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Thanks I have never kept up with a food journal wont remember all that I eat. Today I had Cheerios for Breakfast, an apple for an snack, a salad for lunch with ranch, and spaghetti for dinner. I only drink fruit juice and water. I don't like having snacks as I tend to go over board. I usually skip breakfast there is just not much time for breakfast unless I stop and get something.
What strength training exercise do you recommend? I would think 45mins of exercise was adequate for weight loss. Should I go for a full hour?
too high carb, no protien in your diet. Eat eggs, nuts or some MEAT!! Also way too low calorie. I can go on but your diet sucks. Not balanced at all, too many carbs, no protien, low calorie, high sugar, terrible. You need an overhaul. How about you tell us a little more of why you choose those types of foods? Are you a vegan? If not do you want some help? Any restrictions/allergies/moral conflicts? Then we can go from there.
Did you notice you did not have any substancial protien in your list? I mean right there is a pure carb/sugar diet that you ate all day.
Steve is right. You also may not be eating enough..I know that sounds odd, but your body needs x amount of calories 'just to be' so you need to figure out what that number is and eat at least that many calories along with excerise.
You said you ate Cherrios..did you measure a serving size out or just pour it and the milk into a bowl? Get rid of the ranch dressing. Loaded with empty calories and full of fat. 12g in tblsp. Avoid low fat or fat free dressing...loaded with sugar.
The fruit juice isn't bad..just look for the juice that is 100% juice with no added sugars and only have the serving size. Adam and Eve make a good fruit/veggie juice that has no added sugar. Northland brand does too but you have to read the bottle and make sure it says no sugar added.
45 mins a day of excerise? It would cause weight loss if your burning more than you're eating. You really need to keep a food diary and you also need to measure out your portions. Portion control is very very important.
Thanks I have never kept up with a food journal wont remember all that I eat. Today I had Cheerios for Breakfast, an apple for an snack, a salad for lunch with ranch, and spaghetti for dinner. I only drink fruit juice and water. I don't like having snacks as I tend to go over board. I usually skip breakfast there is just not much time for breakfast unless I stop and get something.
What strength training exercise do you recommend? I would think 45mins of exercise was adequate for weight loss. Should I go for a full hour?
The bad stuff:
Cheerios: starch and sugar.
Apple: sugar
Ranch dressing on the salad: fat and/or sugar
Spaghetti: starch and sugar from the sauce.
The good stuff:
Cheerios: fortified with vitamins and minerals, assuming you use milk you're getting a little vitamin D and calcium too.
Apple: a little fiber and a tiny bit of vitamin C and A.
Salad: more fiber, possibly some vitamin A and C.
Spaghetti: assuming you're using a meat-based marinara, you're getting a little vitamin C, a tiny bit of protein, and possibly a smidge of iron.
What to switch up:
Cheerios: have shredded wheat, or oat bran, or unsweetened raisin bran, or make a bowl of oatmeal (NOT INSTANT) with raisins, a splash of milk, and a teaspoon of brown sugar or maple syrup for sweetening.
Apple: change to a banana or 4-5 strawberries.
Salad: put a few strips of unbreaded, grilled chicken breast in it, and use olive oil and vinegar for the dressing. Make sure there's some *dark* green lettuce in there too, not iceberg.
Spaghetti: have half of however much of the noodles you're currently eating, add a couple of golf-ball-sized meatballs made mostly of ground beef, and make sure the sauce is either home-made, or the jarred sauce is organic and has chunks of tomatoes in it.
ADD another portion of vegetables somewhere. Another salad at supper time would be fine (without the chicken slices since you're doing meatballs in the noodles), and ADD a handful of almonds somewhere (like a mid-evening snack after dinner).
Drinks: Water - awesome!
Juice: if you're having more than a *juice glass* sized amount, you might be getting too much sugar from the juice. A juice glass sized amount (if you don't have a juice glass) is basically the juice of 1 valencia (juice) orange, plus one smaller tangerine, combined. Or a half a grapefruit plus a juice orange if you like mixing it up. You will be better off squeezing it yourself anyway, so maybe this is a chance to get started on that habit
A couple of things. Portion size. Cheerios for breakfast is a weak breakfast. And how much are you eating? Ranch dressing is full of fat and calories. Spaghetti for dinner - what kind of spaghetti? Plain, marinara sauce, meat sauce, white sauce, butter? How much? Fruit juice is just empty calories for the most part. I would ditch it ASAP.
Have you considered Weight Watchers? They will show you what a portion size is and give you tips on better food to eat to get more bang for your buck. 45 minutes of exercise is fine, but you could go longer. You do not have to do cardio and weight training on the same day if time is an issue. Do you go to a gym? You could hire a trainer there to show you some exercises you can do with weights.
She eats rabbit food all day, if she did more cardio, she'd just have to eat more rabbit food. Or pass out.
OP, eat some real food. Replace the Cheerios with a couple eggs immediately and see if that doesn't help. Then get some meat in there!
1) Eat more protein, especially at breakfast. And don't skip breakfast! Pair your one serving of Cheerios with hardboiled eggs or Greek yogurt. Think outside the breakfast box and eat leftover broiled chicken breasts or a lean hunk of meat for breakfast.
2) Don't drink your calories. Ditch the fruit juice. If you absolutely must, stick to one 4 oz. glass a day and make it unsalted tomato juice or V8.
3) Avoid ranch dressing. I know it's tasty ... but it's packed with sugar and fat. Make your own dressing, in a glass bottle, with olive oil and your choice of vinegar and/or lemon or lime juice, herbs, etc.
4) Do keep a food diary. Online, you can find good ones at fitday.com or sparkpeople.com
5) Try measuring your food for awhile -- until you get good at eyeballing quantities of food -- in order to more accurately keep your food diary.
ever since I decided to lose weight I cut out meat all togetter. Meat is getting more and more expensve so I decided to avoid it. I don't eat eggs. I do snack on peanuts, fruits, crackers, and veggies only. I do measure the serving size and eat accordingly. I don't think that I am overeating.
For breakfast usually have cheerios or smart start cereal.I want to try oatmeal and honey bunches of oats brand cereal. Most of the time breakfast is skipped. The less calories I consume the better right?
Lunch is always a salad, romaine or iceburg with ranch or vinaigrette.
Dinner is always either spaghetti, brown rice, chlli, or healthy tv dinners.
And lastly, snacks are fresh fruit, veggies like celery and carrots, or peanuts. The only cooking oil I use is extra virgin olive oil.
So - Do you need to lose weight? I am not checking your profile - and I'm not like the other forum people who are good at checking out all of someone's other posts.
You say why are you not losing weight -- well the short answer is you are eating enough at your current exercise/metabolism level to maintain your weight.
You don't say you're gaining. Just that you're not losing.
So - do you need to lose weight? Or - would you like to lose inches?
They are different things.
I lost 35 lbs over the last 8 months. I lost 25 of it quickly (relatively speaking - about 3 months). But - while I certainly dropped pant sizes, it didn't make a lot of difference overall in how I looked.
I measured myself at that point (upper arms, thighs, waist, chest, etc..) - after I'd already lost 25 lbs.
The next 5 months I only lost 10lbs. I started working out with a trainer, and picked up hobbies that were more cardio intensive (ballroom dance, actually).
I only lost 10lbs in that 5 months, but I lost 22".
That last 10lbs (which was pretty much all fat) - made a huge difference in how clothes fit on me, and how I look.
So - I guess if you can answer whether or not its weight you need to lose, or inches you need to lose - perhaps we can give you better advice.
Personally - your food intake seems low, but - for all I know you weigh 120lbs and really are at a good weight but just *think* you need to lose weight.
Now - if you weight 350lbs, and are eating as you described, and aren't losing weight - something weird is definitely going on.
good luck to you! The board here has some good advice, but obviously - a trainer/nutritionalist are always helpful in real life too.
ever since I decided to lose weight I cut out meat all togetter. Meat is getting more and more expensve so I decided to avoid it. I don't eat eggs. I do snack on peanuts, fruits, crackers, and veggies only. I do measure the serving size and eat accordingly. I don't think that I am overeating.
For breakfast usually have cheerios or smart start cereal.I want to try oatmeal and honey bunches of oats brand cereal. Most of the time breakfast is skipped. The less calories I consume the better right?
Lunch is always a salad, romaine or iceburg with ranch or vinaigrette.
Dinner is always either spaghetti, brown rice, chlli, or healthy tv dinners.
And lastly, snacks are fresh fruit, veggies like celery and carrots, or peanuts. The only cooking oil I use is extra virgin olive oil.
Well, you're definitely not getting enough protein in your diet. It is important to consume the correct amounts of protein because dieting + exercise + a low protein diet can lead to muscle loss, which is bad because muscle helps to maintain your metabolism and energy levels. And for most of us, a steady protein intake throughout the day give a more satisfying and lasting relief to hunger whem compared to a low protein/high carbohydrate diet. If you don't get your protein from meat, get it from quinoa, beans, and lentils. And egg whites - that's an easy way to get some protein! I'm not saying to cut out carbs and load up on protein. Just find ways to get your protein in (in a correct portion size!) and then work your veggies and complex carbs around it.
And make sure you do portion sizes by weight, not by visually judging what is appropriate. It's really easy to overestimate when guesstimating.
I had the same problem with losing weight until I forced myself to get picky and measure out my food, getting serious about monitoring how much I was putting in my mouth throughout the day, and how many calories I consumed. Pre-monitoring my diet: I lost 5 lbs between June and September of last year. Started monitoring at the beginning of October and since then, lost 32 lbs. And that was through Thanksgiving, Christmas, and a weeklong trip to Disneyland!
For breakfast usually have cheerios or smart start cereal.I want to try oatmeal and honey bunches of oats brand cereal. Most of the time breakfast is skipped. The less calories I consume the better right?
Wrong. As odd as it seems, it takes calories to burn calories. If you skip meals, your body will hang onto every calorie it can in order to preserve energy.
Forget the processed cereals; 99 percent of them are full of sugar, even Cheerios. Smart Start is not smart. Just the name "Honey Bunches of Oats" should tip you off right there.
No TV dinner is healthy. Period.
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