Hermiones Mom's Journal, 22 September 2014

Perhaps bump up your protein grams per day at each meal, especially breakfast - then you will be less hungry throughout the day. I have the same issue at times with keeping the calories down but I know for me if I eat breads and cereals, I am hungry within a couple hours - if I have eggs or lean proteins, I stay satiated longer and eat less overall. 

You are absolutely right - HCB. I have to bump up the protein at breakfast. But sometimes in the morning I don't have time to make eggs. So I think I have to do sliced turkey on those mornings.  

Just a hint..You could boil a few eggs and in the morning they will be ready to eat. I always keep boiled eggs in the refrigerator that way if I want a snack or morning meal that keeps me satiated I mix one with mayonnaise or cream cheese and voila, I have something that I know will keep me going for awhile.. :)  

Re-energize -- thanks for the suggestion, but I eat only egg whites, in part because I have to keep my cholesterol down and also because I have a mild allergy to egg yolk. If I eat too much egg yolk, get itchy eczema on my arms. tMI?? What I try to do at least once each week is to cook extra fish at dinner, and then make the leftovers into some kind of fish salad that I can eat at breakfast. Thanks for the suggestion! 

Maybe even some smoked salmon around in the morning? Or there's the high protein greek yogurt. 

1400 is LOW, Leslie, really low...so I can definitely see how that would be hard. I was doing 1500 a day and I wanted to die so I bumped back up to 1700 and this feels much more comfortable buuuut it is a little slower for sure. Do you know when you might be able to get back into the fresh fruit/veggies? Until that point, you might have to just bump those calories up and expect it to come off a little slower. If you feel famished, that's a recipe for disaster (forgive my pun). Don't be too hard on yourself. The thing is...you're here and you're working on it. 

At 800/day, I lose weight at an encouraging rate. At 1200-1400, I bob up and down at more or less the same weight. Over 1400 plus not paying attention to things like beer, wine, bread, pasta, rice, cheese, chocolate, or other high calorie poor food choices, I'll become obese again. No thanks. If you choose well with a good variety of maximum nutrition whole foods in single portion sizes and a portion of quality protein at every meal, you can cut your 1400 RDI in half.  

Anything below 1200 calories per day is extremely unhealthy. You put yourself into starvation mode and that actually signals your body to preserve all of the calories. Furthermore, your body will actually start to break down muscle, which then lowers the metabolism even more. Cutting 1400 calories in half to 700 is absurd and DANGEROUS. 

I will also add that for men that minimum standard is much higher - about 1800 calories. I'm sure that's an effective way to lose weight but it does nothing for getting to a point of sustaining a healthy lifestyle. 

Do you really want to eat 1200 calories a day for the rest of your life? 

my last ten days under t 1000 cals+ exercises. m i feel good ? no! Don't Try This at Home. only doctors can . directly observed treatment. eat everything without fats.balance t crbonhdrt and proteins. eat fiber . dont look t calories. look how much calories coming from t fat. 

Try incorporating exercise into your lifestyle so you can lose the weight without starving. 

I'm not planning on starving myself-- Annie -- you are MUCH more active than I am and 35 years younger! Believe it or not, in college to stay at 135 pounds, which is hardly skinny, I ate 900 calories per day for weeks on end. I just about lived on yogurt and cottage cheese. But I was young and foolish then! But I learned the last time around that when I go above 1450 for any length of time, I simply do not lose weight. I have to stay at or close to 1350 to consistently lose. And anything above 1600 and I gain weight immediately. Really, I am not generally hungry on 1350. I think I'm just messed up from having to give up so much of the low-calorie 'bulky' foods this summer. I have just had a snack of mixed berries and a nectarine -- we'll see how this works out... 

Could try the 5:2 diet. But would mean upping your current calorie levels to say around 1800 calories for 5 days, & then dropping them to 500 for 2 non-consecutive days. So like 500 cals every 3rd day or so. Upping calories raises your metabolism so that when you lower it for 1 day here & there you lose more weight. 

Ebivr -- thanks for the suggestion - but I am trying to establish an eating-for-life program, so that when I finally get all the weight off, I can continue to eat the same way, just a little more, forever after. I don't actually think I need to do anything radical -- I lost almost 10 pounds in 6 weeks doing exactly what I'm doing. I just have to figure out adjustments in what I eat so I stay full longer and don't get the munchies. Thanks for caring. 

I'm doing 1400 calories a day and doing fine. I only increased to that after I increased my exercise and my thyroid got straightened out. Before that I was 1000 because I was so inactive. I've been doing boiled eggs and then discovered that was making my cholesterol too high. Replacing one with plain oatmeal. Dannon Light and Fit Greek yogurts are a great low calorie high protein snack/breakfast/lunch addition. I have one every day. 

msbuggirl --I am waiting on my blood work to find out if my thyroid meds need to be adjusted -- it's possible they do, and that could be part of my problem. I can only do lactose-free yogurt, and I am going to start eating more of it now to see if that helps Thanks or the suggestions. 

mam your diet almost perfect. all fats healthy.without Kind Nuts & Spices Dark Chocolate Nuts & Sea Salt or Terra Original Chips. really good. u can stay over t 1400 because ur diet really healthy. not fast but if it ain't broke don't fix it:D 

It was weird how bad my thyroid got. My TSH went from 18 (which was bad) to 87.8 in a year. He doubled my dose and 3 weeks later I was at .185 (a smidge low). So we adjusted again and we'll see how that does in another month. For a long time he die know how I got out of bed. For a long time I didn't much. Now I'm finally feeling human and inspiring people around me. What more could a girl want? I bet the Dr gets you all fixed up. 

I agree with abartach. I think you're doing fine where you are especially given your digestive issues at the moment, which prevent you from eating the things that normally fill you up. Keep at what you know has been successful for you. Your doc is keeping watch and was before when you successfully lost weight.