Daily Calorie Intake

I'm sure you all get sick of this question but I was wondering if anyone had any advice on what my daily calorie intake should be, me and the CC tools have a tendancy to fall out....

I'm 5ft 1, 30 years old and a horrific 166.2lb

I swim 2 or 3 times a week (100 lengths of 25m pool) and usually visit the gym 2 or 3 times a week, burning between 300 and 500 calories plus weight training. My job however is sedentary, sat at a computer all day, although I do have a 15 minute walk each way from where I park my car which I suppose helps.

My typical food intake each day would be:

Breakfast - Alpen Light Bar. I take it to work with me, its all I have time for.

Mid Morning - Banana

Lunch - Bowl of soup eg. Weight Watchers Carrot & Lentil, Clear Chicken Noodle, Chicken or Mushroom with 2 dry Ryvitas, Muller Vitality Pro Biotic Yoghurt (Cherry or Blueberry) and 1 orange. Every other day I will also include a small handful of unsalted mixed nuts.

Mid Afternoon - 2 dry Ryvitas and 1 Apple

Tea - Grilled Salmon with raw veg (brocolli, cauliflour, carrots, mange tout, baby sweetcorn etc) OR Jacket potato with prawns OR Mushroom Omlette made with two eggs and raw veg

Drinks - Green Tea or water

Once a week I will have a cheat meal which is the only time I ever have chips (fries), crisps (chips), chocolate or takeaway.

I have been losing weight slowly but surely....just very, very slowly. I have only lost 8lb since August, although I know slow weight loss is best I had hoped it would be a bit faster than that. Is it possible I'm not eating enough (I know about 'starvation mode') or too much?

Any advice appreciated :)

What is your average daily calorie consumption?  How many calories are in your cheat meal?

If you want to speed up your weight loss, there may be some healthy ways to do it simply by modifying your diet and/or workout routine.  For starters I'd suggest eating a better (and bigger) breakfast.  Your body needs energy to start the day, and it looks like you're not giving yourself enough fuel.

If you can provide more details, I'm sure you'll get some great advice!

It doesn't sound like you're eating nearly enough?! ESPECIALLY on the days you do all that swimming! I agree with blindizzle about breakfast- you could prepare a home-made muesli or wrap/pitta filling the night before to take with you to work- I do that a lot.

Also, can I ask why the veg is raw? I've always thought that lightly steamed/boiled veg was more nutritious? I could be wrong though.

Your BMR is roughly 1525- so by all accounts you should be eating at least that to avoid doing any long-term damage to your system.

Your bmr, which is the number of calories your body needs daily and would burn if you were to stay in bed all day, is 1525 cals. It is recommended that you eat at least the same number of cals as your bmr. Many people argue (myself included) that eating below this number can slow your metabolism and make losing weight harder.

At sedentary you burn approx 1830  (bmr x 1.2). So eating 1525 cals, would give you a deficit of 305 cals without exercise. To lose a pound a week, you should aim to have a deficit of 500 cals a day. It is also important to never have a deficit of more than 1000 cals because this too can slow your metabolism.

So eat 1525 cals and use your exercise to increase your deficit to between 500-1000 cals.

Good Luck.

Original Post by irishmum:

It doesn't sound like you're eating nearly enough?! ESPECIALLY on the days you do all that swimming! I agree with blindizzle about breakfast- you could prepare a home-made muesli or wrap/pitta filling the night before to take with you to work- I do that a lot.

Also, can I ask why the veg is raw? I've always thought that lightly steamed/boiled veg was more nutritious? I could be wrong though.

Your BMR is roughly 1525- so by all accounts you should be eating at least that to avoid doing any long-term damage to your system.

 Ahh. Irishmum beat me to it with the bmr info. I must be a slow typer! LOL

I don't log every day since I have the same meals every day, I logged my typical day which came out at 1350 calories and Grade A (that was a non-nuts day lol so I need to log again including my nuts *that sounds so wrong*)

As for my cheat meal....that would be guesswork, it depends whether its a takeaway or a hot dog, it varies depending on what I'm craving that week. I do occasionally sabotage myself with a chocolate binge *hangs head in shame* but I'm trying to curb that with a 60 cal hot chocolate instead. I don't keep any cheat foods in the house at all so atleast I don't have temptation under my nose and I have to physically go out and buy my cheat meal

I eat raw veg because thats how I've always eaten it, nothing to do with weight loss. As a small child I refused to eat cooked veg and always asked for it raw. I just can't stand it cooked, even lightly.

Original Post by linz78:

I eat raw veg because thats how I've always eaten it, nothing to do with weight loss. As a small child I refused to eat cooked veg and always asked for it raw. I just can't stand it cooked, even lightly.

 I was just curious, I know some people just like it that way?

I'd try and add an extra handful of nuts daily, or allow yourself a daily 'treat' to get your cal intake up to around the 1525 mark- and try and eat extra the days you do the exercise. I'm not 100% of cals needed for exercise (since I'm a lazy-arse! LOL!) but I'm sure someone can advise how many you'd need to add on these days?

Original Post by keb1984:

Original Post by irishmum:

It doesn't sound like you're eating nearly enough?! ESPECIALLY on the days you do all that swimming! I agree with blindizzle about breakfast- you could prepare a home-made muesli or wrap/pitta filling the night before to take with you to work- I do that a lot.

Also, can I ask why the veg is raw? I've always thought that lightly steamed/boiled veg was more nutritious? I could be wrong though.

Your BMR is roughly 1525- so by all accounts you should be eating at least that to avoid doing any long-term damage to your system.

 Ahh. Irishmum beat me to it with the bmr info. I must be a slow typer! LOL

 LOL! Sorry!

With the CC tools I find it more helpful to start with the Burn amount.  I plugged in your stats at a moderate activity level.  Your burn is 2300.  That's where you start from.  If you take off 1000 calories, that's 1300.  If you exercise more than the moderate level, then log the activity and add those calories to your allowance for the day.  You should have a 2 pound weight loss at that level.  Don't try to lose it faster.

I'm speaking from very long experience.  Feel free to look at my weight chart in my profile and read my explanation of how I lost the weight.