Weight-Loss Newcomer! Diet critique please?

Weight-Loss
P

prettyinpink1

0
Hi everyone! I'm new to these forums. I'm a female university student in my early 20's and I am 5'6 and weigh 142lbs. I know I'm far from overweight, but I have a very small frame and am this weight due to recent weight gain as a result of stress. I plan on losing about 15 lbs to be back down to my original weight of 125ish lbs. I want to do this with exercise and healthy eating. My main exercise consists of yoga, pilates, aerobics (Jillian Michaels 30 day shred) and jogging, as I am a poor student and don't have money for a gym membership right now!

I use an online calorie counter and eat about 1500 calories on days I'm not exercising and a little more on days I am. I've never done this before, so I don't know if the way I'm eating and my diet are correct. I'm trying to stick to a general calorie budget of 1500-1700 and keep my daily nutrients high (so enough iron, vitamins, etc). Could you guys critique my diet and give me some help? Here's an example of a typical day (non exercise):

Breakfast: Sealtest Skim Milk (80 cal), WildRoots Cereal (130 cal) and Cherries (86 cal)

Lunch:Healthy Choice Soup Chicken with Rice (183 cal), Tomatoes (23 cal), Broccoli (34 cal), Orange Juice (65 cal),Creamy Cucumber Salad Dressing (50 cal),Skim Milk (80 cal), Bread (130 cal), Nutella Hazelnut Spread (125 cal)

Dinner:Strawberries (51 cal), Extra Virgin Olive Oil (80 cal), Chicken Breast Roasted (83 cal), Raspberries (20 cal), Natural Sharp Cheddar (129 cal), Unico Red Kidney Beans (130 cal), Kiwi Fruit (25 cals)

Total Calories Consumed:1,504
219 g of carbs, 80 g of protein, 38g of fat, 11.5g of saturated fat, 91mg of cholesterol, 2256 mg of sodium, 36g of fibre and 94 g of sugar.

Most days are similar to that. I'll usually have cereal or toast in the morning, soup or a sandwhich (PB&J, chicken, tuna) or leftovers (pasta, stew, vegetables) for lunch and dinner is usually meat and some sort of vegetable or carb. I really love my fruits also!

Does that look alright? Or should I adjust carb/protein/fat content or calorie intake? Thanks!
 
A lot of universities have free gyms for students, yours doesn't I guess?
Your diet is actually pretty decent. You could use just a tad more protein at the expense of some carbs. I say this because protein is more satiating than carbs and fat, helps you retain muscle, and takes more energy for your body to break it down which means if you eat 100g of protein, which is 400 calories, it'll turn out being more like 320-330 calories. Not much but it does add up. And maybe throw in another vegetable source, like lettuce or romaine leaves (a cup of both being only around 10cals or something negligible) to go with your tomatoes broccoli and dressing.

Here are some nitty-gritty details that you don't necessarily need to implement, just depends on how much of a perfectionist you are and so you can be aware:
-Soup even with the title "Healthy" on it has a lot of sodium, check to see how much yours has.
-Orange juice has a lot of sugar, just eating oranges or making the juice yourself would be better. It depends on the brand though.
-Vinegar based salad dressings are extremely low in calories and fat, creamy ones usually have the most.
-Whole grain and wheat bread is good.
-If you buy cheese etc try for low-fat
-Keep eating your PB&J but be very diligent in counting the calories in them, the calories from PB especially.
-You don't necessarily need to eat more on days you exercise, if you are not careful it may cancel out the cardio you did altogether.
-You could also take a multivitamin and fish oil pills, but not doing so won't radically affect you.

PS Is the 11.5g of saturated fat in addition to the 38g of fat (ie 49.5g fat)? If it is your calorie counting is slightly off, if it's not then your counting is perfect!
 
Last edited:
WHile, I'm certainly no expert....I am wondering about the cherries for breakfast, the healthy choice soup and nutella for lunch.

Are these natural cherries or canned?? Do you just really like cherries? I wonder what kind of nutritional value they bring?? I dont' know. Wondering if a banana would be a better choice as that is loaded with potassium?

I'd watch those canned soups. EVERYTHING in cans are LOADED with sodium and if in excess, could cause bloating and water retention.

Also, does Nutella have any nutrition value?? While I'm asking these, I'm more the less thinking out loud...not really trying to get you to change these, just think about it. Reason is, I'm all for enjoying a treat throughout your day, no one likes to feel deprived. Just wondering how important that nutella is to you?

Also, I see your using "creamy cucumber salad dressing" Did you knwo that creamy salad dressings tend to be higher in fat that others like, vinegrette (sp) or fat free itailan.

Those are just the things that pop out to me.....if you like your diet and its working for you...keep it up!
 
HA! we both posted at the same time and about the same info! You know they say that Great minds think alike! Good calll on the multivitamin!
 
I should mention I do take a multivitamin daily. I also drink a lot of water!

The gym at my school is free during the year, however not during the summer. Also, it's very small and during the year you sometimes have to wait for hours to get a machine (which you can only book for 20 minutes for cardio machines and 2 minutes for weight machines) so it's not really an option. I do play soccer and I have an active dog who requires a lot of running. For weight training, I have free weights and exercise DVD's and books galore.

Somethings I eat I know are not a good choice such as the salad dressing and nutella. The salad dressing was just more of a "something I had around" type thing as I regularly avoid it. My salad today is dressed solely with some olive oil and red wine vinegar. The nutella was just a treat for that day because I was craving something sweet. I would only eat something like that once a week or so, as I know long term it's not great for you but it sure is delicious! The juice is Tropicana, so I'm not sure if that's good or bad? I do feel the need to cut down on sugar so cutting it is okay with me.

The cherries are just a personal treat. I love all fruit, berries and cherries especially. I'm concerned though that I eat a lot of fruit and my sugar and carb content as a result is very high. Should I cut down on that?

The saturated fat content is just listed in a separate column. I use calorie count by about.com and it just lists them as two separate things. The counter said I was okay as long as I ate less then 17 g of saturated fat a day (so less then 10% of my diet). I think it is separate from my other fats but I'm not sure?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top