Please review my diary and tell me am I doing good??

For protein eat lots of meat, eggs, dairy, and to a lesser degree beans and legumes.

For fiber vegetables, bread, beans/legumes, fruits (avocados and bananas are really good).

Don't worry too much about cholesterol unless your doctor has told you to track it.


ETA: just realized your title says to check your diary and I didn't. :laugh: I'd track fiber instead of sugar. Sugar is a subset of carbs, so if your carbs are in line then your sugar is fine, barring medical conditions. Do eat back at least half of your exercise calories. Eat up to your calorie goal. It's called a goal because you're supposed to reach it.

What is your carb:fat:protein ratio? I have mine set to 40:30:30. Correct me if I'm wrong but it looks like you have the default ratio that MFP sets (which is really high in carbs and not enough protein). If 40:30:30 sounds too aggressive, try 50:25:25.

And remember to always eat at least your BMR. Having a deficit of over 1,000 calories isn't going to help you in the long run.

I see no progress at all. Just highly processed foods loaded with sodium and too few calories.

Your total calories and protein are both still low. Try to get within 100 calories of your calorie goal and as close as possible to your protein goal.

It's extremely difficult for me to even touch 2000 since most stuff is high in sodium and other trash. I can only eat so much rice and what not...some suggestions would be more helpful

I do IIFYM so I'm more concerned with macros than anything else. I don't believe in labeling foods as "trash."

That said, eat lots of chicken breast, chicken thighs, shrimp, beef, etc. Do you cook at all? Learning some interesting recipes is really helpful I've found. I also eat a lot of greek yogurt and cottage cheese to get protein.

For calories add more fat-- avocados, peanut butter, oil, real butter, full fat dairy, etc.

I noticed u said ur kinda short for time. Maybe u should try meal prep. It really helps people that are really busy. Choose a day that ur off n cook a couple of different meats, carbs, n veggies. For example : bake boneless skinless chicken breast, maybe seasoned two different ways, some type of fish, or ground turkey burgers. Bake or steam sweet potatoes n red skinned or russet potatoes. Steam asparagus, broccoli n zuchini. This may take u a little time but it's well worth it. U could package your food for ready to go meals or just package everything seperately depending on if u are a picky eater. U can freeze them if u think they will go bad b4 u get to eat them. Then u put them in the fridge the night b4 u need them. This what I do. It can b frustrating having to cook everytime u eat so prep makes it super easy. U need to add more fresh fruit and veggies to your diet. That's were u get your fiber. Try to get a few servings of each in everyday. I hope that u are able to try the meal prep. I suggested things that u can bake because they take little effort. I hope this helps! Good luck!

I don't eat any fast food honestly. Alot of the sodium is from stuff like tortillas, organic potstickers, etc. Can you not see WHAT I eat? Thats rough if you can't because it doesn't accurately portray what I'm eating.

Portabella burgers, greek yogurt, wheat bread are some sources of the sodium honestly.

Serious question-- why so much worry about sodium? Do you have a medical condition? If not, I wouldn't worry so much about that, and worry more about hitting your calorie and macro goals. Sodium can make you retain water which can mask fat loss temporarily, but other than that if you're healthy there's no reason why you *need* to be focused on eating low-sodium.

If you do need to eat low-sodium, cooking at home is best for that as well, because you can control how much salt you use.

Your diary really isn't bad. Good food that is also pretty nutritious. However, tailored to what you want (and probably need) lean meats would be great. Turkey, chicken, fish, or the vegetarian equivalent. Your right to look for high-protein and fiber foods. High protein is less fatty calories and fiber-packed foods sort of line the digestive system instead of being digested right away.

Whole grains are awesome and you seem like you have enough of those. If you want more protein, I'd say raise your lean meat intake and switch it out with something carb-ey, like peanut butter or bread. If you want fiber, they actually have fiber gummies, which I take called Vitafusion sugar free fiber gummies. They're good for reaching your fiber count and obviously have no sugar.

Also, if you're still not hitting the protein level you'd like, you can try a little protein powder - I use Eas 100% whey vanilla protein powder. You can make some great shakes, mix it in oatmeal, or just drink it in milk.

I would say a few things:

1. I don't believe in tracking sodium too rigorously unless you have a medical reason to do so (hypertension, kidney disease etc).

2. I don't believe in tracking sugar either for similar reasons (unless you are diabetic). Unfortunately MFP cannot distinguish between sugars in fruits, starchy foods etc and sugars in cereals, cookies etc and so this muddies the water. Therefore I think it's safer to simply aim to reduce intake of these things with added sugars (we all know what they are).

3. I think that the MFP macro defaults are actually 'okay' but some people achieve better satiety eating more protein - I have altered mine to 45%C 30%F 25%P.

4. I am not a fan of fast food full stop. Most of it is extremely high in carbohydrates and/or saturated fat and offers little satiety for the amount of calories consumed. I can barely keep within my goals eating a diet low in processed stuff - with fast food I'd stand no chance. Kudos to those who can, but I don't think they represent the majority of people.

5. I don't enjoy cooking and I live alone so I do a bulk-cook about once weekly (two different dishes usually - easy ones are chilli and chicken-based dishes). I then freeze or refridgerate portions for re-heating. When I get home for dinner I expect preparation time for food to get to my plate to be 10 min max. If I have prepared food I can just reheat it. You have to like leftovers (which I do) and sometimes eating the same dinner 3-4 nights in a row though.

6. I am a big fan of frozen veggies. No one can convince me that there is anything wrong with them.

:-D I need some tips on fiber + protein. How bad is cholestrol? Thanks

Lmgtfy

I actually had to google that :laugh: Oh the ???irony? ???coincidence. Wouldn't wanna be Alanis Morissette :laugh: