(Healthily) Boosting Calories?
 

I started using Fitday about two days ago, in yet another attempt to lose weight. Something interesting popped out almost immediatly; I think my body is in "starvation mode", which might explain why my other attempts to lose weight have failed. I'm a 6'0" male, fairly sedentary (office job followed by watching TV/screwing around on the interwebs when I get home), and weigh 268 pounds. According to Fitday, I should be burning around 3,170 calories a day, and my diet only accounts for about 1500 calories.

My "Target diet" is about 2300 calories a day, but I find I'm having a lot of trouble making up the difference to try and get into a level where fat loss is even possible. I'm not a vegitarian, however I am allergic to quite a few different kinds of seafood. Does anyone have any recipes/ideas for healthily boosting my calories? I know I need to cut back on carbs, which is going to make this even more difficult to balance correctly.

Also, although somewhat unrelated, I'm planning on getting a cheap(ish) elliptical machine that I can use while watching TV, since my biggest problem with exercise to date is getting bored halfway through. Will I have to increase my calorie load to make up for the amount I'm burning off, to try to avoid going back into an everything-but-fat burning mode?

Food suggestions: Eggs or egg whites, cottage cheese, whey protein and protein shakes, unroasted almonds and natural peanut butter are all healthy ways to up your calories.

Everybody is different so you need to find how much of a calorie deficit your body can handle. Most people can handle a 800 calorie deficit/day, many can handle 1000, some can handle 1500. You may have to find your limit through experimentation. 1000 calories/day deficit equates to about a 2 pound weight loss per week.

If you exercise you will have to make up the calories you burn with more food to keep your deficit from growing too large. Don't let that stop you from exercising. Those that diet without execising can lose up to 75% of their weight loss from muscle.

Someone else put it very well on these boards when he/she said that asking which diet is best is kind of like asking which religion is best. You are likely to get greatly varying answers, and everyone is going to insist that his/her plan is the best no matter how much it contrasts with effective plans that other people are following. I think it boils down to the fact that the best nutrition plan for you will be the one that is both sustainable and effective for you. With that in mind, I can make a recommendation that you try to increase your calories using whole, natural foods as much as possible. It takes a bit of extra effort and sometimes even a little more money to prepare your own food instead of eating packaged/processed food, but in the long run your health benefits should outweigh the extra effort and expense.

Best of luck!