My diet is the real problem

RJ0524583

I have little or no problem motivating myself to get to the gym at least 3 times a week for 75-90 minute workouts. My REAL problem is my diet. With the tools this website provides tracking what I eat on a daily basis is easy and appeals to the list maker in me.

I don't know for the life of me what the best approach is for me diet wise. I want to lose the most weight I can in a week without being unhealthy, and I don't want to feel starved. I want to make sure i'm kicking my metabolism back into gear, and I want the weight loss to actually last. Yes, I know everyone wants that. I will say this; taste is of little concern to me. I don't have cravings short of a can of soda once a day. I've already found an alternative to that though, fortunately.

I need some real help with specific meal ideas for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I need some help deciding what to buy at the grocery store.

If anyone knows of 2-3 different meals I can make for myself for breakfast, lunch, and dinner I would greatly appreciate that information. The more specific, the better! I can stick to a routine if I can establish one, promise.

If you need anymore information about me please let me know. You all have already been supportive, and i'd be more than happy to add to my friend's list as I am new to the site.

Thank you in advance,

James

stealthq

I'm not the best person to ask for meal plans, but there's some additional info you should provide that will help others help you -

What is your TDEE?
If you don't know your TDEE, how old are you, how tall are you, how much do you weigh, and describe your average activity level.

Any food allergies or foods you really dislike?
Any medical conditions that would affect your ideal diet and/or weight loss?

RJ0524583

I'm 24, 5 foot 10 inches tall, and weigh 227 pounds. I sit in front of the computer or lay on the couch when I'm not working or at the gym. I deliver pizzas, so i'm on my feet for 20-30 minutes at a time and then sitting in my car driving anywhere from 10-30 minutes at a time, on and off for either 12 or 6 hour shifts. I looked up what TDEE was and found mine's either 2789 or 3042. I used another method to determine my body fat percentage which is estimated at 32% (dangerously unhealthy).

I'll eat anything and don't have any allergies.

I don't suffer from any medical conditions that would affect my weight loss. I do smoke cigarettes, about 15-20 a day which makes a difference on my appetite and lung capacity as you would guess.

pchesnut

I have only been doing MFP for a few months so I am still learning here but I will tell you my favorite meals so far;

For breakfast I usually do oatmeal with chopped walnuts and fresh blueberries. It keeps me very full and has plenty of healthy fats and vitamins

For lunch I like the Boca brand veggie burger. I grill it and then instead of a bun I put it on a large lettuce leaf with all the fixings you would do on a regular burger (tomato, onion, pickle, ketchup/mustard etc)

For snacks I love cottage cheese with fresh fruit like peaches or pineapple chopped up in it. Sometimes I do the fruit in greek yogurt instead of cottage cheese

For dinner I will usually pan fry fish (Salmon or Talapia) and do a sweet potato or quinoa and then a vegetable like broccoli or sliced avocado. Those are my favorites

king752

The best advice I can give you is:

Learn how to cook.
Repeat the recipe.
Track the macros.
Be excited to eat it.

I've wasted about a year and a half in the gym until I found out diet is everything.

workout_ninja

My diet was my real problem as well. I figured I could work out and the weight would still come off, well that only worked for so long before my body said "hell no". So I had to limit my calories which is when I joined here. Fortunately, Im a good cook, so it helps.
I have a menu plan at home. We eat the same meals every week. not only does it cut our shopping budget because we dont buy excess food, I know exactly how to calorie count my meals.

So if it helps for dinners i eat

Spaghetti bolognese
chicken fajhitas
chilli con carne
pizza
sausage casserole
chicken and potatoes
sunday is a "whatever i feel like" day

All the recipes are easy to find online but here are a couple of sites that might help you:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/healthy

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/recipe-collections-favorites/healthy-meals/healthy-recipes-00000000037066/index.html

http://www.cookinglight.com/food/quick-healthy-recipes-00412000077176/

just remember, you can eat anything you like as long as its in moderation and you calorie count it!

Francl27

You can look at my diary. We're lazy cooks here. Grill something or put it in the pan, nuke frozen veggies/couscous = meal.

T0FatToB3S1ck

Lets sum it all up: Eat WHATEVER you want but stay within your calorie range for the day.

My week looks like this:

Breakfast: Cereal of different varieties, maybe an egg sandwich, bagel. Something like that. Very basic.
Lunch: Sandwich or maybe something from a can example beef stew (luckily I have low blood pressure so can get away with higher sodium foods).
Dinner: Whatever the kids want. That also depends on the calories I have left over for the day as well. I'm not against the occasional pizza or take out.

Yes people. You guessed it. I don't eat clean. Now before you go preaching, take a look at my weight loss information...Enough said

rlp1975

My diary is open... Feel free to add me. I eat fairly clean. I find when I eat **** I feel like ****! Lol
Breakfast 1 cup egg whites with coconut oil
2 slices of Ezekiel sprouted grain bread with almond butter

Lunch is chicken pita, or tuna sandwich, cliff protein bar, or oatmeal with frozen raspberries

Dinner is either chicken breast, whole grain flax spaghetti with olive oil and garlic, quonoa is a staple, nicer alternative to potato

Snacks bananas, grapes, strawberries, plain Greek yogurt ( high in protein! Low in sugar)

Basically I don't eat anything with added preservatives, makes shopping so much easier. There are a lot of chemicals in food that somany are unaware of. Good luck to you! ;-)

forevergone4me

In the morning I do a smoothie as it's quick. Lunch I make brown rice (eat only 1/2 cup but men can probably have a tiny bit more, fill half my plate with veggies (can be stir fried with tiny bit olive oil, ginger, garlic or whatever, or roasted or a salad or grilled) and eat my palm size serving of meat. Drink water (sparkling feels like a treat with lemon or lime) , i do not have juice or anything like pop with sugar. I watched my mom yesterday turn down the brown rice I served (telling me proudly she cut out carbs) then down a soda with it. Go figure. Supper is no carbs for me or a very small serving and I make things like chilli where it's 3/4 veggies and a 1/4 organic ground chicken. I put in tons of organic veggies like mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers, even things like eggplant and zucchini but as long as the ratio is 3/4 veggie to 1/4 meat I'm happy. Other dishes are fish and grilled asparagus, (I try to buy wild). Or souvlaki, a little Greek yogurt (the only dairy I eat now and again) and onions and peppers. And so on. I indulge in a tiny piece of 85% dark chocolate for desert. I read eating it with your protein right after is better than on it's own so it doesn't spike your blood sugar. That's it. I lost 30 lbs in 5 months eating like this and my body fat has gone down by 10%. I have 20 pounds to go if I want to be perfect but I look good enough I think. People are telling me i'm crazy to want to lose more but the way i see it i'm going to keep eating healthy and whatever weight i end up with is fine. Last year I was exercising like crazy and it did not work to lose the weight. This did. I also got rid of foods I was allergic to as well. Hope that helps...

kraftylady891

For breakfast try

Multigrain English muffin, egg and berries
Multigrain waffles with fruit
shredded wheat and banana
lowfat yogurt and fruit


lunches
sandwiches on whole grain bread/rounds
salads
you can eat just about anything just add the calories

dinners
fish
chicken
turkey
beef
pork
you can eat just about anything just watch the calories and portions.


I try to eat a small salad before dinner....

adorable_aly

I also have a weekly routine:

Breakfast: protein smoothie with as much fruit as possible

Lunch: sandwich/ wrap pitta with some kind of meat or fish

Dinner: Monday: spaghetti Bol
Tuesday: steak
Wednesday: fish
Thursday: Asian (stirfry/ curry)
Friday: fajitas
Saturday: stuffed chicken
Sunday: takeaway/ something im craving. (But not going over cals)

Snacks: Greek yogurt, fruit, dark chocolate, oatmeal, icecream.

Write this down somewhere, and in a couple of weeks you'll be doing great. Even though I'm a single person I still find that I can do my recipes, as I freeze the other portions etc. makes it very easy.

Lynn_babcock

Hey, I like food!

Breakfast - Egg, ham, cheese on an English Muffin. I go for the higher fiber muffins. Thomas 100 calorie muffins are really good, Oroweat double fiber are pretty good.. but Thomas taste more like your average English Muffin. So you need a package of English Muffins, I get just sliced sandwich ham (I use whatever about 30 calories equates too), cheese (I use low-fat mozzarella, shredded), and eggs. I usually use 1 whole egg + 2 egg whites for bulk. Toast the English Muffin.. they taste a lot better that way.

Breakfast #2 - Omelet. 2 whole eggs (or 1 whole egg + 2 egg whites), precooked veggies, salsa, cheese, sprouts (?), sour cream. When I make an omelet I use whatever leftover veggies from the day & night before. Usually it's zucchini, kale, swiss chard, broccoli. I use about 1/4 cup of low-fat mozzarella cheese, 1/4 cup salsa, 1 tablespoon sour cream.. and at least a cup of veggies. If I've grown sprouts those are amazing too. You can throw some meat on there too.. leftovers from a meal before or lunch meat.. but I generally don't want to spring for those extra calories. Scramble your eggs first, mix with a fork. Dump onto a hot oiled pan (I use 0-calories spray and olive oil), cook and flip then fill with your veggies and cheese. Fold the egg over it and let the cheese melt, then remove from pan and add salsa, sour cream, and sprouts. Fast, easy, low-calories.

Lunch - I find less inspiring. Lately I've been making another breakfast for... just because I love breakfast. For awhile I was making chicken breast sandwich. Skillet cook the chicken breast with salt, pepper, and OLD BAY (amazing!!). Slice thin and lay over bread. I was making toast with 45 calorie bread. A tablespoon of mashed avocado (sometimes I would mix a teaspoon of mayo in there for flavor), big slice of tomato, a few leaves of leaf lettuce.. that was pretty good about around 200 or less calories.

Dinner - 1/4 cup instant rice, shrimp, broccoli. Really good dinner for under 300 calories if you're low on calories that day. I was doing this one on a non-stick skillet. Cook your broccoli first.. I use the butter 0calorie pan spray.. spray the pan down good, maybe the broccoli too... add a little water for steaming. Once it's fairly cooked remove from the pan and put aside. Cook the shrimp with Old Bay, salt, garlic powder and some water.. I was making enough to leave myself 1/4 cup of juice once the shrimp was done cooking. Remove the shrimp and put the rice into the leftover shrimp juices.. cook the rice just in the seasonings left behind on the pan. I'm shocked that restaurants can't seem to get as good of a meal on their 500-calorie dieter meals.

Dinner #2 - Grilled steak and 2 vegetable sides. Zucchini, broccoli. Maybe a small baked potato if you have the calories, or 1/4 cup instant rice. It's those starches you really need to watch.. all the stuff you put on them for flavor. If I'm having a baked potato it's gotta have ranch dressing on it. I have a homemade ranch dressing recipe.. really good.. better than any pre-bottled ranch (maybe not as good as Hidden Valley's ranch mix where you add it to mayo and milk in the shaker.. but about half the calories as that).

Recipe for homemade ranch:
1 clove garlic
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
(use the salt to help mash the garlic into a paste)
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup milk or buttermilk
1/4 cup loose packed fresh Itallian flat-leaved PARSLEY
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice (or bottled "Real Lime")
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon dried dill
1 teaspoon dried dehydrated onion flakes
2 drops Worcestershire sauce
pinch of cayenne pepper (omit if you don't like spicy ranch)

I use a food processor or blender, put all the ingredients in there and blend well. About 27 calories a tablespoon.

mcibty

Not to be intentionally unhelpful, but you'll struggle to find people on here who will help you lose weight in a week. The healthiest amount to lose in 7 days is up to 2lbs.

SherryTeach

All of the above is excellent advice. I will add two things: there is no such thing as "kicking up your metabolism". And trying to lose as much as possible in a week is a sure way to gain it back and more. Find a few recipes you like, portion out the amounts, log everything, and adore everything you eat. Remember that veggie and fruit are nutrient dense, volume dense, but not calorie dense.

glowgirl14

Don't know if I should post here or not. I've been at a plateau for quite some time now. (But unlike you, a big part of my problem is exercise...) I am just getting on board with the TDEE idea. Just about everyone here seems to be really big on it. Which means it probably really works...I'll be back to chime in on that when I break my plateau. ; )

Some kind soul posted this (sort of long but incredibly helpful) post here...It talks about TDEE and BMR, and has a link to a site with all the calculators you need to figure out where you are.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/912920-in-place-of-a-road-map-3-2013

So, that was my shame over a two-year, trying on and off to lose more plateau. Now, onto how I lost over 65lbs, and kept it off for two years.

I like lists as well. My basic plan broke my daily calorie goal into servings of all the food groups. So I had a little list every day where I could mark off what I was eating as I ate it. I also planned my day around dinner, since my biggest problem with a "diet" was feeling deprived if my family was having a big hot meal (that I cooked!) while I munched on raw carrots. So, every morning, I would plan what to eat for dinner. If the dinner was more carb heavy, I would eat less carbs during the day. if it was more protein heavy, I'd eat less protein. The point is, a "menu" is not the real key, the key is making sure your diet is more or less balanced. If you were eating 2000 calories a day of salad and lean meat, you'd lose more than eating 2000 calories of big macs.

Also, I want to add my caution...you want to lose "as fast as possible". And we all do. And there are plenty of diets that will help you lose quickly...but if you want a LASTING change, you have to be patient. Slower is a sign that you might be able to maintain your weight loss.

So, find your TDEE and BMR, and then start planning your foods before you start eating. You don't have to do this forever...I found that after a couple of months, I didn't need my list. I could just mentally calculate what I was eating, and what I could have - but I still have to LOG if I want to lose.

sayhitostephz

You can look at my diary. We're lazy cooks here. Grill something or put it in the pan, nuke frozen veggies/couscous = meal.

^^ This

My diary is open...