Diet needs adjusting...

vitani

Hi folks,

If anyone has a few minutes, I'd love your opinion on what I should be doing better. I'm female, 5'6" and just under 10 stone, so my weight itself is alright. I would like to lose the spare tyre though. I run three times a week, probably about 8-9 miles in total - this will increase over the next few months.

My last three days are as follows:

Saturday

Banana

Cereal bar (I don't normally touch them!)

Scrambled eggs, with a slice and a half of buttered brown toast
2 cups of coffee with sugar and milk

Homemade bolognaise, extra veg
Brown pasta

Apple & pecan slice
2 squares of dark chocolate
Cup of Options hot chocolate

(The last two are my attempts to wean myself off eating too much milk chocolate.)

Sunday

2 eggs, scrambled, with a slice and a half of buttered brown toast
Cup of coffee with 2 sugars and milk

Homemade veggie burger (nuts, carrot, onion, garlic)
Side of vegetables
Sweet potato fries

Homemade tiramisu

Banana
2 slices of toast
Slice of iced fruit cake

Cup of Options hot chocolate

Monday (so far)

Bowl of porridge, made with water & milk
Handful of trail mix
Cup of coffee with 2 sugars and milk

Homemade veggie burger
Cous Cous
Babybel

Cup of chai tea
2 satsumas

~

I'm trying to stay away from processed food as much as possible, and I'm trying to limit carbs, although I don't plan on cutting bread/pasta out completely.

While this diet is better than I was eating before Christmas, it still needs some work. Weekdays are probably better than the weekend. I know I need to lose the sugar in the coffee - I've just switched from normal tea to chai tea to help me cut the sugar in tea. Ditto with the treats and chocolate - the hot chocolate is my attempt at damage limitation for the moment.

Breakfasts during the week are always the same - I keep porridge and trail mix in work. Dinners are always homemade, and I try to include as much veg as possible. Lunches during the week are generally either homemade soup or leftovers from previous dinners.

The evenings seem to be the worst time for me. The second helping of toast on Sunday wasn't ideal, but again, it was my compromise for not eating chocolate or something worse. And it doesn't seem to matter how late I have dinner during the week - I still find myself craving something to snack on.

I'm looking to make gradual changes. I have a decent(ish) understanding of nutrition, but it's putting it into practise that's tough. Along with silencing the little voice in my head that justifies the bad. You know the little voice that goes "I'm having eggs and they're good, so I can have some bread with them." "I had lots of vegetables for dinner so I can have something nice for dessert." "One piece of cake won't hurt..." :pac:

All opinions welcome. Thanks!

adox

The obvious things that stand out imo, if you are trying to lose weight is:

Sugar added to your coffee, although you already realise this.

Desert. If your trend above continues, you are cake or similar every evening.

Try the likes of myfitnesspal or similar and keep your food diary there. It will give you an idea of what calories you are consuming and basic nutritional information on your diet.

Best of luck with it.:)

vitani

adox wrote: »

The obvious things that stand out imo, if you are trying to lose weight is:

Sugar added to your coffee, although you already realise this.

Desert. If your trend above continues, you are cake or similar every evening.

Try the likes of myfitnesspal or similar and keep your food diary there. It will give you an idea of what calories you are consuming and basic nutritional information on your diet.

Best of luck with it.:)

Thanks. Yeah, I hadn't realised how bad the dessert habit had gotten until I typed all that up. It's getting too easy to fool myself into thinking one piece won't hurt, forgetting that it's not just the one piece - there was the piece yesterday and the day before and the day before...

If anyone had any suggestions for something healthy to eat in the evenings when the sugar/carb cravings hit, I'd love to hear them.

SunnyDub1

one of the reasons for being hungry at most on the evening is from not eating enough cals during the day. Have you worked how much calories you should be eating? and also work out a protein/carb/fat ratio and work from that.

vitani

SunnyDub1 wrote: »

one of the reasons for being hungry at most on the evening is from not eating enough cals during the day. Have you worked how much calories you should be eating? and also work out a protein/carb/fat ratio and work from that.

Thanks.

Going by the stickys here, I should be eating just over 2000 calories - 1800 a day if I want to lose weight.

In terms of the actual protein/carb/fat ratio, I'm not so sure about this...

Nolimits12

adox wrote: »

Try the likes of myfitnesspal or similar and keep your food diary there. It will give you an idea of what calories you are consuming and basic nutritional information on your diet.

+1 on myfitnesspal. It helps me keep track of my nutrition and I've discovered I eat fk all protein from it. Increased my protein and I now need to eat less and feel much more energised!

vitani

Nolimits12 wrote: »

+1 on myfitnesspal. It helps me keep track of my nutrition and I've discovered I eat fk all protein from it. Increased my protein and I now need to eat less and feel much more energised!

Thanks.

In terms of protein, how much are you eating now? I've had about 80g today according to myfitnesspal which is well over the target they set.

misslt

vitani wrote: »

Thanks.

In terms of protein, how much are you eating now? I've had about 80g today according to myfitnesspal which is well over the target they set.

Just as an FYI the default goals on mfp are brutal, you should set them yourself. The general rule of thumb I've seen on here is 1g per lb of bodyweight.

Nolimits12

vitani wrote: »

In terms of protein, how much are you eating now? I've had about 80g today according to myfitnesspal which is well over the target they set.

Today, as I aimed for more protein I had 58g. Feeling really good today too. Compared with Sunday I had only 37g and felt really really tired like super sleepy even with a full night sleep. Every other day had the same, more carbs than protein basically.

I'm on 1200 cal a day because Im studying all day and not working so would basically have a sedentary lifestyle besides running 3 times a week and leisurely walks with friends.

Do you think I should up my protein more since its having such a positive effect? I am exercising so it cant do too much harm right?

vitani

misslt wrote: »

Just as an FYI the default goals on mfp are brutal, you should set them yourself. The general rule of thumb I've seen on here is 1g per lb of bodyweight.

Thanks - I had a look at it last night and changed the percentages so now it's set to 30% protein, 30% fat and 40% carbs. The protein is now at 135g, which is roughly 1g per lb of my weight. I'm shocked that the default goal is so little.

It'll probably take some effort to up the protein to that level, but I'll work on it.

vitani

Nolimits12 wrote: »

Do you think I should up my protein more since its having such a positive effect? I am exercising so it cant do too much harm right?

I definitely would - I've mine set to 135g a day, but I'm going to aim for 100g initially to ease myself into the bigger goal. I notice that the days where I eat a lot of carbs, I feel sluggish and bloated and I start craving more food, especially sugary things. Protein never has that effect.

quaalude

Hi vitani - I know your name from the C25K LL thread, how's it going!
I like the MyFitnessPal app too - I've been using it to log everything for the last two weeks, and it's much harder to justify eating crap if you know you'll have to log it.
For a satisfying evening sweet snack, I like a square of the 74% Tesco dark chocolate, 2 brazil nuts, and a cup of mint tea.
I'm a vegetarian too, and as I'm eating way less cheese than I was, I was worried about calcium, so I'm taking a large spoonful of blackstrap molasses each morning, as it has lots of calcium and iron in it (and apparently can stop your hair going grey)!
Hope this helps.

Nolimits12

vitani wrote: »

I definitely would - I've mine set to 135g a day, but I'm going to aim for 100g initially to ease myself into the bigger goal. I notice that the days where I eat a lot of carbs, I feel sluggish and bloated and I start craving more food, especially sugary things. Protein never has that effect.

Can I ask what foods are you eating to up your protein? Finding it hard as I'm not used to eating so much of it.

vitani

quaalude wrote: »

Hi vitani - I know your name from the C25K LL thread, how's it going!
I like the MyFitnessPal app too - I've been using it to log everything for the last two weeks, and it's much harder to justify eating crap if you know you'll have to log it.
For a satisfying evening sweet snack, I like a square of the 74% Tesco dark chocolate, 2 brazil nuts, and a cup of mint tea.
I'm a vegetarian too, and as I'm eating way less cheese than I was, I was worried about calcium, so I'm taking a large spoonful of blackstrap molasses each morning, as it has lots of calcium and iron in it (and apparently can stop your hair going grey)!
Hope this helps.

Hey quaalude - thanks for that. The blackstrap molasses is a great idea, especially as I need to get more iron into my diet. And less gray hair sounds wonderful!

Going to have to work on just eating one square of chocolate...

You're nearly finished the C25k programme now, aren't you? I finished it about two weeks ago, but jumped straight into a 10k programme as I've signed up for the Great Ireland Run in April.

Nolimits12 wrote: »

Can I ask what foods are you eating to up your protein? Finding it hard as I'm not used to eating so much of it.

The bulk of yesterday's protein came from pork for dinner, with a cup of milk (instead of water) and a yoghurt afterwards. My veggie burger had nuts in it, and I had a piece of cheese for lunch. I also had milk with my porridge. I need to find more ways to increase that now though.

adox

Chicken and turkey at lunchtime are a good source of protein.

adox

Sorry to go slightly OT but, just on the settings on myfitnesspal, it has my goals in cabs/protein/fat as follows:

Carbs - 272gms
Protein - 77gms
Fat - 66gms

I have been using this guide the last few months on a 2000 calorie a day diet. I have an office job so get very little exercise, maybe a walk once or twice a week. My current weight is 145lbs and I`m a 5 foot 9" male mid 40s.

I try to come in below the carb level, or at least not go above it. The protein target I more often than not exceed, usually around 100gms and I try and reach the fat target but more often than not I`m coming in below it.

Do the above guides seem a decent target for a person in my circumstances?

doctorwhogirl

adox wrote: »

Sorry to go slightly OT but, just on the settings on myfitnesspal, it has my goals in cabs/protein/fat as follows:

Carbs - 272gms
Protein - 77gms
Fat - 66gms

I have been using this guide the last few months on a 2000 calorie a day diet. I have an office job so get very little exercise, maybe a walk once or twice a week. My current weight is 145lbs and I`m a 5 foot 9" male mid 40s.

I try to come in below the carb level, or at least not go above it. The protein target I more often than not exceed, usually around 100gms and I try and reach the fat target but more often than not I`m coming in below it.

Do the above guides seem a decent target for a person in my circumstances?

The ratios on MFP are not great.

From the wisdom of people on here the general aim is to go for about 1g of protein per pound of body weight. 140lbs= eating 140g protein.

I don't always hit that but I get close.

My ratios are 40:30:30 carbs:protein:fat

But my weekly average usually has less carbs. These days I'm more around the 30% as I've upped my healthy fats.

You can manually change the percentage ratios on MFP in the goals tab.

vitani

Just sticking this here, because I found it interesting - I had one of those super wholefood M&S salads for lunch today. There's about 30g of protein in it and I've had so much energy all afternoon, whereas the past couple of days, I found myself slumping after lunch.

I've kept the cardboard sleeve off the salad so I'm going to make my own version to bring in next week.

Nolimits12

vitani wrote: »

Just sticking this here, because I found it interesting - I had one of those super wholefood M&S salads for lunch today. There's about 30g of protein in it and I've had so much energy all afternoon, whereas the past couple of days, I found myself slumping after lunch.

I've kept the cardboard sleeve off the salad so I'm going to make my own version to bring in next week.

What was in it?

vitani

Quinoa (which I'm glad I'm typing and not saying, as I haven't a breeze how to pronounce it!), a few different types of beans (edamame, borlotti, cannellini), broccoli, cheese, kamut khorasan wheat (?), split peas, lentils, feta cheese, raisins, pomegranate kernels and lemon juice & rapeseed oil. Plus a mint and lemon dressing.

I'm going to look for recipes but I reckon I could do something similar with quinoa, beans, lentils, cheese, broccoli, raisins and olive oil.