New Member--Need some advice!

N

nichalps

New member
Hello everyone,

I'm Nicole. 21, female, vegetarian, 120 pounds, about 5'1.

About three and a half years ago (when I was a senior in high school), I got really into trying to be healthy, exercising regularly, reading all the information I possibly could on these weight loss/fitness/health forums. I ultimately got obsessed and developed an eating disorder. Obviously, I'd like to not take that road again.

After I started college, I went the route most college kids go: bad eating habits and binge drinking. I think at my heaviest, I weighed close to 140 pounds, which I realized doesn't sound that bad, but I'm small, so those pounds really made a difference on how I looked and felt. In the past year, I've lost 20 pounds, mostly by healthy dieting and exercise, but I'm starting to feel myself slip into the same sort of obsessive thinking that resulted in my eating disorder last time around.

In short, I really just want to be healthy. And so I was wondering if any of you guys could help me out with how much/types of exercise I should be doing, types of meals I should be eating, etc. For cardio, I usually go on the elliptical or the treadmill and go for about 30-45 minutes. I don't really weight-train, but I do some pilates. I want to look toned, but I still want to look curvy, you know what I mean!? In terms of eating...this has always been a struggle for me. I'm a poor college student, so it's hard to always buy the best things in the supermarket (for example, I very rarely splurge for the organic veggies simply because the ones filled with pesticides are so much cheaper). Also, for a poor college student, things like avocados are a luxury (which leads to my next question: where else can I get some healthy fats in my diet???)

Lately, I've been eating mostly egg whites (yes, I do eat eggs. And cheese. No milk because I hate it and no other sorts of animal products or by-products), veggies. I'm trying to cut back on soy products because I've read so many times that they aren't very good for you, so I've replaced them with lentils, beans, etc, which seems healthier to me, but I'm not really sure.

In terms of carbs--I know I need them, I know I should always stick to whole grains, etc--but what else can you tell me? I've been eating couscous, brown rice, that sort of stuff, but sometimes, don't you just crave a bowl of pasta?!

I know this sounds muddled and confusing, but that's kinda how I'm feeling right now. I've been down this road before, and I'm sure I'm not eating enough calories in a day, but it's just so hard to make sure I'm doing everything right, so I just need some guidance.

Thanks in advance for your help!

<3Nicole
 
Hi Nicole, and welcome.

My first thought is that it sounds like you have a reasonably healthy diet, you just need to tweak it some and maybe balance out your eating a bit.

Do you know how many calories you eat in a day? Have you ever logged your food? If not, it might be helpful to you to register for a free account at fitday.com or thedailyplate.com and start logging your food. Even if you only do it for a few weeks, it'll help you see how much food you're eating and how your nutrition looks - and help you to see where you can make tweaks.

To answer specific questions about food:
I don't believe that organic veggies and fruits are always the answer. Many times the non-organics are fine - most of them are not "pesticide laden" no matter what the extremists want you to believe. :) And many times organic is just a buzzword that doesn't have a whole lot of meaning. Don't get hung up on the myth that organic=healthy because it's just not so.

Next: Dairy products. Do you eat yogurt? Because yogurt is an excellent source of calcium and protein. I eat a cup of Greek yogurt for breakfast every morning and it really helps set up my day - lots of calcium, lots of protein, and very filling. Add some fruit and a little honey and it's a great breakfast. (or can be a great snack, too).

Soy is fine in moderation. Again, don't let yourself be swayed by hype or scare tactics. There are studies that show too much soy can affect estrogen levels - so I wouldn't eat all soy all the time, but again, it's just like any other food - if all you ate was yogurt, you'd run into other issues. :) I eat soy as part of my diet in moderation.

Lentils and beans are an awesome option for veggie meals - lots of protein and they've been shown to help reduce bad cholesterol. Plus they're full of fiber. All kinds of benefits from those - keep eating them.

There's no reason you shouldn't eat pasta - just again, in moderation. A single serving is 2oz dry (about a cup or a little over when cooked). If you can, whole grain pasta is probably a better choice than regular, but some people really REALLY dislike the texture of the whole grain stuff, in which case enriched regular pasta is really fine. You'll get the same nutritional benefits out of it.

Healthy fats: There are tons of sources other than avocados. Olive oil is probably the most well know. Nuts and seeds - almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, etc. Peanut butter is a great source of healthy fat. It's very easy to fit those into an eating plan as snacks. :)

The way I structure my meals and snacks is to make sure that I get some protein and some veg or fruit every time I eat. Then if I have the room, I add in my carbs in the form of complex grains.

So for example:
Breakfast - yogurt and fruit
Snack - apple and cheese
Lunch - tuna salad over a bed of lettuce
Snack - boiled egg and tomato juice
Snack - (post workout) protein shake
Dinner - grilled fish, steamed veg, brown rice

Now, obviously you wouldn't be eating the tuna/fish/chicken whatever, but you can see ... every meal is planned around a protein source. For you, maybe a lentil salad with veg for lunch and a veggie stir fry with edamame or tofu for dinner ... same princple, w/out the meats.

As far as exercise: I'm a big fan of weight lifting for women. I think women have been brainwashed to believe that they'll lose their curves and become muscle-y and bulky if they lift weights properly and it just irks me! :) Weight lifting will help you slim down, get that "fit" look, and still maintain curves. I strongly suggest you read the weight lifting threads that are sticky posted in the Exercise area of the forum. There's a ton of good information there that you could use to get started on a plan!
 
Thanks!

Kara,

Thank you so much! That was really helpful.

I actually have been tracking my calorie intake, and it's really all over the place. Some days I eat as little as 650 calories, some days well over 1,000. I've been using MyPlate, and they tell me to eat about 1,200 calories a day, but unless I splurge and eat something unhealthy (like pizza, for example), I'm usually not even in the 1,000s.

Also, I have one more question. Egg yolks--good or bad? I usually eat egg whites, but I know egg yolks have a lot of important nutrients and stuff in them too, so lately I've been eating one whole egg and one egg white. Is this a good idea or should I just stick to egg whites? I'm not really too worried about cholesterol because every time I get mine checked, they always tell me I'm fine (and plus, I really don't eat anything else with cholesterol in it), but a lot of people in my family have high cholesterol. What do you think?

Thanks again!
Nicole
 
You definitely need to stabilize your calories if you can. EAting too little can be as bad as eating too much. If you're eating really low one day and making up for it the next, that's ok, but consistently eating below 1000 calories is bad - it makes it really really hard to get all the nutrition in that you need to be getting.

As far as eggs, IMO, throwing away the yolk is throwing away a BUNCH of nutrition. Unless you have specific egg related issues, I wouldn't worry about it. Studies have shown that serum cholesterol is far less affected by dietary cholesterol than they used to think. And especially if you don't already have cholesterol issues, then there's no need to ditch the yolks.
 
Kara,

Once again, thank you so much! Is it okay if I ask you a few more questions? You seem to really know how to do this thing...

Okay, so yesterday I ate the following:

Breakfast:
1 Whole Egg, 1 Egg White Omelet, with about half a cup of spinach (I rounded up, it was probably less than that), and about half a serving of Kraft Mexican Style Taco Cheese (again, I rounded up. And not my favorite kind of cheesem but it was all I had in the refrigerator).

Total Calories: 141

Snack 1:
medium orange

Total calories: 62

Lunch: I used the Near East Tomato Lentil Couscous blend (about 190 calories worth) and put half a green bell pepper, a quarter of an onion, and about four mushrooms in it.

Total Calories: 279

Snack 2:
large banana

Total Calories: 121

Then my plate on my daily plate account said that I could still eat like 700+ calories for the day, so I tried to make a more calorie-infused dinner...

Dinner:
Black Beans (straight from the can, no stock or anything, just some spices)
Broccoli Rabe salad (steamed, then sauteed a little bit with some garlic, onion and olive oil...I was reading yesterday that you shouldn't heat olive oil too much, so first I softened up the garlic and onion with cooking spread, steamed the broccoli rabe, then put it in the pan with the garlic, but about a tablespoon of olive oil, mixed it around and then ate it just like that)

Total Calories: 302.

I don't really drink anything besides for water, so I drank tons of water all day.

Total Calories for the day: 904
Fat: 25g
Cholest: 228mg
Sodium:892mg (is this too much???)
Carbs: 137g (is this too much???)
Sugars: 39g
Fiber: 21g
Protein: 37g

I'm still not eating enough calories in a day, I think. DailyPlate says I should be eating a little less than 1,200 calories a day (and I wrote that I want to lose 2 pounds a week--which I don't really think is possible because I don't have that much weight to lose). I have SO much work to do right now and have been spending every waking second either in class or writing papers, so I haven't had time to go to the gym, but when I do go to the gym, I don't usually eat more, which means I'll be burning too many calories and not consuming enough.

Do you have any comments or suggestions? Am I getting everything I need to get, etc?

Ahh, this is so stressful.

Thanks again!
Nicole
 
Nicole,

You're getting there, but you're right you're not getting enough calories. HOWEVER ... I think you might be getting more than you think.

Here's what you wrote above and my notes in red:

Breakfast:
1 Whole Egg, 1 Egg White Omelet, with about half a cup of spinach (I rounded up, it was probably less than that), and about half a serving of Kraft Mexican Style Taco Cheese (again, I rounded up. And not my favorite kind of cheesem but it was all I had in the refrigerator).
Total Calories: 141
[I get closer to 180 calories for this - did you use any oil or butter or spray to cook the omelet in? That could add more as well.]

Snack 1:
medium orange
Total calories: 62
[Try to add something protein to your snacks - not just fruit. A string cheese snack, some yogurt, a handful of almonds, something like that. This goes for both snacks.]

Dinner:
Black Beans (straight from the can, no stock or anything, just some spices)
Broccoli Rabe salad (steamed, then sauteed a little bit with some garlic, onion and olive oil...I was reading yesterday that you shouldn't heat olive oil too much, so first I softened up the garlic and onion with cooking spread, steamed the broccoli rabe, then put it in the pan with the garlic, but about a tablespoon of olive oil, mixed it around and then ate it just like that)
Total Calories: 302.
[First of all, ignore the bit about not heating olive oil. It's not true. I cook with olive oil all the time. Someone somewhere put out the myth that if you heat olive oil it becomes a saturated fat, and that's just not true. You'd have to seriously heat olive oil past the limits of most stoves to convert the fats. Mostly the thing about olive oil is that it burns easily, so you have to watch it to make sure it's not smoking.

Here's where I think your calories might be off a bit too. A serving of black beans is 110 cals - that's 1/2 cup. If you ate the whole can, that's about 2.5 servings. I can't tell if you did or not. The broccoli rabe is negligible, the onion is about 35 cals, and the olive oil is 120 cals. So I'm getting around 400-430 calories. ]

Sodium:892mg (is this too much???)
No .. the RDA limit is 2400 per day. I try to stay under 2000 if I can.

Carbs: 137g (is this too much???)
I would say no. Average for adult women is around 200 per day. I tend to look at carbs more as a percentage of my macros, than as the actual grams.

Protein: 37g
This is too low, even for "normal" standards. Ideally you should be aiming for 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight, but even the average standards call for 1g per every 1kg of bodyweight, which means you should be getting at least 54g of protein per day, and if you're trying to lose weight and shape up, it should be closer to 100g per day.
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I think the bones of your diet is pretty good, you just need to add a few things to hit your calories and get in some healthy fats. A handful of almonds with one of your snacks, a bit of cheese or yogurt, that kind of thing will add some calories and some healthy fats.

In general a healthy rate of loss is going to be 1% of your bodyweight per week - so for you, you're probably going to have a hard time seeing more than 1.5 lbs a week at most. Which is ok, because I think if you start going back to the gym and doing some weight lifting and body resistance work, you'll see a change in your body shape that will look slimmer, even though you might not lose much more in overall pounds.

Hope that helps! :)
 
Kara,

Okay, first--I calculated all those calories at DailyPlate.com, so I think they're pretty accurate. Although I probably do need to start measuring out how much of what I'm eating because I usually eyeball it and then round up (at least I think I round up). For the next couple days though I should probably weigh and measure everything accurately, right? Just to make sure I'm not going over the recommended portions and whatnot?

Next--in terms of cooking spray: I generally use a store brand cooking spray. On the nutrition facts, it just says 0 for everything (0 calories, 0 fat etc), so I just always assumed that it didn't have any calories in it. Lately I have been using the Pam Olive Oil spray. I don't have it in front of me right now, but I think it's like 1 calorie per 1-second spray. I always forget to add it on my Daily Plate, but yeah, you're right. I'm probably eating more calories, especially at breakfast, than I think.

Now, here is something I ALWAYS get confused about. A can of black beans has 2.5 servings in it, the serving size is 1/2 cup with 110 calories. Last night I probably only ate about half a cup because my roommate wound up eating most of it... but if the recommended serving size is 1/2 cup, should I not eat more than that in one sitting? I always try to follow those serving size recommendations pretty well, so if it says 1/2 cup, that's what I eat, but I feel like I could easily eat the entire can, or at least most of it. Is it a problem if I do that as long as I don't go over my calories? I'm not sure if I phrased that question well...I hope you understand what I'm trying to ask haha.

I actually inspired my roommate to start eating healthy too, so we're in this together, and we decided this morning that we need to stock our kitchen with more yogurt, nuts, etc. What kind of yogurt do you like to eat? I'm not really a yogurt person. Also, I used to eat those 60-calorie Dannon Light-N-Fit yogurts with Fiber One cereal mixed in them (gives the yogurt a nice crunch...I think the mushiness of yogurt freaks me out a little), do you think that's a good thing to do? I know RATIONALLY carbs aren't as taboo as everyone likes to say they are, but I'm always so afraid of eating too many of them.

Are you a nutritionist or something? You are such a HUGE help to me right now, you have no idea. Seriously, thank you soooo much.

Nicole!
 
Okay, first--I calculated all those calories at DailyPlate.com, so I think they're pretty accurate.
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Ok, coolness. I use dailyplate.com and so I'm reasonably comfortable with that. Measuring is good, though. There's a video on youtube about measuring vs. weighing - I'll find it and link it in a minute.

Next--in terms of cooking spray: I generally use a store brand cooking spray. On the nutrition facts, it just says 0 for everything (0 calories, 0 fat etc), so I just always assumed that it didn't have any calories in it
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Yeah, you gotta watch the 0-everything sprays. They can legally say 0 if there's less than 1 in a "serving". The problem is most people don't use just one serving. I know when I spray a pan for cooking an omelet, it's probably a 3sec - 4sec spray. Not much, but then again, 5 cals here, 10 cals there ... adds up.

Now, here is something I ALWAYS get confused about. A can of black beans has 2.5 servings in it, the serving size is 1/2 cup with 110 calories. Last night I probably only ate about half a cup because my roommate wound up eating most of it... but if the recommended serving size is 1/2 cup, should I not eat more than that in one sitting? I always try to follow those serving size recommendations pretty well, so if it says 1/2 cup, that's what I eat, but I feel like I could easily eat the entire can, or at least most of it. Is it a problem if I do that as long as I don't go over my calories? I'm not sure if I phrased that question well...I hope you understand what I'm trying to ask haha.
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Totally understand and I think it's a question a lot of people have. :) If you have the calories and you are hungry enough, there is no reason you shouldn't eat more than 1 serving - especially when you're eating reasonably low calorie/high nutrient foods. In fact for a lot of much larger people and especially for men, 1 serving of something might not be enough to get them adequate calories or nutrition.

I'll tell you that tonight we're having grilled shrimp for dinner - and one serving is 9 shrimp. I will most likely eat double that - both because I LOVE grilled shrimp and because an additional serving will be less than 100 calories and I can fit that into my plan easily. (They're also high in protein, which is a good thing for me!)

Serving sizes are a guideline, not a hard and fast rule. :)

What kind of yogurt do you like to eat? I'm not really a yogurt person. Also, I used to eat those 60-calorie Dannon Light-N-Fit yogurts with Fiber One cereal mixed in them (gives the yogurt a nice crunch...I think the mushiness of yogurt freaks me out a little), do you think that's a good thing to do? I know RATIONALLY carbs aren't as taboo as everyone likes to say they are, but I'm always so afraid of eating too many of them.
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I think that sounds fine to me. I personally am a fan of Greek yogurt (the brand I prefer is Fage Total). It's a very thick, unsweetened, tangy yogurt and it's extremely high in protein. It might be an acquired taste! :) But I love to have just a serving of the 2% with some honey or syrup and a bit of fresh fruit. It's my standard breakfast most mornings.

Are you a nutritionist or something? You are such a HUGE help to me right now, you have no idea. Seriously, thank you soooo much.
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No- I have no official training in nutrition or anything. I just have spent years learning this stuff and figuring it out for myself. :) I'm really glad that I"m able to help though. I'm happy to answer questions when I can. :)
 
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