need help with planning a weight loss meal plan.

Maybe base it in what she normally eats and swapping out ingredients for lower cal options or reducing portion sizes?
What are normal meals in your house?

Personally, I like to keep things simple which makes it easy to make food and not look at it as a chore.
Examples:
egg with piece of toast in the morning.
Protein shake mid morning
Chicken with vegetables or salad at lunch
yogurt mid afternoon snack
Chicken or other protein with veggies and a sweet potato or brown rice for dinner

Grill a bunch of chicken on sunday and have it for the week. The easier and simpler the better I think. Easier to measure or weigh for logging too.

recodeexistance wrote: »

Thanks for the responses guys and girls.

Main takeaway would be - eat what she likes, just manage portions to fit caloric requirements?
Personally my advice was for her to go with perhaps the .5 or 1lb per week option, but she wants what she wants xD

@ Rochelle, it tends to be things like pasta and cheese, iceland indian takeaway range (chicken madras pilau rice), actual takeaways (vindalloo), fried egg sandwiches, slice+share garlic bread pizza thing, ahhmm. a few other things that i can't remember off the top of my head, but generally rotating around the same foods until bored, then switching , then switching back lol. (i eat my own diet plan though, above is just my wifes food preferences)

Swap pasta for shiritaki noodles if she likes them,
Cheese go for a slightly lower calorie version (I’m a cheese fiend so have to do this too lol)
Cauliflower rice with curry will save some calories
Reduce portions of garlic pizza or musclefood does a low cal garlic bread pizza thing (I’m assuming you’re UK based on you saying Iceland lol otherwise try a supplier other than muscle food)
Have fried egg on toast as it’s half the bread (so halves those calories) - fry the egg in a 1cal oil spray rather than butter or oil

Just nice easy little adjustments :-)
Hope this helps x

I have lost 40 pounds in 10 months and eat ice cream a lot. It’s really just portion size.

I do make some swaps like using almond milk on my cereal and in anything I cook that I will eat. I swap half to 3/4 of my rice with riced cauliflower. I have discovered a alfrado recipe using almond milk that taste pretty good, and is easier on the calories. I make Sheppard’s pie with mashed cauliflower, so I can have full fat cheese and not blow my calories for the day. Little “tricks” like these really help you feel full, and still enjoy foods you love, and have room for desserts!

When I started this process in 2012 I too had trouble figuring out food...
What worked for me was getting a food scale (yea! gift exchange at work during holidays) and digging out the measuring spoons and cups Every time I served myself!.
Reading labels and finding what I thought was a serving was in fact sometimes 3+ servings was a Real wake-up...
I measured EVERYTHING I was going to eat and charted on here.
Trying to keep my calories in the allotted 1200 calories each day plus started to try to walk down to end of block and back...it was not easy I won't lie, but I stuck with it with goal of being able to walk completely around the block - slowly but I make it.
Remembering to NOT berate myself when I ate more or badly was a Big thing too. Sounds like she is ahead of the game with your support (something some of us Do not get) so she is lucky in that respect.
I continued to eat what I wanted just learned portion control and charting. There are NO foods that I deem off limits I just continue to measure/portion control. Some days I am over and some days I am a bit under (those are rare) but I do try to keep between 1200-1300 each day.
Also, what worked for a friend was just measuring and charting a "normal" week - before cutting her calorie count down so she had an idea what she had been doing and not cut so drastically at first...this gave her body time to adjust to less and not feel deprived.
There is NO Fast Easy way...it is a day to day process over time. Yes, it does work and yes, you will backslide at times but you still keep going. Life is hectic and full so therefore, learning to ease up on yourself and the self-doubt nagging internal voice for me tends to be the hardest.
The recipe section where I can put in a recipe and see how much the calories are is a great feature & I use it a lot too. This way family gets what they like too and I know I can eat and how much to keep within my individual guidelines for that day.
Good Luck and Keep Good Thoughts.

I'd start by logging what she's currently eating for a few days so you have a baseline for what her current normal is. From there, you should have a pretty good idea of how much needs to be cut. Then, let her make some decisions about what is or isn't worth cutting based on calories and taste/desire for said food.

As for what she can eat vs what she's willing to eat... they don't have to be different. Heck, getting started they probably shouldn't be wildly different. But everyone is different in terms of what/how much change they find tolerable, so some trial and error might be necessary.

Just as a side note - I'd make sure 1200 cals is a reasonable intake for her. It may be, but it might not be. 2 minutes of double-checking is well worth it, IMO.