Do you eat enough?

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Comments

  • Crohns does complicate the issue nicely; it has got to be one of the most awful conditions to suffer from. Is this not something you need to discuss with your GP?

  • No worries, best of luck tipping the scales image

  • SideBurn - As stated, it honestly doesn't affect my life.

     

    It's horrible when you have a flare-up but when it's in remission, it has no affect on my life (I get some mild IBS because of it but nothing serious).  The condition waxes and wanes so:

    Flare-up - Totally debilitating awfulness

    Remission - Just like any other blokes life

     

    I have had almost total remission in my life so far so I count myself fortunate and just get on enjoying life.  I'll involve my GP when there is something actually wrong with me, the NHS is swamped enough with time wasters.

  • You are correct; the NHS is swamped with time wasters and I understand what you are saying. But many GP's also say, "I wish you had come to me with this sooner!"

  • True but I don't think there much to report right now.  I'd rather get busy implmenting some of ideas from here. image

     

     

     

  • Hands up on here who at one point thought that the OP may have had some sort of eating disorder? Lardarse posed the question in a subtle way and the OP responded very well.

    Thankfully some people on here have the balls to ask the difficult questions. Well Done Lardarse.
  • In fairness, Lardarse, I'm 5'2" and 7.5 stone, so for someone my size 2 desserts (assuming they're proper sized desserts) amounts to a fair proportion of my calorie requirements, training or not.

  • When seeing someone say that they can't manage to eat 3000 kcals a day, which in my eyes, when you look at the actual volume of food required for this is very little (it's only one and half loaves of bread I often eat a whole loaf of bread in one day and at the moment i'm losing weight), then I can only imagine they're starving themselves. Obviously it's all about personal perception, I know given free reign I will eat until i'm stuffed, feel ill and then carry on eating a bit more. Sorry you have a medical condition, but then "As stated, it honestly doesn't affect my life." so therefore it doesn't affect your appetite?

    Joolska, didn't mean to be rude (although i am! lol) and you're right about the kcals, it's just as an individual whose been overweight their whole life but am finally making some in roads to getting down to a normal weight my body is now consuming the right amount to lose 1-2 lb a week (~2000kcals) but my head tells me i'm starving because i'm eating so little volume, and have been obsessed with food cravings for 3 months, much harder than giving up smoking which I did 14 years ago.

    I just find it really hard to get my head around different peoples appetites, just like some 40 stone bloke who has to be winched out of his bedroom window to change his sheets must think I eat next to nothing when i'm "lardarse" image

  • Unfortunately Lardarse, I fear you have a slightly warped perception of what's normal.

    I have always been thin but my weight has never dropped into the danger zone.  I'm 6ft 1" and 10.5 stone which gives me a BMI of around 19.  It's on the low side of the normal range but in the normal range it is.  My concern is more driven by the fact that I have only upped my mileage significantly in the last two months and this has inevitably resulted in further weigh loss - I don't want to fall into the danger zone.

    Running does not make me any more hungry, though.  I have been eating the way I ate when I was doing 10/12 miles a week but I did 45 miles last week yet i'm still only hungry for the same amount of food.  That's the problem.

    The fact that I have spent all my life in the "ideal" BMI zone and you seem to be outside of it suggests to me that it is you who has had a more unhealthy relationship with food/diet than me.  That isn't intended to be a dig, it's just to perhaps make you think a little differently about your perspective here. 

    For people in a normal weight bracket, eating a whole loaf of bread in a day is an absolutely preposterous notion.  I don't know anyone who eats this way.

    "I know given free reign I will eat until i'm stuffed, feel ill and then carry on eating a bit more."

    That doesn't strike you as peculiar?  You'll eat so much that you don't feel well, then ignore what your body is trying to tell you and then eat some more?  Sorry mate but that just isn't sensible and it's little wonder you've struggled with your weight.

    It's good that you're doing something about it though and it's to be applauded that you're losing weight.  I hope you get where you need to be.  You should try and be more understanding of people with different constitutions to you though.  I'm happy being thin and absolutely love my food (you should see my book shelves.  6 shelves, 3 of them crammed with cook books.  I love food) I just don't want to get too thin, just like you didn't want to get too fat.

     

     

  • How odd, I managed to use a profile I didn't even know I had!  Anyway, that post was from me!

  • A good post it was too.  Hopefully helping lardarse gain some perspective before making throw-away comments about serious eating disorders. I too am in the camp of having an appetite which out-strips a healthy calorie balance and it's only through a combination of will power on the diet and a large amount of exercise that my BMI is currently at a very healthy 22 (-ish... haven't weighed myself for a while), but it doesn't mean I can't appreciate that other people have the opposite problem of getting enough calories in at the right time.

  • Cheers Phil.  22 is a very healthy BMI and in all reality, probably a little more healthy than mine at 19.  It gives that nice buffer should you ever suffer anything that results in a period of swift weightloss.

  • Just adding in my two cents........

    Peanut butter and avocado are brilliant high-energy snacks.

  • Peanut butter is a winner - cracking on toast (make sure you have a drink handy!)

    Avacodo - Very weird stuff, doesn't taste of much.

  • regarding only drinking skimmed milk as you have been brought uyp on it...........

    if you make small changes your body will get used to it...........

    if someone was obese and said they could only eat full cream.you would say try even if it taste horrible.keep doing it for a month and reassess...................if you change first to 1% milk ...then to semi skimmed and eventually to skimmed you will adjust....like people do eventually when they give up sugar in their tea.

     

    you are going to have to put some work into it and plan ahead........plan your meals and your snacks and when you are going to have them and make sure you eat them..........

    like all things if you have a problem you will have to work hard to address it.but it can be done..

    good luck

  • Have you tried taking calories in liquid form? Coke, lucozade, orange juice, beer, wine... they've all got a fair amount of calories in them.

  • Neil Trott wrote (see)
    For people in a normal weight bracket, eating a whole loaf of bread in a day is an absolutely preposterous notion.  I don't know anyone who eats this way.

    *Ahem* image Preposterous or not, I could easily eat a whole loaf of bread a day. And not even feel particularly stuffed. Female, 5'6", size 10-12, slight muffin-top but still well within a normal weight bracket, piglet appetite.

    Anyhoo... Like seren says, I think you may have to approach your eating in a fairly regimented fashion. Look on it as part of your overall training: you're going to have to increase your calorie intake slowly and build up your diet until you're eating enough calories that you're not losing any more weight. You might find it a bit of an unpleasant chore at first but just look on it as being similar to a gruelling tempo run or similar. If you don't make yourself stick to your training (eating) plan, you won't achieve your goals.

    The skimmed milk thing is a good analogy. You can get yourself used to just about anything if you are prepared to persist with it. Time to HTFU and eat more snacks!

  • Seren & runs-with-dog - You are both right, I am now having to think very purposefully about what, how much and when I eat.  I hadn't necessarily prepared for this.  I think i expected to just be more hungry and that I would naturally have larger meals to compensate but that hasn't happened. 

    The milk anaolgy is a good one but there is also a couple of caveats to that.  Think of the food you really dislike the most.  Could you gradually ween yourself on to it through a process of slow introduction?  I've tried liver more times than I care to mention but I just cannot adjust to it.  I have had many brews made for me with semi-skimmed or full fat milk and it's the same reaction every time - it makes me feel instantly queesy! 

    The fact is, I still want to enjoy my diet and things like skimmed milk are what i know and enjoy.  I'd rather focus effort on finding things that I enjoy having to boost my calorie intake than forcing myself to try and adjust to things I don't like.  It could actually have a demotivational affect on my running otherwise.

    The other caveat is important.  There is a temptation to be fooled into thinking that because I run and burn thousands of calories a week that I can make those calories up with high calorie, crap food.  The fat in milk is saturated fat.  I'd rather get calories from fat in Mackerel, Olive oil, seeds etc.  It is possible to bump up the calories without having to bump up the saturated fats with it.

  • Tom - I mainly drink water, pure orange and tea with skimmed milk during the day.  So not many calories there. Beer at weekends and the odd glass of squash though, which do bump up the calories.

    It had crossed my mind to simply drink more ale but I really don't think that's the answerimage

  • I used to hate carrots. As in, they actually made me sick as a kid. My folks eventually stopped pur??e-ing carrots and hiding them in soups and stews once they noticed the projectile vomiting connection. Even the smell of them made me feel like barfing. Now, I don't know exactly when or how it happened, but sometime in the last few years I started craving the bloody things. Can't get enough of them now. Same with olives and red wine, two other things I used to detest. I still hate both almonds and marzipan but now you've posed the question I'm strangely tempted to try eating marzipan for a month to see if I can change my opinion of it.



    You're probably right about not loading up on crap, it's just the easier option sometimes. And I do tend to feel that if your basic diet is good, some rubbish here and there is fairly harmless. But if you don't want to eat crap, fair enough. Just makes your task slightly harder, that's all.



    In a way, your expectation of naturally developing a bigger appetite and wondering why it's not happening is the exact opposite, yet broadly just the same as all the folk who start running and wonder why they're not losing any weight!
  • Yep, it's odd how we all adjust so differently to these situations.  I suspect it's half mental, half physical but shows how different humans can be from one another.

    I've also grown to love things I once hated.  Red wine (as well), courgettes, aubergines to name three but then there is also stuff I still can't abide like liver and sprouts.  Our tastebuds definitely alter as we age though.

    Regarding crap food, I avoid it for two reasons.  One is just general health - we don't need this shit in our bodies.  Two is that I think my Chron's is kept under control primarily because my diet is sound.  I have balance though.  During the week, it's almost always pretty healthy.  At weekends, I will have pies, chips, or pizza etc.  The only difference is that I will make most of it so I know what's in it, I buy very little in like that.  By and large, I don't trust factories to make my food for me.

     

  • Just to add my 2 cents' worth: I read somewhere a quote from Matthew Pinsent: he said that one of the hardest things about training for the olympics was managing to eat enough. So even high BMI types can have this problem.

    It is difficult to stuff snacks in without eating junk - that's why I am now really sick of bananas .....

  • Hi Strangely, have a look into Scott Jurek, VEGAN ultrarunner who has no problems with keeping the calories up! 

    You dont have to eat crap or to be honest a mountain of food you just need to do a little bit of research and be open to trying some new strange food! image

    You may also find its not even the food (as such) that you need, it maybe the vitamins ! 

    Have a read about things like Chia seeds, beetroot juice, elete water, trek bars, bounce balls....the list goes on!

    First step I would say is take a trip to your doctor for an m.o.t and work out if you have any vitamin deficiencies then work from there! image

  • runs-with-dogs wrote (see)
    Neil Trott wrote (see)
    For people in a normal weight bracket, eating a whole loaf of bread in a day is an absolutely preposterous notion.  I don't know anyone who eats this way.

    *Ahem* image Preposterous or not, I could easily eat a whole loaf of bread a day. And not even feel particularly stuffed. Female, 5'6", size 10-12, slight muffin-top but still well within a normal weight bracket, piglet appetite.

    Anyhoo... Like seren says, I think you may have to approach your eating in a fairly regimented fashion. Look on it as part of your overall training: you're going to have to increase your calorie intake slowly and build up your diet until you're eating enough calories that you're not losing any more weight. You might find it a bit of an unpleasant chore at first but just look on it as being similar to a gruelling tempo run or similar. If you don't make yourself stick to your training (eating) plan, you won't achieve your goals.

    The skimmed milk thing is a good analogy. You can get yourself used to just about anything if you are prepared to persist with it. Time to HTFU and eat more snacks!

    run with dogs......i'm glad I'mnot the only female here how could eat a loaf of bread without flinching... ic ould do it in one siting with butter and meat...........but i am a couple of sizes bigger than you image

  • LOL! Another loaf-of-bread club member. image
  • Thanks for the tips back2basics, will check this fella out.  It was worth doing this thread, interesting chats and some tips I don't think i'd have found on my own image

    The whole loaf of bread thing is still mashing my swede a bit though....image

  • runs-with-dogs wrote (see)
    LOL! Another loaf-of-bread club member. image

    *hands up*

    I went through a taste-expanding phase in my late teens, suddenly liking olives, capers and other things I used to make me go Nnnnngg!  Soon after my Marmite revelation I remember having ten slices of Marmite on toast in one sitting.  I can even remember listening to Houses of the Holy by Led Zeppelin as slices of bread kept finding their way into the toaster.  Happy days.

  • ...and getting back to hints and tips... I agree that not all calories are equal, and you're not helping matters by filling up on junk.  I know there are some useful ideas here already about getting nutrient-rich, calorie-rich foods in, but another one I've thought of from personal experience, especially as you're getting in an early morning run, is dried fruit and nuts on cereal - or just as a hand-to-mouth snack.  I reckon a good couple of handfuls of dried fruit and pecans* would more than off-set the calories you're missing by having skimmed instead of semi-skimmed milk.

    *Best nut source of antioxidants apparently.

  • I don't know how any slices are in an average sized loaf, but 4 bits toast for breakfast, couple as a mid morning snack, another 4 with soup for lunch or made into sandwiches, same at dinner time. Can't imagine there'd be much left in between the endy bits after all that... This isn't an average day's menu for me btw, but if the fridge is looking a bit mother hubbardy I'll quite happily get through a loaf of bread in a day..



    I meant to mention Jurek too. Just finished his Eat and Run book and quite fancy trying some of the vegan recipes in it. Now, where to find raw cacao nibs, spirulina powder and some pinole. Ha!
  • ha ha ha yeah just finished it too! 

    Pinole is just fine corn mill so you can get that easy!

    Ive tried the Adzuki bean chocolate bar thing....I actually really like it!! image

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