Weight-Loss A Little Help, Please

Weight-Loss
G

Garrete

0
In looking for healthy nutrition information, I found the mypyramid.gov site. Would that be good to listen to what they suggest for diet? I worked out just one day and here is how it works out:
Breakfast
· Turkey sausage
· 2% milk (reduced fat)
· Oatmeal
· Cucumber

Snack 1
· Bagel (plain)
· Peanut butter
· Dried fruit (apricot, apple, etc.)
· Raw carrots
·


Lunch
· Dry beans, cooked with fat
· Wheat or cracked wheat bread
· American cheese (processed)
· Baked chicken breast (no skin)
o Low-calorie salad dressing
· Tub margarine

Snack 2
· Plain yogurt, fat free
· Dried fruit (apricot, apple, etc.)
· Baked potato, plain (eat peel)
o Creamy dressing (ranch)

Dinner
· Roast pork (lean)
· 2% milk (reduced fat)
· Spaghetti, macaroni, or pasta (plain)
o Tub margraine
· Wheat or cracked wheat bread
· Cooked green peas
o Tub margraine

Snack 3
· Cucumber
· Wheat or cracked wheat bread
· Apple (raw)
That will give me around, I don't remember the exact number, 2,200 calories. Or basically the site suggests that some type of vegetable needs to be eaten at every meal, sometimes doubling up on a meal or three. ;)

Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks. :cheers2:
 
I'm no expert, but it looks as though your'e missing LOTS of veggies
 
I don't see a whole lot of veggies there, and the few that you do have are pretty un-nutritious. Cucumbers are good, but they're mostly water and few nutrients. The general rule is that the darker and more colorful the veggie, the more nutrients.

Also you have to be careful with dried fruit. The process of drying concentrates the sugars in the fruit, which makes it a very sugary treat. It also removes a lot of the fibers and bulk that make many fruits beneficial - the point of eating an apple is not just the vitamin c, but the fiber and bulk that help regulate your digestive system. When you dry it, you lose that fiber and bulk.

Processed American cheese and tub margarine are junk and nothing but wasted calories. If you want cheese, then eat real cheese in healthy quantities (an ounce at a time). I personally would rather allow the calories for a tsp of real butter than processed "tub margarine". Bleah.

I think a better step than trying to cram your diet into the food pyramid structure (which I think is well intentioned, but not useful for most people) is to make 2 changes to your diet:

Number 1: Eliminate packaged and processed foods as much as possible. If it's not something your grandmother or great grandmother would recognize as "food" - e.g. they could grow it or make it themselves and it doesn't come wrapped in plastic or in a box - then don't eat it.

Number 2: Focus on getting a variety of brightly colored WHOLE fruits and veggies into every meal or snack. Then fill in with proteins and grains. Make veggies and fruits the focus of your eating, not an afterthought side dish.

For example, here's the kind of thing I eat every day: whole blueberries with breakfast, an apple for a snack, a dark spinach salad with carrots and beets with my lunch, tomato juice for a snack, steamed broccoli and a salad with dinner. Then I fill in around the veggies with lean protein next - grilled, baked, broiled fish, chicken, lean pork, turkey, whatever. Then finally as a last resort I add grains - complex whole grains, though, not processed flour. That means brown rice, quinoa, whole grain bread, oats (not the packaged kind, the whole kind), whole wheat pastas, etc.

I cook with olive oil and real butter. I don't use margarine, or anything reduced fat that has had thickeners added (like yogurt). I do use 2% milk most of the time.

Hope that helps you some. Feel free to ask more questions. Changing how you eat is not something you learn overnight ... it'll take you a while to figure it out, so don't get discouraged! :)
 
Oh, sorry. That was for just one day. Cucumbers are listed in the OTHER category for vegetables. I figured cucumbers would be taster for breakfast than say brussel sprouts, even though I like the sprouts.

KaraCooks, you said I have a few veggies that are un-nutritious. What were the othes?
 
Well from your list I see the following veggies:
· Cucumber
· Raw carrots
· Baked potato, plain (eat peel)
· Cooked green peas
· Cucumber

Cucumber we've covered - it's mostly water. Don't get me wrong I love cucumbers and eat tons of them, but they need to be part of a larger variety of veggies.

Carrots are good, but keep in mind that they're high in sugar. There are more calories in a serving of carrots than in other veggies.

Potatoes, while technically a veggie, should really be classed as a carb. They're very starchy and add a lot of carbs to your diet. Also most people have no idea what a single serving of potato is: it's a potato about the size of a small closed fist, not the usual giant potatoes we see in the grocery store. It's easy to eat 300 cals in one potato and get a ton of carbs at the same time. A sweet potato or yam has more nutrition than a plain white potato.

Peas - another starchy, sugary veggie. Again, they're a good part of a diet, but shouldn't be the only veggies you eat. You'd better off with something like green beans, brussels sprouts, broccoli .. etc.

What about adding in the following:
spinach
beets
cabbage or kale
pumpkin or other rich orange squash
tomatoes
eggplant
asparagus

You don't have to eat brussels sprouts for breakfast either. :) What about having blueberries with your breakfast - they're a good, really nutritious fruit.
 
Kara, according to mypyramid.gov, I need to eat 3 cups of dark green veggies a week, 2 1/2 cups of orange, 3 1/2 cups of dry beans, 7 cups of starch and 8 1/2 cups of other veggie a week. According to their site, corn, peas and potatoes are a starch. I am to eat about 1/2 cup of whatever veggie I eat.

So is it better to count calories or just eat from the food groups? And if it is better to just eat the food groups, how many of each do I need a day? Do I need to eat certain types of vegetables throughout the week? If so, what?

Thanks for helping me. :waving:
 
My personal opinion, use that as a reference but I would worry more about counting the cals and getting the nutrition. For me, that diet would not work at all. I just dont have the time/resources to measure out all that food and keep my sanity.

Do what makes the most sense for you. I am sure they put those suggestions there to help people that have no direction.
 
Garrete - I'm kinda with Angel, above. Here's the thing ... and this is based on 3+ years of research on my part, so keep that in mind. I don't have any formal training or degrees in nutrition, but I read a lot and I research a lot and I know what's worked for me and for a lot of people I know. So keep all of that in mind when you read this. :)

The government guidelines are just that ... guidelines. They're meant to be an AVERAGE that will work across a large range of ages, fitness levels, etc. The government also says that 30 mins of moderate exercise 3x per week is enough to be "fit" but that doesn't hold true for most people. Again, the government provides an AVERAGE. They also have to be fairly conservative in what they recommend, because they're not only providing guidelines for healthy people, they're providing guidelines for people who aren't healthy. In other words, what the mypyramid.gov site does is try to provide a "one size fits all" guideline to nutrition that errs on the conservative side.

I'll give you a prime example: The government says that a healthy adult should consume 0.8g of protein for every 1kg of bodyweight. Now, 1kg = 2.2lbs, right? So that means for an adult weighing 150lbs, the government says that person should consume 54g of protein. But as you start researching protein needs for people who are exercising, you'll find that there's actually a lot of reputable sources that recommend 1g of protein per 1 pound of bodyweight. I think you'll find a lot of us adhere to that ratio and find it much more effective, even though it's over double what the government recommends.

I personally believe that while the government is well intentioned (kinda), they're way off base on what the average person needs to be healthy - both in terms of diet and in terms of exercise.

So you asked do you need to eat from the food groups or count calories. My suggestion is that you need to do both. :) Because you can overeat on healthy foods, too.

Here's what I suggest to everyone who is getting started. These are my two "rules" as it were for healthy eating:

Number 1: Eat real food. Eliminate packaged and processed foods as much as possible. If it's not something your grandmother or great grandmother would recognize as "food" - e.g. they could grow it or make it themselves and it doesn't come wrapped in plastic or in a box - then don't eat it.

Number 2: Focus on getting a variety of brightly colored WHOLE fruits and veggies into every meal or snack. Then fill in with proteins and grains. Make veggies and fruits the focus of your eating, not an afterthought side dish.

Ideally your plate at every meal would be 1/2 veggies and fruits, 1/4 protein, 1/4 grains/starches of some kind. For example, here's what I'm eating today:

Breakfast: plain yogurt with blueberries (protein, fruit)
Snack: apple and 1oz cheddar cheese (fruit, protein)
Lunch: butternut squash soup, spinach salad w/ feta cheese (veggies, protein)
Snack: v8 juice, boiled egg sliced on a piece of whole wheat toast (veggies, protein, carbs)
Dinner: veggie lasagna with 4 kinds of veggies, low fat ricotta cheese and skim milk mozzerella, and whole grain pasta (veggies, protein, grains)

I'll have a glass of wine with dinner for about 125 cals. My total for the day will come in somewhere around 1700 cals with 40% carbs, 35% protein (about 110g) and 25% fats (mostly from olive oil and dairy)

I've been doing this long enough that I don't have to spend a lot of time calculating any more; for the first few months I had to carefully plan what I ate in order to make all my macros, but at this point it's kind of second nature. I can look at an item and pretty much estimate where it will fit into my plan and whether or not I should eat it today or not. It just takes a little practice. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top