I feel like I am eating too much.

So I just started on this site, Im tracking everything after I eat it on my phone pretty accurately and it feels like I am eating too much but still cant hit the calorie intake where I need too. Today I went slightly over on fat, and am always going over on sodium. Also keep in mind I can’t eat dairy.

So for example today I ate:

-Half a pork loin( 6 oz) sandwich with only wheat bread.
-41 baby carrots
-a couple of chips with salsa
-3 carnitas tacos (small flour tortilla)
-6 oz of turkey breast wrapped in a small flour tortilla no sauce
-An entire pan of roasted veggies using light oil (carrots, onions, broccoli, zuchini, and asparagus)
-Turkey burger on half a wheat bun with lettuce as the other half. no sauce
-Chicken and Garlic Sausage on a wheat bun no sauce
-4 small trader joes peanut butter cups (I ate these to try and get into target calorie range, i still failed.
- 4 small dill pickles

Does this sound like a lot or can I eat a little more?
To me

Take a look at you foodlog and see what DB is telling you. Basicly you did not quit reach you Kcal goal for the day so you would be oke on that part. The fat content is to high but you could have guessed that for yourself. What is kind of funny is that you say that you had 41 carrots (did you actually counted them?) and only a couple of chips :) So nutrionwise you could make better choices. Kcal wise your in the clear

I guess my question is if I feel satisfied, should I force myself to eat more to reach my caloric intake? I have been reading that under eating (by almost 500 cal) is worse for you that not reaching it when it comes to losing weight.

And ya, I did count 41 carrots, and literally ate 2 chips at work to test some salsa that a coworker made. I track EVERYTHING, down to how much sugar and salt was the flavoring on something I ate.

Also does anyone know what the target range for Sugar, Fiber, Sat Fat, Cholesterol, Potassium and Sodium should be?

What are your diet goals? Your question is impossible to answer without that information.

The American diet is high in sodium. It’s very, very difficult to not go over without preparing most meals by yourself from scratch (and excluding sodium).

Without knowing more, DailyBurn’s guidance on daily calories is a good general rule to follow.

My goal is to lose weight, over 100lbs.

Here is a link to the DASH eating plan.
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/hb…

While it was designed for those with high BP, it really can work for anyone trying to eat a healthy diet. On page 11 of the PDF there are goals for sodium, potassium, saturated fat, etc.
Hope that helps!
Pamela

www.ThrivePersonalFitness.com

It seems that you include some really bad food choices in your diet like KitKat or french fries. Processed foods (either junk food from restaurants or prefabricated industrial foods from supermarkets) are extremely bad for your body and are completely counter productive to your goals.

Since losing 100lbs will be a long term project you should learn about healthy foods and how too prepare meals at home. The more food you prepare by yourself the healthier your diet should become and the better your diet will work long term.

And very important: your weight loss will hit a plateau without question, if you do not include exercises – cardio and weight training – in your daily life. A diet without exercise will mean that you will not only lose fat, but muscles as well. In the end your body will be weaker and your calorie need will have gone down, with the very negative result that as soon as you stop your diet you will gain weight fast.

PS: Be very careful with so called diet foods. Often low fat foods are very high on sugar for example. Some years ago I made the mistake by eating a lot of low fat yoghourt. I became frustrated after some time, because I did not lose any weight. My mistake: I did neither learn about proper diets nor did I read the food labels, and therefore I missed the fact that the so called low fat diet yoghurt had been in fact a sugar bomb.

And almost all processed foods contain bad or even unhealthy fats – ‘good’ fats like olive oil (extra vergine), flaxseed oil or fat from fresh fish are very important for your body.
And avoid diet supplements. Fresh, self prepared foods are superior to all industry foods and supplements.

I have to admit, Halloween got the best of me (kitkats). However, every other food on there I did actually make myself…. I don’t have much time on this site to create recipes (and the recipe creator is pretty tedious) So I look on the list for the item with the highest calorie counts and use those. I know its not as accurate, but it helps me with a range for where my calories are at. Im saving money for a gym membership as we speak, but that wont be for another month or so… Also, I walk 2.5 miles every day, I didnt know you could track that until tonight.

in my opinion, follow the calorie/protein/carb/fat range on this site.
if you feel like you are eating too much, dont worry about it yet.
give it a week, since you want to lose 100lbs +, the weight should come off fast at the start.
if you have gained weight/stayed in the same after 2 weeks, something is wrong.
think of the first two weeks as a test run :P

way too much proccesed food. stick with the all natural “earth” foods. nothing out of a box. shop the borders of the grocery store

Actually Im kind of concerned… Ive lost 15 pounds since I started about a week and a half ago. I wasnt exactly eating the best during that week and a half, but I was always coming in under my calorie goal. Should I try and gain some of that weight back?

15 pounds in a week and a half is way too much. Eat more but of course your body needs GOOD calories and not junk food or anything like this.

Deactivation,

I did the same thing with the recipes at first. Luckily, I only have a few things that I cook over and over so it didn’t take too long to input all my recipes.

I wouldn’t worry too much about your recent weight loss. That isn’t all fat. I think you should go ahead and weigh yourself more often to get a better sense of how your weight fluctuates. But, as was said before, at 300 lbs, huge losses are par. Because of your weight, you can have major weight losses and only a tiny percentage of that will be lean tissue. You likely have more lean tissue than men of average weight who are your height so don’t obsess. You are at the fastest, steepest part of the roller coaster. Enjoy.

Your weight loss will be mostly effortless in every way except for emotionally and psychologically. Those are where you need the most care, those two things are more than capable of completely sandbagging you.

If you aren’t hungry and you feel well and strong, don’t force yourself to eat more. If your body needs more food, it will let you know about it. People don’t accidentally go into starvation mode. It does not work that way. We didn’t survive as a species by being unable to tell ***viscerally*** if we were starving. If it feels like too much food, that’s probably what it is. That isn’t always true, e.g. a hard gainer in the bulking phase. For you, do not force feed yourself.

You are eating a healthy amount of food and it is satisfying you and you are losing weight. I just don’t see a problem, here.

And, for feck’s sake, have a kit-kat once in a while. It won’t kill you. I’m trying to lose that last ten pounds so a kit kat is a big deal to me. I’m looking at having to completely excise processed sugar from my diet. It’s not going to be easy. I think these people are giving you advice from a similar position. In no way should you be so cagey about a few peanut butter cups. I believe you are actually hurting your chances by being this way. Bear with me, I’ll explain.

The best chance you have of not giving up, of getting to a place where you are truly happy with the way you look and staying there, is to change your whole lifestyle. The slower you do that, the better your chances of making those changes permanent.. You don’t want to change everything all at once. You don’t want to go from eating whatever you want to shooting for the exact right potassium intake level. You’re just writing checks you won’t be able to cash.

You are not going to be able to maintain the level of enthusiasm you have right now. You want to make a few changes at a time and wait until you are comfortable with them to make any more changes. That’s how you make permanent changes.

Also, if you change everything at once, if it ends up being too difficult, you’ll give up on every change. That’s a complete trashing of your new diet. If you make small changes at a slow rate, too difficult means giving up on one small change.

You have a good 50 years ahead of you. Relax. Take your time.

Cutting out sugar, denying yourself all sweets, that should be towards the end of the list. That is very difficult. You need to be very comfortable with all sorts of different diet changes before you tackle that one. It’s a doozy.

If you want to worry about anything right now, make it exercise. You will reach a point where healthy weight loss is near impossible without exercise. So I would try to get into the habit now. Since you have the luxury of not absolutely needing it at the moment, use this time to find something you enjoy or that really motivates you. Use this time to get a bit fitter so you’ll be able to burn more calories with exercise when you’ll really need to. Use this time to get acquainted with just how good exercise can make you feel.

Hello Deactivation! :)
First of all – I commend you for taking an active interest in your health and setting a goal! This is the FIRST and most important step.
Now that you have embarked on this journey I would suggest a few things. While you did receive plenty of helpful answers directly in relation to your question – I would like to offer you some “overall” advice based on my experience.
First however, let me give you some background on myself so you know whom the advice is coming from. I was once 208 pounds – I was able to lost 80 pounds and successfully keep it off. After learning the MANY benefits of weight training – I did put on some but it was NICE LEAN muscle – and that is never bad! :)
Some of my suggestions will include going back to the basics. First and foremost – you need to indentify with what your weakness or craving is. Is it sweets? Carbs? Salt? Then I would suggest setting some short term goals to overcome these particular food addictions. You see – you will have to go through “withdrawals” per say to allow your body to detox from these addictions.
Each week – set a small goal that will help you to overcome. I personally was addicted (ADDICTED!) to sweets of any kind. On top of it – I was a terrible binge eater. I had to go cold turkey for quite some time to allow my body and senses to FORGET. It was the most difficult (yet beneficial) thing I ever did for myself.

Next -Instead of focusing strictly on caloric intake – start to maintain focus on WHAT foods you are putting in your body… how nutrient RICH are they? Start to choose nice lean proteins – complex carbs and lots of vegetables (try to lightly steam or eat raw if possible) as they are packed with enzymes and nutrients. Not only will your body reap the countless health benefits – you will see that your body gets FULLER FASTER! :) This is the goal.
I would allow yourself ONE cheat meal per week. I would also suggest structuring this cheat meal. WHY? Because you are no longer that UNHEALTHY person. You are the FIT and HEALTHY person who makes wise choices – even when it comes to cheats! ;)
This will allow you to get creative and step outside of your normal food choices – yet maintaining a goal all the while. You will feel satisfied and not guilty or weighted down from useless food choices.

Example – I like to buy spring rolls from my local Nutrition market. I sautee them in Coconut Oil and make my own Tomato Basil dressing mixed with Salsa -I eat these and they are FANTASTIC! I know I stepped outside of my “normal” dietary realm … yet I satisfy myself and enjoy something outside of the norm.

Going forward – I would also suggest reading up on CLEAN FOODS, NUTRIENTS IN FOOD etc.
Dont ever eat things (such as Reeses) just to hit your caloric daily value. Remember – not only are you doing this to lose weight you are doing this for optimal health and vitality!
I am a new member to this community and would LOVE to help anytime you have questions – thank you for the opportunity!
In health,
Ashley/AAP FItness

Thank you all for your wonderful advice. It’s great being a part of this community and getting help when needed.

Actually what you are eating is not too much. But if you wan to lose more weight, you may want to practice better portion control.

Hope this helps!

;)