adamcaa

wow, i'm sure you're really dropping some serious weight. I dont think its necessary to eat that low, meaning you could eat a good bit more and still have some serious fat loss. I would recommend increasing your calories, so that your body has enough fuel to recovery from all of that exercise.

tandoorichicken

This should be fine. I'd say kick the fruit snacks, add fruit... like bananas, clementines, grapes, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries... and other on-the-go fruit, if that's why you eat fruit snacks.

You could also up your calories, if you need to, by drinking milk (not skim) and eating a handful of almonds/walnuts/pecans here and there.

Just remember to feed your workouts — a nice helping of protein and carbs right after your workout will help you hang on to that fat-blasting muscle. It's not, as some people put it, "canceling out" your preceding hard work.

NDParry

Thanks for the feedback...

Just to clear up: by fruit snack, I meant fruit as snacks. Such as apples, bananas, grapes, etc

rpmcduff

What are your Carb/Protein/Fat percentages? Is your protein at least 30% of your intake? What is the timing of your meals?

Protein shakes especially when mixed with milk after a work out are a great way to feed your muscles and increase your protein intake. The milk contains leucine a amino acid that aids in protein synthesis.

GameGal

If it were me, I would replace either breakfast or lunch with the protein shake instead of dinner. And here's the reasoning behind this. At breakfast and lunch, you have aproximately 4 -5 hours before you eat again and you are busy all day ( keeping your metabolism up) and also keeping your mind and hands busy doing something other than eating or thinking of eating. At dinner, it should be your last food of the day and its also your free time. So you have more time to feel hungry, think about food, be tempted by all the food ads on TV etc. And I would bet, after a week or so, you will really feel hungry and not be able to stick with just a shake. To me, doing it at dinner time is setting yourself up for failure down the road.

almeeker

Protein shakes IMO are fine for the occasional meal replacement, especially if you are on the go and won't have time for a nutritious meal. But seriously for the price and the amount of protein you get, a can of tuna is much better. A single can of tuna has 42.6 grams of protein and costs about $.59. Where the average protein shake or bar has 14-21 grams of protein and runs $.99-$3.99. I usually follow my workouts with a protein fix of some sort, 30-50 grams of protein minimum, and sometimes I will use a shake or a protein bar to get the number up there - especially if I'm craving chocolate.

One thing I can recommend a protein bar for is to keep you from noshing on a real candy bar. I've got the kids trained to b-line for the protein bars at the grocery store. They know I'm much more likely to let them have one of those than a bar of junk food.

kcolville

I have a question- it states that my

Weight Loss per Day / Calories per Pound = Calorie Restriction per Day
0.25 3500 875

does this means i should be having 875 calories a day or
3,500- 875= 2625 calroies a day?

also- i am looking for support and encourgament through this..do i just join a forum?

rpmcduff

I will try to clarify the calorie restriction confusion. First you must find your base metabolic rate (the number of calories you burn just by being alive). If you haven't already go to the Activies tab and from the menu on the left choose 'Customize Metabolism'. This will take you to a screen that shows you (and allows you to change) your base metabolic rate from 2 different formulas. I used the top one as it was lower when I started and then choose your normal activity level. I use sedentary as I spend most of my day in front of a computer screen. Once you save this, the graph on the Activities screen will show you your base metabolic rate in calories. So to lose .25 lbs per day (1.75 lbs/week) you need to subtract 875 calories from your base calories.

For example if your base metabolic rate is 2200 then 2200 - 875 = 1325. If you are trying to do this with diet only (a bad idea in my opinion) you can only eat 1325 calories daily. If you combine exercise and diet you could eat 1525 calories and burn an additional 200 calories exercising or any combination that works for you and allows you to burn 875 more calories than you take in.

Hope this doesn't leave you more confused than when you started.

kcolville

thanks- although this scares me it works out that my metoblism is 1,869- 875- just about 1,000 diet.

that isnt alot, any ideas what to eat that will fill my belly?

cjohnson728

I agree, that's not a lot...have you considered changing your goal date so it doesn't give you a loss of 1.75 pounds per week? Maybe shoot for a pound per week; you will have another 375 calories daily to play with and it will be something you are more likely to stick with. I actually tended to use another site rather than this one to calculate my calories; it is here: http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm.

Also, just head on down to the women's only forum section. There are "clubs" for people who want to lose 100 pounds or more, 50, 30, 5-15...you don't have to exactly fit the range; just jump in. There's also the Wednesday Club that will post tomorrow; you can jump into that, too! Or start your own; whichever...no rules or regulations.