Your daily menu when you were fat (or b4 changing)

For most of my adult life, until the past 4 years, I thought I was eating pretty "healthy" - in some ways I was, other ways not at all - and I continued to weigh between 250-280 lb for many years (even more at one point) and didn't know why I wasn't losing when I ate "better" than a lot of my smaller friends and even measured many of my portions and chose "lighter" options and so on. There was obviously a reason!

TYPICAL WEEKDAY - approx. 2400 calories

Breakfast - 416 cal (and 53 grams of sugar, but I thought it was "better" than eating a Pop Tart or something)
1 cup frosted shredded wheat
1/2 cup 2% milk
8 oz orange juice
cup of coffee with fat free hazelnut nondairy creamer & organic agave sweetener

Lunch - 346 cal
1 whole cucumber
10 baby carrots
16 Stacy's Pita Chips
2 TBSP Aldi garlic hummus
1 can Diet Coke

After-Work Snack - 420 cal
grande White Chocolate Mocha from Starbucks, with nonfat milk and whipped cream

Dinner - 853 cal
1 cup whole wheat penne pasta
1/2 cup Ragu Light Alfredo pasta sauce
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup steamed broccoli
1 whole boneless chicken breast sautéed in butter
1 tbsp. sliced black olives
1 piece garlic toast (frozen type)
1 Diet Coke

Dessert - 355 cal
homemade chocolate chip scone
cup of Earl Grey tea with a bit of 2% milk

Also, I drank no water at all. Just Diet Coke, coffee, orange juice, and milk.

Mine wasn't too bad, ok is wasn't ideal but it could've been a lot worse!

Breakfast: Nothing
Lunch: Sandwiches (normally best of both bread as other half hates granary with either ham and cheese, sandwich spread, chicken mayo, chicken salad), crisps or chocolate bar or pasta from night before
Dinner: Either pasta, or some meat (chicken, sausages, bacon etc) and chips or mash with veg, or a massive portion of chilli or a takeaway (pizza, Indian or Chinese)
Drink: Tea with 2 sugars was what I would drink the most, sometimes chocolate milk

At around 245 pounds:

Breakfast and lunch:

A 2 liter of soda, sipped straight from the container throughout the day. Chilled, but hold the ice, watered -down soda is for sissies.

Dinner:

2 double cheeseburgers from 5 Guys, half the largest order of fries, and possibly another soda if I was running a bit low. Or an entire breadbowl pasta from Dominoes with half an order of cheeseticks and maybe a medium pizza. Or if I was cooking, I'd fry up a couple of half pound cheeseburgers and throw them on two onion rolls. Wanted veggies instead? Salsarita's had me covered. Large steak or veggie burrito, large chips, a side of white cheese, some white cheese on the burrito, and a large soda.

Dessert:

Ice cream, chips, cookies, cake, pretty much whatever. Milk, often with chocolate.

Some weeks I ran out of money for eating out, but it made no difference, soda is cheap and I could always drink that and have some eggs and whatever ice cream was left in the fridge. Little Debbie is also cheap as dirt. My weekly food bill is more now than it was then.



When I was a 175 pound vegetarian:

Breakfast:

Soda and two egg and cheese biscuits from a drive through.

Lunch:

A giant 'sharing size' candy bar. And I definitely wasn't sharing. And another soda or maybe a Nesquick chocolate milk. Cause you know, calcium.

Dinner:

Four Boca cheeseburgers fried up in oil with slabs of cheddar cheese on two giant onion rolls and probably some chips and another candy bar to go with it. Or half a container of tofu in stead of the Boca burgers, fried up in oil, of course. Soda or chocolate milk to drink.

Late night snack: Ice cream or cake.



This is why I giggle a little when people say it's hard to get all the nutrients a person needs on 1200 calories or less. I was eating thousands of calories more than I needed every day and still not getting my nutrients.

At around 245 pounds:

Breakfast and lunch:

A 2 liter of soda, sipped straight from the container throughout the day. Chilled, but hold the ice, watered -down soda is for sissies.

Dinner:

2 double cheeseburgers from 5 Guys, half the largest order of fries, and possibly another soda if I was running a bit low. Or an entire breadbowl pasta from Dominoes with half an order of cheeseticks and maybe a medium pizza. Or if I was cooking, I'd fry up a couple of half pound cheeseburgers and throw them on two onion rolls. Wanted veggies instead? Salsarita's had me covered. Large steak or veggie burrito, large chips, a side of white cheese, some white cheese on the burrito, and a large soda.

Dessert:

Ice cream, chips, cookies, cake, pretty much whatever. Milk, often with chocolate.

Some weeks I ran out of money for eating out, but it made no difference, soda is cheap and I could always drink that and have some eggs and whatever ice cream was left in the fridge. Little Debbie is also cheap as dirt. My weekly food bill is more now than it was then.

I'm not saying you ate any "worse" than I did, but your example is basically what I think my friends/family assumed I ate when I was 250+ lb, but I didn't. It is funny sometimes how that works. For example if I had pizza it was always 3-4 pieces of a medium or large pizza. If I went to a burrito place I never got queso or chips. I've never ordered 2 burgers at the same time in my life. But I really think people assumed that.

I also think this is why people assume that you pay more for healthy food. In my case, I actually pay a lot less for food than I used to because I'm not dining out as often or grabbing coffee drinks, I eat less overall, but many of the foods I eat are the same.

Anyway I hope you don't take this as a criticism of your previous dietary habits. I have just been stunned or confused by a lot of comments that people have made to me as I've changed my eating habits somewhat and started counting calories...and I really think a lot of people assume things when you are very overweight that may not be accurate.

Also, my husband has been pescetarian for 12+ years but lost a significant amount of weight only 6-7 years ago. People ALWAYS assume he lost the weight because he went veg/pesc. but nothing could be further from the truth. For a long time when he was larger, his pescetarian diet hinged heavily on bagels, pasta, and sweets. I think it is a common myth that vegetarians and anyone who cuts out meat is going to be super thin and eat a very healthy diet.

I'm not offended at all. Part of the mystery may well be that I gained that weight very fast, in well under two years, from a starting weight of under 130. This wasn't me nibbling my way to obesity, this was me diving in whole hog!

Edit: Oh yeah, and I posted my vegetarian get-fat-fast menu in case anyone who is under the delusion that going vegetarian is an automatic key to weight loss happens to read this thread. To be fair, I gained weight a little slower as a vegetarian than as a SAD eater, but not much slower.

Breakfast - huge bowl of cereal

Lunch - cheese baguette, chocolate bar, fruit, coke

Dinner - pasta, salad, garlic bread

Snacks - biscuits, cider

Whoops!

Pretty much eating the same things.

Just much less of them.

I am sprinkling in a few more salads for lunch/snack during the day but other than that I am still eating the same foods.

Breakfast: 4 chocolate sprinkle donuts or 2 sausage & cheese McGriddles from McDonalds
Lunch: Mushroom Swiss Burger meal from McDonalds or Steak Finger Basket meal from Dairy Queen
Dinner: Hamburger Helper or BarBQue w/ sides

Snacks during the week while at work usually consisted of Blue Bell pint ice cream, or a small bag of chips or a candy bar.

I didn't count calories then so I have know idea how many I consumed. I presume it was alot since I was 70 pounds heavier than I am now!!

Breakfast: Several servings of sugar-infused cereal with sugar on top, skim milk. Cup coffee w/ cream and a huge amount of sugar

Lunch: Take out from wherever -- including Burger King, Pita Pita, pizza to go, etc.

Dinner: Some form of pasta -- usually white rice (and loads of it!) with an enormous amount of meat and a small portion of veg.

Dessert: Ice cream... and not the healthier kind.

As a 257 lb vegetarian - this was just 2 months ago, lordy!

Breakfast:
2 eggs, 2 big slices sourdough, giant globs of mayo or butter, tons of cheese, glass of milk

Lunch:
Fried bean & cheese burrito(s)...tons cheese, mayo and salsa.

Dinner:
Over half a box of pasta, endless bread and cheeeeeese. With lots of oil on top of everything.
-OR-
Veggie stir fry with at least 2 cups rice, a cup of veggies, and loads of oil and sauces. And globs of mayo of course!

Dessert:
Big bowl ice cream with PB, milk, sometimes fudge or nutella

Snacks:
My bf's endless vault of chips, glasses of milk, granola bars (the sugary ones), cheese & mayo sandwiches (yes, I'd eat a cheese sandwich as a snack between meals if I was home alone!)

THIS is how I gained 20 lbs in 3 months this year, ya'll. I was slightly more conservative before, maintaining at around 230lbs for quite some time.