Help me improve my diet

Try going to eatingwell.com and click on meal plans and select the diabetes one. There should be a 2000 calorie plan. Hope this helps

Doing that much cardio: have you been cleared by a medical professional?

If you need to eat often to keep your blood sugar level, then don't ignore that. For your size and activity level: is 2000 calories daily a realistic goal? Depending on age your total daily energy use BEFORE exercise is approximately 3000 if daily life is fairly inactive/sedentary. Higher if you are more active in your job & hobbies. If you walked 3.0 mph for 2 hours, that would perhaps burn 800-1000 more as a reasonably careful estimate.

So if you were burning 4000+ daily, eating 2000 should result in 4 pounds per week lost. That is more than the generally recommended 1% of your body weight or 2 pounds, whichever is higher. If you're not able to figure out a way to be satiated and SAFE on 2000 daily, maybe you need to move the goal up? Or reduce the cardio? Otherwise ultimate results are likely to be binging (from being hungry all the time), lack of energy, inability to complete your workouts as well as you should, and potential organ damage. Losing aggressively results in muscle loss in additional to fat loss, and the heart is a muscle.

The main reason I asked about seeking medical advice: if you go from inactive to doing 2.5 hours exercise daily, that could put a lot of stress on one's body. Of course, if the exercise/activity is not new that is less concerning.

I disagree- this is definitely something people clear with their GP. If you haven't done that level of exercise for 10 years, you should chat with a GP before embarking on 2 hours of cardio a day. You may have done it in the past but you're now 10 years older. Every gym I've ever belonged to has signs up about consulting with your GP before embarking on a new exercise regime.

As mentioned above, losing 2kg a week is excessive and aggressive, which will add to the stress you're putting on your body. At least call the surgery and ask for a telephone consultation.

Did you enter your details in to the MFP Guided Set up? I don't think it'll allow you to select 2kg a week but at 1kg (which is 2.2lb) a week, how many calories did it give you? I assume you are aware that that's how many calories you should eat before deliberate exercise, so you should also be fueling your workouts on top of that. You'd log your exercise separately and eat those calories too.

To answer the question you actually asked, if you're at risk of hypos, I'd continue snacking but look to make better choices across all meals / snacks to fit your calorie needs.


ETA: Go to the NHS's BMI site and enter your details. It recommends how many calories you should eat to help you lose weight. Just remember that that would be before exercise, which you also need to fuel. https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-weight/bmi-calculator/

AnnPT77 wrote: »

rupeshpatre78 wrote: »

10 years ago. I did this workout regime. Its not new its something I've done in the past.

Trying to go straight to a high level of exercise you did 10 years ago carries a high risk of being counterproductive for weight loss. Poor recovery and fatigue (subtle or profound) can bleed calorie expenditure out of daily life, and stress-related water fluctuations can cause confusing scale results, among other issues. Ten years is a long time. It would be smart, for weight loss, fitness improvement, and health to gradually ramp up to the level you were at 10 years ago.

If you need snacks to avoid blood sugar problems, then eat snacks. They're not magically injurious: Just make nutritious choices, and include them in your calorie goal. It'll be fine.

Yes, I can have 558 calories worth of World's Best Chocolate Chip Cookies as a snack, or I can have 138 calories of cottage cheese and fruit (which actually fills me up more.)

If something is not filling: to me that would not be worth the calories involved. Question: as a diabetic, do you have issues with keeping your blood sugar level due to the quantity of carbs you are consuming per meal? My knowledge is limited, and I know that some diabetics do have this problem. If so, what is your recommended # of carbs per meal?

Your breakfast seems large to me in terms of quantity of food. I know there is a volume eater's group (or maybe its a discussion thread somewhere) that perhaps someone who knows better can drop in for you. Cutting the cereal & milk quantity in half, maybe adding some spinach/peppers/mushrooms to the eggs can help there.

Perhaps apple slices + peanut butter. To me that combo is a filling snack. A dab of peanut butter on each slice, weighed out, could be a snack in the 150-200 calorie range.

Combination of lean meat and some cheese, on its own or on crackers.

Carrots (or other raw veggies) and hummus.

Personally I also don't see a reason to 'drink' fruits or veggies. So instead of drinking 150+ calories of carrot juice, I'd have carrots. More of the nutrition and less calories.

Before you buy plums etc, check their carb content. Blueberries and raspberries are lower calorie (and lower carb) fruits to add to cereals than dried fruit. You can buy them ready-frozen or just freeze what you buy fresh; overnight, defrost what you need for breakfast. 

I make up my own muesli / granola mix, combining a selection of cereals, mostly low sugar ones. Check the carbs-per-100g and buy a selection for variety. Some will be higher in carbs / sugar / fat, some will be higher in protein - by mixing them, I get the best of it all and minimise the worst aspects. I also chop and add a pack or two of wholefood nuts (Tesco). The whole lot goes in to a large Tupperware container. I create a recipe in MFP, add the quantities of each cereal / nuts and then work out how many servings the whole lot added together makes. I weigh out my required portion for breakfast. I then add chia seeds (more fibre, less cals than flaxseeds) and some soya yoghurt.

Plain Greek yoghurt (or Alpro no-sugar soya yoghurt) might be more filling than milk, so you'd need less cereal than you're currently eating.  My typical breakfast (if I don't have bacon, eggs, mushrooms and grilled tomato) is soya yoghurt + berries + 1/2 serving of my muesli-granola mix + 7g chia seeds.  Sometimes, depending on my plans for the morning, I'll also have a hard-boiled egg.

A 3-egg omelette with mushrooms, spinach and/or tomatoes would be a lower cal, filling breakfast (or lunch) too. 


For snacks:
Consider hard-boiled eggs. 66 cals per egg.  You could have a couple, mid morning. 

As with breakfast, replace your banana with berries. I assume you're adding this to yoghurt, but if not that's a tasty snack. 

Add a tbsp (or 2) of chia seeds to 100ml Greek yoghurt, stir, let it sit in the fridge for a few hours or overnight and you've made chia pudding.  You could add berries to that.

Lentil Curls / lentil crisps are an OK snack for when you're out and about. I like Tesco's own brand and also Asda's ones. They're under 100 cals and although the carb count is high, per 100g, the packs are small so the actual carb count is low. 

Or look at popcorn. Can't remember the name of the brand, but it's something like Proper Corn (the outer bag is bright yellow) and each bag (sweet & salty ones) is 63 cals.

Chop up an apple and chop up a small amount of cheese (approx 40g) and mix them together.  Mini babybels are easy to carry. Not especially low calorie, but a couple would be better than a cereal bar.  

As you like carrots, how about some chopped carrots, perhaps with one of the (really) small pots of homous? M&S and Tesco (and probably others) sell them as a pack of three.

Or, how about having a can of sardines or tuna? Eat straight from the tin. 

I agree that you definitely need to look for better meal choices than having 7 snack / cereal bars in one day though.  Replace one bar with an apple and some cheese, one with some yoghurt and berries, one with carrot sticks and homous and another with a couple of hard boiled eggs. Wean yourself off the cereal bars!

I would swap out the cereal. A combo of high-protein (Greek yoghurt or skyr) and a more complex carb like a rye / sourdough multigrain bread would give you more for your calories here. I would also sub in an apple and a small piece of cheese for at least 1 snack. Or a serving of nuts/seeds.