I need more calories, but don't want to sodium and sugar!

Sugar and sodium are part of a healthy diet.

Subway isn't bad - just get a small sub with no mayo (and skip the cheese if you can)

The Carnation breakfast drink...why? Couldn't you fix an egg and toast? I'm sure you can cook an egg in the micro. Or make oatmeal and have it with butter and an apple. Buy a crockpot and learn to use it. Buy a toaster, or better yet, buy a toaster oven.

There is sugar in that shake that you don't really need. And what you do need is calories, so start eating an actual breakfast.

Sodium (and sugar) is only bad in excess. There is sodium and sugar in a lot of healthy food. Right now you need to focus on getting enough food.

Avacado

Salt free nuts.

Can you put a small fridge in your room? Instead of loading up on Subways overloaded crappy sandwhiches you can keep your own sandwhich and salad components. They dont require cooking. Buy your own bread, cereals, etc.... You can even put a hot plate in your room, keep one frying pan, one pot. etc... and cook your own meals. You dont need a lot of space and it gives you more options than microwaved food. Even a toaster oven is better.

Dont pay so much attention to all the grams of sugar just dont make your meal a bag of cookies.... concentrate on the calories, protein, fiber etc.....

Unsalted nut butters are a great way to get calories - Almond butter is my personal favorite, but cashew butter is excellent too. Have with apple, celery, or whatever you like.
Raw unsalted nuts are also great snacks, filling and easy to store.
1/4 cup will provide you with 160 - 190 calories in most instances.
No dishes required

High quality, nutty nutrition bars such as Kind bars are great. They're nutritious and low in sodium. You could also pickup fresh juiced fruits and vegetables from most grocery stores. Protein powder does not need refrigeration so you can make quick protein drinks.

Check the nutritional information at fast food places nearby and select healthier options but most deli meats are going to be high in sodium. Subway's salad options are signficantly lower in sodium than the subs.

I had a similar living situation in college and hates when my meals came out a microwave (taste-wise and health-wise). I always kept some apples, pretzels, and peanut butter in my room for a quick snack that fit on my bookshelf. Peanut butter tends to be sugary, so maybe try almond butter. Spread a little almond butter on apple slices (yes they have sugar, but there are so many healthy fibers in apples that it's okay) and maybe have it with some milk. Delicious and satisfying!

I was 6'-1" and 297lbs when I first started dieting. That was nearly 3 years ago, i basically coppied the Nutrasystem stuff. I looked up what they were putting in their meals and went to the store and tried to match them "close enough". i lost 40 lbs doing it that way in about 6 months. Most, though not all frozen meals are high in sodium and such. I started cooking my own to save money as we saved for vacation, not due to the ingredients.

I tried "Healthy choice" meals for a while (not the steamers). Several of their meals are under 600 mg sodium which is fairly good by comparison to the standard 1100-1300 I see in other meals. My ticker here shows 37 pounds lost since January 2012 (yup took time off in the middle there while we moved and stuff), that is on top of the previously mentioned 40 (and 10 lbs or so I gained back during the break).

Most of those 37 lbs were lost on a diet of 1745-1900 cals a day before exercise. Breakfast is generally a Power Bar Tripple threat (220-250 cals per bar) and a Red Bull or coffee. Lunch was a Healthy choice and an apple, and dinner is a large salad including turkey slices and cheese along with another healthy choice meal, or my daughters chicken nuggets and various snacks. Protein shakes being a big one since I lift weights 3 days a week.

When it is necessary the microwave can help out just fine. It just takes a little longer to find the best stuff to put in it.

Do you live near a Whloe Foods, I find their prepared foods selection has a good selection of nutritional foods and I love their salad bar. Whe in a hurry I frequently run in and get something - such as hummus with carrot and celery sticks, salads, soups, sushi, personalize sandwiches, fruit salad, cooked salmon, cooked chicken cutlets. I think there are some other supermarkets that also have reasonably good prepared food selections - Albertsons, King Soupers, Safeway, Shop Rite, Stop & Shop. Also, the roticere chickens at many stores are reasonable and can last a couple meals - chicken one day, on salad the next, and as tacos.

Like someone mentioned I'd ditch the Carnation breakfast for a homemade smoothie. Do you have a fridge, how about a small (individual size) blender, like a Magic Bullet? That was you know what's going in and you get a good start to the day with lost of fruit and veggies. In addition the personal size blenders are easy to clean, even in a small sink. Or tthe Subway breakfast options seem alright, I've liked the egg white, with swiss, double tomato, and spinach 6" flatbread. I also like plain greek yogurt with slicked fresh fruit and granola for breakfast (with the fruit and granola its quite fulling)

So you have a friend's place you can go to and "borrow" their kitchen for a bit, and prepare some stuff for yourself - make an weekend afternoon of it, and may be include making them dinner as part of the "deal." Then you just preportion and pack it up in a bunch of tuperwares and throw them in the microwave as appropriate.

Hi everyone! I'm a big guy (282lbs), and one of my biggest challenges has been portion control. For the longest while now I have been getting better at controlling my portion sizes and eating healthier choices. But since I started using MyFitnessPal I've come to realize that I'm actually eating too little! According to my typical daily meals, here's the breakdown (an example of my day yesterday):

Daily / Goal
Calories 1169 1870
Exercise -243
Total Fat (g) 57 62
Cholesterol (mg) 50 300
Sodium (mg) 2131 2500
Potassium (mg) 2391 3500
Total Carbs (g) 122 257
D. fiber (g) 31 22
Sugars (g) 27 37
Protein (g) 62 70

My typical day consists of Carnation instant breakfast with almond milk, a Healthy Choice lunch, and a 6" turkey sandwich from Subway (I was getting footlongs until I realized how much sodium and sugar there was!). Unfortunately, my living space has no kitchen and the bathroom is shared by several others and isn't made for cleaning dishes, so cooking and cleaning has been an issue. I do have a microwave, but frozen meals are really not the best choice for more than 1 meal option. I also snack on Cocoa almonds throughout the day to boost the calories and healthy fats while trying to keep the sodium and sugars down. I don't want my body to be in starvation mode

Any help you can provide would be very greatly appreciated! Thank you all!

cottage cheese
yogurt
hard boiled eggs (if you CAN'T boil them yourself buy the already boiled ones)
hummus
avocado
no salt almonds
tuna
microwave potato (or sweet potato)
already cooked chicken (rotisserie ones)
string cheese
peanut butter
make your own granola bars

carnation for breakfast is not the best breakfast.

The simple sugars found in fruits aren't bad for you! Natural simple carbohydrates are the best carbs to include in the diet, especially if trying to lose weight. Fruits and vegetables and the sugars naturally occuring in yogurt -- not any added sugars or artificial sweeteners -- are natural simple sugars.