Alternatives to Sandwiches?
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Bread is great unless you don't cross your cal requirements. If bread is boring you go for more meat and veggies.0
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Bread is calorie dense and some breads come in huge portions. The key to eating bread on a calorie budget is to find a bread that you like that comes in small slices. I tried one brand that only had 50ish calories per slice, but it was so thin that it turned to melba toast in the toaster, and it would fall apart if you tried to make a sandwich from it. So, that was a no. But then I found an in-store baked bread which is only 70 calories per slice (at 1 oz per slice; 25 g after toasting). It's just thick enough to hold up (and still be toast-like instead of cracker-like after toasting). Find a bread that looks not-huge and relatively thin sliced, and weigh a few slices to check that it lives up to its nutritional information label.1
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None. The correct answer is none alrernatives.0
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I use either large tortilla wraps which are comparatively lower in calories than a couple of slices of bread and because they are smooth you can use barely 2 or 3 grams of butter instead of 5+.
Ive also recently discovered New york Bagel company do a new range of thin precautions ones which are a similar idea to the sandwich thins. About 130 cals per bagel1 -
Ideas for lunches without bread:
Fill a plastic container full of salad, rocket, lettuces, fresh herbs, chickpeas, cherry tomatoes, alfalfa, capsicum, corn, beetroot, nuts... Keep your dressings and protein separate until lunch and mix together. Protein ideas: small can of tuna, grilled chicken, strips of lamb or beef.
Leftovers from dinner are great but if you don't have access to a microwave try making a batch of ground beef with delicious spicy flavours you like. Then you can make lettuce wraps with a bit of rice, cheese, ground beef mixture, avocado and capsicum. Still yummy when cold!
Those little plastic containers with the separate divisions are really handy for keeping elements separate and reduce the soggy!
If you can cook your lunch I love to make a little rocket salad, half an avocado with a sprinkle of olive oil and lemon juice and then add two eggs on top either poached or fried. Dust the eggs with paprika, cumin and salt and mmmm mmmm.
Oh my list could go on but I'll stop there. I'm getting hungry thinking about it
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I use either large tortilla wraps which are comparatively lower in calories than a couple of slices of bread
Really? I find tortillas can come in at a solid 200 cal each, depending on the size. If you ever try making them you'll see that your don't get any more tortillas out of a given weight of dough than you would slices if you made a loaf. Bread just looks bigger. Even home made bread is minimum 50% air by volume, often more, and factory bread is a lot more.
Don't get me wrong, I love tortillas and eat them a lot. But they are an equivalent to bread, not a low cal substitute.
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My favourite lunch is tossed mixed salad leaves with tomatoes, chopped eggs, ham /chicken/ prawns with some thousand island dressing or balsamic vinegar - its filling and really tasty.
I also make up a tuna pasta salad - one can of tuna drained and added to cooked pasta, with spring onion, sweet corn, peppers and all tossed in a hot chilli dressing...yum. (delicious hot or cold)0 -
CattOfTheGarage wrote: »I use either large tortilla wraps which are comparatively lower in calories than a couple of slices of bread
Really? I find tortillas can come in at a solid 200 cal each, depending on the size. If you ever try making them you'll see that your don't get any more tortillas out of a given weight of dough than you would slices if you made a loaf. Bread just looks bigger. Even home made bread is minimum 50% air by volume, often more, and factory bread is a lot more.
Don't get me wrong, I love tortillas and eat them a lot. But they are an equivalent to bread, not a low cal substitute.
Well yeah You aren't that far wrong as bread would be 200-220 and in comparison my tortillas i use are about 185 but like I said as well the slightly lower calories the fact you can use half the butter is pretty important also increasing the difference between them.0 -
Agree with others, there's nothing bad about bread. The only problem it poses to weight loss is if it causes you to exceed your calorie goal.0
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I use Brownberry sandwich thins, or Thomas high fiber English muffins when I want a sandwich. 100 calories each.0
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monkeystyxx wrote: »What do you guys do for a quick take-to-work lunch that doesn't involve bread?
Things I take to work that aren't sandwiches. Plenty quick if you do a little food prep on the weekends or night before:
Leftovers, packed when I eat dinner the night before
Soup or chili - make a pot on the weekend, and grab a container from the fridge on the way to work
Stew
Salads, usually taco salad or greens with marinated chickpeas or black bean salsa. I prep the vegetables and protein on the weekend, and build the salad in the morning. Usually takes about 5 minutes. Dole chopped salad kits are tasty and fast - I split them into two meals and add some rotisserie chicken.
Burrito bowls - a little rice, peppers, and black beans, carnitas or chicken, salsa and avocado. Easy to prep ahead and they freeze really well.
Hard boiled or soft boiled eggs, rice, avocado
Frozen dinners and cans of soup - I keep a few around for days when I'm not prepared
When I do take sandwiches, I sometimes make them on toasted English muffins. Light on calories and quite tasty! I eat all of these foods and stay under 130ish g of carbs daily if that's important to you. I also frequently eat bread and haven't had trouble losing weight.2 -
I like to make overnight oats for lunch. I find it more filling than a sandwich. You can adjust it to your macros. My favourite is:
200g low fat greek yogurt
25g of granola (or oats)
100g blueberries
I also add a dash of cinnamon and sweetener.
I make it the night before and just grab it in the morning. So easy!2 -
I buy my deli slices - ham, roast beef, turkey, etc. - a little on the thicker side so I can roll them. I make 'roll-ups'... this gives me the tastes of the sandwich, without the carbs.
One that I like in particular is a Turkey/Waldorf Roll Up. I make a Waldorf salad out of mayo, chopped walnuts, diced apple and celery, then put a Tbsp or two on a slice of turkey and a slice of Muenster, and roll it up.
Other varieties I like are ham and Swiss with a smear of mustard, rolled around a pickle spear...or roast beef and Jarlsberg with mayo and a bit of horseradish, rolled around a slice of roasted red pepper...turkey is also good with avocado and bacon...
Use your own imagination.4 -
cerise_noir wrote: »monkeystyxx wrote: »Most of my diet has become pretty good certainly, a lot better than before, but I know bread - even delicious multigrain lovely bread - is pretty bad when trying to lose weight.
What do you guys do for a quick take-to-work lunch that doesn't involve bread?
Nah, bread is not bad for weight loss. Carbs are not bad for weight loss. Eating too many calories is bad for weight loss. Excess calories is how anyone gains weight, even animals.
I've eating a LOT of bread throughout my weight loss and it hasn't slowed me down or stopped me unless I eat over my maintenance calories.
You could always find a lower calorie per slice bread.
This.
I'm not a big fan of the taste of most breads so I use bagels, English muffins, soft tortilla shells and then tortilla chips instead
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vikinglander wrote: »I buy my deli slices - ham, roast beef, turkey, etc. - a little on the thicker side so I can roll them. I make 'roll-ups'... this gives me the tastes of the sandwich, without the carbs.
I do something similar; putting mustard on a slice of ham/chicken and rolling them up. Depending on the cut of meat, you can have a high protein but low calorie meal.0 -
I use Flatout Foldit flatbreads. 100 calories each. Neat, tidy, and various flavors. Eat them all the time instead of bread/butter.2
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Keep it simple, IMO: take the stuff you were gonna put in your sandwich, ditch the bread, and put it in a bowl instead. Put plastic wrap over the top of your bowl to carry it around.
Or get some sealable plastic box thing and put your food in that.
Bread is kinda lame, IMO. It's either 200-300 calories of _not much_ that could be spent on 20-30g of protein instead. Or the low-calorie stuff tastes bleh.0 -
The bread isn't the problem. It's the AMOUNT of bread that people eat that's the problem.monkeystyxx wrote: »Most of my diet has become pretty good certainly, a lot better than before, but I know bread - even delicious multigrain lovely bread - is pretty bad when trying to lose weight.
What do you guys do for a quick take-to-work lunch that doesn't involve bread?
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This^
OP - Elimination diets do not solve the problem (they merely avoid it for a time). This is one (of many) reasons a large majority of people gain weight back.
Do you plan on cutting out bread forever? Because if the answer is no - it's best to figure out where bread "fits" in your diet instead of being clueless when you get to goal.3
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