Diet weekly plans waste food

[IguanaTail]

Has anyone come across a good diet food plan which doesn't mean that loads of food is wasted at the end of each week?

I don't want shakes and powders and sachets and pills. I want nice normal healthy food. But each plan has things like "2 slices of bread" for a breakfast and then when you look across the week, no more bread is used. So you have a whole loaf minus two slices.

AIBU to want a food plan where
1 - the food is good
2 - the food is varied
3 - the food is not wasted

?? Does it exist?

I agree with you about the industry SGB, completely. I make a point of never buying anything sold as reduced fat/healthy/low sugar but a calorie counted menu plan consisting of real food and regular meals should work.

Best used as a starting point to educate yourself on the kinds of meals and amount of food you need rather than to be followed slavishly though.

That said the single most useful thing anyone who needs to lose weight can do is stop snacking. Eat any 3 regular meals a day made of real food and limited sugar and most people, especially those who need to, will lose weight.

"I think the bottom line is that I would just prefer to eat what I want when I want and not bother counting any calories ever and be slim"

So, could you tweak your existing diet? Eat the same meals but a smaller portion. Cook your favourites in a different way to save calories. Cut out the crap/alcohol/fizzy drinks. Have chocolate or whatever just occasionally.

Ask yourself what you are prepared to do that you can keep up as a long term way of eating.

I find its not so much what I eat, but how much.

Portion control is the key.

(But I'm a bloody greedy bugger)

iguana "I think the bottom line is that I would just prefer to eat what I want when I want and not bother counting any calories ever and be slim"

I'm just trying to think how that links to food waste. I mean, are you the sort of person that if you have a salmon portion one night as your main meal, you would be totally averse to having it again, say 2 days later, cooked in a different way?

I am surprised tbh because I am dieting atm and I haven't noticed any plans with food waste being a problem (looked at a few before deciding).

There is not a link with my normal (do as I please) eating habits and wasting food.

It's when I am trying to follow a diet plan that there is an issue. I think I also worry about food being opened or defrosted going off. Like a pack of prawns. Delighted to eat the first portion. Would rather not have them the following day as well but by day 3 are they ok still?

sorry Iguana I'm confused - what would normally happen with a pack of prawns - you'd eat the lot?

I only have frozen prawns.

I am paranoid about best before and so on but I don't mind freezing chicken, defrosting and reheating.

I guess I am a bit confused because I can't see why diet specifically causes an issue with food waste. I agree with your example about a diet that only uses 2 slices of bread per week but in reality you'd either freeze it or have the same breakfast many days.

PS the half a banana thing is crazy - you'd have to eat the other half the same day surely? is this from a specific diet?

Yes, if you buy a pack of anything, for a diet or otherwise, surely it'll needs eating fairly quickly. I wouldn't want to exactly the same thing 2 days running but prawn salad one day, prawn curry the next.

I think you might be better off with just eating less, healthy food and not snacking. It'll take longer to lose weight than one of the plans for you, but it's more likely to last.

My Fitness Pal might help you track what you are eating, I found that helped me see where I was overeating.

Do you live alone OP? If I had 2 slices of toast, the rest would be eaten by DH and the DCs.

Eat normal foods, just less of them and serve the rest to everyone else.

oh but fear of waste is something that leads to lots of people over eating, clearing your plate, eating up left overs, eating all of a pack of something rather than throwing any of it out - this is all stuff that means you are eating more than you need.

Eating more food than you need is as wasteful as throwing food out.

What would normally happen with a pack of prawns is that I would eat half and then save the rest for the next day. Then the next day I wouldn't want them and so leave them and then by day 3 I would worry that they would be off and so would end up throwing them away.

Iguana, why don't you just defrost the amount of prawns you need for one meal?

Half a banana buy a small kid size banana
2 sausages can be bought from butchers
50g cheese cheese last for ages or just buy a small amount from the cheese counter
half a cucumber can be bought at the supermarket
1 tortilla wrap these freeze really well. I put grease proof paper between them first to stop them sticking.
1 chicken breast again can just buy one from the butchers.

I've been using a diet app that's a kind of social media site where people swop recipes, diet tips and offer lots of positive support. You might find it useful - I have. It's called Loserz and it's a free one.

Low carb, reduce sugar and booze. Job done. Very little waste as leftover meat from dinner is taken for lunch next day.
I can say this while I sit here eating sugary fruit jellies and drinking wine.

The 5:2 is really good on this point. Limited calories, not amount or type of food. Leftovers can be eaten on the limitless days.

Iguana, based on what you are saying, dieting or not, you don't want to eat the same food two days in a row.

so if you diet - what's the actual difference? Apologies if I am being thick here.

in this way, the 5:2 wouldn't help you because if you're going to look askance at the food on day 2, and you don't freeze stuff, you're just going to have the same problem.

Joe wicks. The body coach- his lean in 15 meals are fab and aren't restrictive just easy meals that are healthy and don't lead to wastage

Bizzarely, I made the latest filo pastry one last night. Ate a third of it and put the rest in the fridge. Now I have 2 more meals of cold filo pastry chicken/spinach. Really doesn't look appetising. It's cold and congealed. I'm not sure if I can re heat it or not.

i live alone - i buy something say prawns - use 1 portion then freeze the rest for the following week or couple of days time
when i cook something from scratch make enough for 4 then eat 1 and freeze the rest - bread and rolls get frozen and taken out the night before for lunch or in the morning

i have hardly any food wastage

Freeze the filo pastry and defrost and ree heat another day. Of course you can reheat left overs.

If something has been cooked, you can ree heat it once. If it has been cooked, you can freeze it and then reheat it once as well. Just ree heat till it is piping hot. Frozen raw chicken can be cooked, frozen again in its cooked state, and then defrosted and ree heated until pipping hot again. You just shouldn't defrost raw food, and then freeze it again raw, or defrost cooked food and then freeze it again cooked. HTH

I keep my veg in the bottom of the fridge, it lasts for ages. If you don't want to do that then buy frozen veg - no waste at all with that.
I don't understand why anyone would want to eat half a banana. Just have a small one.
If you really want to follow a diet plan you can devise your own. All the information you need (macro and micro nutrients, your BMR,etc) is available free online. That way you can tailor it to your needs exactly and plan your shopping list. Most people find they can lose weight without doing this, just by cutting back or avoiding certain foods.