Diet Review

pvt6zh395dqbrj

Hi all,

I was very impressed with people's responses on the other thread so here goes...


I'm trying to lose weight (particularly stomach fat) but mainly trying to just eat better. Here is a sample of my diet and I'd love some feedback if possible:

Breakfast
250ml Glass of water, 1 hard boiled egg and a Waldorf Salad - 1 Stick of celery, 1 Chopped Apple and ~50g of Walnuts with a spoon of full fat natural yoghurt.

Mid-morning
Cup of coffee with milk plus a banana

Lunch
Bottle of water and 1 Apple, 1 Mandarin, 1 Pear and Quina Salad - Half a cup of quinoa cooked in chicken stock and a cup of mixed vegetables with cucumber, peppers, spinach, mangetout, sugar snap peas and a quarter of an avacado

Afternoon
Cup of coffee with milk and a chocolate bar

Example Dinner
Cup of homemade veg soup, Glass of milk, glass of water and Spaghetti Bolognase - 1 cup of wholewheat pasta, ~205g mince, cup of mixed veg with carrots and celery cooked with sauce from a jar.

Snack
Handful of granola mixed with spoonful of natural yoghurt plus two carrots plus a handful of pistachio nuts. Glass of water or cup of green tea.


I'm thinking of swapping the chocolate bar for two square of 85% cocoa. Also trying to swap the jar sauce for home-made sauce (sometimes I make Daal or Curry all from scratch).

Any advice would be appreciated. Many thanks!

pvt6zh395dqbrj

Anyone?

Alf Veedersane

Have you tried plugging all of that into MyFitnessPal to get an idea of calories first and then macros.

And also what height and weight are you?

pvt6zh395dqbrj

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

Have you tried plugging all of that into MyFitnessPal to get an idea of calories first and then macros.

And also what height and weight are you?

I put it into Cronometer instead but I was unsure of the portion sizes. It said that it was all roughly 2000 calories.

I'm 5.4 and 69kg

Thanks

Slydice

my general reaction was that it didn't look like a bad diet.

the granola and nuts might be high in calories but you say you don't do much so you're probably benefitting from the nutrition

swapping to the 85% choc sounds good.

soup with the dinner might be extra calories not needed but doesn't sound bad for you.

2000 calories sounds like maintenance to me but I don't tend to look more specific than in the high hundreds of calories.

pvt6zh395dqbrj

Slydice wrote: »

my general reaction was that it didn't look like a bad diet.

the granola and nuts might be high in calories but you say you don't do much so you're probably benefitting from the nutrition

swapping to the 85% choc sounds good.

soup with the dinner might be extra calories not needed but doesn't sound bad for you.

2000 calories sounds like maintenance to me but I don't tend to look more specific than in the high hundreds of calories.

Thanks a million. On top of the diet I do 30 mintes of cycling a day (commuting) and I'm on my feet all day. Hoping to start running three evenings a week which I'm hoping adds to the deficit.

MightyMandarin

Why is there barely any meat in there? You need a hell of a lot more protein, especially if you want to lose weight.

There's too many meals in there packed full of veg and carbs but no protein. Start with more than 1 egg in the morning and some chicken in the salads.

For exercise I'd relax with the running and cardio and do some strength training instead; you'll find getting leaner much easier that way.

pvt6zh395dqbrj

MightyMandarin wrote: »

Why is there barely any meat in there? You need a hell of a lot more protein, especially if you want to lose weight.

There's too many meals in there packed full of veg and carbs but no protein. Start with more than 1 egg in the morning and some chicken in the salads.

For exercise I'd relax with the running and cardio and do some strength training instead; you'll find getting leaner much easier that way.

I guess I thought the egg, nuts, quinoa and meat in my dinner would be enough protein. I'm also concerned with being nutritionally healthy as well as losing weight which is why I've chosen what I've chosen. I'll look into your advice. Thanks a million for the excercise advice.

conzy

The very premise of these threads is a bad idea. Is this diet good.. What if you cant have quinoa at lunch one day because you didn't have it ready, what will you eat instead? Are you going to eat like this every single day? What about weekends? Would you like more variety? Are you really going to prep a waldorf salad every single morning for the rest of your days?

You should look at some of this stickies in this forum. Hanley posted a "nutrition in 3 minutes" video in the main forum recently.

Learn why the above diet is good or bad. Have a calorie goal, a rough protein goal. And fit the foods you find enjoyable into that rough framework

This way you can live and not be married to some diet that was deemed "ok" on a forum
Are you sure you want that meal plan

pvt6zh395dqbrj

conzy wrote: »

The very premise of these threads is a bad idea. Is this diet good.. What if you cant have quinoa at lunch one day because you didn't have it ready, what will you eat instead? Are you going to eat like this every single day? What about weekends? Would you like more variety? Are you really going to prep a waldorf salad every single morning for the rest of your days?

You should look at some of this stickies in this forum. Hanley posted a "nutrition in 3 minutes" video in the main forum recently.

Learn why the above diet is good or bad. Have a calorie goal, a rough protein goal. And fit the foods you find enjoyable into that rough framework

This way you can live and not be married to some diet that was deemed "ok" on a forum
Are you sure you want that meal plan

Hi there. Many thanks for your reply. I guess the intention here wasn't that this would be my strict daily diet. It's basically what I've come up with as the result of trying out many things - for example I've started to enjoy cooking recently and this menu is an example of things I've cooked recently. I guess I was hoping if I could get it nutritionally validated by people who know about these things then I'd know that the way I'm starting to put foods together is at least nutritionally balanced and so I could carry on trying new things. But I think you are right, I had considered diet flexibility as a contingency plan in case something goes wrong moreso than an inherent component of my diet. So thanks very much for the advice and the link.

Alf Veedersane

If you use MyFitnessPal, you at least have the calorie (and macro) content of your food. Understanding what's in what you eat is particularly helpful if you're trying to lose weight.

But if your diet is underpinned by animals and vegetables, then you're on the right track. You'll just need to get a feel for portion sizes.

Conzy is right. It's the whole "give a man a fish and he eats for a day..." business. If you understand the basics of what are the better choices then you don't have to stick to set foods and you remove the stress of dealing with sticking rigidly to certain foods.

Try the Nutrition 101 sticky and there's another that covers both fitness and nutrition in the main Fitness forum.