FOOOD DAMMIT FOOD

RedsFan12

What kind of food do you people eat. I feel like I am not eating enough TIMES in the day I am just eating a couple times in BULK and reaching my calorie balance easily because I stuff myself at dinner.

toddzincity

You have to get into a pattern. Small healthy snack through the day work well for me- a piece of fruit, a protein bar, pre-made bag of carrotts or almonds. Buy stuff in bulk and get sandwich bags and make a weeks worth at one time. And, don't eat all of your calories at dinner. Front load your day with a big breakfast.

espi180

Dinner time is my weakness. Always has been. Since I know this, I eat small portions for breakfast and lunch, and a couple of snacks in between, then I know I'll want a 'late night' snack so I leave room for that too.

I make it easy on myself. Pretty much the same thing for breakfast everyday, which is either oatmeal or an egg and piece of toast. For lunch I either have a salad or maybe a 'light' sub from subway (turkey, tuna, or veggie and it's a 6-incher). Keeping these meals routine makes it easy to figure out what I'm gonna eat and how many calories it has.

Snacks for me are usually almonds or a piece of fruit, maybe some pretzels.

Then I like to have a big dinner (with the rest of my calories mind you). I pretty much eat what I want, but I've learned to pick healthier options like more veggies and lean meats, as you can have more and be satisfied.

I usually snack on a serving of popcorn or pringles for my midnight snack. Usually 150 calories or so, but I leave room for those.

Drink water. Might as well save those calories. I don't like soda or diet drinks so it works for me anyway. I've learned to like unsweet tea with lemon, and I like black coffee with a little cream (no sugar).

davidlbass

Don't buy a lot of stuff, especially the bad stuff. Small packages, cook only what you are supposed to eat. No sweets at all in the house.For the special treats we usually went out somewhere, ice cream parlor, dessert bars, something like that. Vegetables are the hard part for me. Mostly raw, that's about the only way I can at them. Lots of exercise also helps so you can eat more. I took up long distance running and biking so I could pig out occasionally. Its not unusual for me to burn a 1000 to 2000 calories in a day. if it wasn't for the exercise calories I would have had a tough time making it.

Don't deprive yourself completely of foods you love, just work them into the diet. That helped to keep me from binging. I lost my weight and still managed to eat bread, ice cream, cookies, real sweet tea, etc. Our date nights would be to go out and splurge a little on some of this stuff. Just be sure to count it honestly.

sgaranzuay

Yo RedsFan!

I share the same philosophy as several of the gents on this thread. The key is setting yourself up to be successful. That means PLANNING, bro. Sit down and plan out a shopping list. Plan your meals to be frequent and smaller than what you are accustomed to. As espi180 said, focus on lean proteins (chicken breast, turkey), eat some fruit, and honestly track your calories. It's not magic, and it's NOT easy. But, after a few days of tracking your calories, you'll find yourself WANTING to make better decision about the type and quantity of food you eat.

Further, you need to be careful about your calorie goal. Be sure you honestly answered the initial profile questions. That's how the website calculates your "resting metabolic rate" which measures the calories you burn in one day without any exercise. Cool? You definitely don't want to eat MORE calories than your target, but you also want to be at or above your resting metabolic rate. If you go below, you're slowing your metabolism and ultimately diminishing your capacity for burning calories. Weird, right?

Finally, eat foods that provide some lasting BULK in your stomach. Chip are a terrible weakness for me, and they leave me hungry 30 minutes later! A small chicken breast, however, stays with me longer and keeps me feeling full much longer.

I wish you all the best, my man. Go now, sit down, and make up a menu for yourself. Then, go to the store and ONLY buy those things. Stay strong, bro. You can do it!!!

- Severin

escloflowneCHANGED

I pre plan everything, I make a lot of stuff on sundays and use it all week, it saves me time on weeknights. I also pre-log all my food the night before.