15 replies to this topic

[Justin]

Hey Seppo I calculated my caloric requirements at nutritiondata.self.com and it said that my caloric requirements were approximately 3700.

The question is; how do I manage to get this many calories?

I would like to consume 4000 so that I could put some weight on, but at the moment I only consume a little over 2000 calories daily.


--I'm not in the best financial situation, so reasonably speaking
Are there any healthy foods that are really calorically dense, or are good as a staple that I could buy alot of for cheap?

I think alot of my emotional issues (which are a result of mood swings) are from not getting enough calories; therefore not having enough energy, but I don't know how to get enough calories without going over the budget.

Thankyou alot for ANY advice.

[Seppo]

Cheap and healthy calories. Here are some examples:

- Beans and legumes, especially if you cook them yourself
- Peanuts and other nuts, though others might be more expensive
- Homemade yogurt
- Yams, corn, sweet potatoes and other starchy vegetables, but be careful with normal potatoes as they have very high GI
- Feedlot meat products shouldn't be that expensive? Especially if you get organ meats, which are much healthier than muscle meat anyway.
- Eggs are normally cheap, even the omega 3/DHA eggs aren't that much more expensive than normal eggs here in Thailand (I presume it's the same where you live). I wouldn't bother with free-range or organic stuff.
- Rice
- Cabbage and many other greens are usually very cheap. They don't have calories but they have plenty of nutrition
- Olive and coconut oils are probably the cheapest calories you can get; 100 calories per tablespoon.
- Flaxseeds are usually reasonably cheap. Grind a few tablespoons of them a day to balance your omega 3:6 intake (omega 3/DHA eggs also help with this)

I don't know where you live, but all the above foods are comparatively cheap here in Thailand (as compared to many other foods).

In my books eating healthy doesn't have to be expensive. It only gets expensive when you start buying organic/free-range stuff and supplements and super-foods. And the value of those is questionnable at best.

3700 calories a day? How much do you exercise a day? How big are you?

It doesn't sound believable that you run 1700 calorie deficit a day. Running such deficit means you would be hungry most of the time, you would lose weight at staggering rate (3.5 pounds per week), and you would probably be tired and irritated a lot. Not saying it's not true, but just that it would be very hard and that you wouldn't do it by accident.

[Justin]

I weigh about 135 Lbs. and I'm about 6.1 ft, I exercise for 'at least' 30 minutes a day, and I live an active lifestyle (always choose the stairs vs. the elevator)

--I feel tired almost all the time, but I can never get a good deep sleep, I always wake up at least once a night.

--I get irratated alot by the most simplest things

--I have dark circles under my eyes

I think these are all a result of being calorie deficient, I would like to weigh about 160; as 160 seems to me to be a healthy weight for being 6.1 ft., I don't know how I can gain at least 25 Lbs though.

[Seppo]

No way you will need 4000 calories to maintain your weight. Your basal metabolic rate is about 1600 calories (link to metabolic rate calculator). Multiply that by about 1.3 to account for active lifestyle and we are at 2100 calories. No matter how hard you exercise you will never burn 2000 kcal during 30 minutes exercise. I burn about 500 to 600 kcal during 30 minute run, but I'm 30kgs (66 lbs.) heavier than you.

So a realistic caloric need for you is around 2500 kcal per day. That is, based on what you wrote here.

You didn't mention anything about weight loss. It's impossible not to lose weight when you eat fewer calories than you burn. It violates laws of physics. And, as far as I know, nobody has ever demonstrated weight loss without caloric deficit.

So while it's possible that you may need to eat more, and even probably since you want to gain weight, I don't think it's your main issue.

All the issues you pointed out can be explained by simple lack of sleep. My suggestion is to eat more, but I would make fixing sleep problems your first priority. Without proper sleep you are unlikely to gain much benefit from going to the gym.

Would you like to tell me more about your sleep issues? Maybe we can figure something out.

[Justin]

Well, since the semester just started back up and I'm in school now, my sleep schedule is bed 9:30 p.m. at wake up at 5:30 a.m. usually over school break I go to bed at 11:00 p.m.  and wake up at 8:00 a.m., but no matter how good my sleep schedule is I always wake up at night once, twice, sometimes three times, it's rare that I ever experience a good night of sleep or a deep sleep.

--sometimes I wake up becuase I need to urinate

--most of the time it's for no reason, and I just go back to sleep

--I exercise at least 5 days out of the week (walking, running, resistance training, and just being active; keeping myself busy)

--I'm 16 y/o

--I'm a little stressed; i'm still learning to deal with the being pressured when i'm around people (parents/people in public)

I'm still trying to think of any information that might be helpful. Do you know of anything else?

[Seppo]

It's normal to wake up during the night once or twice. I wake up pretty much every night to urinate. You normally wake up between sleep cycles so it shouldn't disturb your sleep that much - assuming you fall asleep again quickly.

Sounds like you get enough sleep, but it's the quality that holds you back. I just started reading an interesting book on sleep, called: Sleep: A Groundbreaking Guide to the Mysteries, the Problems, and the Solutions. I suggest you pick it up also. It gives a good overview of sleep disorders (much more common than anyone thinks) and suggest some treatments. See if something rings a bell there.

It's my guess that lack of good sleep is what's holding you back the most now. It can make you irritable, prime your immune system to be more reactive (more inflammatory acne), cause insulin resistance, make you more suspectible to stress and so on.

[Justin]

I'll definitely check into it.

Also I have another question

-- How can I keep acne and my skin off my mind; and be mentally free form acne (there isn't a minute when i'm not thinking about my skin)?

[Seppo]

This could be a self-esteem issue. My guess is that you thinking goes something like this: "I'm [INSERT NEGATIVE ADJECTIVE] because of acne, and if I get clear then I'm OK".

So you might have fixated as acne as being the source of your problem. And to an extent this is true, but often it's the underlying self-esteem issue that's the real problem.

As a disclaimer I want to say that the above is just my guess based on previous discussions with acne patients. And I may also be wrong.

If you think there might be even a grain of truth to what I said, then I would also suggest you to check out this other book: Self-Esteem: A Proven Program of Cognitive Techniques for Assessing, Improving, and Maintaining Your Self-Esteem

I've read a lot of books about psychology and self-help and this seems to one of the easiest ones to follow and implement.

Other than that, following a meditation program is my stock advice. It can help you to uncover negative thinking patterns and reduce stress and its effect on acne.

[Justin]

How do I regain my confidence around people, and my sense of liveliness, does that also come with regaining my self-esteem?

[Seppo]

Yes, self-esteem, in a nutshell, means how much you like and respect yourself. The reason you have low confidence around people is because of some things you keep saying to yourself. You put yourself down and think negatively of yourself.

The self-esteem book I recommended gets to the root of this.

[Justin]

Alright, I got it. Fairly cheap book to

[Justin]

Hey Seppo,

I need some help again. I was wondering if you had any tips on gaining weight, I understand I need to eat more calories than I burn, but I want to put on like 20 Lbs., because I feel really skinny, and I know i'm underweight. Are there any foods I could eat alot of to get me alot of calories. I think if I ate around 3500 cals everyday for the next three months I could put on about 20 Lbs.. Any Information would be helpful, Thanks!

[Justin]

Hey Seppo,

I need some help again. I was wondering if you had any tips on gaining weight, I understand I need to eat more calories than I burn, but I want to put on like 20 Lbs., because I feel really skinny, and I know i'm underweight. Are there any foods I could eat alot of to get me alot of calories. I think if I ate around 3500 cals everyday for the next three months I could put on about 20 Lbs.. Any Information would be helpful, Thanks!

Also,

I was talking to my brother, and he said if I want to gain weight (muscle weight not fat) I need to eat like around 3000 calories a day, and it needs to be a ratio of about 20/40/40 (carbs-fats-protein)

Is this ideal?

[Seppo]

I don't think macronutrient ratios matter that much in weight gain - assuming you eat somewhat balanced diet. But to gain weight, you need to eat quite a bit of calories, and 3000 sounds like a good number to start with.

[Justin]

Hey Seppo

well I'm having trouble with the 3000 Cals, that is still trying to figure out how to eat.

CFL has really helped me   I'm completely satisfied with its contents.

I just need your help in particular for like a

--Breakfast

--Lunch

--Dinner

breakdown

I figured since my goal is 3000 cals i would try to do, more or less, 1000 calories each meal

I'm just trying to figure out the what foods in the dietary guidelines and how im supposed to meat the 3000 cal requirements

for macro nutrients it would look something like this

Protein:  meat, fish, eggs,
fat: butter, olive oil, coconut oil, nuts
carbs: quinoa, brown rice, yams/.sweet potatoes, beans, corn

as for micro nutrients i would just do a little bit of fruit each  day and a  big serving of veggies each day (switch it up here and there of course)

Also a little side note (and this is just from speculation and observation) I think i have a slight allergy to peanut butter. I break out from it, and it also gives me some allergy symptoms.




Sooooooooo Seppo im just trying to think of meal ideas and stuff   i have all the other elements of health down; no problems. Its just the calorie thing.

I mean 3000 calories in my piehole seems kind of improbable but i'm just gonna keep trying   

[Seppo]

I would say not to worry too much about calories. Eat until you are satisfied. And if you want to put on weight, then eat a bit more. There's no need to calculate calories and your body gives you far more accurate feedback.

I would also again say not to overanalyze this thing. Eat the kind of foods you enjoy (within the limits of healthy eating). There's no need to make it more complicated than that.

I'm not quite sure what you want me to do. I'll be happy to offer you some guidelines, but I'm not going to make a meal plan for you. You can find plenty of recipes online, so it's just a matter of picking the stuff you enjoy.