I ony get 824 calories per day? page

[RSL]

I am a 5'3" female, 54 years old, and have been eating low carb for about 15 months. I just got back from the doctor, where I had my body composition done on a DEXA machine, the most accurate way of having it done. Due to a recent illness, inactivity and then surgery, and then complications, my body fat has gone up to 40.1%.

Last summer:

weight - 141.6 pounds
body fat - 49.8 pounds (35.2%)
lean mass - 91.8 pounds (64.8%)

Now:

weight - 139 pounds
body fat - 55.7 pounds (40.1%)
lean mass - 83.3 pounds (59.9%)

So, since last summer, I have gained 5.9 pounds of fat and I have lost 8.5 pounds of muscle.

So far, I am still recovering from my surgery, and cannot get back to the gym or do much else besides slow walking. I hope to be able to start again soon. In the meantime, I need to know how much to eat to not gain any more fat.

According to The Primal Blueprint book, I need to eat 0.5 grams of protein per pound of lean body mass, because I am inactive right now. That only comes out to 42 grams of protein per day. If I eat more than 20 grams of carbs, I gain weight, so I have to keep carbs low. And if I add enough fat so that I am eating around 70% of my calories from fat, this is what my breakdown will look like:

824 calories
64g fat (70%)
42g protein (20%) (83.3 pounds LBM x 0.5)
20g carbs (10%)

This is an incredibly small amount of food!

For the past few weeks, I have been eating this, and although I initially lost a few pounds, I am now starting to creep back up again:

1400 calories
109g fat (70%)
75g protein (21%) (83.3 pounds LBM x 1.1)
30g carbs (9%)

Anyone have any insight into this? It can't be that I have to only eat 824 calories to maintain my weight, can it?

[Daemonized]

Wow, that does sound like way to few calories. I would suggest IFing but still making sure that you eat as much or more than you have been in a smaller window of time.

[mayness]

Why limit yourself to 70% fat? The way I understand it, once you account for the amount of carbs and protein you want to eat, you should then fill up the rest of your diet with fat until you're satisfied. I'd imagine on 824 calories, even good primal ones, you'd be hungry all the time.

Maybe just decrease the overall calories slightly from what you've been doing. Or even stick with 1400, and decrease protein and carbs like you planned, but add in more fat. I realize it would be hard to eat that much fat and keep the protein so low... I don't really have any advice. =/ I just don't think 824 seems reasonable for anyone.

[RSL]

I am only eating 2 meals per day now. I eat around 600 calories for breakfast, a snack of 100 calories (nuts) at noon, and then 700 calories at dinner.

[lmyers04]

the book recommends .7-1 gram protein per lbm, as opposed to .5

[Minxxa]

Hmmm... I'm a little confused about how you're going about figuring that out!

My ratios tend towards 65% fat, 25% protein and 10%carbs... however depending on WHAT I'm eating, my calories can range dramatically. If my carbs are all veggies in salad, it could be super low calorie wise, if I have a sweet potato it's going to be more. Same for fat. I mean add 1 TBSP of coconut oil which adds fat and nothing else and that's an extra 125 calories right there. Some olive oil salad dressing and a some avocado... well, there's a good amount of calories going on.

Maybe try tracking your actual meals for a few days. Try keeping your protien in the range you want (between .5 and 1 g/pound of lean body mass), your carbs where you want, and then adding in fats to fill in the balance. Then see where your calories are actually falling.

Edited to add: some women find that .5/lbm works better for weight loss, some do great at 1. That's all experimentation on what works personally for you...

[RSL]

page 87:

At a minimum you need 0.5 grams of protein per pound of lean mass per day to maintain your "structure" and healthy body composition. If you are even moderately active, you need closer to 0.7 grams...

And right now, I am not even "moderately" active.

[kmacphee]

That does seem like you are not eating enough. This is only speculation, but it looks like you were beginning to do well when you added more food, and then you gained some weight back...that may be due to an increase in muscle mass?

My natural instinct would be to eat more food. It seems like your body is an efficient storing device (because of the low calorie) and even with extreme calorie restriction (regardless of the percentages) you are most likely to store because of the low calorie content. I would be interested to see what would happen if you were taking in more food, maybe your metabolism is slow because of the lower calorie count.

More importantly, you have lost weight but in doing that, you lost lean body tissue as well. When we limit food, our body can use its own muscle mass as fuel and thus decreasing lean body tissue - losing "weight" but eventually decreasing health. If it were me, I would eat more food to improve metabolism but like I said, only speculation.

[RSL]

Hmmm... I'm a little confused about how you're going about figuring that out!

Maybe try tracking your actual meals for a few days. Try keeping your protien in the range you want (between .5 and 1 g/pound of lean body mass), your carbs where you want, and then adding in fats to fill in the balance. Then see where your calories are actually falling.

Edited to add: some women find that .5/lbm works better for weight loss, some do great at 1. That's all experimentation on what works personally for you...

I track my food every day on Fitday. The numbers I gave for my 1400 calorie menu are correct. I'm not sure why you are wondering about them.

[lmyers04]

page 87:



And right now, I am not even "moderately" active.

Slow walking is activity, no? And why just eat the minimum amount required to sustain your bodily functions?