Meal Plan- Too much sugar?

nellybelle

Hi guys, I have been trying to loose 40 LB for a while now but my weight is not going down. Below is my daily average meal plan, but I have been told that it is too full of sugar and carbs. Please tell me what you guys would cut out and replace. (please be as specific as possible as there is alot of contradicting info)

On a typical day I would eat:

Breakfast
-bowl of special K sustain and slimline milk.

Snack
-mandarin orange
-pear at break.
- Weight watchers yogurt

Lunch
Salad (lettuce,carrot, peppers, tomato) No dressing
weight watchers soup
1 slice whole grain bread

Snack
-Kiwi
-Red pepper slices
-olives

Dinner
Weight watchers frozen dinner

Is there anything here you guys think I should cut out or replace. I like having a structure so if yous could let me know what you would change it be a great help. I would be incredibly grateful for any advice at all that you could give on how I can loose some more weight.

EileenG

Short answer, yes, far too much sugar, and virtually no protein or healthy fats.

There is a special place in hell for whoever invented Special K and marketed it as a health food for slimming. It is chock full of sugar. Ideally, have a couple of eggs for breakfast (make a big omlette with lots of veg and you'll be full for hours), but if you must eat cereal, make it plain porridge.

If you had a better breakfast, you wouldn't be so hungry mid morning. If you must eat again, have a plain yogurt, not a WW one. Go for a unsweetened full fat one, they are more satisfying and less morish.

Lunch - put some protein into your salad. Some chicken or tuna or cold meat. WW soup is not great. Read the ingredients. You could use the calories for an apple.

I know it's very fashionable to eat five or six times a day, but the evidence doesn't back it up. You end up either eating tiny unsatisfying meals, and then grazing because your meal doesn't really count, or training yourself to eat when you are not hungry.

WW frozen dinners have the advantage of being calorie countered, but that's about it. Nutritionally, you are getting tiny amounts of protein and very little healthy fat for your calories. Personally, I'd go for something like a nice piece of fresh salmon and a big pile of green veg.

astra2000

Make your own veg soup much nicer and really easy, you can make it in one go, freeze some and keep some in the fridge to use over a few days. the tread at the top of the page re soups and stews will give you lots of ideas for a healthy soup. I agree with Eileen re the weight watchers meals they are not filling contain little protein and veg. You can easily make your own meals for approx the same amt of calories with a lot more meat and veg and a lot less sugary sauce. A stir fry would be a much better option and you could have it cooked and prepared in the same amount of time it takes to microwave one of the ww meals. Unfortunatly I hate eggs so brekfast is my big problem I usually have beans with some wholegrain bread.
Tbh it doesnt look like you are eating enough calories. Why not havesome tuna/salmon with the lunch time salad, swop the brown bread for a wrap some days to add variety. Remember that 1 or 2 lbs a week is an excellent weight loss, best of luck.

Bottle_of_Smoke

I can't understand how you could be 40lb overweight and not losing weight on that. What size portions are you eating? do you eat any chocolate/treats? do you drink alcohol?

What's your age/sex/weight/height?

nellybelle

Yeah, Im quite surprised too

I am a 23 year old female, i weigh about 145 LB and am 4' 11" tall. I dont do any exercise really and have a desk job. I dont smoke or drink and dont really cheat on the diet. The only times I would cheat is when my eyes are bigger than my stomache and my portion sizes are too large.

EileenG

What shape are you? I mean, are you apple or pear shaped? Do you carry your excess on around your waist or on your bum?

Serious question, because there is research to show that apple shaped people who have a lot of belly fat, tend to lose weight most successfully on a low carb diet, where you cut back on anything with significant amounts of sugar, and find it hard to lose on a high carb diet. Pear shapes can lose weight on any diet, but only if they count calories carefully.

nellybelle

Hi Eileen G, Im not exactly sure what bdy shape I am. I have put most of my weight on around my belly, and am finding now that my bum, breasts and thighs are also starting to gain weight. But most of the weight goes to my tummy.

I think I'll follow your advice and try and cut out as much sugars and carbs as possible.

Ouchette

nellybelle wrote: »

On a typical day I would eat: ...

How about what you would drink? Just water, or anything with calories in it?

nellybelle

Ususally I just drink water. Sometimes I ad a small bit of dilute juice.

Bottle_of_Smoke

nellybelle wrote: »

Yeah, Im quite surprised too

I am a 23 year old female, i weigh about 145 LB and am 4' 11" tall. I dont do any exercise really and have a desk job. I dont smoke or drink and dont really cheat on the diet. The only times I would cheat is when my eyes are bigger than my stomache and my portion sizes are too large.

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmi-classification/bmi-normal-weight-information.php

This is a great tool. You can work out how many calories you burn through your lifestyle. At the moment if you eat less than 1700 calories a day you will lose weight. If you eat 1250 a day you will lose approx 1 pound a week. eat 1500 you'll lose approx half a pound a week.

At a glance I would have thought your diet is less than that but I haven't gone through it. What drinks do you have? Water or tea/milk etc

If you're going to the trouble of dieting its worth looking up how many calories are in what you eat and stick to a sensible deficit. If you do that and don't get results you should tell your doctor.

nellybelle

Wow thank you so much for all your help bottle of smoke, Im going to start counting exactly what i eat every day to see what I can substitute out and change around. Thanks for doing some of the working out for me. Ill do some research into BMI and calorific needs to see how much Im really eating.

EileenG

Open a free account with www.fitday.com or www.livestrong.com or www.dailyplate.com and let them add up your calories, you just put in the food and the amount.

A useful phone app that will download to even old non-smart phones is HelpDiabetes, which will do the same.