Am I Doing Everything Right With My Diet?
I’m a 14-year-old female, I weight 145 pounds at 5′6.
I’m on an eating plan which is supposed to make me lose 2 pounds a week. My daily calorie budget is 1,140 calories. I eat between 1,200-1,500 calories a day and exercise almost every day (tae bo, aerobics, running, walking, etc.) to make my calories betwen 900-1,140 for the day. I also try to do ab strength training twice a week, and I stretch every day. Am I doing anything wrong with my diet? Should I eat more? Or is this a good plan to keep my metabolism stable?
Also, for this calorie budget, how many grams of protein, fat, carbs, and sugars should I be consuming every day?
Here is a typical day of my plan:
Breakfast – Flax seed, banana and blueberry smoothie (300 calories)
Lunch – Peanut butter sandwich on whole wheat pita (208 calories)
Dinner – 1 cup of pasta with tomato sauce, cup of veggie stir fry, small piece of pound cake, tea & fruit yogurt (578)
Snack – Cup of orange juice, medium apple (205)
Exercise – Walking (-60 calories), Running (-160), Powerwalking (-160), Stretching (-20).
i’ve also been having digestive problems, any advice for that?
Breakfast…
I see potential excess sugar, not enough protein
Lunch- Peanut butter, unless its natural and sugar free is not a good choice for weight loss.
Dinner
Pasta is refined flour, converts quickly to sugar, causing insulin dump. No protein, POUND CAKE (really??) and fruit yogurt (sugary)
Snack
Orange juice is more sugar than orange.
I’d give your menu a C-
hey go on this website and find out your calorie intake needed to maintain your weight: http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie…
then you need to subtract from this 500 calories for each pound you want to loose a week.so if you wanna loose 2 lbs a week you would subtract 1000 calories a day.
What kind of digestive problems?
Could have been caused by some food poisoning or allergy or some medicine you took. Eat a yogurt every day (as a snack, by itself, with no fruits of meal with veggies), like Activia with Bifidus Regularis, to prevent any problems in the future and to solve any problem now, get an acidophilus pill (one a day should be enough, with a meal) to restore the good bacteria in your digestive system.
Note: DO NOT eat fruit yogurt (plain, chocolate or vanilla yogurt are fine, any flavor except fruits) or things like blueberry (or any fruit) smoothie. You should not mix fruits and dairy products in the same meal because fructose (the sugar in fruits and veggies), combined with lactose (the sugar in milk), is not that good. Fructose will interfere with the absorption of lactose in the small intestine, then unabsorbed lactose will increase the growth of bacteria in the colon. Those bacteria are healthful on a small scale but if they run amok, you end up with bloating, flatulence, and other gastrointestinal symptoms and might even decide that you’re “lactose intolerant”. You need a good balance of those bacteria…too little and you’re in trouble. Too, many and you’re also in trouble.
Some people have no idea why they’re farting so much, suddenly…maybe they had some fruits/veggies with milk!
Fructose also interferes with the sucrose absorption, but moderately. Fructose is like the big bully of sugars!!! Fruits and veggies are good but they don’t like the competition!
Now…walking and running ARE both aerobics (what about weight training/ calisthenics, besides the abs?)
Sugars ARE carbs. 60% of your diet in carbs is good to give you enough energy to exercise for a few hundred calories a day. 20% of unsaturated fat and no more than 5% of saturated fat. 15% of proteins. You might want no saturated fat and more proteins if you’re building muscle mass. Fat is 9 calories per gram while proteins and carbs are 4 calories per gram.
Just take 60% of your total calorie intake and divide by 4 to get the number of grams for carbs…or take 25% of your total calorie intake and divide by 9 to get the number of grams for fat…etc).
Also, you’re not eating enough. Your Basal Metabolic Rate is 1,530 calories.
(mine is about 1,270 but I’m lighter, shorter and older than you).
Women: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) – ( 4.7 x age in years )
655 + ( 4.35 x 145lbs) + ( 4.7 x 66 inches) – ( 4.7 x 14 years old )
655 + 630.75 + 310.20 – 65.80 = about 1,530 calories.
If you eat less than your BMR, your body will lower your metabolism.
You should eat at least as much as your BMR and then exercise for 3,500 calories for each pound of fat reserves that you need to lose.
400 calories of exercising a day would make you lose one pound of fat reserves every 9 days.
So…start eating more so your metabolism does not go down.
Don’t expect to lose 2 pounds of fat reserves a week, it’s a losing battle.
I wish you the best.
Typically you could eat the same way you’ve always eaten and still loose weight by doing this; don’t eat ANYTHING after 6:30pm and drinks plenty of water along with aerobics 3 X a week at approx. 20-30 mins each time. You could easily loose a bit of weight this way and maintain it. Make sure you do get alot of fruits and veggies as well, or take Women’s One-a-Day Vitamin formula.
Water: Most of our population confuses water thirst pains for hunger pains. Drink plenty of water and you will full, approx. 8 full glasses in a day time. It’s good for your figure and also is good for your kidneys and complexion!
Good luck.
I would probably opt for higher protein snacks like Carbmaster yogurt (12 gr protein, 80 cals) rather than OJ or apples because there is not a lot of good to be had in snacks that are mostly sugar. For breakfast I’d go with a 3 egg white omelet with a quarter cup of fat free shredded cheddar cheese in it, that would net you around 21 gr of protein and way less than 200 calories. You might find a similar substitution on the peanut butter sandwich would also benefit your diet and exercise program. Try a modified South Beach diet website it might have some really good suggestions for upping protein and keeping calories low.