Am I eating enough?

[misslois85]

At the moment my diet consists mostly of this:

8am: 30g oatmeal made with skimmed milk, honey and small banana. 1 whey protein shake with water.

10.30: coffee with 1 sugar

11.30: 2 boiled egg whites

13.00: 2 cups of salad, dollop of cottage cheese and chicken breast or tin of tuna. And an apple

15.00: 6 dried apricots

17.00: 30 mins cardio and 50 mins of weights (2 muscle groups a day)

18.30: whey protein shake straight after gym.
Chicken breast and veg or vegetable omelette (1 whole egg and 3 egg whites) or fish and veg

19.00 rice cake with 1tbs peanut butter

This works out about 1200 kcal a day. I train 4 to 5 days a week. My job is sedimentary and I am 5'3 and weight 8 stone 5lbs.

On a sat. I eat and drink what I like within reason.

I would like to loose the bit of fat im carrying so I'm leaner looking.

There's mention of not eating enough can cause your body to hold on to fat? Or is my sat. Cheat day ruining my goals? Advice please!!

[Echo814]

At 5'3 and 113lbs you are pushing the lower end of your healthy weight. I think if you lost to much more weight you might not like how you look, most women don't. 1200 cals is to low, I want to strangle the person that made that a staple for female weight loss.

My suggestion would to either eat close to maintenance calories and work on a recomp where you gain muscle while dropping body fat and scale moves little, or a straight up bulk where you eat about 200 cals over maintenance and gain muscle and some fat but after you lose wight after you would be more pleased with the results. Its up to you honestly and what you can tolerate. I would however no matter what you choose to do run a calculation on your cals to see where you need to be for any of the goals, there's a sticky in the nutrition section called Calculating Calorie Needs and Macronutrients,

[kdiamond55]

I am close to your size and any lower in weight I have looked terrible. I prefer to stay around 109 which is what I have been for months now. I am currently doing recomp, I raised my calories to about 1800 a day and I am not gaining nor losing at this, but I am becoming leaner. It look me a while to figure out my maintenance though, and most importantly disregard the scale (I don't look more than 1-2 times a month) and lift heavy! I still do one night where I eat whatever and drink alcohol (heck, I drink wine every few days actually) and it hasn't hindered my results. Again, it doesn't seem like you're "dieting", you're already low enough weight wise, just trying to recomp to a leaner look.

[ChubbyCharlotte]

your weight is perfectly normal and healthy, but if you want to lose excess fat, I think there's nothing wrong with it. you may want to spread your protein more evenly, the meal with 6 dried apricots doesnt seem to have enough protein to me while it's the pre-workout meal - one of the most import meals a day (pre and post - workout meals are the most important).

Also, how are you training at the moment? may be it's time to throw in something new ;)