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Ditch the Ceasar salad dressing, try some of the good vinegars out now. You can have a gigantic salad, minus the Ceasars and a few fat free croutons instead of a cup. I go with the spring greens, organic tomatoes and red onions myself. I once lost quite a bit of weight eating a large salad, a piece of fruit and two Lein Cuisines a day. That kept me under 1200 and I didn't have to worry about weighing my food and all.
I'm trying to eat more "real" food and get away from the frozen dinners...although I'm sure Lean Cuisine is probably better than that Banquet garbage I could afford. Still, I'm trying to eat something real. = )
Yah, I've cut down, way down, on the croutons. And...it's ok...it's not as bad as I thought.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bideshi
You can eat ten pounds of lettuce and still be under 1200 calories.
But in my first post, I said I didn't want to eat like a rabbit...hence, this would not work for me. But yah, I hear ya.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NCN
Bideshi, I got a good laugh out of that.
Came back to share a book I found at the grocery store in one of those book piles of things on sale.
It is called THE WOMAN'S DAY WEIGHT-LOSS PLAN by Kathy Keenan Isoldi
Published in 2003 Original price was $22.95. ISBN 2-85018-645-7. She includes menus for 30 days of 1200 calories per day. She also includes what type of food each item is so you can substitute if you want to. 168 pages of diet information and suggestions for ways to stick to the diet and some recipes.
I find my biggest problem in dieting is boredom because I tend to choose the same foods over and over again until I have a hard time even looking at them. So this book is a boredom saver for me. I just look at what day of the month it is and go to that number to see how she planned it. I can follow her diet completely or if the list says one fruit, I can choose my own.
You're counting is off. I have no idea what brand of shake you're consuming, so I can't look up the calories on it. But here's what I have according to Myfitnesspal:
Breakfast:
1 banana = 100
2 cups of some kind of soy shake = UNKNOWN CALORIES
--------------------
Total breakfast: ??? 100+
LUNCH:
1/2 roasted chicken breast - no skin, no bone = 142 (that'd be roasted in its own juice, no oil or fats added) = 142
10 generic croutons = 25
1 roma tomato = 50
2 tablespoons of Ken's oil and balsamic vinaigrette (you didn't specify which so I took a guess): 60
Lettuces and greens = call it 25 total for a couple of cups.
------------------
TOTAL LUNCH: 302
DINNER:
1 cup low-fat yogurt = 208
1 cup frozen strawberries, unsweetened = 77
1 unspecified granola bar with chocolate = 120 (I'm assuming you actually took that calorie amount from the wrapper)
--------------------------------
TOTAL DINNER: 405
TOTAL DAY: 807 calories
Now here's the scary part:
6 grams (tomato), 34 grams (yogurt), 10 grams (strawberries), 8 grams (granola bar) = 58 grams of sugar = 232 calories of sugar = more than 1/4 of your entire day's caloric intake was sugar.
You NEED to cut back on your sugar intake. A *cup* of yogurt is too much yogurt. A *cup* of strawberries is too many strawberries. That's too much sugar to eat in a single meal, ESPECIALLY if that's all you're eating for that meal.
Now - notice I did -not- add in your shake, because I have no idea what shake you're drinking, and so I can't include the calories or the sugar content of them. But you say you had *two* cups of it for breakfast PLUS a banana.
That's too much sugar for breakfast, and not enough *food.*
Tomorrow, scramble an egg for breakfast, toss it on a single slice of toast, fold it in half, and eat it as your breakfast sandwich. Add ONE cup of that shake stuff, and have HALF a banana for your mid-morning snack.
The chicken and salad was great, but you still would be saving money AND doing a better job with your diet if you splashed your own olive oil and vinegar on the salad. Once you use up that dressing, don't bother buying more. It really is just a waste of money for overprocessed crap that can't beeven -close- to as good tasting as your own.
When you eat yogurt, you should eat 6-8 ounces. That's one cup of yogurt. But it *includes* the strawberries. That's a snack, not dinner. Here's another recipe for you, you can make enough to last you three days and pick from it, either hot OR cold, it's good either way:
A half pound of green beans. Snap or chop the tips off (I don't know why you're supposed to do that, but you are, so just do it ).
Stir-fry that in around 2 tablespoons of olive oil, on LOW heat, til the beans wilt and start to get bendy and flaccid.
Add 3-4 take-out packets of chinese restaurant soy sauce. Stir briskly to coat all the beans.
Let it simmer for a few minutes while you mince up two decent-sized cloves of garlic.
Toss the garlic in the pan, stir it around for around 1 minute. No longer, or you'll brown the garlic and it'll taste bitter.
Serve, and save the leftovers for the next day's supper side-dish. It's low fat, in that there's two tablespoons of oil for three servings.
You can also buy frozen broccoli tops in in the supermarket, there are "steamers" that are often on sale for only $1.29 a package, and that package is 2-3 full-sized servings (it usually says 4 but those would be tiny servings and it'd be assuming you're eating 2 servings of OTHER veggies with the meal).
And then you can buy a single potato, pre-wrapped in saran, for around $1.49. Nuke it for 6 minutes, slice it open, scrape out a thumb-length hollow in it, fill that hollow up with chopped chives and a few pinches of cheddar cheese, and eat with a fork and knife. Eat the skin too. TONS of nutrition, very low fat.
I agree its all sugar and carb based. Let add some more good protien. I mean talk about losing weight , yes but you dont just lose fat, you lose muscle and water too. I think the goal would to be lose mostly fat and a high carb sugar intake wont do that. you need to preserve your lean muscle mass. think about this. I have friends who dieted and lost weight, only to gain it back as all fat. However they lose alot of muscle. They now look fatter!!!
I'm no diet expert,but you say you burn 300 calories doing Wii fit.
Aren't you supposed to add those calories back into your diet?
Meaning you could go up to 1500 calories per day?
I know sparkpeople does it that way.
You're referring to "net calories."
Myfitnesspal does the same thing but it's important to understand what it "means."
You burn around 1000 calories just sitting on a couch watching TV for 16 hours a day, then sleeping for 8 hours a day. (I don't know the exact amount, it's posted all over the internet and I don't want to look it up. But use that as a hypothetical and plug in the appropriate number when you find it)
That doesn't mean you can eat another 1000 calories.
That 1250 calories the program says you can eat, takes into consideration that you're burning off 1000 calories just by existing. If existing didn't burn off 1000 calories, you'd have to only eat 250 calories, to get the same result.
If you burn 1250 calories during the day instead of just the base 1000, then yes you should include another 250 calories in your menu, to "net" 1250 calories ingested. But that doesn't mean you can eat a twinkie, because you *still* have to satisfy the maximum carbs, since the calories are broken down into categories. You're "allowed" to have X carbs, X proteins, X fats, X cholesterol - whatever criteria you have chosen to add into the mix or whatever criteria the program has created for you.
If those "extra" 250 calories are pure sugar, you'll go over your carb limit. If those extra calories are mostly fat, you'll go over your fat limit.
This is WHY it is so hard to meet the max-calorie limits when you're using those programs as a guide for healthy weight loss; because when you make those calories low-fat, low-carb, low-sodium, and low-cholesterol, they end up being just too many calories to stuff in your face since it's likely to be 1/2 pound of chicken breast and 20 pounds of lettuce.
The thing is, if you do it right, you can eat a lot more food for 1200 calories a day than you think. You don't have to eat like a rabbit. A big muffin and coffee might be 500 calories, but you can have a small egg white veggie omelet with whole wheat toast and fruit, which is more food, for almost the same or fewer calories. You can eat more grilled chicken breast with steamed vegetables for the same amout of calories as your spaghetti. You're not depriving yourself, you're improving your options.
ditto to this. I eat egg white with vegetables alot and its good for you and not many calories.
@ OP, have you tried making your own soup? I do that sometimes, it's really cheap, easy, low calories and can last you several days That way you can decide how much sodium you want in it too (just add more water to make it less salty). You can use those powder packages or bottled broths to make soup. Add the vegetables and meat you like (e.g. little meatballs for tomato soup, chicken filet for chicken soup). I think it tastes better than canned soup
I'm no diet expert,but you say you burn 300 calories doing Wii fit.
Aren't you supposed to add those calories back into your diet?
Meaning you could go up to 1500 calories per day?
I know sparkpeople does it that way.
Hi. From what I've read on various sites, you could but some people say that they don't add back their calories that they worked off. Honestly, I don't know the proper way to do it so right now, I don't add it back in to the diet. I'm gonna guess that's probably wrong.
If I can eat 1200 cals a day and I burn off 300, wouldn't that mean I ate what I was supposed to but did extra and can lose weight while getting toned? Hell, I don't know. Never had this problem when I was younger, I just ate what I wanted and did the activities I wanted and never counted a thing.
So far this week alone I've lost 5.6 pounds which I know is too fast...and part of that was because I was too afraid to eat anything else later in the day or it was too late in the day to eat more.
I've also read about some people doing a "cheat" day where they allow themselves, periodically, to eat whatever they want, (not like going bat spit crazy and gorging but allowing them to eat more than they would have, on that day). Not sure if I'm going to do that or not.
All I know is I have to eat 1200 cals or less and that exercise is good. That's pretty much all I know.
Last edited by Three Wolves In Snow; 11-21-2012 at 05:40 PM..
That pound of meat might cost $5-6, but if it's only you, you'd get 4 portions out of it, so really, that's not bad at all when you think of it.
Yah...that's a good point. I guess I'm not over the sticker shock just yet. Prices of things went up quite a bit in the last year or so. Used to be, you could get hamburger and make Hamburger Helper or Meat Loaf as a "save money" dinner but not so much these days.
I sound like an old person anymore. "What the heck are these prices? This is highway robbery! And get offa my lawn while you're at it!"
I have to change my way of thinking, there, too, I see. LOTS of changes going on...just want to succeed at any of them and not give up on all of them. Like I said, I may not do this exactly as anyone else may think I should, but I AM doing something.
@ OP, have you tried making your own soup? I do that sometimes, it's really cheap, easy, low calories and can last you several days That way you can decide how much sodium you want in it too (just add more water to make it less salty). You can use those powder packages or bottled broths to make soup. Add the vegetables and meat you like (e.g. little meatballs for tomato soup, chicken filet for chicken soup). I think it tastes better than canned soup
Never tried that. Maybe I could experiment...not sure how to make it thicker...or maybe I'm used to the canned stuff. How would you make it thicker and not so watery?
I suppose I should start to get to know the kitchen other than the microwave!
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