feedback on new diet

whatawaster

Hi all,

I'm a 27 year old male and up until about two weeks ago I had probably the worst diet of anyone I know. A typical day would have consisted of:

Breakfast - big bowl of cereal with sugar, OR toast and tea OR (if I'd rushed out without breakfast) a sausage baguette from deli

Lunch - baguette with butter, spicy chicken and wedges, bag of crisps

Dinner - fajitas, or a pasta dish with chicken or a takeaway

Snacks- tea with milk and two sugars, diet coke (about two litres a day), chocolate, crisps, cereal or toast late at night.

I weighed 236 pounds and it was only going one way.

So I've made several changes:
1) no more diet coke or fizzy drinks (2 weeks and counting)
2) no more sugar in tea (2 weeks and counting)
3) no more hot deli food (2 weeks and counting)
4) 2 homemade juices daily (typical juice is 1 apple, half a lemon, half a carrot, 3 stalks of celery, half a cucumber and 75g of spinach) to meet my veg needs. I'm terrible at eating the stuff
5) counting calories with myfitnesspal

A typical day is now:
Breakfast - juice
Morning snack - apple
Lunch - brown bread sandwich with cold chicken, and crisps
Afternoon snack - banana
Dinner - baked potato and beans OR pasta with chicken and passata OR pan fried fish and oven chips
Evening snack - juice

Its obviously far from perfect. I am concerned with getting enough fibre given there is none in the juice.
Dropped 5 pounds in the first week and I'm hoping for 2 pounds a week going forward. I'm still having chocolate or sweets if I'm under my calories for a day.

I'd love some comment or feedback on this diet.

Thanks

Challo

You're not eating enough food, that diet is unsustainable.

READ THE STICKIES. They're the best nutritional advice on the internet and have helped me no end. Print them out, read them again and again.

For a start, eat a proper breakfast. Solids preferably like porridge & nuts, or eggs.

ronaneire

I second what Challo says, not enough food. Try porridge in the morning, or something more then juice. Doesn't seem to be enough protein either. Lose the crisps and oven chips. Oh and drink plenty of water

whatawaster

I don't disagree that I'm not getting enough food, certainly not enough proper food. I'm getting to my calorie goal every day but I'm having crap in the evenings to get there.

I'll probably try and add something along with the juice for breakfast.

I looked back over last week on myfitnesspal and I've gone over my recommended protein requirement, and that's counting my 14 juices as having zero protein so I think I'm doing okay on that. Also seem to be getting enough fiber, but too much sugar and not enough fats.

Another thing - myfitnesspal is giving me 1640 calories per day. Does this seem too low?

Stench Blossoms

Yes that is shockingly low.


bw in lbs x 12 for weightloss.

Esoteric_

Also stop eating chocolate, crisps and chips! If you're too low on calories, have an extra meal, not junk!

Dieting is hard and takes some getting used to, but you're making the effort and fair play.

I used to hate veg, so what i did was cook loads of it and throw chilli powder and cayenne pepper on it, it tasted much nicer then, and now I love veg.

hardCopy

I can't understand how you would want to skip breakfast to make room for a bag of crisps at lunch.

Juice is a waste of calories too. It's just sugar, any vitamins you get from the juice could be got from eating a piece of fruit and the fruit will keep you full for longer.

thegreatiam

eggses, eats lots of eggses.

eggs for breakfast.
If you dont have time boil up 18 eggs on sunday, peel them and leave them in water in the fridge.
You can grab a couple on the move for breakfast and snack on the other in the evenings. takes 20 mins on a sunday afternoon (takes 25 on any other day) to boil and peel a large load of eggs.
when you say you have juice do you mean the veg blend you make or is it fruit juice?
If its the one you blend then that s fine keep it up, if its the other then drop it from your diet.

For lunch replace the bread with a hearty chicken/tuna salad, lose the crisps.
Stop snacking, even on fruit, try to eat more substantial meals.

Your dinners are very carb loaded. try to eat more of a portion of fish or meat and less pasta + potatoes/chips. Try to get more healthy fat in your diet.

whatawaster

hardCopy wrote: »

Juice is a waste of calories too. It's just sugar, any vitamins you get from the juice could be got from eating a piece of fruit and the fruit will keep you full for longer.

The juice keeps me full for hours, I don't miss having breakfast on work mornings at all. I miss spicy chicken rolls at lunch but ill get over that.

And I'm not going to start eating spinach or kale or cucumber or celery, certainly not in the quantity I'm juicing them, so it's not as simple as just replacing the juice with raw fruit or veg. Also, I don't think the juice is all sugar, there is an apple and half a carrot, sure, but celery, lemon, spinach etc aren't full of sugar

vitani

whatawaster wrote: »

I don't disagree that I'm not getting enough food, certainly not enough proper food. I'm getting to my calorie goal every day but I'm having crap in the evenings to get there.

I'll probably try and add something along with the juice for breakfast.

I looked back over last week on myfitnesspal and I've gone over my recommended protein requirement, and that's counting my 14 juices as having zero protein so I think I'm doing okay on that. Also seem to be getting enough fiber, but too much sugar and not enough fats.

Another thing - myfitnesspal is giving me 1640 calories per day. Does this seem too low?

The default goals on MFP are not ideal, tbh, and the protein requirements are at the lower end of what would be recommended. You can overeat carbs (and most of us do) but it's hard to overeat protein. And the benefits of protein are numerous. It keeps you full for longer, it promotes muscle growth and it doesn't give you the spikes in blood sugar and energy that carbs do. If you eat protein and veg with every meal, you won't go far wrong.