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!

Skipping breakfast for IF isn't the greatest of plans (so I was told by my nutritionalist who teaches at university). Having a shorter window of eating IS a good thing, but front loading the day so you've got fuel for the day and a chance to burn it off is better than skipping breakfast.

Most people I know who do IF skip breakfast as they find it hard not to eat in the evening but I get what you are saying. I find I don't miss it ay all, well after the first few days I didn't.

I think OP eats later in the evening than what suits our family routine so to get the maximum benefit i don't see that she has a choice other than to start eating later in the day.

We could do breakfast , lunch and dinner if we had a late breakfast and an early dinner but I do struggle in the evenings regardless of whether I've had breakfast or not so I can't feasible and successfully do it any other way.

@ColleagueFromMars maybe but I like to eat more in the evening so it suits me. My point is it’s not a one size fits all!

And you do you @goingdoolally :) I was merely quoting a senior nutritionalist because people were recommending to the OP to skip breakfast for IF - I was saying that that's not such a good recommendation. In the OP's lifestyle I think a nutritionalist would probably suggest she eat a bigger breakfast and a smaller dinner. But I'm not a nutritionalist and I don't know much about PCOS which is why I also suggested that she sees a specialist nutritionalist rather than listen to advice on here

Hi all, so sorry, have been at work since 8 and just on a break now to reply!

I really appreciate everyone's input. I agree that the sugary snacks have gotta go!

My food diary for today looks like this:

6.15am Breakfast:
120g full fat greek yoghurt
15g flaked almonds
1 sliced apple
Reg Skinny cappuccino

1.30pm Lunch:
450ml home made vegetable and lentil soup
8 mini carrots
40g houmous

8.15pm Dinner:
Dusted lemon sole fillet
Brocolli and peas
Palm sized amount of skin on french fries
1tsp tartare sauce

No snacks, no biscuits. I will fill up on fruit tea and water and have a pear if I really need it. Should be about 1500 cals.

What do you all think?

OP- Sounds good! 💪🏻 Good luck!

@ColleagueFromMars I didn’t advise it, merely said what I ate. Thanks for the telling off though.

@Stamen196 a quick google found me this but it does sound like you’ll need to do a bit of research to find the best nutrition given the PCOS.

www.nutritionist-resource.org.uk/articles/polycystic-ovary-syndrome.html#followingalowgidiet

@Goingdooolally none of my telling off was aimed at you.

That sounds good op. Good luck!

See how you get on. I think you might find you need more protein to sustain you as you are going a long time between meals - it also has fewer than half the calories as fat so you can eat more of it to fill you up. Lunch seems quite light and with all the walking you do, you must be ravenous by the time you get home. Can you swap lunch and dinner round in terms of volume/calories?

How did you do op?

Ive just had a friend egg sandwich on a Warburton thin, leftover lentil thing for lunch and tonight some random meat from the freezer with salad. Will almost certainly have a snack - cheese or peanut butter on crackers.