Food ideas for fast food junky who needs help getting started

You're going to have to do some research and plan ahead for your day. It takes a while, but once you figure out what you can eat where, it becomes much easier!

1. Start by logging everything for a week and see where you are. That will give you a baseline for seeing where you're at and what you can start to adjust. Start slow, one or two things at a time, and give yourself time to get used to it. For me, I started with just switching the soda I had at lunch for unsweet tea with sweetener. That cut out about 200 calories without making any other changes!

2. Learn to cook. It's not hard, just takes some time. Check out a book called "Help! My Apartment Has a Kitchen" for a good easy start in cooking. You'll find that cooking a meal from (mostly) scratch can net you more food for your calorie allotment then you think.

3. Research restaurants you like to eat at and see what the calorie counts are on things. Most restaurants have that information either online or by request. Once you know what your calorie count is for the day, divide that up between however many meals you want to eat for the day. That lets you know what your limit is for each meal, and with calorie information from the restaurant, you can make decisions on what you can have when. Watching calories and losing weight when you mostly eat out is possible, just takes time and research to plan ahead.

There's nothing wrong with eating out a lot as long as you make good choices. @dubird has some of the same suggestions I usually make.

Start slow. Simply log everything you're eating right now. Don't even worry about meeting your goal. Get a good idea what you've been eating and you'll have a better idea of the calories of the things you eat most of the time (often surprising) and you'll easily see some things you'd be better off not eating.

Make some easy swaps. Instead of drinks with sugar have a diet soda or unsweetened tea or water. If you can't bear to give up soda entirely, swap out one a day to start and build up to a level that lets you eventually stay within your calorie goal. Trade the fries for a side salad and low calorie dressing. Have a 400 calorie chicken salad with veggies instead of the 1000+ calorie Big Mac and fries. Most restaurants have good options, you just have to find them. MFP has a lot of chain restaurant information in it.

If you're eating at sit down restaurants, which usually have portions that are much too large, ask for a box when you order your meal. Put half of your meal in the box before you even start eating. You'll then have another meal you can eat at home.

Over time, you'll figure out how to stay within your goal and which meals easily fit into your day and which don't. Keep in mind that you will trip up from time to time. Don't beat yourself up when it happens, tomorrow is another day. Sometimes the calories in a meal you thought would be low calorie will surprise you. Try to get into the habit of researching your meal beforehand and finding something that fits into your goals.

As far as cooking goes.... start simple. Many meals don't need to be more than a couple of ingredients. Salads are easy and really versatile by just mixing up the protein, cheese, nuts and veggies you put on them. Just keep the protein to 3-4 ounces and be sparing with everything but the veggies. I'm not a big breakfast eater so I have things like a protein bar or Greek yogurt with berries for breakfast most days. You can easily throw a protein bar in your purse on the way out the door. I keep the box in my desk drawer at work because that is where I eat them.

I eat out also, but try to limit it to lunch and then eat a cooked meal at home in the evenings. The others are right, you can definitely eat out and lose weight, you just have to plan ahead and look up that nutritional info BEFORE going to the restaurant instead of after. I've found that items I would think were low cal really were not and things I thought would be high in calories are much better than I thought. I always look up where I'm going first and decide what I'm going to have. I'm also a fan of pre-logging my meals for the day. Additionally, I am working with a nutritionist to try to eat healthier while losing weight. Found out I was not eating enough calories - go figure! I increased my calorie count based on the nutritionist recommendations and began losing weight. I lost more in 1 month than I did in 7 weeks eating less. She also says to always pair a protein with a carb (I have a protein drink for breakfast since it's the easiest way for me to eat within 1.5-2 hrs of waking). She said to add a piece of fruit to that. I also have snacks during the day. It's a slow process, but it's a lifestyle change, not a diet. Patience is key (I must say I don't really have much in the way of patience as I want to lose 100 pounds in a month when it took me years to gain it). Feel free to friend me if you'd like. Good luck on your journey!

Salad is a pretty good one that doesn't need any cooking at all really, except for MAYBE chopping up greens if you buy them whole. Just mix up greens onto a plate with salad dressing. There's also other frozen veggies that you could just microwave or just sautee with butter or oil. Canned green beans are my quick solutions. Eggs and bacon is what I make when I'm lazy. You can just boil the eggs too.

Mainly pay attention to the portion sizes. Know how much 1oz of cheese is. Know how much 100 grams of chicken is. It comes naturally after you research a little bit.
Find some recipes online that are simple on the skillet or in a pot. Find recipes that look good to you, then buy the ingredients.

There are options for healthy eating out, such as salads and just eating really small portions. But the main problem is that the portions are very large. You HAVE to stop yourself. Even with salads, restaurants' portions can be very large. And the ingredients they put in it can still be high calories, especially the dressing. And like others have said already, you can adjust according to what nutritional info they have online, and start finding out what places have pretty healthy foods.

I share this with every newbie cook.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/emofly/foods-everyone-should-learn-to-cook

I figure with some successes under your belt, it won't be so intimidating. Wendy's salads are really good too.

I really like @dubird and @SueInAz 's ideas.

When you get an idea what a realistic portion looks like and get used to eating that way, it all gets a lot easier. I always carry a protein bar with me in case I am caught somewhere, starving, and tempted to wolf down french fries. The protein bar is better.

dubird wrote: »

You're going to have to do some research and plan ahead for your day. It takes a while, but once you figure out what you can eat where, it becomes much easier!

1. Start by logging everything for a week and see where you are. That will give you a baseline for seeing where you're at and what you can start to adjust. Start slow, one or two things at a time, and give yourself time to get used to it. For me, I started with just switching the soda I had at lunch for unsweet tea with sweetener. That cut out about 200 calories without making any other changes!

2. Learn to cook. It's not hard, just takes some time. Check out a book called "Help! My Apartment Has a Kitchen" for a good easy start in cooking. You'll find that cooking a meal from (mostly) scratch can net you more food for your calorie allotment then you think.

3. Research restaurants you like to eat at and see what the calorie counts are on things. Most restaurants have that information either online or by request. Once you know what your calorie count is for the day, divide that up between however many meals you want to eat for the day. That lets you know what your limit is for each meal, and with calorie information from the restaurant, you can make decisions on what you can have when. Watching calories and losing weight when you mostly eat out is possible, just takes time and research to plan ahead.

^^ Spot on!

I'd suggest also: Carry a snack with you so when you are out driving and get a little hungry eat your snack so you are less likely to hit the drive through.

Here are my easy-peasy meal formulas! They are super simple and really basic, but you can use these formulas for almost ANY ingredient. Play around with things until you find what you like. I am a pretty adventurous cook, but when I am just trying to get through another day, this is what I go to.

Breakfast:
1) Toast two pieces of whole grain bread.
2) Choose any of the following toppings for your toast: 1/2 of an avocado, 2 scrambled eggs, peanut butter and 1/2 of a banana, light cream cheese with tomato slices
3) Serve with brewed coffee. (I drink mine with splenda and unsweetened almond milk)

Lunch (Salad):
1) Fill a tupperware bin with 2 cups of greens. (Whatever you prefer. I like a mix of greens and spinach.)
2) Choose 3 more veggies. (I like red pepper, cucumber, and white onion.)
3) Choose a lean protein. (I like a hardboiled egg, quinoa, beans, or chicken breast.)
4) Add a sprinkle of cheese. (I like light feta.)
4) Make your own dressing out of an oil, a vinegar, and a touch of both honey and dijon mustard.
5) Shake it all up and enjoy.

Dinner:
1) Choose your vegetable, toss it with 1 tbsp of oil, and roast it in the oven. Fill half of your plate with this.
2) Choose your protein, bake or grill it, and fill a quarter of your plate with this.
3) Choose a whole grain, prepare it with as little dressing or oil as possible and fill the last quarter of your plate. (I like a piece of toast, brown rice with low sodium soy sauce, quinoa with hot sauce, or whole grain pasta with pesto or tomato sauce.)

And yes, I eat more than this during a day. But since you asked specifically about meals I didn't really touch on what I do for snacks.

I can't cook either.

You can buy pre-bagged salads then put them in a Tupperware with some craisins or something. No work!

There's also eggs. Boil 'em and eat them later. Scramble them. Like no prep time and they can be good on the go.

Seared meat. Get home and don't wanna cook? Heat up a skillet and sear a steak then open up one of those pre-bagged salad and have a side salad and a steak. Like five minutes and almost no work.

Canned fruit. Goes anywhere and ready anytime. Just remember to get the ones in their own juice and not in heavy syrup.

I will occasionally treat myself to fast food, but rarely. If I go to Wendy's it's usually a half size asian cashew chicken salad and a jr chocolate frosty...that's about 440 for the two of them. At McDonald's I usually get a hamburger happy meal because I can have the taste of the hamburger and a little mini french fry and some apple slices for around 415. This week, I couldn't fathom making lunches so I ran to the grocery store at lunch and bought strawberries, blueberries, buffalo chicken deli meat and some romaine lettuce. I made little roll ups and then had the fruit. For breakfast, I have been making breakfast smoothies that are very easy, no cooking, not much planning (other than having the ingredients in the house) and tasty. Because I add ground chia seeds, I stay full for hours. I couldn't believe it either. And they are about 300 calories per smoothie, depending on what I put in...the highest one so far is 350 calories which for a meal replacement is good. I wish you well. Do some research and walk around the grocery store and look for ideas. There might be things you see that you never thought of. I pick up packages and look at labels and put it back when its too high.

TheOwlhouseDesigns wrote: »

I eat fast food too, but in moderation

But i also make my own fries and potato wedgies in the oven ( so no oil use at all) nice and crispy.
Make my own burgers and chicken fry's etc. I make a very nice pizza ( and not with cauliflower crust) But real pizza with fresh made tomato paste, fresh Italian herbs and spices, 4 kind of cheese and chicken for me ( hubby get sausage meat) Olives peppers etc. Yummie and only around 600 calories for the whole pizza ( which i eat in parts)

Make my own crisps too, all kind of spices.
So besides a pretty balanced diet and making my own options i eat also out at restaurants and fast food chains. But moderation is the key.
Keep counting and planning and knowing how much i get helped me losing weight.

It's actually not so much the oil that adds calories to frying things. It's not good to load up on oil for other reasons, but I've noticed that the regular chips and the baked chips don't differ a lot in calories. Not that I want to discourage you, baked wedges are awesome! And I found a recipe for a pizza crust that uses chicken and cheese for a very low-carb option (for my husband). It doesn't crisp up like regular crust, but we don't care because we end up with a pile of meat and it's super special awesome!