How can I cut calories without having to cut out the foods that I like?
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christinev297 wrote: »ILUVPOPPYDEARLY wrote: »ILUVPOPPYDEARLY wrote: »arditarose wrote: »ILUVPOPPYDEARLY wrote: »arditarose wrote: »galgenstrick wrote: »galgenstrick wrote: »Liftng4Lis wrote: »christinev297 wrote: »arditarose wrote: »Eagerlylookingforward wrote: »You really need to cut out carbs in your liquids, so the daily hot chocolate and fraps need to be sugar free. In fact if you can cut them out you will notice a huge savings in calories. There are other noodles that are made with rice, yellow beans, udon etc. try them instead of regular pasta. It may take a few tries, but you really will start enjoying them more than regular pasta.
No
Care to explain why?
I often see just plain "NO" as a reply here. Which isn't really a helpful response at all
Because its unnecessary to give up anything. Nothing needs to be "sugar free", she doesn't have to give up carbs. She just needs a caloric deficit to lose weight, thats it. It's CICO and learning moderation will benefit for a sustainable diet.
Lose weight yes, but if you want that weight to be mostly fat you need to have a reasonably healthy diet to meet your macros.
No you don't. You need to be eating enough protein, have a small to moderate deficit only (i.e. no more than 1lb/week), and lift heavy weights at hte gym. None of this requires eating any weird pasta substitutes or cutting out Starbucks. Sugar doesn't somehow kill one's muscular maintenance.
We're saying the same thing I think. If you eat all those drinks + the pasta, then there's probably not enough room left for the protein. That's about 1000 calories of carbs and fat and not much protein. I don't know OP's calorie target so it's hard to say.
I don't think OP knows her calorie goal either!
OP, have you figured this out yet?
I think it's 1200 calories with a daily hour workout. I want to lose 20-40 pounds.
What is your height and weight? And activity level?
5 ft 7 1/2 and 150 lbs. I'm pretty sedentary unless I'm going to the gym.
You are 5'7" and your goal is to possibly be underweight by getting to 110 lbs? Why?
110-130. Preferably 120. It's just that some people seem to think I still look large at 120+.
Jeez . That's just sad
Do what you feel is best for you. What other people think should have no bearing on your goals xx
I agree, don't worry about what other people think.
But i think maybe you were "skinny fat" at 120. Start a weightlifting program.
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christinev297 wrote: »ILUVPOPPYDEARLY wrote: »ILUVPOPPYDEARLY wrote: »arditarose wrote: »ILUVPOPPYDEARLY wrote: »arditarose wrote: »galgenstrick wrote: »galgenstrick wrote: »Liftng4Lis wrote: »christinev297 wrote: »arditarose wrote: »Eagerlylookingforward wrote: »You really need to cut out carbs in your liquids, so the daily hot chocolate and fraps need to be sugar free. In fact if you can cut them out you will notice a huge savings in calories. There are other noodles that are made with rice, yellow beans, udon etc. try them instead of regular pasta. It may take a few tries, but you really will start enjoying them more than regular pasta.
No
Care to explain why?
I often see just plain "NO" as a reply here. Which isn't really a helpful response at all
Because its unnecessary to give up anything. Nothing needs to be "sugar free", she doesn't have to give up carbs. She just needs a caloric deficit to lose weight, thats it. It's CICO and learning moderation will benefit for a sustainable diet.
Lose weight yes, but if you want that weight to be mostly fat you need to have a reasonably healthy diet to meet your macros.
No you don't. You need to be eating enough protein, have a small to moderate deficit only (i.e. no more than 1lb/week), and lift heavy weights at hte gym. None of this requires eating any weird pasta substitutes or cutting out Starbucks. Sugar doesn't somehow kill one's muscular maintenance.
We're saying the same thing I think. If you eat all those drinks + the pasta, then there's probably not enough room left for the protein. That's about 1000 calories of carbs and fat and not much protein. I don't know OP's calorie target so it's hard to say.
I don't think OP knows her calorie goal either!
OP, have you figured this out yet?
I think it's 1200 calories with a daily hour workout. I want to lose 20-40 pounds.
What is your height and weight? And activity level?
5 ft 7 1/2 and 150 lbs. I'm pretty sedentary unless I'm going to the gym.
You are 5'7" and your goal is to possibly be underweight by getting to 110 lbs? Why?
110-130. Preferably 120. It's just that some people seem to think I still look large at 120+.
Jeez . That's just sad
Do what you feel is best for you. What other people think should have no bearing on your goals xx
I agree, don't worry about what other people think.
But i think maybe you were "skinny fat" at 120. Start a weightlifting program.
This is really good advice. Given your stats, I think what you need is muscle building, not dieting more.0 -
I just had thai green curry with egg fried rice, chicken, sweet potatoes, veggies, full fat coconut milk, and then bread and butter pudding for dessert..... yum yum yum. How did I fit it into my diet?
Smaller portions than I used to eat
More veggies, less chicken
Eat less the rest of the day
Do exercise
I still eat all the things I love. I just weigh and log everything, and have smaller portions. I have to hide the rest of my chocolate bar having taken my ration out, to avoid temptation, but it seems to be working ok!
In fact, I only eat food I absolutely love the taste of. That way I don't eat pointless calories. If you don't love rice cakes, why eat them? That said, I find myself enjoying healthy snacks like banana and yoghurt, hummus and veggies, fruit etc. and have switched out some of my chocolatey snacks for healthy ones.0 -
ILUVPOPPYDEARLY wrote: »A typical day of food for me goes like:
Breakfast: 2 scrambled eggs, 1 oat bran bagel, 2 slices Colby jack cheese and a cup of grape juice.
Mid morning snack: a banana or a low fat yogurt or like a handful of plain Cheerios.
Lunch: a steak or a pork chop with a salad and Russian dressing.
Afternoon snack: during the weekday, I always get a customized vanilla bean Frappuccino from Starbucks with Java chips, a shot of white mocha syrup and caramel sauce.
Dinner: typically a meat and pasta dish like spaghetti and meat sauce or baked ziti. I take a dinner plateful no seconds.
Snack: I usually drink a cup of Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate before bed.
There are some things I don't think I can give up like red meat (I hate chicken, turkey and fish), the Frappuccino or the pasta. Is there anyway I can eat them and still lose weight if I just burn the calories through exercise?
Do you love the grape juice? Juice is high calories, and not filling, so if you don't love it, I'd ditch it. Your lunch sounds divine. I want to eat it.
The frappuccino...can you try a substitute? It's an at home mix my husband gave for me: Take ice cubes, put in blender, fill up the blender to the two cup line, then add water, again, up the two cup line. add two scoopfuls of sugar free Hills Brothers Cappucino. It's abotu 100 calories and SUPER GOOD!!!
Can you change the ratio for dinner? Increase meat and suace, decrease pasta? There are also higher fiber pastas and pasta made with shitake that are lower calorie.0 -
if your sole goal is weight loss and you can consistently hit your calorie goal by reducing portion sizes on the same foods you typically eat and exercising, go for it and ignore the rest of this post.
If you try doing this and find you cannot consistently hit your calorie goal, or you did the math on the calories and don't think that simply reducing quantity will work for you, here are my thoughts: If you're anything like me, you may feel hungry if you just reduce portion sizes on the foods you listed...and that's a recipe for sliding back into eating the same amounts as you were previously. If you are thinking you can exercise enough to bring your net calories into a deficit, you may want to do that math on that too (just play around with MFPs different exercises to see how much you would have to do to burn the calories you need to), since it may be more time than you can commit.
So there are two strategies for dealing with the problem I just described:
(1) Replace some of the high calorie/low nutrient foods (in your case this seems to be sugary drinks) with foods that are lower in calories so you can eat more and feel full with volume. Pretty much any vegetable would work for this strategy.
(2) Replace some of your high calorie, low nutrient foods with foods that may be high calorie, but are also richer in the things that help you feel full, namely protein, fiber and certain kinds of fats (in moderation). You probably do pretty well with protein since you're eating meat, but foods that are high in fiber include vegetables, fruit, and beans. The fats that have health benefits beyond keeping your tummy full come from foods like avocado, olive oil, almonds, and salmon.
So, your must-haves are the meat, fraps, and pasta. Let's talk about how you can work those into a plan that includes the strategies above. Now, I don't know exactly how many calories you're working with here or what your portion size normally is, so i'll trust you to mix and match these suggestions as you will and figure out the proper portion sizes based on the MFP database.
Breakfast- try scrambling one egg with one or two egg whites. it will taste similar to your 2 eggs and be lower fat. drop cheese to 1 slice or only have half the bagel. juice-- see below
Mid morning snack- these look ok to me, but if you do find you are hungry you may want to up your protein or fiber content here. maybe switch to greek yogurt or put a bit of peanut butter on that banana
Lunch- watch your portions on the dressing, this is an easy place to make some cuts if you gradually step down the amount of dressing you use or switch to a lighter dressing. also, here's where I'll talk about red meat: There's nothing wrong with meat, as long as you keep an eye on your portion size. There are leaner cuts that you may want to try, which have a lot of flavor and are less expensive but have to be cooked differently than fattier cuts or they will be tough. An easy, fool proof cooking method for leaner cuts of red meat is to cook the in the crockpot...lots of recipes are available online.
Afternoon snack- Fraps: So the clear issue with these is the sugar content. If changing this is truly a deal breaker, try to go for a smaller size. If you are willing to try a bit of change, try cutting one of the "extras" you listed (like the caramel sauce) a couple times a week. Small change do add up and you can work on "designing" a drink that is lower in sugar but is still tasty for you.
Dinner: Again, see the meat stuff above. Pasta: I eat pasta a lot. It's delicious. Don't stop eating it, but take half or 2/3 the amount you normally would and replace the rest with a vegetable.
So the hot chocolate and the juice...It will be easier for you to plan filling meals/snacks for the day if you can cut out at least one of these each day and replace it with water or tea or seltzer. That said, if you can work things out with your meals/snacks such that these fit in, then drink them.
I hope you found that helpful. Good luck with whatever your particular goals are!0
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