Foods

this is an example of what i eat in a day.

breakfast: raisin bran w/ almond milk, small plate of tofu scrambles

snack: banana

lunch: home made sweet potato fries, falafel burger w/ veganaise, miller genuine draft light (only 64 calories for one of these!!)

dinner: natural peanut butter and low sugar jam on two slice whole wheat bread, rice milk

i think i might need more fruits and veggies but does that look good? am i missing something or having too much of something or both?

a little background info is i'm 5'5", 98 pounds. obviously, not trying to lose weight. perhaps gain some muscle and put on a few pounds from it. and please don't say eat more, this is about 1720 calories and on an inactive day. my bmr is around 1200 if i sat in bed all day so i am eating even above maintenance when i did barely anything that day. or at least that's what i figure.

Since you seem to be eating the right number of calories, how about evaluate the other elements of your diet: sodium, fat, protein, fiber etc and see if you are meeting the rda for those.  CC can give you your totals for these and do a  google search for what amounts are recommended.  Especially check the protein if you are aiming to gain muscle.  I'd agree with you though that you probably need more fruit and especially veggies.  A small salad or one of those "steamers" frozen veggie packs with dinner could be easy to add.  Your apparent "splurge" (MGD) has less calories than the sweets I crave - wish I could find a 64 cal brownie!

hi, umm, i think that you need to gain weight, youre deff below a healthy weight range.  youll need to eat 2000+ calories to do so.  check out the weight gain forum maybe.

Looking at your figures again and pics you do look very small. But I'd say as long as you 1. aren't hungry, 2. have enough energy and generally feel good, and 3. have a regular period then you're probably ok! If you have problems with any of those 3 issues, you may want to consider seeing the doctor. Since you are obviously quite small and not at risk of gaining too much weight, maybe you could also try not counting calories for a little while but just eating what feels to be about right and see what happens.

hm... another serving of fruit, definitely more veges!! you could afford more carb too.. the two glasses of milk looks good though (i'm guilty of sometimes missing out on my second glass =_=). i'm not sure how large your servings are though (they must be pretty large!), cause this doesn't really look like 1700cals to me... >"< but 1700 on an inactive day is probably just about your maintenance cals (you burn more calories walking, sitting, and even lazing on the sofa than you do sleeping. :3)

you might want to check your intake against a food pyramid to see how you could do better? just google vegetarian food pyramid (i'm assuming from what you eat that you're vegetarian or vegan) and see how you're matching up.

i figure:

breakfast: raisin bran w/ almond milk (230), small plate of tofu scrambles (150)

snack: banana (105)

lunch: home made sweet potato fries (150), falafel burger w/ veganaise (500- this was made on a bagel which probably was about 300 calories alone.), miller genuine draft light (only 64 calories for one of these!!)

dinner: natural peanut butter (230) and low sugar jam (80) on two slice whole wheat bread (220), rice milk (50)

which totals to 1779 w/o including the fact that i dipped my fries in tons of bbq sauce as well. i know it doesn't look like a lot but it really is.

 

Your BMR is low because you're underweight (BMI 16.3) and undereating.  If you're not actually in a coma, you're not burning 1200 cals a day.... more like 1800 even if you're not especially active.   Raise your food intake, gain some weight and your BMR will be just the same as everyone else's.  

Try having a more traditional dinner rather than snacking on a peanut butter sandwich.... potatoes, beans, pasta, rice, tofu, vegetables, nuts seeds, cheese, oil..... some ice-cream for dessert perhaps.  Aim for at least 2000 cals, 2500 if you want to get out of the underweight category and build muscle.

More fruits and veggies so you get all you micronutrients. Add some stuff with color. Everything you eat is brown or white (ok sweet potatoes may be orange in color) Think reds and greens and purples (not just a couple of sugary raisins in an otherwise chemical laden mass produced cereal) and orange and etc. Broaden your spectrum. Also things with short ingredient lists.