Counting Calories for Other Reasons

[hipp.kay]

I know whole30 (and Palo in general) say not to count calories, but I use My Fitness Pal to track my foods and make sure I'm hitting my calorie goals. A couple weeks ago I started eating mostly Paleo (a few cheats here and there) and within the first few days I got extremely sick. Dry heaving, weakness, dizziness and a major major migraine. I couldn't move really for two days. I know now some of this was probably carb-flu and migraine related. I knew not eating enough is one of my migraine triggers and although I hadn't felt hungry I wondered if I hadn't had enough calories even though I felt stuffed on grilled veg and steak. I went back and used My fitness Pal (this had been the first time I'd used it and have been using it since) and found out I'd been eating less than 500 calories a day!! Yikes!!! So now I track my calories to ensure I am eating a min of 1200 calories per day although I shoot for 1500. If by about 8pm I haven't had enough I have a couple  fried eggs or a homemade latte made with coconut milk and a heaping tablespoon of coconut oil (sounds weird, super good!!)

 

Also I would like to try and determine the cause of my migraines and it seems to be a very helpful for tracking all of my foods and amounts (I can even add notes about my day and how I feel, whether or not I had a migraine, etc.) and My Fit. Pal has been a very helpful to track all of that, but I would really like to commit  to the Whole30 to see if it would help reduce my migraines and my skin issues. Cutting out artificial fragrances a year ago helped a lot, but there I still would like to reduce those issues further. Would it be OK to count calories/ track foods for these reason? Or is it just flat out no?

 

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated, thank you so much!

[MrsStick]

If you're eating by the template, then I find it extremely hard to believe that you're eating 1500 calories per day, let alone 500. Instead of using the app, maybe you could post a food log here for others to suggest stuff - maybe you aren't eating enough of something at a meal, etc.

 

For example, at my size (5'10", 155 lbs right now, currently losing the 7 I gained in a month while visiting various family members), my typical meal list would be:

 

Breakfast: 3-4 eggs over medium, 1/2 large apple or 1/2 large banana (I split them with the hubby) with a spoon of nut butter, 1/2 sweet potato with ghee/coconut oil, sauteed spinach OR 2 eggs over medium, 2 slices compliant bacon, small bowl fresh berries, sweet potato/onion hash.

 

Lunch: 1-2 chicken thighs, raw veggies and homemade mayo dip (carrots, celery, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, snap peas, etc.), serving fruit.

 

Dinner: burger patty with grilled portobello mushroom, homemade mayo, lettuce, tomato, and pickle, roasted broccoli, and cauliflower rice.

 

So each meal is 1-2 palms of protein (eggs = how many you can hold in your hand), 1 thumb of fat (nut butter, bacon, mayo), as many veggies as you want (be sure to include starchy veggies - these will keep you from having quite as terrible of a carb flu, promise!), and a serving of fruit if you want (fruit is optional; you can get all of its nutrients from other sources, so don't use it to prop up your sugar dragon).

 

All of that listed above is about 2700 calories. It's how/what I eat when I want to lose weight. I do lose weight like that, too. My hubby finally realized that eating grains means I gain weight, instead of the opposite, and is now on board (and I think he's losing, too, although we're still learning how much he needs). When I'm not on a W30, I might *gasp* do cereal and almond milk for breakfast with fruit sometimes (not the best, but it's 1. not dairy, 2. makes hubby happy, 3. is still gluten free for me) or, even more shocking, the occasional gluten free waffle with plenty of fats to mitigate the sugary rush of the waffle.

 

If your meals don't look similar to mine (obviously, you probably aren't my size, or activity level, or something), you need to eat that way. Then you won't need to track anything. And listen to your body...if you feel *bad*, then eat something. But make it a complete template meal - protein, fat, veggies.

[hipp.kay]

Hmm I am eating similar proportions of everything, but much smaller size. Say one egg for breakfast with about 1/2 cup of grilled veg served with about a tablespoon of coconut oil. The first few days I may have kinda jumped on the Paleo wagon a little overly enthusiastically and didn't even have starchy veg. And I was stressed which for me leads to absolutely zero appetite (different then most people, but Ive always been like that.) and those were all factors. But even when I'm not stressed I don't eat much. I am much more of a graze thru out the day kinda person and big meals have never been my thing. Even at college in the south (all grease fried foods coated in salt) I would eat about 2/3 of what other people would eat and I would be too stuffed to eat anything else the rest of the day.

 

Should I just force myself to eat more, maybe just start by adding in an additional egg to breakfast and working on eating more starchy veg? Or can I keep eating what I'm eating, but add in more fat? It's just hard for me to eat when I'm not hungry. :/

 

Thank you for your help!

[hipp.kay]

Also sweet potato with sautéd spinach sounds sooooo good. That topped with sausage gravy (or bacon gravy. Gotta love bacon). Yummm and thanks for the tip about the starchy veggies. I was really scared of getting such bad crab flu again!

[MrsStick]

Unless you're a child, I'd doubt one egg is enough for you, by the template. How many eggs can you hold in your hand in the shells? That's one serving. You should focus on making your meals bigger, and snacking less. Your body will adjust, but it will take some time. Maybe, instead of snacking, you could work yourself into eating four meals per day instead of just snacking? Then work your way down to three?

[missmary]

Maybe, instead of snacking, you could work yourself into eating four meals per day instead of just snacking? Then work your way down to three?

 

This, yes. The template is your friend. Try eating the minimum of the template at all three meals. If you can't make that work, adding another meal is a good idea. 

 

One trick that might work for you (moderator Bethany suggested this one): fill a plate with a full template meal. Eat evenly around the plate (taking equal proportions of protein/fat and veg). When you are too full to continue, cover the plate and put it in the fridge. Later, when you can eat more, finish up that plate instead of having a snack. This might help you get closer to eating the full template at each meal, but at the very least it will help you get used to serving that amount, and sets you up for a balanced "mini-meal" later.

[Tom Denham]

My Fitness Pal is your enemy. It is not your friend in any regard. It does not help you. It hurts you. MFP encourages you to think in categories that harm your relationship with food. Our meal template encourages you to think in human terms, in ways that you can live with long-term with sanity.

 

Following our meal template - http://whole9life.com/book/ISWF-Meal-Planning-Template.pdf - ensures that you are eating enough and it offers a range. Everyone should eat at least the template minimum and you should eat more if you are active or underweight. 

 

What Mary shared from Bethany is a good trick that I had not heard before. Go for it!

[praxisproject]

There is one good thing about My Fitness Pal, it was a comment on there that pointed me to Whole30 Now I don't use it lol