Let's eat at least 1 pound of veg a day!

Options
Heleendje
Heleendje Posts: 3 Member
in Introduce Yourself
Hi all!

I'm new here, although I've known about MFP for years. I'm a final year student nutrition & dietetics in Belgium, I'm 31, about 5'8 (1m74) and 155 lbs (70 kg). I've gained a little over 10 lbs since enrolling for my BSc, which sounds a bit contradictory considering the subject I'm taking.

The truth is, before getting interested in the science behind nutrition (around 2010) I went on a crash diet as a direct result of a relationship crisis with my then boyfriend (now ex), resulting in me losing over 20 lbs in a few months. That's incredibly fast for someone who wasn't even overweight, so you might say that the re-gain is a somewhat normal, even healthy reaction of my body dealing with a normal eating pattern again. Currently, I have a very healthy relationship with food which I'd be happy to share with anyone struggling to eat right. Still, I need to sometimes watch my portion sizes a little, because I've noticed a steady increase in weight that just refuses to plateau at what I was hoping is my "set point weight" (around 67 kgs or 147 lbs).

I'm particularly proud of my seemingly effortless consumption of over 1 kg (!) of vegetables A DAY, and about 2 pieces of fruit depending on my workouts (I'll make my food logs available if I can figure out how to do that). I realize that a lot of people are struggling to even consume the "5-a-day", meaning 5 times a serving of about 100 grams of EITHER fruit or veg. Because I'm obviously trying to become a professional, I'd be glad to help out anyone on here who'd like to know more about including more veggies (and fruit, pulses, nuts or whatever) in their daily diets. This will aid weight loss, make you feel full quicker and have an excellent effect on your overall health, I promise!

Meanwhile, if anyone else is having trouble with portion sizes, hunger pangs when you really shouldn't logically have them, or cravings of any kind, I deeply sympathize and I'd love to hear more.

Have a great day everyone!

Heleen, from Belgium
x

Replies

  • mz_getskinny
    mz_getskinny Posts: 258 Member
    Options
    Eating too much of anything will cause weight gain...that includes fruits and vegetables. I'm not sure why anyone would ever want to eat over 2 lbs of vegetables a day...but I suppose to each their own. I'm not sure what kind of "professional" you are trying to be, but I don't think you've quite got this whole nutrition thing figured out yet.
  • Heleendje
    Heleendje Posts: 3 Member
    edited January 2016
    Options
    Hi mz_getskinny!

    Sure, 2 lbs is a lot which is why halved it in my post title :) Current recommendations vary from country to country, in Belgium it's stated as 300 grams of vegetables + 2 pieces (125g portions) of fruit a day, adding up to a total of 550 grams of "fruit & veg" combined, a day. Which is about a pound, and an absolute minimum... most professionals will tell their clients to eat more than that, promoting better health and (some) weight loss.

    Maybe I should have mentioned as well, that I eat a lot of veggies INSTEAD of other stuff, not ON TOP OF. Carrots as a snack would be the easiest example.

    I'm doing a professional bachelor in nutrition & dietetics at university in Belgium, so basically a 3 year full-term program to become an RD. No professional (I hope) will truthfully claim to have "figured it all out", by the way... there still are a lot of question marks in nutrition science!

    If you have any interest in sharing your diet strategy, I'd love to hear it :smile:

Categories