My Meal Plan: Any good?

The only thing that comes to mind right away is that is sounds dreadfully boring. What are you going to do whenever you go out to eat? As long as you're in calorie deficit, you will lose weight. There are no fat-burning foods, and there are no foods specifically geared towards weight loss.

As far as temptation goes, why fight it? Restricting yourself to a meal plan isn't going to help that. Work in treats or whatever else you desire into your calorie goal.

As far as temptation goes, why fight it? Restricting yourself to a meal plan isn't going to help that. Work in treats or whatever else you desire into your calorie goal.

+1

I am at Vanderbilt, and I recognize how crazy eating patterns can become, especially as Finals approach.

Take hollydubs85's suggestion, and embrace your temptations by working them into your meal routine. I have no issues with how you break up your eating; class schedules can play havoc with that.

Do you have a gym, or a work out room? Here at Vandy, there are several places students can work out, places that are largely invisible to staff and faculty. Do you have a running group you might join? I work at the Freshman Commons, and early on groups of women run together. That might also give you portion control support when you need it most!

Keep logging and let folk here know how you are doing.

Following a meal plan like that is definitely better than eating junk food. However, is this something you can sustain long-term?

You don't necessarily want to put yourself on a temporary diet to lose weight. There are a couple reasons for this.

1) Temporary alterations in the way you eat have no long-term impacts on your habits. So when you come off the diet, since you haven't learned to adopt new habits, you may fall into the same eating patterns that got you into trouble in the first place.

2) When you include food items you like in moderation you are creating a lifestyle that allows you to enjoy food and stay fit. This is the optimal way to lose weight.

You don't want to jump on a crazy strict diet and expect things to turn out well. Even if you do lose weight, as I pointed out already, you really aren't changing the wiring in your brain.

If you wanted to become a good marathon runner, going out the first day to run 10 miles will most likely make you hate running. In turn, you wont stick to a routine.

On the other hand, if you started with 1/2 a mile every day and built up to 10 miles over the next year, you would be motivating yourself in increments as success is easier to achieve at smaller distances.

Approach this in two ways.

1) You want to lose weight.
2) You want to ultimately rewire your brain.

Creating new habits requires repetitive actions, short-term success to sustain motivation, and reasonable expectations of short-term progress.

Eat the healthy food. However, as Holly pointed out, don't totally deprive yourself of food you like. Your diet should be flexible but stay within the boundaries of your required deficit.

You're 19 years old, 5'2" and want to weigh under 100#'s? Ummm.. are they remaking Schindler's List and you want a part?? Forget loosing weight, build some muscle.. tone and look good.