What to eat?

3furballs

So I've upped my calories to 2000 but as nothing much has changed weight or size wise, I'm trying to change up my snacks and exercise. I'm trying to clean up the snacks I eat and not eat after 8 at night. One of the things I'm finding is that I'm short on calories. Suggestions for tasty, healthy snacks for a chocolate/sugar lover?

LoLoGB

I get my choco fix from chocolate protein shakes after a hard workout. One small dark choco 3-4 times is healthy and satisfies (1 oz ). Frozen fruit for sugar fix...bananas frozen are like ice cream. Frozen grapes are delish! Frozen peaches too!

For more savory options: hummus with carrots, cucumbers, celery, radishes. A serving (1/4 cup) of nuts likes almonds, cashews, walnuts. Fresh apples. String cheese. Hard boiled eggs. Ounce of hard cheese.

Those are some snack suggestions. You can look through my food diary to see what I snack on if you like- which is pretty much all the above!

3furballs

Ok so it's 8:30 at night. I've had a sweet treat of a home made skinny chocolate chocolate chip muffin heated with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream. I still have almost 300 calories left to reach my 2000 calorie goal. I rode my bike and went to Kickboxing today so it's been the usual without. What is ok to have when I'm headed to bed in 2 hours?

bonniejo

You might want to wait and just plan ahead more tomorrow. No use being overfull and not sleeping well tonight!

Tipularia

Make sure you space it out and plan well. As someone who is having to eat 2,800 calories a day, I can sympathize.

I found that making sure I got almost half of my calories in the morning set me up for success during the day. I don't like eating big meals at night, but can throw-down at breakfast. So, a big protein rich breakfast with veggies (often leftovers of a previous dinner) AND a protein shake (170g of protein a day is hard without a supplement), coffee w/half and half, and a mid morning snack usually gets me to just under 1/2 of my calories. Lunch and an afternoon snack gets me to just over 2/3. Then I plan a quick hors-d'oeuvre type snack when I get home (or whey shake and banana, if a lifting day) and a moderate dinner. There may be a hundred or so calories left after dinner, which is perfect for a glass of wine and maybe small snack.

Lastly, egg dishes are my real go-to meals. I can make a frittata as light or calorie rich as I want. So I'll gauge my calorie need and add ingredients accordingly. In addition, it makes awesome leftover breakfasts.

Good luck! The benefits are so worth the time and planning and it gets easier. Promise.

butterbear1980

I keep a few boxes of kids cereal (Pure Carbs!!!!) and 2% milk for topping off what's left of my carb macros at the end the day. I like the envirokids brand. And I agree it will get easier to hit those macros and find the foods you Like To Eat that also meet your goals.

ohiotubagal

Nutella is great for a chocolate craving - 100 calories per tbsp. but a little goes a long way. I like to spread it on fruit or add it to a protein shake. I do the cereal thing too but that's a little dangerous for me because it's definitely a binge trigger.

I agree with @tipularia - getting calories in earlier is key.

MandaLeigh123

ohiotubagal wrote: »

I agree with @tipularia - getting calories in earlier is key.

I also support this! I used to feel very stuffed eating 2800 cal per day and thought I would never be able to keep it up… But over time I was able to easily hit the mark and actually felt like I could eat even more over that. Getting calories in early in the day it helped a lot and also I calorie, high-protein "shakes" or smoothies. I had a recipe for one shake that was 900 cals :-)

3furballs

Ok. I have homemade oatmeal with some dried cherries and brown sugar and milk for breakfast, almonds and dried cherries for snack, then a banana, then a lunch of salad with goat cheese and chicken and usually greek yogurt with berries and granola in the afternoon and then dinner. I also have a half hot chocolate/half coffee in the mornings and then something by 8 for a snack.

Maybe I'll try to add to my morning snack and lunch. It's weird because normally I've been right around the mark, but somehow I seem to be short lately (week days, the beer puts me there on weekends!) which is new and I'm assuming because I'm trying to keep to what I show above as my daily. Plus my husband is making dinner and he doesn't make mac n cheese and stuff like I do.