Advice for Truckers

Ouch, that's a hard one... how often could he make it by a store like Wal-Mart vs just a truck stop?

He can start by making the following small changes:

- cut out all caloric beverages (every restaurant/store has water and just replacing any sugary drink with water will save significant calories - and money!)

- practice portion control. It is hard to control how much food you take in when restaurants/drive-thrus are plating your meal, but learning to only eat part of a meal at each sitting or ordering smaller sized meals can really save calories.

- easy food switches, like switching fatty side dishes for green vegetables or salad. And if you're like me and don't care for vegetables, try just eating the entree and skipping sides altogether sometimes (eg. a burger and glass of water, no fries)

- have natural jerky, protein bars, nuts, fruit, and bottled water in the truck on hand for easy, sustainable snacks

- be condiment conscious (mustard instead of mayonaisse, easy on sauces/gravy/butter/oil). You can ask for modifications at restaurants and drive-thrus

Follow MFP's calorie suggestions, log religiously, and realize that small compromises at each meal add up to big weight loss success :drinker:

i am currently an otr driver and found that making my own food at home before i leave for the week helps alot. most drivers have between 8 - 14 hrs they are off duty a day so they have time to get out of the truck.

*added maybe some low carb bread and pb or pb substitute for a sandwich (i'm sure that would be better than a bag of doritos lol)

When hubs was driving we invested in getting a fridge. We bought one of those ice chest types that plug in. I think it was about $100-125. This allowed him to take veggies, fruits, lunch meat and that type of stuff. He would often go to Subway and get a couple of sandwiches since you can make those reasonably low cal and stash the extra in his fridge.

Exercise can be a tough thing. I actually saw a show once where they did trucker exercises you could do at a truck stop or really any parking lot with minimal supplies like resistance bands. I can't remember what it was called but besides possibly having other people thing you're a little odd it did look doable.

He should just pick a time of day to call morning. Since hubs had to do a lot of delivery much of his driving was kind of normal hours but I know a lot of drivers like to drive at night. It's not that relevant as long as your logging day is roughly 24 hours.

Having self restraint while he is eating out will help. Most truck stops do have salad bars, sometimes non-starchy soups and go for the not fried, not breaded stuff.

Snacks besides fruit and veg could be beef jerky, nuts etc. He just wants to make sure he's not mindlessly eating the high cal stuff. Hubs would often do that just because he would be bored.

My husband is a truck driver, and what is working for him is a low carb diet. I personally cant follow one because I am miserable on something like that but it works for him. He usually stocks up before he leaves on diet tea, coffee, and sugar free koolaids&crystal light.. then he just tries to avoid white foods, and sugar. He takes the bread off hamburgers, he gets the buffet, orders eggs and bacon..etc sometimes he cooks a steak and veggies on a george forman grill. If he is bobtailing he can grocery shop..but it isnt often he can do this.
Anyways.. He has dropped 50 pounds this way.

It can get expensive trying to eat healthy. I am always shocked how much everything cost when I work up his receipts for taxes. Goodluck to u both. God Bless.

Bumping for @bigtanklucas2001