.
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I'm not sure how you can come to that conclusion. What we're eating is far more balanced and moderate than what you're eating, which is extremely starch heavy.
 
Then I really dont know what to do. and Im sorry But honestly several cans of diet coke doesnt sound moderate or balanced, sodas in general diet or not are bad.

Your meals in general sound like a lot, unless youre telling me the servings are very small.

If what Im eating is high in calories and vitamins how can it be starving? I thought it was decent because theres vegetable soup and chicken. Im eating yogurt just like you. apples and bananas sound ok to me too. the other guy doesnt seem to add fruit to his cereal either.

My juice is v8 too and my pasta is alfredo as well.

It has been pointed out repeatedly that Im 20 and its outraging I am alive, so I repeat: Im asking for help because Ive never eaten properly in my life and I need to start before I die. Yes, I want people to tell me what to eat and I want them to help me step by step with stick figures and 2 plus 2, because I dont know anything about food. nor do my friends or family.
 
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But honestly several cans of diet coke doesnt sound moderate or balanced, sodas in general diet or not are bad.
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Bad how? Describe why you think they're bad.

Your meals in general sound like a lot, unless youre telling me the servings are very small.
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The day that I listed above comes to 1600 calories (1620, actually), 112g of protein, and a nice even split of 40% carbs / 33% protein / and 27% healthy fats.

You keep changing your story about what you eat. First you said
My breakfast is bread and chocolate mik. I don't eat at night, my meals are:
Monday: pasta
tuesday: sushi
wednesday: pasta repeat/sushi repeat
thursday: sushi
friday: chicken sandwich
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Now you're saying veggie soup, V8, yogurt, etc.

So which is it? We're basing what we tell you on what YOU tell us.

You said that you're continuing to lose weight and you don't know why - obviously you lose weight because you're not consuming enough food to sustain your weight. That's the only answer there is. Either you're eating enough or you're not.

What you're eating is an unhealthy balance of carbs and fat. So if you eat more of what you're eating, you might stop losing weight, but you won't be healthy.

I don't know how to make it any simpler. I really don't. I'm sorry - again I'm not trying to be harsh or rude. But I just don't know how to get more simple than what I've said.

You need to eat MORE VEGGIES.
You need to cut back on the simple carbs (pasta/sushi/pasta/sushi is not a healthy alternate).
You need to eat lean protein.
You need to make sure you're getting an adequate amount of healthy fats.
You need to eat more than bread and chocolate milk for breakfast.

I would suggest tha tyou register for a free account on livestrong.com and start logging your food daily. That will tell you not only how many calories you're eating, but what kind of nutrition you're getting. I think you'll be very surprised to see the numbers once you start entering your food into a proper tracker.
 
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