Trying to work on my diet and I'm a bit worried, can someone take a look?

nytoco

I'm 18 and female, gearing up to start my freshman year of college, and I'm dead set on my freshman 15 being the opposite direction of everyone else's. I'd like to lose 20-30 pounds by the end of my freshman year (I'm 5'1" and 130 lbs) and after a long history of failed diets and unhealthy relationships with food, I'm pretty determined to do it right this time.

So here's what my diet usually looks like:
Breakfast: A bowl of cereal (some form of Special K, usually) with rice milk and some type of fruit (usually half a cantaloupe or honeydew melon)
Snack: A piece of fruit - like a large apple, banana, or a half cup of blueberries
Lunch: Carby stuff like a whole wheat English muffin with Earth Balance or a couple slices of bread with homemade jam + protein, usually scrambled eggs or potentially some fake meat type stuff
Dinner: Usually a mix of whole wheat carbs (pasta, bread) and protein (fake meat, tofu) and vegetables (bell peppers, most frequently)

• As you can maybe tell, I'm a vegetarian. I also don't eat dairy (lactose intolerant).
• I also don't eat nuts. It's not an allergy, I just really hate the taste of all nuts, but I can stomach them in certain forms (ie almond milk).
• I set MFP to 1350 cal/day, but I usually eat around 1200-1300 on days when I don't exercise and 1500-1600 on days when I do.
• I try not to drink my calories - juice is an occasional treat, I drink coffee black unless I go to Starbucks (and I always get skinny drinks with soy), and I do indulge in soda more than I'd like but I only drink the calorie free sort. Most of what I drink is water.
• I'm particularly concerned with my sugar intake. An average day, I still log at least around 90g of sugar, and that's without eating anything super processed that would add a lot of extra sugar. I'm not sure if this is bad or not, because I've been making a conscious effort to cut down on my added sugars (a lot of days I would be logging up to 180g). I'm also concerned that I'm not getting enough protein, or that there's other nutrients I'm deficient in that MFP doesn't really account for.

Any advice and constructive criticism would be appreciated!

kshama2001

I'd like to take a look at your protein and sugar specifics. Would you please change your Diary Sharing to Public? http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

nytoco

kshama2001 wrote: »

I'd like to take a look at your protein and sugar specifics. Would you please change your Diary Sharing to Public? http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

Uhh, I'd rather not. I can inform you of them, but I don't want to make the diary public because I've had a rough past couple of weeks and am trying to get back on track, lol. Also, the past few weeks aren't the most accurate. Instead, is there any specific information I can retrieve for you?

AliceDark

Don't worry about sugar specifically. Watch your calories, and try to hit your protein and fat numbers, then just fill in the rest with carbs. I'd bet money that your protein and fat macros are always REALLY low (especially if you're using milk substitutes, which aren't equivalent to animal milk in terms of macros). Your breakfast and snack have virtually zero protein and fat, and it sounds like your lunch doesn't always have a ton of protein either. If I ate what you did during the day, I'd be starving and ready to eat my entire kitchen by dinner.

Since you don't eat meat or dairy, it could really help to add a vegan or egg-based protein powder to up your protein numbers. Definitely keep the tofu, and look into things like seitan or quorn. What about beans and legumes? Alternate carb sources for dinner that might have more protein (like brown rice or quinoa instead of pasta)? Add some more fats to your meals too (like avocado on your bread for lunch, for example).

nytoco

AliceDark wrote: »

Don't worry about sugar specifically. Watch your calories, and try to hit your protein and fat numbers, then just fill in the rest with carbs. I'd bet money that your protein and fat macros are always REALLY low (especially if you're using milk substitutes, which aren't equivalent to animal milk in terms of macros). Your breakfast and snack have virtually zero protein and fat, and it sounds like your lunch doesn't always have a ton of protein either. If I ate what you did during the day, I'd be starving and ready to eat my entire kitchen by dinner.

Since you don't eat meat or dairy, it could really help to add a vegan or egg-based protein powder to up your protein numbers. Definitely keep the tofu, and look into things like seitan or quorn. What about beans and legumes? Alternate carb sources for dinner that might have more protein (like brown rice or quinoa instead of pasta)? Add some more fats to your meals too (like avocado on your bread for lunch, for example).

Now that you bring it up, I am usually really hungry around dinner time. It's more prominent on days when I do a lot of walking. I just got back from a trip abroad and I would be walking 5 or 6 miles a day plus climbing lots of stairs and by 6 or 7, I'd be absolutely ravenous. I haven't had too many problems with it lately though, because I'm sick at the moment and have been totally sedentary. But when I get settled in at college and start getting more regular exercise, I'm afraid I'll get excessively hungry again.

Thankfully, beans and rice will probably be staples of mine during the school year because poor college student, and I intend to do some of my own cooking because I'm very into cooking at the moment, so I can try to incorporate more protein into my meals and maybe get a blender so I can make smoothies with protein powder.

Being a picky eater, vegetarian, and lactose-free has always made my meals very high carb and low fat/protein, but I will make an effort to fix that.
Thank you very much for the advice

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jgnatca

Your mornings look short on proteins. Could you add more eggs? There's a soured milk product, kefir, that is friendly to the lactose intolerant. I often use hummus dip with crackers for a snack, and it has a little protein in it. You might find a smoothie you like using a milk substitute of your choice and whey protein powder with fruit and vegetables.

aledba

jgnatca wrote: »

Your mornings look short on proteins. Could you add more eggs? There's a soured milk product, kefir, that is friendly to the lactose intolerant. I often use hummus dip with crackers for a snack, and it has a little protein in it. You might find a smoothie you like using a milk substitute of your choice and whey protein powder with fruit and vegetables.

I don't think she will use Whey since it's a dairy by-product. Though its lactose content is usually less than 1%. You can look into pea proteins or brown rice proteins if you're into that stuff. Soy protein powders can be iffy. If you try one you like, make smoothies with nut butter, or PB2. Add fruits, spinach, chia seeds, hemp hearts.

Curried lentils and rice are nice for keeping full. If you use TVP, you can make wonderful chili with all sorts of vegetables. Twice baked sweet potatoes or regular are great - bake, scoop out, mix contents with garlic, herbs, Daiya, black beans, bake again and serve with salsa. As we get closer to autumn, use squash to make soup or eat baked as a side. Puree white beans with roasted garlic to make 'alfredo sauce' for pasta.

AliceDark

I'm also a vegetarian, so I totally feel your pain about getting enough protein! I lived on rice/quinoa bowls in college. It's very easy to batch cook your grains one night, then build your meals throughout the week. Fried rice with a few eggs and some tofu is really yummy, and it's easy to bulk up rice bowls with a ton of veg so you get to eat a lot of food for not that many calories. If you're allowed to have a crock pot (not sure if you're living in a dorm or what), try making dried black or pinto beans. They taste SO much better than canned beans! Plus, they're super cheap and you just throw them in the crock pot and let them cook. I'm also a big fan of making chili with a few types of beans and whatever veg sounds good (try dicing some sweet potato and adding some frozen corn -- it's especially good with chipotle or some other kind of smoky chili).

bkate24

I totally agree with those above about upping the protein and healthy fat. Those are huge factors for me in how hungry I feel.

My question is, are you living in a dorm? Are you at a college where you have dining halls? I think it would be good for you to try and make plans for how you'll eat/cook, so that you don't end up just grabbing fries from the student union when you're hungry (speaking from experience and from seeing everyone I went to college with reach this hurdle).

The reason I ask that is because a lot of the advice I'd normally give (e.g. make bean-y casseroles and freeze portions in advance) won't work well for someone living in a dorm, or even sharing a fridge/cooker/sink/dishwasher with a bunch of other people.

One thing a lot of people I knew did in college was boil a bunch of eggs in advance and keep them (in shells) in their fridge. That way you can quickly peel them and eat. I still do this. I also put ground flaxseed in smoothies to up the protein a little bit. Vegetarian canned/baked beans can also be good (put them on wheat toast or a baked potato), but be careful to read the label not only for meat but also for sugar, and watch your portions. Also seconding hummus + veggies as a very practical meal/snack with protein.

In my own personal experience, I thought I'd cook a lot at college and then it was such an upheaval, and cooking was genuinely just more difficult than at home, so I ended up eating out more than I wanted. With that being said, I would scope out food options near campus to make a plan for those times when you didn't get around to cooking ahead and you desperately need to eat something. E.g. maybe you buy some protein bars to put in your bag in case you get hungry. Maybe you plan that if you skip breakfast, you go to McDonald's and get a McMuffin with just egg, no ham or cheese (obviously not recommending that as an everyday thing). It depends on what you think will work for you.

I also would try to avoid centering two meals a day around bread or pasta (e.g. it's bread or pasta plus a sauce). Try to make protein (beans, beanburgers, lentils, eggs, tofu, seitan etc) the "main event" of one of your meals, if that makes sense. That might help you learn to build meals that are meeting your protein macros more.

Good luck!

bkate24

Also, don't feel like you have to eat breakfast foods (such as cereal) for breakfast or lunch foods for lunch. If you want scrambled eggs for dinner, have them. On the flip side if you want lentils for breakfast, have that - whatever fits best in your day.

kshama2001

nytoco wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

I'd like to take a look at your protein and sugar specifics. Would you please change your Diary Sharing to Public? http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

Uhh, I'd rather not. I can inform you of them, but I don't want to make the diary public because I've had a rough past couple of weeks and am trying to get back on track, lol. Also, the past few weeks aren't the most accurate. Instead, is there any specific information I can retrieve for you?

I wanted to see your Carb : Fat : Protein ratios.

Doesn't sound like you are getting a lot of protein. Wanted to look at your specific sugar sources, as you said you have too much of them, to see if I could make suggestions about what could satisfy your sweet tooth with less sugar.

It also doesn't sound like you are eating a lot of vegetables. If you get enough protein, fat, and fiber, you should be fuller, and thus less tempted by sugar.

This was excellent advice:

I also would try to avoid centering two meals a day around bread or pasta (e.g. it's bread or pasta plus a sauce). Try to make protein (beans, beanburgers, lentils, eggs, tofu, seitan etc) the "main event" of one of your meals, if that makes sense. That might help you learn to build meals that are meeting your protein macros more.

_benjammin

Without looking at your diary I don't know if you are getting enough B12 but most vegans and vegetarians need to keep an eye on that.
http://veganhealth.org/articles/vitaminb12