Please Help!

Are you addicted to carbs? Try high protein low carb. It will help with the cravings. You could try the carbohydrate addict diet. Limiting my carbs only to the evening really helps me.

OP, you don't need to eat organic, or a specific diet, or spend hours cooking gourmet meals to lose weight. Just put your stats into MFP, and eat the calories it gives you. Eating more veggies and lean protein helps many people fill up without eating over their goal, but everyone is different and you need to find what works for you.

Something that may help - eat the way you are most comfortable and log that food for several days to see how many calories you eat. Then look back and do some analysis - how many calories do you need to cut to get to your goal? Are there specific foods or meals that are taking up more calories than they are worth? See where your calories are going so you know where to start.

I find frozen veggies, cooked rotisserie chicken from the deli section, canned tuna, eggs, and bagged salad greens are a great help for filling out meals with manageable calories. Just find what works for you and BE PATIENT. Read the sticky posts at the top of each forum category, they are really helpful. Good luck :drinker:

I can relate in so many ways! You are not alone. I've had to overcome a lot of health issues and it has taken a lot of hard work, & patience to get to where I am today. I will add you as a friend so we can give each other support. I am a daily logger with an open diary. You might find some food ideas if you take a peek. I am gluten free because it has helped me tremendously with my health issues and I eat a lot of the same healthy easy foods everyday. I know you can do this...I believe in you! -Heather

This might be the wrong idea here but why do you feel a need to cook?

Start by eating what you used to eat, just less of it. Did you eat frozen food (requires some cooking doesn't it) and take away. Maybe try eating the same foods but cut back. Like for me I used to polish off a whole pizza, no trouble for dinner, now if I have pizza I eat half a pizza for like 600 cals.

Maybe start cooking simple meals, like minimal ingredients, simple recipes.

By cooking do you mean something like a shepards pie which has like 10 ingredients and like 2 different cooking methods. Or do you also hate simple cooking like boiling an egg or making mash potatoes.

I think you may be working your self into failure by have high or unrealistic expectations and assumptions.

You seem to have tried restrictive diets and found they don't work and then you created your own restrictive diet that consists of organic foods and spending hours in the kitchen cooking.

Use the KISS method

Keep it simple, stupid!

You do nto need to cook organic, build 5 course menus or spend hours in the kitchen cooking to eat "better" or to lose weight. You need to figure out if you are eating too much (as in too large portions) or food too dense in calories, or both. Log your meals for a couple of weeks to figure out what the problem is, if you do nto already know. Then figure out what to do: eat smaller portions, figure out alternatives with lower calories?
If you believe you have limited choices because you hate cooking, then you need to figure out better choices when buying prepackaged food (a premade salad, fruit, yoghurt etc are all low calorie options and do not need cooking or any preparation), be more careful when ordering meals (set a realistic calorie goal and check calories before ordering) and learn to do some basic meal planning and preparation, which does not necesserily mean cooking: preplanning what you will have for meals and snacks (even you do not cook any of them) is all that it takes. And if thsi is getting too hard or not affordable, there are basic recipes that literally take 10 minutes max to prepare and have very few ingredients, like omelettes, scrambled eggs, sandwiches, pasta, grilled meat or fish.

I buy staples that are easy
potatoe in microwave with ICBINbutter or yogurt or ffsour cream
hummus is good to have on hand dip with crackers or pretzels
mix hummus with tuna and relish on lettuce wrap
frozen diet pizza
olives
nuts
I also find a good salad bar in my grocery and fill 5 or six containers 1/2 full of different ingredents (onion, peppers ,sprouts)(olives celery blue cheese) then buy a bag of spinach or lettuce to fill out
yogurt and cottage cheese are good meals
Good Luck!!

Caloric deficit equals weight loss. STOP dieting and make a lifestyle change. It's that simple.

I'm 32, and I also hate cooking, so in the last year I cooked up a meal plan that involves unprocessed food with very little cooking:

Breakfast: two eggs + dollop of milk scrambled in a mug in the microwave for 2:30, eat with salsa (maybe a couple tortilla chips)

Lunch: pack everything needed for salad creation into bag, bring to work on Monday and leave in company fridge. Make salads for three-four days. Take home on Thursday, go out for lunch on Friday. (It doesn't always work that way, but I usually get about five to six salad days for every two weeks) Also I should note that there's a bit of a trend going on with this now, at least at my company.

Dinner: On Sunday, break out slow cooker, cook up a low carb meat-and-vegetable meal (there's too many on the internet to list here, but it's nice b/c you can dump it into the cooker when you wake up, then go do things that you want to do that do not involve cooking - OH and when you're at the butcher's counter buying two-three pounds of meat, ask them to cube it for you. That makes it way easier.) Stick some in Fridge, some in the freezer. Reheat portions for dinner after work. Another option is baking up several chicken thighs with some spices and olive oil - I leave the skin on! If I have enough time to really "cook", I put a fillet of Tilapia in the broiler with some brussel spouts and olive oil for about five minutes.

Don't bother with pasta. It won't fill you up the way protein and vegetables do. Go with plain nuts or string cheese for snacks. Pumpkin seeds and celery sticks with a little salt and pepper are also nice. Don't eat granola bars. Cut out juice as much as possible. Never ever ever ever ever ever drink pop.

If you haven't done so, watch the documentary "Fed Up", which will scare you off junk food just long enough to kick those twenty pounds - It's certainly working for me!

try skinny taste. maybe make cooking a family event.


and I so disagree that pasta won't fill you up. mmm pasta.
soda is fine if it fits in your calorie allotment

really, it's all ok so long as it fits in your calorie allotment.