How is it my current diet? Lost 65 pounds so far

HatchingDragon
HatchingDragon Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Started off 264 pounds. Went on this diet in addition to an hour and a half of exercise everyday and lost 65 pounds so far, gonna continue until I reach 160 pounds. Seems to be working as far as weight loss goes, no concerns there, just wondering if it's good from a nutrition perspective. Each day, this is all the food I eat, I'm mentioning this in no particular order, so this is not a plan that goes meal by meal, just a list of all the food I eat throughout the day. My current calories are 2700 a day. I know that's high, but I found I needed to keep it up to have enough energy throughout the day, and I exercise over an hour to burn it off.
Quite a bit of brown rice. 3 servings of fruit (usually grapes and bananas, sometimes oranges). Good amount of grilled chicken breast. Some salmon. One can of plain tuna. Handful of nuts (usually cashews, sometimes almonds). 3/4 cup black beans. 100 grams of avocado. Some olives, usually kalamata but sometimes spanish. 3-4 oz of firm tofu. 1 boiled egg. 3 cups of steamed veggies (1-cup is spinach, rest is peas, carrots, green beans, corn). 1 cup skim milk with my tea. I know it isn't perfect, but as long as it's good and improves on my health previously (lots of fast food, junk, pizza, etc), and better than most Americans, and there's nothing dangerous about it, I'm fine.

Replies

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,176 Member
    That sounds good - better than most, as you say - but there's really no way to evaluate nutritional quality just from a list of foods. Moreover, other details about your life may matter (types of exercise or even job, health conditions, stress levels . . . ). Certainly, your weight loss has been very successful so far - congratulations!

    If you're logging for calories, you can research proper well-rounded nutrition, and gradually work your way toward hitting whatever nutritional goals you think are optimal based on your research. Here are some sources I like (. . . which don't even necessarily all agree with one another, which is part of the fun for a nutrition nerd :lol: ):

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/819055/setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets/p1
    https://examine.com/nutrition/how-much-protein-do-you-need/
    https://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/dri-calculator/

    Personally, I settled in with goals of 0.6-0.8g protein daily per pound of healthy goal weight (roughly equivalent to 0.8-1g per pound of lean body mass), 0.35-0.45g fats per pound of bodyweight (as a female - men may do fine on a bit less; and I consider but don't measure Omega-3/Omega-6 balance, and strive for plenty of MUFA/PUFA sources), 25g+ fiber daily, and a minimum of 5+ 80g servings of varied, colorful veggies & fruits daily (shoot for 10+ servings most days). Oh, and proper calories, of course!

    Occasionally, I spot check micronutrients that I'm concerned about by looking at a few typical days in more detail, because I know MFP may be a little off when it comes to totalling up micros (because package labels don't include all of the ones I might consider important). In practice, getting plenty of the varied, colorful veggies/fruits usually keeps micros in an OK place. I also try to get some probiotic and prebiotic foods daily, but I don't try to quantify those.

    For practicality, I rounded my fat/protein macro minimums up to easy-to-remember whole numbers, and make it a point to hit those the overwhelming majority of days. (If my MFP totals end up a mix of red & green as a result, I just pretend it's Christmas :lol: ).

    I'm not saying my specific goals would/should work for anyone but me, or that there's anything magical about them. I'm just trying to say that if you're not doing so now, and want to take your nutrition to a little more structured level, this general kind of approach is something you can do pretty easily, if already food logging.

    Best wishes!
  • Hanibanani2020
    Hanibanani2020 Posts: 523 Member
    Get a blood test every now and again to check levels - that’s the only way. Make sure also that this diet is sustainable and what you plan to eat at maintenance and not just during your diet. Weightloss and maintenance is a lifestyle. Diet indicates once you reach your goal it will finish.
  • Mithridites
    Mithridites Posts: 600 Member
    edited July 2020
    A whole can of tuna every day may be high on mercury, but otherwise your diet sounds good and your loss so far is tremendous! Congratulations! If you are concerned, the FDA recommends spacing out servings of chunk light tuna to every 4 days. Mussels, shrimp, oysters, sardines and herring have great protein and much less mercury, as they are lower on the food chain than tuna.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,238 Member
    edited July 2020
    And salmon!

    However I would caution the OP, that I get the impression from their post that they're associating a fairly precise method of eating and a substantial amount of exercise with their success with weight loss so far.

    Starting from the obese range it is extremely unlikely that losing weight without planning for an extremely long and persistent follow-up (that has to include a willingness to continue to adjust and to intervene to manage weight levels long-term enough to be called indefinitely) will work out as desired.

    So I would strongly suggest that having met with initial success adjustments should start soon to develop patterns and methods of "permanent" eating. To develop a personal diet (using the word to describe the totality of what is consumed instead of just a method designed to elicit a caloric deficit).

    Also even further awareness of caloric balance should be considered. There is exercise and there's exercise. And we're not always going to be able to exercise 1.5 hours a day from now till we're 99 and a half. This doesn't mean that we're not going to be able to still manage our weight.

    So these are things to keep in mind moving forward while continuing in this path of success.

    Sustainability is your long term friend.

  • nooshi713
    nooshi713 Posts: 4,877 Member
    It seems you’re doing amazing with weight loss and with your choice of foods from a health perspective. If you can and you enjoy them, try to vary the fruits you eat, because they all have unique vitamins. You’re doing awesome!

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