Newbie - Need to lose weight, but don't know how to grocery shop or meal plan, Please Help.

lynn_glenmont wrote: »

Bworms1980 wrote: »

Thank you. And I didn't find your post discouraging at all. It was incredibly informative. I'll look into getting a food scale from Amazon. Are there any that you can suggest for a newbie? Yes, losing weight is my ultimate goal, and I know smaller calorie controlled portions would do that, but I know I also need to learn what to buy and cook. The healthiest item in my kitchen are canned tuna and my multi-vitamins. I started my daily walk around the block this walk or as far as my asthma will allow right now.

lynn_glenmont wrote: »

Eating more nutrient-dense foods and meeting your nutritional needs would be great, but at the very beginning of your post you say your goal is to do something about being overweight. The most important thing in trying to lose weight--ultimately the only thing that matters in losing weight--is to consume fewer calories than your body uses. It's the amount you eat (in terms of calories), not the kinds of foods that you eat, that will make the difference in meeting your goal.

Your first step should be to figure out a way to consume fewer calories. Since MFP is a calorie-counting site, most people here are going to recommend that you start logging all the food you eat, and to do so accurately. That means getting a food scale and being careful to use accurate entries in the database (cross-checking them against package labels and/or the USDA database at http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods, or at least using entries that have been verified by a lot of other users). Logging your food is associated with increased success in weight loss.

If you also want to improve the nutrient profile of your diet (diet in its original sense, meaning the food that you eat), that's great, and it can help reduce the risk of some of the health problems that obesity exposes you to, although for a lot of those health problems, losing weight and getting some exercise (even just walking a little, if that's all your underlying heart and asthma issues will allow) will go further than dietary changes like getting more potassium, magnesium, calcium, and fiber, less sodium, and some specific types of fats.

I'm not trying to discourage you from making appropriate changes to your diet; I'm just suggesting that you've taken your eyes off your goal and the way to achieve it.

I got mine on Amazon -- originally I got it for baking, because weighing ingredients, flour especially, tends to give better results, especially when I started using a bread machine sometimes (when you knead by hand, you just keep adding flour until you have the right consistency, but a bread machine makes more sense than heating the oven just for one loaf for a smaller household).

Anyway, I recommend a digital scale that measures in grams as well as ounces (grams are smaller units and thus you get greater accuracy on the size of your serving, plus nutrition labels often list the weight of a serving in grams) and has a tare (reset to zero) button so you can place your bowl, plate, etc. on the scale, add your first ingredient (e.g., cereal), note or log the weight (I tend to note the weights and then log them afterward, but you may prefer to log immediately, especially if you're using the app on your phone), reset to zero, add the next ingredient (e.g., berries), note or log the weight, add another ingredient (e.g., ground flax), note or log the weight, etc.

It saves time and the washing of measuring utensils, and it's just more accurate to weigh solid foods (no discrepancies in how full you fill the cup or tablespoon, how tightly you pack it, how large the pieces of things like chips, nuts, pretzels, cereals, chopped fruit & veggies are, etc.)
ETA: you can still measure liquids by volume.

Other useful features include a display that pulls out from the scale so you can still see it when you're using a wide plate or other container (mine attaches by a retractable cord, but I've had it a few years, so I imagine they probably make some with displays that communicate with the scale wireless when they're detached).

You also want to pay attention to the maximum load of the scale. Mine will weigh up to 11 lbs or 5 kgs, which is enough for anything I've done, including a large metal dutch oven filled with stew or soup.

Mine is an OXO brand and uses regular AAA batteries, which I think I've had to replace once or twice in years of use (honestly not sure how long I've had it, but I think it must be four or five years at least). I've been very happy with it. It turns off automatically after a while when no buttons have been pushed or no weight has been added. Most of the time when you turn it back on, it retains the last tare setting, but sometimes not if you've removed or changed the weight on the scale while it was off, which is about the only negative thing I can think of to say about it.

traygeeslin wrote: »

I hate to plan meals and grocery shop. Two years ago my mother gave me subscription to emeals.com and its been a life saver. Emeals has an app that I use on my Iphone. Each week it sends me a new menu (with recipes) and I select from it or add meals from a list of favorites I saved before. Once the menu is complete, it has a shopping list you can use. I mark off what I already have in the house, then walk through the grocery store and click off items as I gather them. I was at first put off by the annual cost of the subscription, however the first time I used it, it paid for itself. I would typically spend about $250 per week on groceries just by grabbing what looked good or I thought I should cook, but with the emeals I only got what I needed and my bill was just $160. It also has many different meal plans to choose from, I've been on the Paleo plan but have been looking at the clean eating and low calorie as well. I'm new to fitnesspal (4 days) and found it to be very helpful in logging my foods. Oh and I'm in no way associated with emeals, I just really like them....