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Am I Getting Enough Energy/Cals?

G

ghost_whistler

Well-Known Member
Messages
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I'm struggling to work out if i'm getting sufficient calories (bearing in mind i'm 20kg overweight and my macros suggest 1600-1800 calories for weight loss).

This is what I eat:

Breakfast= 1 hass avocado, 10z Kale, 2 suasages, grilled

Lunch= 10z cabbage+lettuce, 100g tofu, roughly 25g grated cheese, roughly 4g olive oil, 25g brazil nuts salad.

Dinner= 300g chicken leg portion, 2 spears of broccoli, 1oz spinach, 1/2 bell pepper, 2 spears cauli grated. Veg (except spinach) fried in about 25g butter.

Calculating this comes to about 1000 calories from what the ingredients. That sounds really low, but i'd struggle to find or eat more.
 
@ghost_whistler You say that you would struggle to eat more. I would interpret this as my body saying that it had had quite enough, thank you, not only in sheer quantity, but that it had had sufficient nutrients. (Unless, of course, you are ill and are actually off your food.)
If you want to add more calories / fats, could I suggest butter on your kale, a slightly bigger bit of cheese (I think I'm being mean when I offer 30g cheese), a little more oil (4g is barely a dribble), make sure you eat the chicken skin at dinner time and put butter to melt onto your veg as well as using it as a cooking medium.
Sally
 
It's kinda hard measuring things like oil. Also too much is just sickly. That's why i couldn't cover everything in butter as some keto advocates like to espouse. A stick of butter in a cup of coffee? Ugh! Not for me.

I do eat the chicken skin, but adding butter on top of the amount used to fry is again too much for my palate.

There must be a better way, thanks.
 
Using the Carbs and Calories book

Avocado 287

2 Sausages 324

25g Cheese 68

25g Brazil Nuts 171

300g Chicken about 500

25g Butter 185

Add say 100 for the Tofu and veg

Total 1,635 kcal
 
I find the easiest way to increase fat and calories without adding carbs is to eat cheese (various kinds) or nuts as a snack.
 
I eat less than or around 1000 calories a day. That is what my body likes. I agree on too much oily fat like oil and butter. I get most of my fats form mono/plant fats. They're easier on the digestion for me. I eat an avocado a day, the bigger the better. Lunch and dinner have a drizzle of olive oil or some mayo. I snack on a few nuts or pumpkin seeds. I eat about 40 g animal/ fish protein a day and some ablobe ground veggies.

If you have body fat to lose your body will burn your own fat. That's one of the beauties of low carb or keto diets. If you over eat fat ( or any food) your body will not tap into its own stores so no need to eat additional fat. Just moderate portions. Once you hit your goal weight you will probably have to adjust your diet but until then just eat high quality foods until satisfied. If you're not hungry you are getting the right fuel. I chose quality over quantity.
 
I agree with @Chook that cheese is very calorific and something easy to increase. Also what about eggs?

When I had lost all my weight and needed to stop losing, I added cheese to my diet (hadn't had it previously) and an extra egg a day. Those extra calories ensured I stopped losing and maintained, plus of course gave me even more good nutrients.
 
ghost_whistler said:
Calculating this comes to about 1000 calories from what the ingredients. That sounds really low, but i'd struggle to find or eat more.
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Your calculation sounds too low for those foods ... the sausages, cheese, nuts, oil, and butter all add a lot of calories already. It can help to use a gram scale to check your portion sizes, then calculate based on nutritional data on the package or a site like calorieking.com
 
@ghost_whistler

May I ask why you are concerned? Do you feel well in yourself, with plenty of energy? If you need to lose weight, are you losing it? If you don't need to lose weight, are you stable? Are your blood sugars behaving? If all is well in these areas, I suggest your diet is probably suiting you.
 
Mr_Pot said:
Using the Carbs and Calories book

Avocado 287

2 Sausages 324

25g Cheese 68

25g Brazil Nuts 171

300g Chicken about 500

25g Butter 185

Add say 100 for the Tofu and veg

Total 1,635 kcal
Click to expand...
I was going by the packaging. What is the carbs and calories book?
The calorie count for the avocado (it's a hass avacodo from tesco, the cheapest kind) is just shy of 200 cals.
2 Tesco finest pork sausages 278 cals
25g Cathedral City Mature cheese is actually a bit higher at 104g
25g Brazil nuts is about 173, so that's correct
330g chicken leg portion from the butcher - I've no idea, he doesn't label the meat. I look up on the tesco site and i get a much lower reading. Tesco chicken thighs, the closest thing I can find, says 230cals/100g, so your estimate could be conservative! But let's go with it.
Tofu is about 100cals, based on a 100g portion that shrinks when cooked of course.
I couldn't read the cal content of the butter, the print is too small!
Olive oil is about 1cal/g.
The content of the veg wont' really be much.

Perhaps I underestimated.
 
ghost_whistler said:
I couldn't read the cal content of the butter, the print is too small!
Olive oil is about 1cal/g.
Click to expand...
Olive oil is nearly 9 calories per gram. All butter is going to be about the same, unless it's fake or low-fat butter. So around 180 calories for 25 grams.
 
Main point is that if you feel good on what you are eating then why worry?
As @Bluetit1802 says if you are stable or losing weight then you seem fine.
I see you want to lose 20kg so I really wouldn't worry about eating too little.

The time to worry is when you feel exhausted all the time and hungry all the time.
 
I don't feel too bad. I wouldn't say I was brimming with energy, but then I don't think i've adapted to ketosis yet. Not sure if and when that will happen and, given that i've just eaten a pork and apple burger for dinner (brought from the local butcher, as i've done so many times - i completely overlooked the apple part), I may have to start afresh.
 
I'm a born worrier. I suffer from anxiety.
 
I thought you were using MyFitnessPal? There's no need to,agonise over calories. It's to give you a rough idea, not to the nearest 10 calories or whatever.

Unless you're a machine, then your body will use a slightly different amount of calories, and you'll use a slightly different amount in your varying daily routine, etc, anyway.

There's also no need to agonise about a small amount of apple in a burger. It won't sabotage your diet in any way.
 
I don't find mfp to be helpful. It relies on a user generated info base and it's just easier to reference what's on the package rather than hunt through the different listings on an app.
 
ghost_whistler said:
I don't find mfp to be helpful. It relies on a user generated info base and it's just easier to reference what's on the package rather than hunt through the different listings on an app.
Click to expand...

Well, obviously if it's on the packaging that's quicker than opening MFP, but it can be useful for other foods or when you no longer have the packaging, or simply to keep a record that you can look at at the end of the day/week.

No app will be perfect, but it doesn't matter - for the reasons I gave above.
 
If it's helpful for others, I'm all for it.

I just find it easier to use the packaging, or look stuff up on the tesco site (which is where i do my shopping anyway). They list all the nutrients, handily. Every little helps!
 
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