To think most family meals are low enough in caloroes and the diet industry is not necessary?

[ElderAve]

Obviously not if you're going to deep fry everything but we know that. A standard family menu at home.

A grab and go breakfast of cereal, porridge, toast, eggs or fruit and yogurt will be no more than 400 calories.

A sandwich lunch will be about 4/500 calories

A home cooked dinner based around lean protein, some carbs and veg will be about 500 provided you go easy on the oil and butter . Even an M&S beef lasagne is only 620

So, 3 meals a day = 1500 calories max. We don't need special products or cookery books.

We do need to stop with all the junk we eat and drink between meals. But we have to do that whether we foĺlow a diet book or buy diet products or not.

@LyingWitchInTheWardrobe, well I do appreciate your posts. And it was starting to get to me a bit feeling like bit of a lone voice.

I am tracking calories on mfp again - it’s the only way I can lose as I can’t keep on top of calorie intake otherwise.
I can eat about 1300-1400 to lose and around 1500-1600 to maintain.
It’s amazing how much a simple meal adds up in calories.
I tend to have smaller portions than rest of the family as they’re teens and dh is a tall man. They all need over 2000!

I totally understand the one potato wedge.
It's like fancying a bar of chocolate and only allowing yourself a small square. You still get the taste but no sicky feeling afterwards and less calories if you are dieting..

Any diet I ever did that was so regimented it didn't allow even a small amount of something i wanted, I would fail at. Whatever it takes to keep you on pace with it and not feel deprived. Once you feel deprived, you cave.

I think the evidence shows you are totally wrong. People obviously aren't having those family meals anyway and aren't eating healthily. Plus it doesn't take account of portion size or snacks and puddings.

I must admit I felt a bit sorry for the potato wedge at first but to be fair to @veryvery after she posted the picture it was quite a big wedge!

Here's another photo for a bit of perspective - this was my meal on a particularly active day last week, it's healthy and balanced but was 893 calories - so I couldn't eat 3 meals like that a day without gaining fat, and my other meals were smaller to balance it out.

(Since this thread is rambling in every possible direction)

I sometimes wonder how I would feel on a low carb "keto" diet. MNers talk about changing to low-keto as life changing, really Not just weight loss but huge other interesting changes. So if I adopted that diet, would I feel... exactly the same... sort of ill... drop lots of shouldn't-drop weight... amazingly better? Only one way to find out, but Would be way too much work to actually run that experiment. (#lazy)

Lljkk, I think you said you eat around 2500 cals to maintain? I do too.

Cutting out carbs makes me feel quite unwell (if Si have work meetings and don’t get round to a proper lunch for example)

If I consciously undereat I don’t feel good.

Looks like some bodies thrive on carbs, and just burn them.

I know I do

@lljkk, Keto is quite easy. Not a lot of work if you eat meat. Good time to try it is the summer as a lots of salads are Keto. You could have something like bacon eggs and mushrooms for breakfast, Beef and Stilton salad with walnuts for lunch and chicken stuffed with mozzarella and ratatouille for dinner. You can drink a glass of wine with your main meal and have your coffee with cream to round a meal off if you like. For a pudding you can have berry fruit and cream.

As for how you feel. Well when I did high protein, low carb (and successfully lost weight) years ago I was amazed that I just didn't ever feel ravenously hungry and could easily go hours without eating. It was a new experience for me. Before that I always used to be looking forward to my next meal and used to raid the cupboards as soon as I got in from work. The only reason I stopped it (and gained weight) was that it is expensive and I had D.C. and felt I needed to cook a more 'normal' range of foods.

I must admit I felt a bit sorry for the potato wedge at first but to be fair to @veryvery after she posted the picture it was quite a big wedge!

@rubydoobydoo, yes, they are. Pretty much a quarter of a medium sized potato.

Very very, if I’d eat like that, I’d get heartburn

I need the blandness and “filler capacity” of carbs (not sugar but bread, potatoes rice etc)

It is possible to be slim yet eat loads of carbs

Maybe some people are suited to carbs, and others aren’t?

Maybe some people are suited to carbs, and others aren’t?

I definately think so.
My dad eats carbs, alot, he's stick thin, never gets sick, he eats healthy and eats more carbs than fat.

I'm the opposite. Carbs have a really crappy effect on me and I seem to be much healthier on a LCHF diet. Obviously as healthy as possible with plenty of meat, fish and veggies.

Genes maybe? Or just pot luck. Who knows.

You see that would be too much for me as my maintain calorie count is 1300, even with a daily 20000 steps.

Everyone is different. I’m quite short (5ft 3) and every pound is noticeable on me. It only takes going over by a couple of hundred calories a day to start adding on weight.

IME eggs and veg are your friends rather than diet food per se

One of my colleagues has bad breath problem. I don't want that.

I don't want to count carbohydrates (or anything). What a chore.
Or cook breakfast.
Or have to 'prepare' breakfast.
It's just a FOMO thing. I'd try it if someone else did ALL of the food prep.

As I said, I'm a bit of a foodie. I like cooking. It's no problem for me. Cooked eggs for breakfast is very quick.

don't want to count carbohydrates (or anything). What a chore.

It's quick todo if you use an app. Anyway I have had good reason to want to lose weight which motivated me. I'm pretty determined when I want to be.

And my breath never smelt bad at all doing a Keto style diet. Although, I eat more carbs now for the nutrition in them, basically.

My boss is doing low carb on and off, his breath is so bad I almost want to quit my job, not kidding

When has eaten something normal (like a sandwich) it is ok, but honestly, I suffer!!! He sits next to me, and on very “strict” days I just pull my scarf over my face so I don’t have to smell it.( I tell him I really feel the cold, so as not to hurt his feelings)

Aaaaargh

Why is this though? My DH has horrendous breath when he skips meals, is it the same for everyone??? Why?

Why is this though? My DH has horrendous breath when he skips meals, is it the same for everyone??? Why?

Not for me. Not for my DH either. We often run before breakfast. No smell apart from damp kit sometimes. I've a good sense of smell I can generally smell various foods etc on people's breaths.

I eat a great diet. Pretty much what the OP says in her first post - muesli and skimmed milk, lunchtime salad or sandwich, protein and veg in the evening.

On top of that, though, I eat biscuits, cake and chocolate. You are right, I don't need diet food. I need a healthier relationship with food.

If I eat and drink over 1700 I’ll gain weight.

On a ‘normal’ day this is doable- sensible breakfast, only fruit as snacks, only tea/ diet drinks/ water, soup/ sandwich for lunch, meat and 2 veg dinner.

It’s all the times that it’s hard to stick to this

-birthdays
-Christmas
-work cakes
-drinking on nights out
-cinema trips
-meals out
-dinner parties
-visiting relatives
-travelling and having to eat on the go
-a cafe lunch on a days shopping
-holidays
-comfort food on a bad day
-hangover food
-leftovers
-parties

Over the year that is thousands of extra calories so a few pounds creeps on then over decades that’s stones of weight gain.