Need help and guidance- Please!

What’s working for me this time is low carb and exercise. I am obese and will be for a while but I’ve lost 15lb and it’s coming off at about 2lb a week with the odd week staying the same.

I log everything I eat and any drinks except black coffee and water on here. I aim for under 100g of carbs but that’s not a hard and fast rule. I find I lose better when I cut out bread, rice and potato and reduce pasta to once a week at the most.

I’m not a big fan of breakfast, never have been so I set a window of 12-8 when I eat and I chuck as much veg at my meals as possible to bulk them out so I don’t feel hungry. For example lunch today was sugar snap peas, baby corn and mushrooms steamed, then I added finely sliced spring onions, sliced up wafer thin chicken, a rasher of pre-cooked crispy bacon and a teaspoon of butter, salt and pepper. Gave it all a good mix so the butter melted. It was delicious, filling and only about 200 calories.

Dinner was fresh egg tagliatelle, with green beans, spring onions, a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of Parmesan.

When I really want a chocolate treat, when I’ve thought about it, waited a bit and still want it, I make a small hot chocolate with my tassimo machine which is 67 calories. It’s just enough to sate the need without ruining my days count.

For exercise I signed up on the Our Parks website and am doing the Couch to Fitness programme which is a 9 week programme of 3 workouts a week getting progressively harder. They show modifications on every video if you can’t manage the full exercise, it’s free and can be done in your living room with no equipment.

I have found that making my own recipes in the MFP recipe builder, and using a food scale: allow me to eat alot of food and stay within my calorie limits.

The 'trick' is to figure out what foods fill you up. Some people do great with low carb, high fat for example. Personally I don't follow any 'plan' but I've come to recognize my own tendencies. For example, my days don't contain much in the way of vegetables or fruit so I have to try to put those in more often. And since I've figured out that I feel full longer on 'home cooked' food (rather than frozen low calorie meals) I've started cooking 2-3 dishes on Sundays, portioning them into single servings and freezing them. My goal is to have a freezer of options so that I can have a variety of different meals, so I can put one in the fridge 6-12 hours before I intend to eat it, then defrost in the microwave for 30-60 seconds before heating it up in the microwave. And this way I don't 'need' to come home from work and cook.

When cooking, look for ways to make the foods you normally eat - but make them a little less calorie heavy. For example, this past weekend I made sloppy joes. (Hamburger meat - browned/crumbled/drained/rinsed, peppers & onions, sugar, ketchup, vinegar, dry mustard.) Instead of using sugar, I used a 0 cal replacement. That saved 800 calories across the entire recipe. And you could not tell the difference.

Look for substitutions, things you can leave out, or different ways of cooking meals. Such as grilled or baked instead of fried in oil. Larger quantities of lean meats, vegetables and smaller quantities of higher calorie sides like rice, potatoes.

Things I've recently cooked, some to freeze and others to eat as leftovers without freezing:

Sloppy joe meat (I eat w/ a fork, not on a bun)
Potato soup in the slow cooker
Baked pasta made w/ hot turkey sausage
Egg roll 'filling' which is pork sausage browned/crumbled, shredded cabbage, soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, garlic
Shrimp "Fried" rice made in a rice cooker

On my menu to make in the next two weeks:
Garlic chicken & asparagus
Meatloaf made with 85/15 ground turkey and blue cheese crumbles
Black beans & rice
Spaghetti squash w/ turkey sausage and marinara sauce

So real food can still be a way to lose weight. ITs not about what you eat, but how much.