Maintenance Seems Too Low?
Replies
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Spliner1969 wrote: »deannalaverty wrote: »-Cut out or minimize peanut butter entirely
-Put the bread in the freezer so I do not feel pressured to eat it as quickly
-(when eggs are available) Use eggs to help feel fuller in lieu of more bread
-Buy frozen fruits/veggies for the freezer when I have a little extra money, and use these to bulk up meals (not just dinner)
-Transition to black coffee
-BEANS & TATERS
-Introduce more fiber
Was there anything else super important that I missed?
I would miss peanut butter, do try PB2 sometime though. Peanut Butter would be great on a day when you've burned extra calories. PB2 on other days when you have a craving (there are other brands of peanut powder, Jiff, etc.).
I also tried to transition to black coffee with no luck. I just don't like it, it's bitter and sucks. So now I drink it black (no creamer most of the time, or maybe 1 tsp dry non-dairy @ 10 cals, plus I use Stevia Packets. They cost me carbs but are 0 calorie. I do drink it less than I used to, but it's still good with Stevia and lighter creamer options. Hell if you can skip the creamer and just use the Stevia, it's 0 calories.
Taters are good. Try other veggies too, I like cauliflower. Always hated it as a kid, and still dislike it raw, but take about 300g of it, toss it with salt pepper and about a tbsp of olive oil, then bake it at 375 for about 30-45 minutes until it gets a little brown around the edges. It makes a very filling 2 serving dish @ about 100 calories each and has a good amount of fiber. Add that recipe to MFP's recipe calculator and you'll see what I mean.
For breakfast I learned to like Bran Cereal. So now I generally eat .5 cups of original Fiber One Bran with half a banana chopped up in it with .5 cup of vanilla almond milk, then I drink a protein shake after it. What I do is take bananas, let them ripen, then chop them up into slices and freeze them in the freezer, store them in zip lock bags, and simply chop up about 63g of them to add to my cereal in the morning. It's not bad at all with the vanilla almond milk.
.5 cup Fiber One Original Bran Cereal = 60 cal, 25 carbs (complex carbs!), 14g fiber!!, 2g protein
.5 cup Silk Light Vanilla Almond Milk = 30 cal, 6 carbs, 1g protein
63g Dole banana (half a medium) = 55 cal, 15 carbs, 2g fiber, 1g protein
Total for the cereal is 145 cal, 46 carbs, 16g fiber!, 4g protein
I then drink a 2 scoop Body Fortress Vanilla or Chocolate When Isolate shake = 280 cal, 60g protein, 6 carbs, 2g fiber mixed with nothing but water
It's a pretty filling breakfast at about 425 calories, 64g protein, 18g fiber, and 52 carbs. It may sound like it tastes bad but it doesn't, I enjoy it and it's simple and quick. On weekends I work out more and eat a bigger breakfast but that's my go-to M-F breakfast.
Just ideas, you can mix in any fruit you want into the cereal, and it'll help you get your fiber up quickly.
Lol... while all of your suggestions are good, and are all things I eat myself, OP has made it clear she is on a limited budget and none of these products are cheap!
Do you have to wait for the chickens to lay eggs? Where I live, eggs have been pretty cheap in recent weeks- .79/dozen- and we even use them for dinner a lot. Do you have an Aldi or other discount grocery chain nearby? You could stock up on some off-brand high fiber cereal and their Greek yogurt & other dairy is the cheapest you'll find. Love a PP's suggestion about soup- a big pot with beans, barley, & cheap vegetables would go a long way and the volume helps keep you full. I also think you are probably underestimating your activity level.8 -
Okay so the homemade bread seems pretty calorie dense. Suppose you make an open-faced sandwich (one slice of toast, of this bread, 138 cals) and put on one tablespoon of peanut butter (95 cals) instead of two, then one tablespoon of jam/jelly is 50 cals.
Roastwise, measure out 4 oz of meat, about 120 cals of whatever your chosen starch is (pretty much a half portion) and then load up on vegetables such as green beans, spinach, whatever nonstarchy veg you have.
If you haven't got a food scale, shop around for one on sale. I paid 15 bux for mine but I understand money is tight so look for free shipping, google for coupon codes, and such.
Frozen veggies in the big economy sized bags are usually the cheapest. Go for ones without any sauce or whatever added, just the veg. Large bags of mixed veg, green beans, broccoli. I grew up dirt poor and this was always our cheapest way to get vegetables.1 -
deannalaverty wrote: »I am glad to hear that number doesn't seem abnormally low!
Breakfast was 641 calories:
My bread recipe is 276 calories for 2 slices,
Peanut butter is 190 calories for a serving,
Coffee jelly is 32 calories,
and a brewed 12 fl oz mug of coffee w/ 1 tbsp of sugar and 1 tbsp of non-dairy creamer is 143 calories
Lunch was 820 calories:
The leftover pot roast was originally a slow-cooker 3lb roast, which I split up into 6 servings. I ate one serving for lunch, which MFP said was 677 calories.
Coffee was made the same way as this morning.
I am full now, and will not eat dinner until about 8-8:30pm, but I couldn't have gone all the way until tomorrow on this.
EDIT: Hello, cmriverside! Looks like you posted while I was typing. Those foods you describe would be lovely, but planning just 21 dinners for 4 people put me at $100, and that was relying on things I already had preserved, spices I have already stockpiled, and meat purchased on sale. That leaves me with very little I can do for other meals, since dairy needs to be conserved for dinners. I am a breadbaker, so bread is something easy to come by.
Those are high calorie meals. It's been recommended that breakfast bee 300-400 calories, lunch 400 dinner 500 and then the rest for snacks or treats.0 -
Coffee for me is 40 cal.....its 1/3 cup 1% milk and brewed coffee (0 cal) for a total of 40.
Peanut butter is overrated, sorry. Dump the plain PB and use the powdered "PB2" peanut butter. mix 1 serving with a little water until the right consistency and you're all set. Save 145 cal right there. ditch the hi cal bread for 2 slices of 80-calorie bread. And my goodness throw an egg in there somewhere.
A smart PB2 &J should be about 235 calories. Leaving 40 cal for coffee, 80 for an egg. You're up to 355 at that point. Have a dry serving of cheerios with that if you want, still at 455.
(Former ignoramus here....I used to just DUMP cereal in a bowl, and slather on as much peanut butter as would fit onto my English muffins. No more. I got wise.)0 -
I am 5'4 105ish and it gives me the same amount but I eat 2100-2600 and maintain with 4x a week 1h exercise. I think you can definitely eat more you should experiment1
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I found eating only two meals day works for me... brunch and supper. I had to work with timing. My family still eats 3, and has snacks.0
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Personally, for satiation and nutrition, I'd keep the peanut butter (protein & fats) and eat it on one slice of bread instead, but it's your choice. It's good to (nutritionally) to spread protein through the day rather than eat it all at once if you can, and dropping the peanut butter at breakfast takes the breakfast protein (I would think) to a very negligible level. Just my opinion. The rest of your strategies sound good to me.
If you can't shoot, are there rabbits about at all? Can you snare them? (Google for instructions.) Fish from streams or lakes? Protein is important nutritionally, and satiating.0 -
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Peanut butter is very calorie dense. Bread is too. I NET 1270 but I eat around 1600. I have a lot of meals that come in around 300-400 and that gives me calories for snacks or for a bigger meal if I'm hungry. I drink coffee, tea, and water so that uses very few calories. I love to eat but put all my calories into things that have lots of flavor. And things that are calorie dense, I eat in small portions.0
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Op you sound like your handy in the kitchen, have you tried making yogurt? It's super easy, doesn't require any equipment, and you can make a gallon for the cost of a gallon of milk and a starter cup of yogurt. Might help you bulk up your protein in the morning until your eggs come in.4
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On budget cooking, one word.
BEANS.
Dried beans can be bought in bulk and saved in plastic sealed pails and are a very affordable source of protein and fiber and are so incredibly versatile. When we were very low on funds, this was our way to feed the kids a nutritious diet without spending much.
My dollars mainly went to:
Dry beans
Rice
Canned Tomatoes
Onions
Spices
Eggs unless we had laying chickens.
Some vegetables, different each week.
Milk and cheese if there is extra $ because I love cheese!
Potatoes aren't cheap down here, and buying flour and electricity to make bread costs me more than buying bread (still do it sometimes because I like it but it doesn't save us $).
Spanish bean soup is garbanzos, potatoes, broth, some sausage if you have it.
Curried garbanzos is beans, canned tomatoes, spices.
Veggie chili is pintos, tomatoes, spices, and whatever veg you have on hand.
Lentil Soup
Lentil Salad
Pinto Bean burritos
Pinto Beans on rice
Black Beans on rice
Black beans and rice inside green peppers
Black eyed peas and greens
Curried Black eyed peas
Split Pea soup
All sorts of bean dishes can be made for under $1 per serving.7 -
beans for sure to bulk out meals
I wouldn't have all that stuff in coffee, which would save a heap of calories
as for the bread - nothing like the taste of homemade bread, but what about sourdough? I find sourdough bread fills me up more than 'white' breads, even home-made white bread.
If you are going down the sustainable home-producing route, you might want to have a look at cook-book such as 'more-with-less' or others from the Mennonite community. Lots of ideas for eating and cooking on little money, although a lot are very calorie dense foods so you may need to be picky. I also have a copy of 'simply in season' which uses fresher foods and alternatives as well.
oh and soups.0 -
While you are waiting for your hens to start laying you can just buy eggs. Over the past year they've been exceedingly cheap and (between $0.39-$0.89 per dozen in my area). I also use a lot of canned vegetables that usually go on sale for less than $0.40/can (I'll buy a couple cases when that happens). I'm not on a limited budget fortunately, but I still usually spend well under $75/week to feed me and my two growing boys (only $40 last week). But I do hunt a lot of my meat and process it myself, which helps.0
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I'll just reiterate what everyone has said about beans. The last couple of weeks I've been buying dried beans & legumes and cooking crockpot meals. A bag of chick peas costs very little, a dollar , maybe. I made Indian chickpea dishes that make 12-14 servings. Make some rice and it's very filling and healthy. Chili made with beans and canned tomatoes. You can add ground turkey and the beans stretch the meal out and add more fiber and protein. Black eye peas & greens, rice & beans-all cheap and healthy and tasty, too. If you like Indian food I recommend The Indian Slow Cooker cookbook. Every recipe makes a lot of food.0
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While you are waiting for your hens to start laying you can just buy eggs. Over the past year they've been exceedingly cheap and (between $0.39-$0.89 per dozen in my area). I also use a lot of canned vegetables that usually go on sale for less than $0.40/can (I'll buy a couple cases when that happens). I'm not on a limited budget fortunately, but I still usually spend well under $75/week to feed me and my two growing boys (only $40 last week). But I do hunt a lot of my meat and process it myself, which helps.
Wow! Eggs here are closer to $2/dozen, sometimes $1/dozen on sale. There's been an egg shortage in the US, I am surprised you are getting retail prices like that.0 -
While you are waiting for your hens to start laying you can just buy eggs. Over the past year they've been exceedingly cheap and (between $0.39-$0.89 per dozen in my area). I also use a lot of canned vegetables that usually go on sale for less than $0.40/can (I'll buy a couple cases when that happens). I'm not on a limited budget fortunately, but I still usually spend well under $75/week to feed me and my two growing boys (only $40 last week). But I do hunt a lot of my meat and process it myself, which helps.
Wow! Eggs here are closer to $2/dozen, sometimes $1/dozen on sale. There's been an egg shortage in the US, I am surprised you are getting retail prices like that.
I was telling a friend the other day who wanted to know ideas for cheap dinners that she needed to get eggs, when im broke ill live off of them (they are exactly $0.99 in my area per dozen) and she looked at me like I was CRAZY. She lives in Iowa and they are running like 3-4 dollars a dozen right now, blew my mind.1 -
My maintenance is only 1300 since I'm crazy short. It does suck but my Fitbit always adds calories for me unless I just lie around and don't do crap all day. I usually eat eggs or greek yogurt for breakfast and for dinner always a grilled meat of some sort and vegetables. Almost always have a half a peanut butter and honey sandwich after work. I know it isn't healthy but diet soda helps me in the afternoons. I'm not giving up on that. I love it.2
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Wow! Eggs here are closer to $2/dozen, sometimes $1/dozen on sale. There's been an egg shortage in the US, I am surprised you are getting retail prices like that.
Supersaver had them for $0.99 per 18 pack last week (that's $0.66/dozen) and Trader Joes has them at $0.79/dozen as their current price. Around a month or two ago they were $0.39/dozen, but I don't know why they were that cheap. It must be regional that the prices are so low over here.0 -
My maintenance is only 1300 since I'm crazy short. It does suck but my Fitbit always adds calories for me unless I just lie around and don't do crap all day. I usually eat eggs or greek yogurt for breakfast and for dinner always a grilled meat of some sort and vegetables. Almost always have a half a peanut butter and honey sandwich after work. I know it isn't healthy but diet soda helps me in the afternoons. I'm not giving up on that. I love it.
Your TDEE is 1300? Out of interest how tall are you and what is your weight?0
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