Does my diet suck?

LegacyUser

Usual Day:

Breakfast : Em nothing. A glass of Orange Juice.

Lunch around (2pm): Avonmore soup - chicken and vegetable and two pieces of white toast(im gonna be eating brown bread slices from now on its just there was none in my press!)

Snack: A turkish delight bar. One of those microwaveable popcorns.

Dinner: Maybe a Chinese such as sweet and sour chicken and fried rice or else like that stuff from the jar sweet and sour chicken stir fry with boiled rice.

I also enjoy a few glasses of coke throughout the day.

I am basically trying to cut out as much **** as possible but would like to try keep the odd chinese in.

newgrange

Eat something for breakfast - brown bread ideally - proper brown bread, not the stuff that's the same sized slice as sliced pan.

Much better making your own soup if you can - very simply done. You could use a couple of tins of tomatoes, a tin of black-eyed beans, a tin of corn and some chopped carrots for a very filling soup. Again, brown bread - ideally without butter.

Snacking on choc isn't great - fruit would be better, and more filling.

Rice is a killer in terms of trying to lose weight, as are the heavy sweet chinese sauces. You don't say if you are looking to lose weight, but if you are you may forget it on the chinese nosh.

I think we know what should happen the coke. Drink water with every meal - tap water is fine, sparkling if you want to be fancy.

kazzer

Does my diet suck?

Yes, it does.

LegacyUser

Hmm I see. Damn.

I am not fat at all. In fact I am in great shape but I of course would like to get better.

What stuff should I eat for dinner then?

kazzer

Nutrition is a vast subject area, so without going into too much detail I would recommend:

- A portion of lean meat/fish (steak/chicken/etc)
- A portion of carbohydrate (potatoes/rice/pasta)
- 1/2 portions of veg (carrots/brocolli)

Sounds a bit bland I know, its up to you to be creative with spices/sauces. I would say there is nothing wrong with a takeaway once a week. Dont eat any fruit or veg from what I see. This is where the bulk of your vitamins and minerals come from. To exclude them from your diet is not a healthy way to live.

I always say eat healthy about 80% of the time and then chill out!

LegacyUser

ye I never eat fruit. Is that bad????

****..that does sound bad.

I do eat veg but not really loads...

irlirishkev

cheesedude wrote:

ye I never eat fruit. Is that bad????
****..that does sound bad.
I do eat veg but not really loads...

That is bad. You should be eating some fruit at least. I don't know many people that succesfully eat their recommended 5 portions of fruit+veg a day, but you should definitely get some in there. Take a multivitamin pill once a day.

Fruit is easier to snack on than vegetables. Try to have veg with your food. Green stuff is better, specifically peas, broccoli, cabbage etc.. but how you cook it will affect it's goodness aswell.

Drink lots of water. I can't tell you how good you'll feel, it's like a detox every day!

K.

joc_06

I dont really know what the story is here?
Its fairly obvious your diet is Katt. I think you already know that.
A quick google will give you loads of info but i think everyone knows that chinese using those fatty sauces and fried rice is bad. You need breakfast and you need fruit. Coke is crap and i presume that the soup is loaded with salt and not very healthy.

I eat from about 15 foods. Brown bread, oats, cottage cheese, fruit, veg, grilled fish, grilled chicken, potatoes, brown rice, low fat milk, poached eggs or omletes with yoke removed.

I rarely eat butter, white bread, white pasta, coke, cornflakes, beef, pork, full fat milk or cheese, chocolate, almost "any" sauce in a jar.

I take some supplements and multivitamins and im good to go. I think my only vice is drink and i dont think i'll ever give that up. Only thing is when im drunk id eat anything so thats a killer altogether.

Aswell you should tailor your diet around the goals you want to achive. Ie weight loss, or gain etc. But i doubt your present diet will achieve anything.

Captain Trips

joc_06 wrote:

I dont really know what the story is here?
Coke is crap and i presume that the soup is loaded with salt and not very healthy.

That Avonmore soup is not so much NaCl salt, it's the much much worse MSG that it's loaded with (also, chinese food is riddled with MSG as it's dirt cheap for mass production). Basically cut the MSG crap from the diet.

If you must buy premade soup, go for organic soup which doesn't have MSG or the loads of colourings, etc., . And eat salmon, buckets of salmon

ZENER

cheesedude wrote:

Usual Day:

Breakfast : Em nothing. A glass of Orange Juice.

Lunch around (2pm): Avonmore soup - chicken and vegetable and two pieces of white toast(im gonna be eating brown bread slices from now on its just there was none in my press!)

Snack: A turkish delight bar. One of those microwaveable popcorns.

Dinner: Maybe a Chinese such as sweet and sour chicken and fried rice or else like that stuff from the jar sweet and sour chicken stir fry with boiled rice.

I also enjoy a few glasses of coke throughout the day.

I am basically trying to cut out as much **** as possible but would like to try keep the odd chinese in.

My diet was similar to that or worse if I were to be honest with lots of white bread sandwiches with prepacked cooked ham thrown in for good measure. You don't mention whether or not you excercise at all . . do you ?

I was always terrible at dietry things so I left it to the people who are paid to know and went to the doctor and to a good gym instructor. The advice the other posters have given echoes exactly what I was told with a few additions:

Avoid ALL processed foods made from white flour, these include white bread - white pasta - biscuits - cakes - scones - pastries.

Where possible use wholewheat alternatives - there's little or no difference in taste !! Alpen or similar with some sliced strawberries is nice for brekky although personally I can't stand low fat milk and this is my one weakness.

Avoid ALL Fizzy drinks including so called diet drinks that contain asparateme (Lucozade sport etc contain this). Still water is far better.

If your peckish grab an apple or have plenty of satsumas around - bananas are OK but high in fat I'm told.

Avoid ANY food with hydroganated (sp?) vegatable oil - a major no-no, lots of brands of brown bread use this instead of buttermilk. Many "spreads" also are high in this and real low salt butter is a far better alternative if something like flora or benicol isn't available.

These are just some of the recommendations made to me, hope they help !!

Oh . . plenty of excercise too

ZEN

Imposter

joc_06 wrote:

I rarely eat butter, white bread, white pasta, coke, cornflakes, beef, pork, full fat milk or cheese, chocolate, almost "any" sauce in a jar.

What's wrong with the ones i've highlighted and also full fat milk or cheese in moderation (Milk on cornflakes for example and maybe 2 or 3 protions of cheese per week)?

joc_06

Red meat is full of saturated fat and compared to the nutrition in chicken or fish there's just no point. It can still be part of a healthy diet but only a palm sized portion per week. I just skip this and eat turkey instead. Much healthier. You'd never hear of a prof athlete tucking into a big steak every day. Those days are gone
Cornflakes are processed much like whire bread so all goodness is gone from them. I eat porridge with bran instead.
Cheese is 70%fat in most cases. Cottage cheese which i prefer for taste alone is only 3%
I actually drink the full fat milk mostly as there's only a difference of 2% fat anyway and its good for calcium

irlirishkev

joc_06 wrote:

Cornflakes are processed much like whire bread so all goodness is gone from them. I eat porridge with bran instead.

Also, breakfast cereal like corn flakes, and rice krispies,.. they tend to be loaded with sugar.
Porridge is wise option. Love the stuff myself..

K.

RonanC

joc_06 wrote:

Red meat is full of saturated fat and compared to the nutrition in chicken or fish there's just no point. It can still be part of a healthy diet but only a palm sized portion per week.
.
.
I actually drink the full fat milk mostly as there's only a difference of 2% fat anyway and its good for calcium

Red meat can be fattening in certain situations, but it's also available in very lean versions. The cut is the main determinant e.g. a 220g serving of extra lean beef contains 10g fat, of which ~4g comes from saturated fat. An average sized round steak has approx 25g protein to 8g fat. Not to mention the additional benefits of potassium, iron, natural creatine, etc in red meat.

Unless a person is severly underweight, skim or low-fat milk would be a better option. There is ~35g of fat in a litre of full-fat, compared to ~1g in skim.

Imposter

Would Bran flakes be a better substitute for Corn Flakes in a diet? Also you never discussed why pork was bad. Is it 'just' the fat content?

Static M.e.

Sorry to jump in, dont mean to hijack Cheesedudes thread.

but quick question.

What you are all suggesting, is this what a Dietitican ? or a Nutrient person tells you if you go to one ?

I would like to get all this information made for myself

Avoid ALL processed foods made from white flour, these include white bread - white pasta - biscuits - cakes - scones - pastries.

I didnt realise White pasta wasn't good for you I eat it at least twice a week after 6 for dinner, and Cheese and Crackers that kinda thing, I thought was doing better eating them instead of dinners in the evening....

<-- lost

joc_06

I dont really mean that any food is bad per se. In fact you can eat almost anything as part of a healthy diet if its prepared right even pizza.

Pork isnt bad for you nor is red meat (white doughy bread is POISON though) but if you say your allowance for food a day is 2.4kcal's then eating stuff like steaks takes a large chunk out of that without giving you the benefit that chicken or fish or turkey does.

At the end of the day you must ask yourself what your goals are. If they are to be an extremely fit athlete then you must measure everything with a teaspoon, If you want to in general improve your diet then cut out fry ups and takeaways and processed food in general and you're halfway there

Im not a dietician or even an athlete but im approx 7% fat, 5" 10, 88kg and can run a mile under 5 mins regularly. Compared to a year ago i was 20% fat, 83kg and couldnt even run a mile. I do think ive become obsessed with the gym and training and all and i read every article/book i can get my hands on so i know a little bit about it but by no means am i the last word on it so take my advice with a pinch of salt if you want (I dont think im too far off the mark though)

The best way to improve your diet is to educate yourself about what food is good and whats bad, then you'll never have to starve yourself and you'll not get fat. It only takes some small changes to your lifestyle to make a huge differ5ence to your health

kazzer

Would Bran flakes be a better substitute for Corn Flakes in a diet?

Yes.

1. Less sugar
2. More fibre

LegacyUser

What kind of of bodyfat % are we talking about here? Ideally I would like to get this upper body. I am about 160 lbs presently and 6 foot tall and would like to lose about a stone. In the gyms, do they make a program specifically for this and you work towards it then?

Doper Than U

Yeah, your diet is pretty bad, but you know it and want to change it, which is great. Aim for maximum nutrition. I wouldn't cut out any "pure" foods (as in food that is pretty much in it's normal state, meat, eggs, veg, fruit....they are all healthy eaten the right way).
I would cut down big time on processed foods (microwave dinners, frozen meals etc), as well as white bread. It is a killer when trying to lose weight. Just use something like McCabridges instead.
I think, instead of thinking about what you can't eat, focus on what you can eat. Tonnes of veg and fruit, good quality lean cuts of red meat, chicken, game. Also, eggs are the best food ever.... just eat them in moderation (coming from someone who eats a dozen a week :rolleyes: I can't help it, I just love eggs)
Educate yourself about food and cooking, watch Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson (warning, Nigella can do very fatty foods) or get some good Delia Smith books. Check out some good websites.
One of the worst things about your diet is the utter lack of variety. Have breakfast every day, it's probably the best meal of the day IMO... eggs (scrambled, poached, boiled), brown bread, porridge, sardines on toast, smoked salmon, fruit (think melon, strawberries), beans on toast (beans are probably the healthiest thing you'll ever get out of a can), grilled rashers... Just don't eat mountains of food and you'll be fine. 2 Rashers or 2 eggs and 2 slices of brown bread is enough.

Cut down on the chinese take away. Have it one night a week, and if you can, find a good Thai restaurant. They don't use MSG or thickeners (I recommend Siam Thai Restaurant).

You don't actually eat a huge amount (unless your portions are enormous), you could stand to eat more food, just make it the right food. Focus on nutrition and quality of ingredients and you won't go too far wrong. Just steer clear of processed foods and saturated fats (eat in small amounts).

That body, well, close to it, is achievable for those who really want it. The right diet (outlined above), cardiovascular exercise for about 40 mins to an hour most days (start out with 20 mins walking if you're unfit), and strength training (ie weights) 3 times a week will show a big improvment in 2 months. Just start off slowly.

Sangre

You want to go down to 146 pounds at 6ft tall? Ehh...I would think that would be a bit underweight, unless your of a really slim build. Well, from my own experiences that is.

ZENER

joc_06 wrote:

white doughy bread is POISON though

Yeah . . I really miss my batch loaf sambos . .

At the end of the day you must ask yourself what your goals are. If they are to be an extremely fit athlete then you must measure everything with a teaspoon, If you want to in general improve your diet then cut out fry ups and takeaways and processed food in general and you're halfway there.

Agree 100%, I think the most important part of any diet is to have a goal and more importantly a realistic goal that you are likely to achieve rather than an impossible one that will end up discouraging you from going further. Health goals are as much about attitude and self belief and being honest and realistic with yourself just as much as they're about calorie intake !!

Im not a dietician or even an athlete but im approx 7% fat, 5" 10, 88kg and can run a mile under 5 mins regularly. Compared to a year ago i was 20% fat, 83kg and couldnt even run a mile.

Interesting point that and one a lot of people I've spoken to don't realise. Diet isn't all about LOSING weight just losing fat, a side effect of any training is muscle development and muscle weighs more than fat. With regard to the running a mile, this is how I've judged my progress over the past 5 or 6 months that I've been doing this, to begin with I was be breathless after a 10 minute fairly brisk walk, now I could run for about 40 minutes BEFORE doing a 2000mt row at level 10 . . and that's just my warm up !!! It's amazing how much you can improve fitness with a little push and some self belief.

The best way to improve your diet is to educate yourself about what food is good and whats bad, then you'll never have to starve yourself and you'll not get fat. It only takes some small changes to your lifestyle to make a huge differ5ence to your health

Good words there !!

ZEN

LegacyUser

Sorry I am actually 180lbs and am 6'0 tall not 160 lbs!!!!!

I do not have a belly or am I fat but I intend on getting into perfect shape as i will feel better overall.

LegacyUser

Thanks a lot for all the advice lads...

I am going to buy a Jamie Oliver cook book today...

newgrange

You might not change shape much, but your insides will thank you for it.
Best of luck.