Need help with labels

canadagirl79 · January 2010

When i go to the grocery store to get what we need for the next 2 weeks, I am only looking at the calories and i'm not sure what other stuff i need to look at like sugars, etc..i know that the oils are bad but i don't know what else...when i joined this morning and did my calculation to set up my calories i need a little over 1300 a day...when i went through and added my meals i was pretty much in target...today's meals and snacks tho put me over by -48 so i will have to remove something i guess...is it okay to be slighthly over what has been calculated for you? and what else do i need to look for on the labels? i love my whole wheat bread and find myself eating a lot of sandwiches, so maybe i need to stop that? i make tuna wraps a lot.

i also struggle with good recipes for supper time..i'm always left wondering what to make

thanks in advance

lwest008 · January 2010

Way to go reading the lables! Things to avoid are foods with words like hydrogenated or high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in the ingredient list. These food contain either transfats (hydrogenated) or processed sugar (HFCS) that spikes your blood sugar and then results you crashing and reaching for more food to bring you back up.

Biggest trick when looking at lables : Choose food with as few ingredients as possible and only words you can pronounce. It will be as closest to its natural form as possible, ie: no preservatives, artificial colour, transfats or sugar.

Ideally you want to shop the perimeter of the grocery store for fresh veggies, lean meats/fish, whole grains, and dairy. Only go inside the aisles for spices, heathy fats like olive oil, and things like oatmeal, brown rice and dried fruit. Most of the other stuff in the aisles are garbage, contain no nutrients, and won't help you on your weightloss journey.

If you need to go over your calory goal in a day, the best thing you can do yourself is exercise to earn those extra calories. If its only 50 calories, you can go for a brisk walk and earn the calories in no time.

As for recipes, check out this site, members post great recipes all the time. I personally use Tosca Reno's "Eat Clean Cookbook" and her "Eat Clean Diet" book as my go to resource for healthy, clean recipe ideas. I also love the "Eat, Shrink & be Merry" cookbook for healthy recipes as well. Maybe its worth investing in a healthy cookbook to give you some ideas, or check online. My favorite easy ones are chicken/beef/pork stirfry with lots of veggies, salmon, chicken burgers, fajitas (minus the sourcream) and veggie chili.

Good luck!

campbellj · January 2010

Here is a good rule of thumb for labels: The less ingredients listed on the package, the better it is for you. And probably less calories.

If you eat whole wheat bread, make sure the first ingredient is whole wheat and make sure it does not have high fructose corn syrup. Try to eat fresh food as much as possible. And stay away from anything that says hydrogenated.

If you are close to your target for the day, you should still be able to lose weight. If you decrease your calorie intake by 3500 calories per week, you will lose 1 pound. So you might want to add and subtract what the amount you have gone over (and under) and see how well you are doing.

There are many sites out there that have recipes that are good for you. This is one of them.

If you want to figure out things to eat, you can make a large amount of something and change it.

For example: One night you can make a large amount of taco meat and have tacos. The next night you can use the leftover meat and add tomato sauce and beans and make chili. If you have chili leftover for the next night, you can pour it over salad and add cheese and sour cream and you have a taco salad.

I hope this has helped you. Good luck!

canadagirl79 · January 2010

thanks for the replies...it's a start. my confusion lies with people telling me to eat lots of fruit, and then people say don't eat a lot of fruit cause it's filled with sugar.

I am ignorant (or confused) on what foods contain the good fats, fiber, etc..... my friend was giving me some info last night that she learnt from her dietain and was told that orville redenbackher (sp) 100 cal popcorn is good snack as it has lots of fiber, no fat, and you can eat it as much as you like. she also said she buys some of the dairy milk thins 100 cals as it's good when u want something junky and don't need to worry about blowing the diet.

my snacks would normally be a low fat pudding cup, sunchips, mini carrots, apple, orange/tangerine/salad, nature valley bar (2), low fat jello cup....those were things that appeared to be okay and not a lot of cals, i just haven't checked the sugars, etc

thanks

musclebuilder · January 2010

thanks for the replies...it's a start. my confusion lies with people telling me to eat lots of fruit, and then people say don't eat a lot of fruit cause it's filled with sugar.

I am ignorant (or confused) on what foods contain the good fats, fiber, etc..... my friend was giving me some info last night that she learnt from her dietain and was told that orville redenbackher (sp) 100 cal popcorn is good snack as it has lots of fiber, no fat, and you can eat it as much as you like. she also said she buys some of the dairy milk thins 100 cals as it's good when u want something junky and don't need to worry about blowing the diet.

my snacks would normally be a low fat pudding cup, sunchips, mini carrots, apple, orange/tangerine/salad, nature valley bar (2), low fat jello cup....those were things that appeared to be okay and not a lot of cals, i just haven't checked the sugars, etc

thanks

popcorn is a great snack. But you cannot eat as much as you want because you'll end up consuming a ton of calories. But it makes a great snack..The great thing about popcorn is it takes a while to sit and eat it. You can "snack" on it and relax with it for a bit which can really give you a sense of a satisfying snack.

Your snacks are fine. Just make them fit into your daily calorie goal and you'll be good to go.

canadagirl79 · January 2010

thanks for all the info everyone.

i was wondering when it came to looking at the sugars on the labels, is there a certain amount that i should not be getting. for example, I was looking at the fat free pudding cups I get and the sugar content is 15g and the jello cup is 22g. Those seem really high but were recommend. The nature valley bars I have r 11gs of sugar and 2g fibre and it says 8%. Is the lower number of sugars better?

Need help with labels

Replies

Categories