Weight-Loss Some Nutrition Help

Weight-Loss
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fratleyslaye

New member
Hello, i'm new to the forums so don't get too angry if there is a topic about this somewhere else, just point me in that direction if there is!

But if not, well... here goes :)

My name is bobby, and i am 18 years old, paying for everything i own(car,cell phone, gym membership, insurance, living) by myself. I have a girlfriend, but we have decided to keep it separate for now. Anyways on to the point. I am trying to eat healthy, just like everyone else here, but most of the "healthy" food is pretty expensive. So i am here looking for help with cheap food ideas, and a bit of help with my food meals daily.

I crunched some numbers, and i need to eat 2659 calories a day!
798 to protein
1329 to Carbs
532 to Fat
meaning...
199grams of protein
332grams of carbs Daily!!
59grams of Fat

So 6 meals a day roughly =
33.25 prtein
55.3 carbs Per Meal!!
9.8 fat

I'd IMMENSELY appreciate someone maybe giving me a decent plan or something to set me in the right direction. I have decided that today is the day i am changing, so i need some quick responses if at all possible!!
But please do keep in mind that i am not rich by any means(practically living on ramen soup, at the moment!! :[ )

Thanks so much in advance guys and girls, I really do appreciate the help!~
 
Ramen soup isn't a great option - however cheap it might be -the noodles are deep fried and the sauce is pure sodium...

Eating healthy doesn't have to be expensive of complicated and you should really ease yourself into it so that it's not a big jolt and it does become a lifestyle change.

breakfast can be cereal - preferably high fiber/low sugar/whatever happens to be on sale

Lunch can be left over from whatever was for dinner the day before - or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (using an all fruit jam - whatever happens to be on sale)

Dinners - beans are a high protein/high fiber/ inexpensive route to take - lentils, black beans, white beans, etc... in a variety of sauces.
Chicken can be fairly inexpensive..
 
maleficent said:
Ramen soup isn't a great option - however cheap it might be -the noodles are deep fried and the sauce is pure sodium...

Eating healthy doesn't have to be expensive of complicated and you should really ease yourself into it so that it's not a big jolt and it does become a lifestyle change.

breakfast can be cereal - preferably high fiber/low sugar/whatever happens to be on sale

Lunch can be left over from whatever was for dinner the day before - or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (using an all fruit jam - whatever happens to be on sale)

Dinners - beans are a high protein/high fiber/ inexpensive route to take - lentils, black beans, white beans, etc... in a variety of sauces.
Chicken can be fairly inexpensive..
Click to expand...

I second that. I had major problems with constipation a couple of weeks ago and some tweaks to the diet have fixed it. (Added in prunes and more apples.) I'm prone to that problem anyway.

I find that the frozen chicken breasts are much cheaper than the fresh, and they taste about the same. Frozen meat is never quite as flavorful as fresh, but once you add spice/seasonings (low sodium) you won't notice the difference.

I've been experimenting with lentils and mal is right, they're a cheap, high-fiber source of protein. A 1lb bag of green lentils (they actually look more brown/khaki) at my local supermarket is 83 cents. You can also use red lentils which are more expensive and not always available everywhere. I get them at Sprouts for $1.20 a pound and they cook SO fast. If you boil them in a pot they'll turn mushy, but they're easy to blend into a healthy soup or curry. They taste pretty decent too, kind of a nutty earthy flavor. You can season them with just about anything.

If you love rice (as I do), try the whole brown rice. I don't know what the different types are called, but there's a variety I love that I can only find at an Asian supermarket several miles north of my office...and in the opposite direction from where I live! I bought a 5lb bag and hopefully I'll get through it before it goes off. I don't like the long skinny grains you can usually find at most supermarkets; these are shorter and more plump, and I find the taste/texture to be much more pleasant. I wish I knew what it was called. Maybe someone else can help me out with that.
 
Short grained rice is the japanese rice, generally marketed as Sushi rice...

Basmati rice and jasmine rice are also two different types of rice that are far better tasting than the uncle bens long grain white rice.

If you've got a grocery store that has bulk bins - beans and other grains get a lot cheaper... Whole Paycheck - I mean Whole Foods, has a bulk section that the bulk lentils and bulk bran are far cheaper than what's sold in the general aisle...

Regular beans take longer to cook -but a 30 dollar investment in a crockpot - you can put the beans and water in acrockpot -turn it on - go to bed and in the am - you'v got a fragrant pot of beans...that you can eat for the entire week
 
Bobby,
Welcome and good luck with your weightloss. It's great that you are doing this at an early age. I waited WWWAAAYYY to long but oh well.

First, i see you have everything broken down into protein, calories and fat. My own opinion is not to worry about the macro's at this point. Worry about the overall calories. This will make things easier at first.

Mal is right about the not having to be expensive. I hear this a lot in work. How expensive it is. I will never agree with this. My argument is that eating healthy is more work but anything worth acheiving is worth working for. You just have to shop around for sales or buying in bulk. Take Mal's PB and J for lunches. A loaf of bread, jar of Natty PB and fruit jam might be $7.00 total but will feed you lunches for a week. (if not more). A dozen eggs ($2.00) is 4 breakfasts. Yes, ramen might be cheaper but not healthy. So learn to shop for sales, used coupons, farmer's market and in bulk.

Avoid eating out, even if it is healthy. Be prepared with your own food from home. This is where a lot of people say it is expensive. Yes maybe getting a salad from a salad bar at $6 a pound is expensive, but think about the amount of salad you can make for that type of money. Dont be afriad to bring your lunch places like work.

Matt
 
thanks for all the help!!

I am a young kid, and "coupons" me and my girlfriend have even though about, but we don't get them anywhere... we mainly shop at wal-mart, due to cheaper on gas(4.50 a gallon here where i'm living!!!) and they have everything, but in return they don't have coupons just sitting out waiting for you to come into the store. Maybe i'll have to sit down and crunch some numbers, because like you said eating out is expensive and i'm extremely used to just eating out...
 
if money is tight then eating out is the first thing that should go... cooking isn't that difficult.. : ) go to your public library and check out some cookbooks -or start cooking easy recipes...
 
maleficent said:
Short grained rice is the japanese rice, generally marketed as Sushi rice...

Basmati rice and jasmine rice are also two different types of rice that are far better tasting than the uncle bens long grain white rice.

If you've got a grocery store that has bulk bins - beans and other grains get a lot cheaper... Whole Paycheck - I mean Whole Foods, has a bulk section that the bulk lentils and bulk bran are far cheaper than what's sold in the general aisle...

Regular beans take longer to cook -but a 30 dollar investment in a crockpot - you can put the beans and water in acrockpot -turn it on - go to bed and in the am - you'v got a fragrant pot of beans...that you can eat for the entire week
Click to expand...

I found that same brown rice at a different Tom Thumb (local Texas supermarket) than the one I normally shop at; they called it "short brown rice". That's what I like.
 
Sup bro,

So i am here looking for help with cheap food ideas, and a bit of help with my food meals daily.
Click to expand...

You can often find cheap, decent quality meat if you look for it in the frozen section.

I buy quite a lot of frozen ground beef - it sounds nasty but it's 92% lean, which is better than the 90% fresh stuff, and costs about 50% less.

Equivalently, frozen chicken breasts are much cheaper than their fresh counterparts. It takes a bit more planning (ie you need to remember to remove the meat from the freezer to defrost!) to cook from frozen ingredients but the price difference might be well worth it.

If you have a big freezer, it's cheaper to buy in bulk from Costco or whatever. I tend to buy a load of ground beef and make about 10 meals' worth of Bolognese or Chilli, and freeze it back up.

Other cheap foods - oatmeal - you can buy oats (non-Quaker) for quite cheap. When I lived in NYC I could buy 2lb for about $2.50. Not sure where you live but it's undoubtedly cheaper in the rest of the country.

Another one is black ("turtle") beans, which can be used to make stews etc, very high in fiber and high in protein, and cheap as hell.
 
thanks for the help; i keep looking, and honestly just getting into the store and not zooming straight to the area of foods i know i need makes me browse a bit more, and price matching/checking is really helping. The food i keep reading, and people keep posting are great ideas, i am loving this help thanks!
 
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