Making a "healthy" meal plan is futile

[MooseBreath]

I'm trying to lose weight. Over my 20s and after having 2 kids, I am no longer a good weight and I am trying to fix that. It is entirely because my portion control is crap and I love crisps.

I'm trying to eat healthier with weight loss in mind, without letting my children see their mother struggling with food. I also want them to know that moderation is key. We walk the dog every day for 45 minutes and have frequent dance parties and play active games throughout the day.

I thought my plan was healthy, but when I add up calories, it just works out that I won't be losing any weight at all (1722cal). No crisps, no sweets, no baked goods. But I don't know what to cut out without losing the energy to care for my boys and dog!
Breakfast: Raisin granola in a cup of milk
Lunch: Scrambled eggs, baked beans, and avocado with a slice of toast
Snack: Carrots, cucumber, and celery with hummus
Dinner: Baked gnocchi casserole with bacon

I don't see how I can make this better without starving myself. AIBU that demonstrating moderation will never work while I'm trying to lose weight?

Initial thoughts, isn’t granola really sugary? Would low sugar muesli be better?
Lunch how many calories is that - do you need all three of beans, eggs and avocado?
Dinner, you need a tonne of veg I think.

You don’t need eggs, beans, avocado and toast in one meal. One of those on toast would be fine. avocado is very high fat and high calorie.

gnocci and bacon are not low calorie foods. Choose lean meats and vegetables with a small amount of carbohydrate.

there are loads of healthy eating plans out there, you need to do some research. If you are asking why you can’t carry on eating as you are and losing weight, then the answer is you are making the wrong choices.

low carb and high protein is the way to go.

Those portion sizes must be quite large and quite a lot of energy dense foods.

Apart from the crudites, no basic fruit and veg, which make your meals bigger without adding calories.

Granola is basically mushed up flapjack.
Eggs, beans and avocado with toast? Cut out the beans?
Your snack is good, but there's a lot of calories in hummus.
Gnocchi and bacon both have lots of calories for not much volume.

What else is there in the casserole? Reduce the amount of snocchi or swap for pasta and put mushrooms, peppers and courgettes in too. Make sure the bacon is lean not streaky.

Try using My Fitness Pal to count calories for a bit and then you can see where you can make cuts without starving yourself.

I'd say porridge is probably more filling than granola.

Beans or avocado with your lunch, but not both. Pay attention to portion sizes. Things like butter on the toast will add up and you probably don't need it if you have beans. Maybe add mushrooms in, they're very low calories but something else tasty to eat.

Loads of veg with dinner and reduce the portion of carbs

Avocado and bacon are both very high in fat. Baked beans are full of sugar. Raisin granola v high in sugar.

You need lean meats like chicken and turkey plus fish and lots of veg in meals. For breakfast think low sugar such as wholegrain toast or low sugar muesli.

The casserole has loads of broccoli and the bacon is Be Good To Yourself, not streaky!

I see what you mean by eggs/beans/avocado is unnecessary and could be reduced. I was just trying to get every food group in the meal, IYSWIM.

I didn't realize granola wasn't good! I don't even like it much and was honestly eating it because I thought it was supposed to be a really healthy breakfast.

Too few veggies and too much carb, sugar and processed meat.

You could have beans and avocado for lunch (weird combo but you chose it) and have scrambled egg for breakfast instead of the granola.

Cereal = healthy is one of the biggest food lies in existence. It's not filling and most of it is very sugary. Plus the calorie counts on packs are based on tiny portion sizes. Assuming you weighed out what you had, I bet you thought 'is that it'?

Definitely need more proper veg.
Maybe have the eggs OR beans with tomatoes and/or mushrooms & toast for breakfast then a salad or soup for lunch?
Dinner - less pasta/gnocchi, add broccoli, green beans etc etc

This post is a good example of why so many people are overweight.

Cut the toast out, cut out the gnocci, you don't need that. No carbs with dinner, fill up on veg. Your healthy diet plan might be healthy for a pro footballer, not a mum of 2

You're eating too many carbs and fats. While avocado is good fat, a whole one is around 500 calories so you need to be using maybe a quarter with egg to get those calories down. Skip the beans too. Wholeness toast with a quarter of an avocado on top and an egg is lower in calories.

Granola is crap. Get yourself rolled oats and make porridge with fruit.

If you want calorie dense foods, you need to eat less of them. I'm a big eater so my plate needs to be piled high with veggies for me to enjoy the calorific pasta sauces and a sweet treat or I don't feel satisfied. I can't cut them out entirely so I have to substitute to stay within 1500.

I think some of these responses are a bit harsh. I'm at 1722cal for the day, not 2000+, and I'm not eating that much processed meat (1 slice of Be Good To Yourself bacon is all the meat I'm having all day). I'm also controlling the portion sizes, so @BarbaraofSeville is right that the shock of the serving size of granola was there.

I see where I am going wrong though, so I will up the protein and lower the carbs further.

I think if you stuck to those calories, you might lose a bit of weight - just quite slowly. Which is healthier anyway. You certainly shouldn't put on weight with that number of calories...
You could always try it and see how it works for you.
Some people feel healthier with time restricted eating and it could help you lose weight a bit more - so eating that same stuff but within a 10-12 hour window.
Eating a wide variety of fruit, wholegrains and veg is generally good too. A trick is to list all the different fruit, veg, wholegrains, beans/pulses/nuts /seeds that you eat in one week - you're aiming to get to 40 different varieties. Spices and herbs count separately too. This is good for your gut which can help with weight - and also makes you feel way better!
Getting enough quality sleep also really helps with weight loss hormones and also feeling well in general - so is an obvious place to start if your family situation lets you get sleep!
Another thought - I did the Couch to 5k programme and loved it - if you could try it instead of some of your dog walks (starts with a mix of walking and running) it would be a way of burning more calories but feeling more energised instead of less energised!!

OP, look up healthy volume eating. Like PPs have said, your choices are far too calorie dense. Egg whites, cottage cheese, turkey, 0% yoghurt (not flavoured) tonnes of veg, clear broths etc. Watch the sugar - granola is a killer as others have said. Watch your oils - hummus is full of oil (unless you make it yourself) which doesn’t give you much bang for your buck calorie wise. I’m at about 1500-1600 cals a day and I feel like I eat loads. If I’m starving at the end of the day, right before bed, then I’ll have 1/2 cup oats cooked in water with 1 scoop protein powder which is 275 cals.

Will Tenneyson on YouTube has some great diet hacks for volume eating. His mum, who is 60 and looks insanely good, also has a YouTube channel called ‘mama tenny’ which I’ve found really helpful.

That doesn’t seem like a diet for weight loss to me, unless you had very small portions. Just the carby side of normal. Nutrition is important, but just adding foods to ‘include all food groups’ is just going to increase calories. Try a multivitamin or some greens supplements instead if you are concerned about this.

If you must eat breakfast then make it egg based. Scrambled eggs takes two minutes. Granola is full of sugar, which you have teamed with the fat of the yogurt, which isn’t a great combo.

Re: lunch - it’s already been said by pps.

Hummus is full of olive oil. It’s fucking tasty with mezze but it’s not a ‘healthy snack’ and I don’t know why people think it is. It’s a meal by itself in terms of cal density with crudités and pitta.

Dinner would be absolutely fine if you have eaten a bit lighter during the day and have weighed yourself out a portion of gnocchi and calorie counted this.

The drama of ‘starving yourself’ needs to be kept in check. You want to lose weight because you have previously eaten too much. Your body will adjust. You will have hanger and want elevenses but you have willpower and you ride it out.

I would do the following:

B- scrambled eggs, two eggs made with a dash of water and salt and pepper.
L- 2-3 rashes or grilled bacon, half an avocado, some
cherry toms
Afternoon snack- I’d honestly just have a mini bag of malteasers and enjoy them with a cup of tea (no sugar) as I only have snacks if I enjoy them and they give me pleasure
D- same dinner BUT weigh out a small portion of gnocchi, fill half the plate with veg and don’t go crazy with the sauce and oil

OP a lot of mumsnetters have extremely unhealthy attitudes to food so it’s probably not the best place to ask for advice on diet.
Your food looks fine but there is scope to cut calories further if you want to. Are you sure you won’t lose weight on 1700 calories though? I lost 2 stone on that amount of calories (slowly but surely).

It’s really difficult OP. As others have said, ditch the granola (mushed up flapjacks is an accurate description!) and the gnocchi (I love it too but it’s high kcal and the kind of white processed carb that leaves you hungry later). Salmon, chicken, plain yogurt, almonds, the classic mumsnet massive salad, stick the bacon into vegetable and lentil soup, sugar free jelly, slices of apple, boiled eggs etc etc

This 100%

I’m quite shocked by the responses here, this sounds like a sensible food diary to me.

Can you up your cardio exercise and add in some strength training?

Others are right you can easily make some good changes without it being too obvious to the kids.

Breakfast: yogurt (plain greek 100g) and fresh fruit
Lunch: Half an avocado and a poached egg (cut out the beans and bread) - this would also make a good breakfast
Snack: Your snack is good but would also make a good lunch. You could snack on just the veggies or a (small!) portion of nuts
Dinner: make sure your portion has much more brocolli than gnocchi and fill up half your plate with salad or other (non-carby) veg. But if you make the changes to breakfast, lunch and snacks dinner can be more 'normal'.
Treats: When I was eating very low carb/calorie I would sometimes have a square of dark chock, small glass of red wine or gin and diet tonic in the evening. You really need to watch calories from drinks too.

I really don't think your diet is as awful as some people are making out - but if you want to lose weight there are lots of easy changes you could make without really compromising on time or taste.

Swap the granola for porridge or overnight oats with full fat milk and fruit/berries. I love mine with sliced banana and some peanut butter, or apple and cinnamon. It only takes a few minutes in the microwave or you can prep it all the night before.

For lunch, I would swap the avocado and beans for mushrooms and tomatoes - avocado is really healthy but it's also quite fatty so maybe have that once or twice a week rather than as a regular thing.

I'm not sure what else is in the casserole or sauce but an alternative could be to do a chicken and mushroom type dish with rice and green vegetables on the side?

Don't feel too disheartened by some of the responses - nothing that you describe is awful.

Instead:

Bowl porridge made with full fat milk

2 scrambled eggs, beans, one slice non buttered toast. Apple for dessert

Chicken casserole, homemade mash and loads of veg. Yog for pudding if still hungry.

Snacks:

Cottage cheese
Veg sticks
Hard boiled eggs
Fruit
Greek yogurt

And humous as other have said is delicious but a calorie++++. I put on a lot of weight at uni having that on white baguette for lunch each day. Low fat Philadelphia is a good alternative if you want something to stick cucumber sticks into (or home made smoked mackerel pate with lemon juice and the low fat Philly)

The diet in the OP is absolutely not awful. It's just not one that you'd expect to lose weight on. Looks like completely normal eating to me.

@MooseBreath you're doing an amazing job. It's hardly an unhealthy diet. However, If you want to lose weight maybe do some reading around what are the best foods to eat for weight loss, as annoyingly not all foods are created equal. Agree with others to cut back on carbs, such as bread and pasta. I'm currently reassign the gut makeover, which is more of a healthy eating plan than a weight loss plan. It is a quick easy read but explains a lot of different effects different foods have on the body. It also recommends a 12 hour a day fast (so finish eating at 8pm then don't get eat anything until 8am). It s a quick read and even if you don't want to follow the plan it is good for basic nutritional understanding x