Minimum Calories?
 

Hi – back again after last week's installment, where I described my lack of progress in the weight-loss department. (I've hovered around the same four pounds the whole time on LC, even at the start.) I've embarked on my "elimination diet" (no dairy, sweeteners, or nuts) and started a journal here, tracking everything on Fitday. I've increased a lot my water and exercise a bit.

The problem is without dairy, I'm having trouble getting enough calories since (except for fish) I don't eat meat. AT 197.5 lbs, my calories should be at least 2000 a day, but I haven't been able to reach that yet.

My question is, which is more important: Reaching 10x-12x weight in calories? Or eliminating foods from your diet that may be deterring progress?

Thanks in advance … again!
Rhu

Rhu, elimination diets should be one food at a time - if you're eliminating diary for two weeks to test for intolerances you can use nuts and seeds to up the calories/fat. If it turns out that your culprit isn't dairy then move on to nuts/seeds and use the dairy to keep calories up :)

An elimination diet wherein you're not eating enough could backfire - no fat loss due to too low calories might make you think the dairy was the culprit. Keeping the numbers up is important. Do you use mayo? Another option would be extra olive oil on salads. Clarified butter, ghee, is not considered diary as all the milk fat is cooked off.

Nat

<Klunk> That's the sound of me slapping my palm against my head. Of course! Thanks Nat – what you say makes total sense. How could I discover an intolerance by eliminating everything?

Thanks to you, I stocked up on nuts and nut butters last night, and am well on my way to upping those calories.

I do use olive oil, and will use mayo as soon as I make some or find some w/out sugar. I can probably find it (and ghee) in my whole foods market.

Thanks again –
Rhu