For losing weight, what do you guys find most helpful to eat?

It is helpful to eat fewer calories than you burn.

Now of course you knew that right?

How do you eat fewer calories while still enjoying say a big meal? Just up your veggies. Soup is wonderful Full of loads of veggies and a little meat, some beans, peas, lentils, barley, rice. Carefully weighed out and portioned. I make big pots of soup and freeze what I won't eat in a few days. Winds up around 150 calories a cup, depending on what I put in it.

Load up the veggies with your dinner. Less starch but still include things like rice and pasta. Just control the portions. Use your veggies to bulk up the meal. Use herbs and spices to get big flavor. A smaller portion of something really delicious is more satisfying than a big bowl of something bland.

Want Pizza? Have a slice or two and toss on loads of veggies or just have a big side of some sort of veggie before you eat the pizza.

Want ice cream? Weigh our your half cup portion and then slice up a banana or some other fruit on top to make a larger portion that is still reasonable calories. Keep in mind that bananas are a higher calorie fruit and you still need to weigh what you add.

Last week I wanted some homemade fresh baked cookies. Now baking of a whole batch of cookies is just setting yourself up to fail right? Because who can stop eating freshly baked cookies right from the oven? Solution? I used the recipe builder to get the calories in the batch. I portioned out the batch into carefully weighed balls/pucks. I baked off the numbe I wanted to eat that day and put the rest into a freezer bag to take out and cook 1-2 at a time for future cookie cravings. The effort required to preheat the oven to bake off a few cookies for 14 minutes means I have to really want those cookies in order to do it.

Ninkyou wrote: »

I eat everything I ate before... just less of it.

^ This. If you're going to successfully lose weight and keep it off, you need to eat a diet that will keep you satisfied for the rest of your life. I was eating a satisfying, healthy, varied diet while gaining weight; I was just eating too much of everything. I lost 65 pounds by consciously eating less.

The only significant change I made was to eat less breakfast cereal, because I realized that 300 calories' worth of shredded wheat, raisins, and milk left me hungry by 10 am, while 150 calories' worth of toast with butter or avocado keeps me feeling full until lunch.

There's nothing inherently wrong with carbohydrates. In fact, most of the calories from vegetables are from carbohydrates. A lot of people use "carbs" when they really mean foods made with refined carbohydrates, like granulated sugar, flour, etc., but if it's not a fat and it's not a protein, it's by definition a carb. But as @shadowfax_c11 wrote above, veggies are a great way to get satisfying bulk in your diet without lots of calories.

i eat the same things i always have. just less.

I've learned to make skinny versions of the food I enjoy. Skinnytaste.com has the most amazing recipes - has me salivating over food I never thought I would eat before. e.g. I had the most delish zucchini pancakes - mmmm... I get excited about my meals, which is awesome

Also helps me to pre-log what I plan to eat. I was almost about to make this one low-cal dessert - but when I built in in the recipe builder with my modifications, it turned out to be much higher cal than I wanted, so I didn't make it. I did discover that cottage cheese ice cream is pretty good

Anything I can eat alot of for minimal calories.
I buy a TON of those steam in bags of broccoli...its 4 cups of broccoli for about 100 calories. I'll usually eat the whole thing.

callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »

food.

+1

Salads, cottage cheese, hard-boiled eggs, bananas, mango, olives, olive oil, broccoli, burgers, fries, beer, wine, ice cream, etc.

Ninkyou wrote: »

I eat everything I ate before... just less of it.

Same... for losing weight the important part is sticking to the amount of calories that MFP has given you.

I eat pretty much what I've always eaten...I just learned proper portion control...my idea of an appropriate portion of food was massive. The only major changes I made was to eat a lot more veggies and fruit ( I probably only was getting around 2 servings or so per day at the time) and I stopped drinking 3-5 sodas per day and started brown bagging my lunch instead of eating out every day. Cutting the sodas made a big dent in cutting back on calories...also, my guess would be that my lunches out were typically in the 1200 - 1500 calorie range...my brown bag lunches are more like 600 - 800.

I eat a diet consisting largely of whole foods and minimally processed foods (like cans of tomatoes for sauces, etc). I eat a lot of veg and a couple servings of fruit...whole grains, legumes, lentils, potatoes and sweet potatoes, lean sourced protein, and healthy fats from things like eggs, avocados, nuts, cooking with avocado/olive/coconut oils, etc. I also go out for pizza with my family a couple times per month and I enjoy some ice cream a few nights per week for desert.

What's most important is establishing dietary habits that you can take into perpetuity...one of the biggest reasons people fail long term is that they view dieting as a verb and something that is only to be done short term to achieve a certain weight...but maintaining that weight requires changing your overall dietary habits into perpetuity.

i drink less alcohol, eat less starches, breads and creamy cheesey sauces. and i eat tons more fresh non starchy vegetables.

Nothing in particular, really. I had to learn what a proper portion of foods was, which took a while. And in doing so, learned to swap out some things for better choices, such as eating a little less meat and adding some veggies to dinner, but I didn't cut ANYTHING out. Doing that helped me stay on target this time around. Learning to adjust my eating habits also means I'm able to monitor myself and KEEP the weight off, which is more valuable to me!

If you're looking for a specific diet plan, there are lots of things that work for different people, and if one seems like something you'd like to try, go ahead and try it. But after a couple of weeks, ask yourself 'do i want to eat this way the rest of my life?' If the answer is no, it's not for you. Just because it works for some people doesn't mean it will have to work for you. Adjust your eating habits in a way that works FOR YOU.

ADean3182 wrote: »

elaineamj wrote: »

I've learned to make skinny versions of the food I enjoy. Skinnytaste.com has the most amazing recipes - has me salivating over food I never thought I would eat before. e.g. I had the most delish zucchini pancakes - mmmm... I get excited about my meals, which is awesome

Just checked out the site - looks sweet! Thanks for the suggestion!

I agree - I do the same thing as in trying to make the same kind of foods but in a "healthy" or "skinny" way. One huge thing that has helped is making the right breakfast decision. I've had good luck with a protein smoothie, with a banana and PB powder. I add chia seeds so you feel fuller longer, and some kale. I really don't think about food until noon or later.

I love soups - and you can make a low calorie soup packed with veggies or other good stuff. I've been making this a lot (http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/veggistrone.html) and you can tweak it to what you like or don't like. Super good!

Looks good! I make a soup like this I call veggie drawer soup. Whatever is left in there before the next shopping day goes in the pot + basic broth, spices etc.

Lots of lean protein and veggies as the base most of the time then anything I want really. Had Chinese food for dinner tonight, pizza, cheesecake and pancakes earlier in the week. It's been one of those weeks but I just make sure I'm still close enough to goal.

It's a big learning curve at first, working out how to stretch your calories, what sacrifices to make (if any). So less saucy things, more with dry seasonings, fewer starchy carbs so I can fill up on lots of veggies for fewer calories and allow for treats. But nothing is off limits and if I crave it for more than a couple of days I'll generally just indulge.

Stir fry! Chicken + every veggie in the house+ ginger + garlic = yummy