Weight-Loss Tips for an EMT?

Weight-Loss
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Xodus989

New member
Hey, anyone have any tips for an EMT? I spend 90% of my time sitting in an ambulance, and meals we get are usually fast food, etc. Does anyone have any tips to help cut calories? I'd like to do smaller meals that are able to be done on the go. As far as money. I'm spending almost 20 bucks a shift sometimes on drinks and food. So if you can do it for less than 20 a day, that'd be awesome, I'd save money, haha.

Thanks.

Edit: I'm 6'2" ~280 lbs. Don't quite know what my intake is, but would like to be around 1800.
 
1800 is a bit low for you. I'd say at your weight, you could lose quite safely at around 2500 or even a bit more.

Can you pack a cooler with food for your shift? If you can, I'd recommend the following:

Peanut butter sandwich on whole grain
Yogurt
Cheese sticks (or just regular sliced cheese)
Apples / oranges / pears / grapes
Carrot and celery sticks
Hummus
Boiled eggs
Tuna / chicken breast (single servings in the foil packets)
Cans of low sodium V8 or tomato juice

All of those things can be packed up every night in a small cooler or insulated bag to eat for meals and snacks.

If you have to eat fast food, get things like grilled sandwiches, salads w/out dressing, chili (from Wendy's), and so forth. Skip the fries and cokes - those are pretty much huge amounts of calories with no nutrition whatsoever.
 
Thats what I was thinking the big things. Going to water only, I used to drink a BUNCH of soda. I've been starting to get water only. And I could fill up a cooler with some things... I'm sorry if it seems like I'm asking a lot, but if there's not structure, I fail at things, hence like a daily meal plan.

EDIT: By PB sandwich, do you mean peanut butter + bread only? Or PB&J?

So for breakfast:
Eggs + carrots

Snack:
Apple + Carrots (carrots if I want)

Lunch:

PB Sandwich on whole wheat
Diced hard boiled eggs + pepper

Snack:
Celery and hummus boats

Dinner:
Chicken / tuna / various forms of both (casserole, plain, baked)
 
I'd suggest registering with a site like fitday.com or thedailyplate.com so that you can log your food and count calories. What you've listed looks healthy, but like not enough food for you.

For example, here's what I eat most days:

Breakfast: oats, yogurt, blueberries
Snack: apple and cheese
Lunch: tuna on whole grain w/ veggies
Snack: v8 juice and a boiled egg
Dinner: some kind of grilled or roasted meat and veggies (usually no carbs)
 
I"ll look at that site. And I REALLY hate tomato juice... (but love tomatoes? :/) Any other way to get that? Or what am I getting from it? Can I replace it with a different fruit juice?
 
Well first of all, you don't have to copy my diet exactly. I drink tomato juice / v8 because I like it, because it gives me a serving of veggies, because it gives me some carbs before a workout, because it gives me some vitamin c and beta carotine, and all those other good things.

The point here is not that you need to drink tomato juice or fruit juice or ANY juice as a snack. The point is that you need to structure your food (meals, snacks, however you decide to divide it up) so that you get veggies and proteins and all the vitamins and minerals you need over the course of the day. I try to get a protein and either a fruit or veg in at every meal/snack. So for me, the tomato juice is a veg and the boiled egg is a protein. But you could have sliced tomatoes and a boiled egg. You could have an orange. You could have a 1/2 pb sandwich (carbs and protein). You could have whatever you want.
 
As far as the peanut butter sandwich is concerned, the jelly wouldn't add any nutrition, but a tablespoon of jelly wouldn't hurt too much - that's 50 calories. You could also put slices of bananas or apples on it instead.

Fruit juices are not a real good choice. Lots of sugar and you miss out on the fiber and some of the vitamins you would get from eating the whole fruit. Instead of the vegetable juice you could drink skim milk or nonfat buttermilk (USDA recommends 2 or 3 cups of milk or equivalent per day) and get your vegetables someplace else.
 
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