Critique my diet

[Chubbychubkins]

I'm putting on weight at an alarming rate. I now have a BMI of 29, 2 years ago it was 23 (6 months post 2nd child) and prior to my first pregnancy (6 years ago) it was 21 and had been for 10+ years.

My diet is very samey, I know this. But I find batch cooking easier and we only do a weekly online food shop, we don't live near a shop and we both work full time, so picking up bits is difficult.

I've spent the last week logging everything that has passed my lips, but this is pretty typical. I have cut out our weekly cake (Saturdays) and cut out the alcohol (2 drinks twice a week), both in the last 6 weeks.

Breakfast (when I eat it) is 40g porridge, 1 dollop -heaped tablespoon of greek yogurt and 60g of summer berries.

Monday:

Breakfast as above
lunch - 1 bread roll with chicken tikka sandwich filling, lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes and onion.
Dinner - saag panner - 100g paneer, half tin of tomatoes, 100g frozen spinach, red onion and spices (dried, not a paste). No oil. 2 microwave poppadum's.
Drinks - 120ml of semi- skimmed milk.

Tuesday -
No breakfast
lunch - chili with nachos - 100g 5% beef mince, half tin of tomatoes, onion, garlic, chili, herbs and spices, no oil, 20g cheese, dollop of greek yogurt, 1 corn tortilla cut up and baked in to tortilla chips.
Dinner - chicken jalfrazi - 100g chicken breast, 40g almond butter, tomatoes, peppers, onions, herbs and spices, garlic, ginger. handful of mange tout.
Drinks - 350ml of milk.

Wednesday:
no breakfast
L - chili beef as above with a handful of green veg
D - chicken jalrazi as above

Drinks - 120ml of semi- skimmed milk.

Thursday
B - as above
L - shakshuka - 60g chorizo, 2 poached eggs, 1 pepper, onion, tomatoes, paprika.
D - Saag paneer as above

Drinks - 150ml of semi- skimmed milk.

Friday
B - as above
L - chili beef nachos as above with broccoli
D - Chicken Jalfrezi as above

Drinks - 120ml of semi- skimmed milk.

Saturday
B - no breakfast

L - smoothie bowl - 60g red berries, 30g oats, 25g peanut butter, 60g yogurt,
D - Steak tacos - 100g steak, 1 tortilla wrap, salad greens, 30g feta, tomatoes, 15g pomegranate seeds, tablespoon of geek yogurt, cucumber. Herbs and spices.

snacks - 1 mini twister, 1 mint club.

drinks - 150ml milk.

Today (Sunday)
breakfast as above
lunch - chili beef as above.
Dinner - to be decided. no snacks yet and 150ml milk.

I also drink 2-3 liters of water a day.

I'm not as active as I should be. I do a 30minute home work out 3 times a week (Les Mils) and 2 half hour yoga sessions per week but I'm generally fairly sedentary otherwise mainly as we have drive everywhere as we live semi-rurally.

So let me have it. This week I've put 0.5lbs on. I can't live like this.

You don’t seem to be eating a lot. Calculate the calories though, you might be using a lot of oil and butter etc in cooking that add up the calories. And one bread roll could be 100 or 250 cal who knows.

Past that, I would see a doctor if I were you. Putting on weight when you don’t eat a lot is cause for concern.

What you eat doesn't seem to equate to that level of weight gain. Are you perimenopausal?

You seem to eat quite a lot of meat so you could introduce a veggie meal 2 or 3 times a week.

You definitely don’t look like you’re eating a lot, however do you track a every bit you eat? At the beginning of this year I decided to try and only eat when sitting at the table with my plate - I never realised how much I was eating like a couple of potatoes while making the kids dinner, scooping the kids leftovers into my mouth before doing the dishes, things like that. It genuinely was just a bite here and there, but over the day it probably added up to a whole other meal!

I know you say you tracked everything this week, by the way, but if you don’t do that regularly you definitely could be sneaking extra bits without thinking!

Are you tracking calories and what are your portions like? This sounds like a pretty good balanced diet.

Potentially get your thyroid checked and maybe look for insulin resistance too, just in case there is a hormonal driver to the weight gain.

If you are logging everything what is your calorie daily total?

If you weigh your porridge and berries, why not weigh your yogurt?
nut butters are calorific.

How big was your roll & how many calories? How much tikka sandwich filling did you have & so how many calories?

Chorizo is calorific so with the eggs etc it’s heading towards 500 calories for that meal

125calories in a Tesco corn tortilla
Chilli beef recipe I’ve put in the MFP recipe calculator & that is approx 487 so will the tortilla & mange tout that meal =628 which is a lot for a meal if you are trying to lose weight.

116 calories in a mint club but only 38 in a mini twister.
Milk 75 calories if semi per 150ml

Steak tortilla around 430 calories
Chicken jalfrezi around 350 if you didn’t have any rice or pots with it?

Paneer meal around 317 calories

Are you also logging drinks such as cups of tea/coffee? If you do any exercise don’t log it in MFP, it gives you the extra calories to eat back. That was the only time I never lost anything.
Do be careful on MFP. I once happily logged something as 80cals because that is what someone registered it as. It was actually 320 calories!

You really do need to weigh and log everything that passes your lips so you can see where you are going wrong. My 40g of Tesco finest Greek yogurt is 53 calories & that is a small -not heaped- dessert spoon not heaped.

Work out your tdee here -the amount of cals to stay the same as you are now- then reduce the calories by 20% to get a weight loss target calorie to aim for

tdeecalculator.net/

Do remember though that weight fluctuates depending on the time in your cycle, if you are holding a bit of water because you ate saltier food yesterday etc

Your diet is generally healthy (NB I have no qualifications in this!) so it can only be down to portion sizes / hidden calories in oils etc. as others have said. The only unhealthy components I spotted were nachos and perhaps too much red / fatty meat.

The scales could easily show a 0.5 gain and it be meaningless - weight fluctuates by more than that over the course of a day. What you weigh over time is what matters, though appreciate you have seen a steady climb. However, if this is a new and healthier eating pattern you may just need to be patient.

I thought maybe it's that you're eating two main meals per day and are quite sedentary.

I've lost a lot of weight over the last year (just over 7 stone) and have discovered that I can't have 3 meals - porridge or a salad (not both) and one "proper" meal. I do a hilly walk for 1-3 hours five days per week but if I eat two "main" type meals in the same day I gain.

I'm 46 - age definitely has something to do with it - most women can't stay the same weight by eating the same amount after approximately 40/45.

How tall are you and whats the calorie intake? I think you are almost there.

I'm 5.6, 11st 5 and losing about 1lb a week. I walk between 40m and 1hr 40m briskly every day. I think being sedentary is your issue-try a stepper if you can't walk? I have between 1200-1600 cals a day. My diet is pretty similar, I have about 35g porridge oats, 0% fat yoghurt, 50g berries, teaspoon of pumpkin seeds.

I wouldn't have a premade chicken tikka salad filling, but I would have plain chicken with some 0% yoghurt and curry powder. If I'm having bread it's a slim bagel or a wrap. I don't know about paneer, I'd probably have prawns or white fish and no poppadoms, with rice. I would snack on fruit like apples, orange, banana and have skimmed milk. You could swap the corn tortilla for baby gem lettuce cups and add beans or sweet corn for carb energy. I wouldn't have more than a teaspoon of nut butter or nuts. Turkey mince is also great alternative to beef as its so lean. Sorry you did ask for critique! I think exercise is key.

@StarryStarrySocks

You seem to eat quite a lot of meat so you could introduce a veggie meal 2 or 3 times a week.

This. If you eliminated all the meat and fish and replaced it with veg, beans, lentils, it would fall off you. Try it for a week.

This guy is really motivating & he talks a lot of sense. He used to be overweight. Sustainable habits really are key.
instagram.com/cartergood?utm_medium=copy_link

Are you drinking the milk because you are still breastfeeding? Swap it to skimmed.

Oh also how's your sleep? If it's very broken due to a toddler still waking hourly it will utterly screw your metabolism due to high cortisol levels... Really serious long term sleep deprivation has incredibly destructive far reaching impact on mental and physical health and that includes messing up your metabolism.

Portion size could be the key.

Cut out the drinking milk, though, that's just calories you don't need.

To answer the questions:

I'm 38 and 5ft 7. My tdee is 1868. I aim for 1400 calories per day, it's less if I don't eat breakfast, around 1100.

I have an underactive thyroid but it's correctly medicated, I have blood tests every 3months.

I never ever eat the kids food. Ever. Just the thought of it makes me vomit a little. I'm really funny about other people's food- can't have a taste of DHs meal etc ) but weirdly fine eating stuff others cook etc).

I can't eat legumes or pulses (they cause me intestinal bleeding). So I can't replace my meat.

Monday's sandwich was from a deli, I wasn't at my usual place of work and couldn't reheat my lunch.

I aim for 3 equal meals rather than a big evening meal, I feel better in myself. But appreciate it might be hindering the weight loss.

Hopefully not missed anything. Ask again if I have, I'm not trying to avoid any questions!

@Heyyeahyouwiththesadface has given you some great advice.

According to MFP the paneer alone is around 400 calories without the additional ingredients including oil. You need to measure everything accurately and log it correctly to see where you are going wrong if you want to lose weight.

As you are sedentary, try getting out for a daily walk and doing weight bearing exercise 3 times a week - that can be bodyweight and still be beneficial. Building lean muscle makes your body more efficient at burning calories and you'll burn more calories even when you're not active. Weight bearing exercise also helps build bone density which is especially important for women. Drink plenty of water.

And the milk is used in tea and coffee, I don't drink it straight! No sugars in them.

And no rice, naan, potatoes with the curries.

And yes, I track everything I eat every week. I could tell you exactly what I ate any given day in the last 18months!

How many steps are you doing? I swear by 15k every single day. Currently 13.5 and nipping out to hit 15k before kickoff

Sound pretty healthy, but I'd prob replace some of the bread/carbs with salad. I don't eat meat every day, and I don't eat pulses or beans because they make me pretty gassy - there are other sources of veggie protein.

For reference I'm the same height as you, 34, and weigh about 58 kg. Also don't exercise as much as I should.

I have fruit and yoghurt for breakfast, salad with eggs, fish or cheese at lunch, and veggie pasta or veggie curry type dishes for dinner. Have chicken and fish for dinner maybe once or twice a week.

@IWentAwayIStayedAway

How many steps are you doing? I swear by 15k every single day. Currently 13.5 and nipping out to hit 15k before kickoff

I've no idea. But not many. Less than 10k

there are other sources of veggie protein.

What veggie protein sources do you eat then?

@Chubbychubkins

there are other sources of veggie protein.

What veggie protein sources do you eat then?

Err, was just trying to help - sorry

I eat eggs and cheese, lots of green veg which has protein in higher volume. Brown rice as well.

[quote WeAreTheHeroes]@Heyyeahyouwiththesadface has given you some great advice.

According to MFP the paneer alone is around 400 calories without the additional ingredients including oil. You need to measure everything accurately and log it correctly to see where you are going wrong if you want to lose weight.

As you are sedentary, try getting out for a daily walk and doing weight bearing exercise 3 times a week - that can be bodyweight and still be beneficial. Building lean muscle makes your body more efficient at burning calories and you'll burn more calories even when you're not active. Weight bearing exercise also helps build bone density which is especially important for women. Drink plenty of water.[/quote]
I do do weight bearing exercise, that's what the hiit is. I use 8kg and 12kg dumbbells. And as said in the OP I drink 2-3 liters of water a day.

The paneer curry is 430 calories including the poppadoms. I don't cook with oil.

I do try and go for a 15 minute walk at lunch but I need to be more consistent with it. We do go for walks at the weekend but during the week it's much harder, I don't like the idea of walking early morning or late in the evening but that could just be my anxiety.

Sleep is ok, better than it was eldest sleeps through more often than not now and youngest always sleeps through.

I don't think I've weighed 58kg since I was at uni!

Flgbusterhereagain

I wasn't being arsey, sorry if it came across like that. I genuinely want to know! I eat cheese (paneer) as a meat substitute but it's high in calories as another poster has commented. I could eat more eggs, I'm just not a big fan. I'll try it.