To ask what you think of my average "working day" food?

[Stamen196]

Just got off phone to doctors. BMI is 37 and I need to get it down to below 30 for many reasons.

Background: I carry my weight relatively well so am a size 16, but this doesn't help as I just let it creep up without many people seeming to notices. I have PCOS, not planning on kids so no particular issue with fertility, but it does affect my ability to lose weight and metabolism.

I would say this is my average working day:

• Breakfast: 6.30am. porridge with honey or fruit and fibre with milk). Cup of tea.

-Snack: 10ish. Usually a mini kit kat or apple, or both if I'm hungry!

• Lunch: 12.30. Soup and bag of low cal crisps such as pop chips for lunch, and maybe a yoghurt if I'm home or an apple. On a particularly bad day, a couple of biscuits.

• 3.30pm: Afternoon snack. If I'm out it's a skinny cappuccino. If I'm in, whatever is in house. I am tired and energy levels low and so reach for 2 biscuits (not if I've had biscuits at lunch though). 🙄

• 8pmish: Dinner. Usual types of thing such as jacket potato, mushroom risotto, salmon stir fry or pasta, but probably a bigger portion than I realise. Veggies in there though. Some sort of sweet thing afterwards... Usually chocolate.

I only drink wine at weekends but I tend to stick to 1 glass. But my weekend diet is probably way worse with a meal out or takeaway featuring at some point!

What do you all think of my average day of eating compared to your own? Is it awful? Any tips would be very gratefully appreciated.
Do you worst....I need it!

I noticed you didn’t have any drinks on your list apart from the takeaway coffee so you may find you are drinking a fair number of calories from juices or the milk/sugar in tea/coffee. If you are going to calorie count you need to weigh everything and count everything, include drinks, butter, oil, honey, sugar if you use it. Using a smaller plate is a good trick it makes you feel you’ve eaten more, I also remember reading that we eat less of we eat from a red plate.
Good luck!

@DipSwimSwoosh

I don't believe these threads. I eat much more than that with a BMI of 21. Loads of advice about cutting out snacks etc, but if you really are walking all day a mini kitkat and an apple is not excessive enough to result in a BMI of 37. You are eating more than you say. You must be.

PCOS can also cause weight gain and make it really hard to manage—I have it and can tell you when it’s bad an average diet translates to putting on quite a bit of weight.

I’m losing around 2 pounds a week with: personal trainer twice per week, gym maybe once more, 10k steps per day, trying to stay around 1000 cals each day. If I eat an ordinary maybe 1600 cal diet (with 10k steps, no PT and one gym per week) I start to gain weight, albeit slowly. Anything above that and it goes into total free fall. OP’s diet sounds well over my “stay the same” (mainly weekend, snacks and portions) so if she’s similar to me she’ll also be gaining weight like that.

I don't believe these threads.
I eat much more than that with a BMI of 21.

It’s possible that there are calories hiding somewhere in her diet, but it’s hard to compare one person to another because bodies work differently. If she has PCOS, she likely has insulin resistance, which means her body is hyper-producing insulin every time she eats carbs. If you were being injected with large doses of insulin every day, you would gain weight too.

Arghh it drives me mad how complicated people make weight loss.

OP, number one thing you need to do is more activity! 15k steps a day is pretty meaningless unless you are doing all of that at a very fast marching pace. You need to get your heart pumping! 20-30 mins of intense exercise is far better for you than doing thousands of steps at a normal walking pace. This step counting thing is nonsense imo. Don't bother. Do workouts.

Next cut out the sugar. You want biscuits etc because your breakfasts and lunches aren't filling enough. Add more protein. Eggs are amazing!

Limit treats. Wine and takeaways need to cut down to an absolute minimum until you are at a weight you feel you can maintain through eating well and regular (high intensity) exercise.

Good luck with it!

@AldiAisleofCrap my BMI was nearly 36 when I started changing my eating and I was a size 16
I need to be a BMI of 30 before I'm a 14

That was my diet pre losing weight. Addicted to chocolate & biscuits. I made a decision, one chocolate bar a week. No biscuits. Lucy Windham You Tube Beginners 15min workout every day. Weight has come off, a stone to go.(stonev& half lost). I don't miss biscuits any more. Tho sometimes I'm thinking only 2days til Friday chocolate treat!!

Have you had your thyroid tested?

Is suggest doing some research into a PCOS friendly diet. And consider getting measured on one of those fat checking electrical devices, as BMI really isn't everything. Do you feel/look like you carrying adipose tissue as opposed to lean bulky muscles?

For sustainable eating i would recommend seeing a nutritionalist who specialises in PCOS and women's hormonal issues, and checking out mindful eating.

Doesn't need to be later breakfast, it can be earlier dinner. Just in my opinion the op is eating across too many hours.

That was a reply to daisypond

I think you’re having a lot of sweet stuff during the day and you’d be better off switching to things like nuts, carrot sticks, hummus, etc. Don’t switch to fruit, some of it has just as much sugar.

You don't actually need snacks. It's just a bad habit. Have a good, healthy breakfast, lunch and dinner, maybe something small in the afternoon. Drink plenty of water. Exercise, even if it's just a brisk 30-min walk a day.

Not read the other answers but i think if you just tried to cut out the biscuits, crisps and chocolate it would go a long way. The meals sound fine

@askinfforfriend

Doesn't need to be later breakfast, it can be earlier dinner. Just in my opinion the op is eating across too many hours.

The OP cannot eat an earlier dinner either - as she is at work. The earliest she can eat is 8:30 at night.

Wow! That's a lot of snacks. Stop eating the snacks and you'll be better off. You'd need to be running 5-8K per day to balance that out.

In general, people who regularly eat snacks/treats during day -> FAT; those that do not -> NOT-FAT.

@BasedInDublin

Wow! That's a lot of snacks. Stop eating the snacks and you'll be better off. You'd need to be running 5-8K per day to balance that out.

In general, people who regularly eat snacks/treats during day -> FAT; those that do not -> NOT-FAT.

It’s not a lot of snacks at all. I would eat that and my BMI is 20.

I eat loads of snacks and I’m 9 stone. OP you need to find what works for you. Track everything in MFP. I love my evening chocolate so I factor that in. I weigh myself every day and cut back if I gain. Often I intermittent fast by not eating until lunchtime.

That wouldn’t suit everyone but it works for me. If I don’t have chocolate then I am more likely to feel deprived and binge. But you need to allow for it in your calories. Aim for 1500-1700 calories a day, plenty of exercise (good for motivation and mental health rather than actual weight loss).

Good luck!

Yesterday I ate (no breakfast), chicken salad sandwich, small fruit salad, pack of maltesers, chicken risotto with lots of salad/veg and a bit more chocolate!

and a small lentil and veg soup with my sandwich.

Today I am having breakfast (porridge) so I’ll cut out the Maltesers and have a lighter dinner.

@Goingdooolally

Yesterday I ate (no breakfast), chicken salad sandwich, small fruit salad, pack of maltesers, chicken risotto with lots of salad/veg and a bit more chocolate!

No offense, but I don't think that's a good diet to recommend to the OP. Women with PCOS are at much higher risk of diabetes. It's not healthy to skip breakfast and have a packet of malteasers instead. She needs to take better care of her health. Some people can get away with eating like that, but others definitely can't.

Hello,

I think as you have a goal to bring your BMI down to below 30 then a structured and accountable way of eating would be better for you than just doing it alone. So that could be weight watchers, slimming world or an online-only way or eating is Bright Line Eating (BLE). BLE is much more strict than WW or SW but it might be that a stricter approach would suit you better at the beginning.

You can do this, from a quick look at your diet, I would say that you have too much sugar in there and presently you are a sugar burner - its almost impossible to lose weight when you are running on sugar. BLE will turn you into a fat burner but any change of focus on to mainly unprocessed foods will point you in the right direction.

Good luck!

Intermittent fasting is a proven way to deal with diabetic conditions, how that works with PCOS I don't know though.

Most people in Intermittent Fasting tend to skip breakfast and start their 8 hours with lunch.

As the OP might work shifts, I'm not sure if that if a system that would work?

Skipping breakfast in itself might be a good thing, replacing that with extra chocolate later, maybe not so much.

I tend to do lunch (soup or eggs on toast or omelet or something about 12, decent dinner about 5ish and then maybe a bowl of porage or something for supper before 8.

In the OPs case where she might not have dinner until 8 then it would be lunch, healthy afternoon snack and then dinner at end of 8 hours.

At the end of the day it is about calories in and out, but easing the pressure on your system but limiting the amount of times you eat and the allowing a good stretch with no food helps the body to regulate.

Try to go longer between snacks or meals. Your body will be putting all those carbs into storage as you're never allowing yourself to be truly empty. Leave at least 12 hours between supper and breakfast. If you have breakfast later you might be able to drop the mid morning snack too.

@Nikori - yes that’s true. In the evening I only have a few squares of dark chocolate not a family box of Quality Street! My point was everything in moderation and if you want chocolate you can still have it. I get what you’re saying about the PCOS though...

For PCOS, sugary chocoltey things are NOT good and should not be recommended. They send your insulin levels all over the place, can cause huge hunger pangs and actually lead to diabetes (PCOS plus high BMI puts you at a high risk of this!!).

So yes lots of skinny people eat badly—but it should NOT be the recommended approach to weight loss, and for people in the OP’s position is actually dangerous.

[quote Goingdooolally]@Nikori - yes that’s true. In the evening I only have a few squares of dark chocolate not a family box of Quality Street! My point was everything in moderation and if you want chocolate you can still have it. I get what you’re saying about the PCOS though...[/quote]
I understand what you mean. Don't worry about it.

For what it's worth, I spent a day with a friend who was really slim and never needed to watch what he ate. I was really shocked at how low his appetite was. He could happily skip meals and didn't really eat a lot. I have PCOS and I get really bad carb and sugar cravings. It's much harder for me.