Do you eat enough?

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* 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 answer

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!

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!

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* 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 

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

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

runs-with-dogs wrote (see)

LOL! Another loaf-of-bread club member.

*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.