Grocery Shopping For Weight Loss Success

plo726
plo726 Posts: 4 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
The past couple of weeks I have completely changed my eating habits and began to use this app to track my daily calorie intake. I'm having positive results and feel much better. I've posted below what I have been eating/getting at the grocery store and would love some advice. Maybe some things I should add in or eliminate. I'm typically hungry all day from this plan. What do you get from the grocery store? What's a typical day of eating?
Grocery List
Oats
Egg whites
Turkey bacon
Fruit- bananas/apples
Vegetables- onion/tomato/spinach&lettuce/ carrots/broccoli/asparagus/avocado
Brown Rice
Proteins-Chicken/fish/steak/turkey burgers
Jello- sugar free
Typical Eating Day
Breakfast- oats/banana or egg whites/turkey bacon
Lunch- salad w/ a protein and veggies
Snack- banana or apple
Dinner- protein/rice/veggies
Snack- jello

Replies

  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    edited May 2016
    Make sure you are eating enough. Depending on what you have to lose, 0.5 - 2 pounds per week is a good goal, and this equates to a daily calorie deficit of 250 - 1000. If you try to force yourself beyond this, you will be hungry, craving, cheat, see no results, and eventually just give up.

    Eat food you like. You'll be doing this for a long time (if you want to keep any weight off, this change is for the rest of your life). You can eat any food and lose weight, as long as you stick to an adequate calorie intake (see above).

    Eat a varied and balanced diet. Have some food from every food group every day, and have different foods within all food groups through the day/week/year. Make sure you get in plenty of protein, fat and fiber. Your food diary can be a tremendous tool if you use it correctly. Weigh everything, check with labels, log accurately and consistently, and be patient.

    Don't try to do a 180 degrees turn. Most people want major overhauls of their diets, and it sounds great, but they don't last. Small gradual adjustments on lots of areas are much more effective.

    Don't buy special stuff just because you think you have to. Try anything once if you want to, and if you like it, incorporate it into your diet.
  • bscmcse
    bscmcse Posts: 55 Member
    I find consistently eating the same things to help. I know how to weigh them, count them, shop for them and prepare them. That being said I try for some variety. For example, starch with my lunch could be brown rice one day and 1/2 a sweet potato the next or left over butternut squash. Changing up protein is easy and some days I choose between asparagus, broccoli & carrots, etc. Recently, I have been eating a lot of mushrooms since they are pretty low cal for the bulk. Keep up the good work and hang in there. Some days I'm pretty close to my calorie goal and some days i'm 200-300 under and I'm not hungry ALL the time... 35 days now.
  • NaturalNancy
    NaturalNancy Posts: 1,093 Member
    - Non fat yogurt and cottage cheese
    - Baby carrots
    - Peaches, black berries, blueberries, strawberries, grapes
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    Your typical day should have 5 vegetables, you have 2. You have 2 bananas, which use a large portion of your calorie allowance on pure carbs with no or negligible protein and no or negligible fiber. Avocado should be classified IMO as a fat and half an avocado is a good portion of fat in a day. The Jello does have protein but may have useless calories from sugar. The salad may have tremendous amounts of sugar and salt from your choice of condiment dressing. You should have some fat with your salad to complete the intestinal absorption of the phyto-nutrients in the salad. That's why 'oil and vinegar" are so common among salad dressings. It looks to me as if you have suddenly changed your eating to be your idea of 'perfect for losing weight' and you have proven to yourself that you are right by losing weight. Caution: you don't want to eat like that for the rest of your life. You are barely reaching 1200 calories, and probably not that much, and your body will protest causing you to binge. 6 good days doth not justify a binge day. You have 2 bananas. I suggest you ditch those and use the calories to add more vegetables and more variety to your vegetables. I suggest you add a legume, ditch one of the jello and get your protein from more meat. There are many ways to lose weight quickly. Some of the worst involve making the most drastic and most sudden changes to your habits.
  • forthemovies
    forthemovies Posts: 14 Member
    Other than avocado I don't see much fat in your diet (maybe in your salad dressing). Fat helps keep you full! You could add in some nuts, nut butter, cheese or full fat yogurt. You could also use whole eggs or add one egg supplemented with egg whites.

    In our house we sit down once a week and make a meal plan based on what's on hand, what's in season etc. Knowing what the plan is ahead of time keeps our motivation going to exercise and understand where we can bank calories for a splurge meal. (If we have a heavier dinner we can make sure to have a lighter lunch...)

    I've been doing at least one soup a week. Super filling and you have a lot of control over what goes in it. Chicken soup, lentil soup, Italian wedding, mushroom, butternut squash, potato and leek, etc.

    I personally enjoy smoothies, which you could make for your snack if you want to create some variety. You could also switch it up from fruit and have some veggies with hummus. Or you could make some homemade granola with your oats and have that with yogurt.

    You could do any variation of tacos too. We use fresh corn tortillas, homemade salsa, guacamole and a protein.

    Asian dishes give a lot of variation using fresh ingredients. You could do a stir fry, summer rolls, cold salad with rice noodles and peanut dressing, fried rice with leftovers etc.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    edited May 2016
    I second making sure that your goal is reasonable - don't forget to eat half your exercise calories too.

    And your problem is a lack of fat. Ditch the egg whites for whole eggs. Add some olive oil, cheese, or avocado in your salad, and add some nuts to your oatmeal and your snacks (or some Greek yogurt). I'd trade the rice from dinner for potatoes or whole grain pasta a few times a week too... it has more nutrients and is more filling.

    Do you not eat dairy at all? Full fat cottage cheese is my staple nowadays, and I put some cheese in pretty much everything (half a serving or so, it doesn't take much when it's shredded/crumbled).
  • youngmomtaz
    youngmomtaz Posts: 1,075 Member
    Use some whole eggs to help you fill up, add in some more healthy fats with coconut oil or butter and a slice of avocado once in a while, I cannot go without cottage cheese and a good hard cheese, a wider variety of veggies can add to the flavours you are eating(peppers, cucumber, eggplant), some berries can be a great change from typical apples/bananas/oranges, a few nuts and seeds maybe, I love almonds, chia, pecans with my yogurt or oatmeal.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    Whole eggs
    Nuts or nut butters
    dairy- yogurt, cottage cheese, milk, feta cheese, etc
    Potatoes- white and sweet
    Bread
    Pasta
    Zucchini, cauliflower, corn, green beans, peppers, peas, celery, etc
    Strawberries, blueberries, melon, peaches, etc
    Dry beans, lentils, canned beans
    Hummus
    Salsa
    Popcorn

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