Weight-Loss Fruits & Veggies

Weight-Loss
Okay here's the deal. I started having a bunch of fruits & vegetables and because they fill me up, I tend to not eat a lot of other things. I've heard about the whole too few calories and 'starvation mode' thing, and I'm thinking what I do eat now isn't a bunch of calories. I do still want to lose about 10 pounds - could my new colorful diet actually be hurting this? I don't cook, and my mini fridge is in my bedroom (I live at home), so I tend to just grab and munch.

Example:

7:30am: Home from work. Bowl of some sort of fruit salad. Strawberries, blueberries, grapes etc. I'll probably chase this with two nonfat 40 cal yogurt cups.

9:00am: If I'm still hungry, I might have a bit of cottage cheese, or some baby carrots.

11:00am: If I'm still awake, I'll have a 240cal serving of microwavable brown rice.

noon - 10:00pm: Sleep

10:00pm: two more yogurt cups

11:00pm- 7am: work, nutri-grain bar for lunch, need something quick, 130cals

Weekends are obviously a different story, but generally I don't think I eat that much.. I also take multi-vitamins and drink water all day long.

What do you guys think? At first I was like, yay produce! But...

Thanks in advance :)
 
get an account at or one of the 100s of other free calorie tracking sites and add 'em up...

I'm not seeing a whole lot of protein in your diet.... but a calorie tracking site would show you the breakdown

though what you're doing on weekends might factor in...
 
I started researching exactly what nutrients are in the foods I am eating, to make sure I'm having good ones.. I tried to get bananas the last time I went shopping but there were none! As for protein, I have protein bars after my workouts (every 2 days) and sometimes I'll throw in a hard boiled egg. Getting meat is hard though.
 
Cottage cheese, which you've got i a pretty good source of protein... it's just tough to tell how much you're having...

just tracking what you're eating for a couple of days is a good way to check how you're doing and places like fitday give you nifty little charts to see where your nutrients are falling... eliminates a lot of guesstimating
 
How much sugar is in the yogurt? Total carbs? cut out the nutrigrain bar and go for a high quality protein bar
 
There's 3g of sugar, 0g fat, and 6g carbs.

The thing is, I don't want to have to count calories all my life, I just want to be able to make healthier choices and be stress free. I did the whole calorie counting thing before, and learned a lot, but now I'd like to be a little more relaxed.

I would think that if one has a ton of produce that they would lose weight (combined with daily exercise). I just don't want this all to backfire on me somehow.
 
the downside to those nutrigrain bars - is at leastin the US -the canadian fornula might be different - one o fthe ingredients is HFCS - while there have been new studies of late that say it's no worse than sugar, I'm not sure I totally buy that -it's a little too processed for my comfort...

Counting calories all your life I don't think is a necessity -as long as you've got an awareness of what you're eating -and you get that awareness by counting at the beginning...

You've spent a bunch of time working on muscle development - and have great arms to show for it - really keep your protein in check so that you don't lose that muscle while you're cutting calories.
 
Ugh, there seems to be always something huh? You don't know how hard it's been just finding something incredibly easy to grab for lunch at work, preferably a bar because there's no mess. I've gone through so many things and just sort of picked the one with the least calories. (When I wasn't calorie aware at all I used to get a huge slurpee and a 540cal cookie for lunch, everyday!!) I think I'll start bringing a banana for lunch. I guess I didn't think of having a protein bar because I like to eat light at work.. And they can be kind of expensive.

Good point on losing the muscle, I sure don't want that to happen..
 
There are some bars out there that aren't bad -just do some label reading - the kashi bars are good, and health valley (not nature valley) are also organic...

one of my snackie things i'll do is just keep ziplock bags of cereal in my desk and grab those... anything can become a snack with the appropriate baggie
 
I agree with the above post. The program you outlined seems a little low in quality protein sources. the yogurt is good but make sure to vary that with some chicken, lean beef,fish. I also dont see where you would be getting any good fats from. You may consider adding some mixed nuts, almonds, or flax to the program 2x per day. That will also increase the fiber.
 
it looks solid, but i suggest a lot more protein. With only 10 pounds left ot lose, you want to keep muscle loss at minimum. You already look great, so the need for protein is even greater if you think you still need to lose 10. Im also toning up and i consume 150-200g of protein a day, and get most of my carbs from fibrous veggies or complex carbs, like oatmeal and such. I ten to keep fruit at minimum because of its sugar content, but as long as your exercising or consuming your carbs with protein you should burn that fat right away.
 
Ugh, there seems to be always something huh? You don't know how hard it's been just finding something incredibly easy to grab for lunch at work, preferably a bar because there's no mess. I've gone through so many things and just sort of picked the one with the least calories. (When I wasn't calorie aware at all I used to get a huge slurpee and a 540cal cookie for lunch, everyday!!) I think I'll start bringing a banana for lunch. I guess I didn't think of having a protein bar because I like to eat light at work.. And they can be kind of expensive.

Good point on losing the muscle, I sure don't want that to happen..

If you do find a good protein bar, i suggest buying in bulk ot keep costs at minimum. Once you find one that satisfies you without all the added junk, check prices online. Sometimes buying oof the internet in bulk is way cheaper. I would suggest a protein bar, but i decide to stay away from them and just get my protein from lean meats and nuts.
 
Not to turn this into a conversation about protein bars but make sure to watch out for high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils in the bars. There are a couple of great brands that dont include those.
 
Not to turn this into a conversation about protein bars but make sure to watch out for high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils in the bars. There are a couple of great brands that dont include those.

What do you think about powerbars? They seem to almost taste too good to be true. I've tried the Bio-Protein ones, but I think they had 27g of sugar? Might as well have a chocolate bar!

My diet: fruits (apples, grapes, strawberries, blueberries, bananas), veggies (carrots, salads), hard boiled eggs, cottage cheese, chicken on the salad sometimes, long grain and brown rice, nuts, yogurt..

What I've been doing is working I guess, since I'm totally SEEING results, just not on the scale, still not even a 1 pound budge in 3 months.
 
you haven't lost a pound in 3 months? Well if you're working out maybe you're putting on muscle
 
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