Food to lose weight and be healthy

mousepaws22

Hi, if anyone with good ideas about food or knowledge of nutrition could help I would really appreciate it.

I have been eating more healthily since May last year but have only lost 25 pounds in that time- I've stayed the same since November. I was eating Special K for breakfast, soup or salad for lunch, then something like quorn with veg or wholemeal pasta or jacket potato for dinner, snacking on carrots and hummus and fruit.

I started seeing a trainer just after Christmas and she wanted me to cut my carbs down and eat more protein- I find getting more protein into my diet really hard as I don't really like meat. I have been eating branflakes for breakfast, soup or salad for lunch then quorn with veg or salad or homemaed casseroles/stews for dinner. I have been snacking on fruit and low fat natural yogurt. Still having a wholemal pitta and brown rice now and again, and also the odd sweet potato.

As I still haven't lost any weight my trainer wants me to cut out the brown rice/wholemeal pittas and cut out sugar completely and still try and increase my protein. I have just this week started having protein shakes when I'm hungry, I think I'm going to swap my branflakes for a protein shake for breakfast. So basically all I can eat is veg, salad, quorn and lean meat. I am allowed eggs and cottage cheese but I don't like them. I'm going to really struggle with being this restricted and I think it will make me more likely to binge.

I usually eat 1400-1500 calories a day.

Now, I've been so de-motivated that I've had a really bad two weeks with food and have hardly done any exercise so I haven't expected to lose any weight then, and this may be linked to my next part- I have no energy and I am tired all of the time. I have never slept well and always struggled with lethargy. I am aneamic but do take iron and vitamin B tablets. My trainer said changing my diet would make me feel better but if anything it's made me feel worse.

Can anyone suggest foods that I can eat to help me with my weightloss and to give me more energy? I really feel like giving up!

v2embee

Your diet from what I gather is relatively clean, so perhaps it's your exercise regime that needs changing? Try doing some other exercises that will CHALLENGE your body; eg. do lunges with weights, etc. Your body is hitting a plateau likely because it is use to the exercises you are doing.

If you're still keen on looking at what you can do about your diet, this is a general guideline for what your meals should consist of:
Meal 1 (breakfast) - Protein, Carb, Veg
Meal 2 - Protein, Veg
Meal 3 (Pre-workout) - Protein, Carb,Veg
Meal 4 (Post - workout) - Protein, Carb, Veg
Meal 5 (pre-sleep?) - Protein, Veg

To help increase protein intake, try eating fish (eg. salmon), black beans or raw nuts (be careful with these; calorie dense)!
To help increase your iron, try incorporating spinach into your meals.
To help increase energy, basically those mentioned above, and other healthy fats found in foods such as avocado.

Also, remember, muscle weighs more than fat, in volume comparison. Focus perhaps more on your measurements? I hope this helps. Good luck!

mousepaws22

I should have said what exercise I do, sorry.
Monday- Body Combat
Tuesday- none when I have college in the evenings but Zumba in the holidays. Every other Tuesday morning I do 30 minutes Bootcamp
Wednesday- none when I have college in the evenings but Zumba in the holidays
Thursday- 20 mins treadmill intervals, rowing intervals, weighted squats, lunges and step ups, plank and some upper body weights- machines and dumbbells
Friday- treadmill, elliptical and rower intervals
Saturday- 20 mins treadmill intervals, rowing intervals, weighted squats, lunges and step ups, plank and some upper body weights- machines and dumbbells
Sunday- Zumba and treadmill, elliptical and rower intervals

mousepaws22

Does anyone else have any ideas?

Chrisgarcia1287

I did this for awhile, worked out for me to lose weight/slim down and get lean. I was eating about 3000 calories daily, working out at least twice a day.

Intake no more than 15% Fat. While intaking 30% protein and 55% Carbs.
I have carbs high cus your need the energy. Just be careful what cards you intake. Myself am also Anemic, so i take Iron pills with B12 to help me with energy.

I ate a lot of Fish and lean meats. Along with tons of vegetables, romaine/spring mix type salads and Brown rice/baked potatoe with my meals.

Egg whites in the morning with fruit. Using protein bars or shakes as my snacks between meals, or after workouts.

Using this website, i would make sure i wouldn't eat more than 15% fat. Don't get my wrong, fat is important. So i would go over sometimes, especially when eating natural peanut butter and almonds.

You could basically eat what you wanted, just make sure its not a lot of processed stuff. I'd have cheat days. But tried to stay within that 15% fat intake a day range.