Eating 1x day to stay under calories

WanderingRivers

Worst idea ever? I started tracking yesterday and thought I was doing OK only to see I was 300 calories over goal for the day. I am not even sure how to stay full on 1400 calories a day with a limited grocery budget. ($50/week) I am debating just not eating save for dinner and and getting some diet pills to crush my appetite.

devilwhiterose

Ya that's a bad idea.

Rather than one large meal, eat several small meals. Snack every few hours. It'll keep you full.

Also...no diet pills.

WanderingRivers

I usually will eat 2 cups of ramen for lunch because they are cheap (2 for a dollar) but seeing as they are 600 calories, that just takes my lunch and makes it so it's a bad idea to eat. IDK what else I can snag that's super cheap and will keep me full. I figure if I don't eat until dinner and combine it with an appetite suppressant, I can keep hunger at bay and still stay in budget

Ladiebug710

It is much easier to stay on budget if you cook.

devilwhiterose

Protein. Get greek yogurt, string cheese, chicken breast... You can pound flat a chicken breast and stretch it for salads, sandwiches, etc. Protein will help keep you full.

Add lots of veggies and fruits for your in between snackage.

lofasam

I used to buy lean cuisine for lunch, normally only a 1-2 a piece so if you buy 5 for a work week only $10-12. The greatest part, they taste great and are only between 200-400 calories

devilwhiterose

Oh! Packets of tuna are usually around $1. Make a sandwich with that, light mayo, a little pickle relish, and pepper. Accompany that with some baked chips or veggies.

christib995

If you eat one meal, you will be starving and over eat. Ramen isn't great for you but you could make your own version on the cheap with past noodles, frozen vegetables, left over chicken etc. $50 a week for one person can be done.....you probably need to look for less convenience foods that you pay more for. An entire box of pasta is probably about a dollar that could be split into many meals. Not to mention sales

livingleanlivingclean

devilwhiterose wrote: »

Ya that's a bad idea.

Rather than one large meal, eat several small meals. Snack every few hours. It'll keep you full.

Also...no diet pills.

I feel less hungry if I eat bigger meals less frequently. If I eat lots of small meals I'm constantly hungry. I eat my first meal quite late (11am ish) and normally have 3 meals a day...it works for me!

Suzid17

If you like pasta, just try cooking your own....whatever type you like and maybe throw in a can of stewed tomatoes. That should help you keep more full and won't have all the sodium, etc. Try baking a couple of potatoes and nuking them up when you're hungry....they are better and you can usually get a bag of potatoes pretty cheap. But definitely cooking your own stuff is cheaper. GOOD LUCK!

joolsmd

Do you live alone? I rarely spend more than £100 a month on groceries ($150 ish), which includes food for my pets. I plan my meals, making sure they include lots of fruit & veg.
A typical days eating for me:
Breakfast - Bowl of instant unsweetended porridge or scrambled eggs
Lunch - Big bowl of lettuce, cucmber and tomatoes with either tinned salmon, tinned tuna, or chopped ham
Dinner - Chicken stew, or pasta with tomato sauce and some added protein

That usually adds up to 1400 cals, and doesn't cost much at all.

jesscran815

As devilwhiterose said, you can definitely snack throughout the day and stay full. I have also found that there are a lot of veggies that you can buy frozen that are super cheap and you can heat them up in the microwave. I know some people who just eat a bunch of veggies for lunch. That keeps me full for a while, even though I dislike eating them. I also love the lean cuisines. They're not bad for you except the salt. I got some on sale this week for $1.88 at the Kroger grocery store down the street, though prices vary based on where you are.

staticsplit

Cook in bulk. Beans and rice, cheaper pasta, either omit meat or use less as a seasoning than a huge component. Frozen vegetables or ones that are on offer. Bananas are usually cheap.

It keeps your blood sugar more even to eat more regularly. If you only eat once a day, it could be pretty easy to overeat because your body is so hungry.

Source: I used to have an eating disorder and do this all the time. It was miserable.

WanderingRivers

Ladiebug710 wrote: »

It is much easier to stay on budget if you cook.

I usually will just make something for my kid as my husband works nights so it doesn't make sense to cook this whole meal affair when it's just me and her. She doesn't eat much and it's easier to throw a pb and j or some such in her general direction then to try to do an entire meal with sides and everything that my husband won't even be there for. Only time I cook a real meal is if he is off work and home to actually eat it.

IDK if it's relevant but I am also battling untreated depression which, depending on the day, makes me want to eat everything in sight or not a darn thing at all.

JennaR30

We are a family of 4 and keep our grocery budget to a maximum of $100 a week, it is hard to stay within budget but depending on your region, I live on Prince Edward Island, Canada, we can get a bag of apples for around $4 and a bunch of bananas for around $3 Carrots are around $3 a bag which are great for cutting up and snacking on, which is better then going all day without eating.

Chicken is expensive here, I just bought 4 chicken breasts and they cost $18 so we try to switch up our chicken with eggs, we don't eat red meat that often due to two family members having a hard time digesting it. We like to buy a bag of beans and soak them ourselves to make a chili, soaking them yourself rather then buying a can yields a lot more beans for the $ you pay.

I think your best bet would be to figure out what healthy items are relatively cheap in your area and purchase them instead of buying pills which will not be a permanent fix for getting healthy and could potentially be dangerous to your body.

Sweetiepiestef

Hmmm I know all about eating cheap. 50 bucks a week is actually pretty good that is about what I spend! So Tuna is really cheap and you could probably get some at the dollar store if you have one that has food. Our Dollar Trees in certain places have some but even if not Walmart or any other big chain has it pretty cheap. Lettuce or Spinach isn't too bad either. You can normally get some veggies/fruits pretty cheap as well. There is yogurts to purchase for a dollar. If you want to get a some kind of meat a chicken usually is good for lasting for a bit or you can do what I do which is buy thighs or chicken legs for like 4 bucks at Walmart which usually gives me a pretty good amount and I make it last for a week in the freezer. You can also buy eggs pretty cheap and eat 2 a day that will last you a couple days There is plenty of things us poor people can buy and still try to be healthy you just got to spend the time looking and thinking. Get creative! If I can do it you can do it and I am trying to feed two kids on a 50 dollar a week budget as well so we manage!

WanderingRivers

joolsmd wrote: »

Do you live alone? I rarely spend more than £100 a month on groceries ($150 ish), which includes food for my pets. I plan my meals, making sure they include lots of fruit & veg.
A typical days eating for me:
Breakfast - Bowl of instant unsweetended porridge or scrambled eggs
Lunch - Big bowl of lettuce, cucmber and tomatoes with either tinned salmon, tinned tuna, or chopped ham
Dinner - Chicken stew, or pasta with tomato sauce and some added protein

That usually adds up to 1400 cals, and doesn't cost much at all.

I live with my daughter, husband, and MIL so I have 4 people total that I need to keep in food for super cheap. We do a lot of carbs because they are easy on the budget.

_lyndseybrooke_

There's nothing wrong with it, but it sounds pretty awful to me.

This will only work if you genuinely aren't hungry throughout the day. Like people who skip breakfast because they're not hungry in the morning - to each their own, nothing wrong with it. However, if you stay hungry all day and only eat once, you're setting yourself up for failure. This is when overeating comes into play. I know the longer I go without eating, the more ravenous I get, the more I want to eat in a sitting. I could easily eat over 1400 calories in one meal.

I would never be full on 1400 calories/day, which is why I typically don't go lower than 1850 when I'm losing. However, I've done the low calorie thing in the past and it's certainly possible without being really miserable (for the average person, anyway...not a hungry girl like me). High volume foods is where it's at. Find a few staple meals that 1) you enjoy, 2) fit your budget, and 3) are filling, and eat variations of those things daily.

I'm currently bulking and eating 2650 calories/day, so I can't exactly relate at the moment, but my favorite high volume meal is egg white protein oatmeal, which is great because oatmeal is so versatile depending on what you put in it. I've also been known to bulk up meals with things like cauliflower, zucchini, and pumpkin, depending on the dish.

chelsy0587

Sounds like you just need to experiment with different foods and see what you like... For me, a high protein breakfast is a must... then you might be able to skip lunch and make it to dinner with a small snack.

High protein foods... Greek Yogurt, lower fat cheeses, lunch meat, beans... I like special K protein bars but I know they can be expensive. ( I HATE veggies lol so I don't waste calories on something I don't honestly enjoy)

As weird as it sounds you have to eat to lose weight, keeping yourself from eating all day will only result in you stuffing your belly at night, right before bed... so it will sit on your stomach all night... At least if you eat a higher calorie breakfast you have all day long to work it off.

For the first 6 months of my weight loss I ate 1200 to 1400 calories and because it was mainly high protein foods I was left feeling full, not wanting anything more. Though I did have a protein shake daily that amounted to 400 to 500 calories.

shabaity

Google the warrior diet and intermittent fasting. On the Ramen noodle note if you've got left over chicken or something toss that in with some veggies and it'll last longer.

TarahByte

Eggs, bananas, bags of apples, peanut butter, big bags of frozen vegetables, chicken legs, rice...all cheap. That's most of what I eat.