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?

Oh, and yes to strength workouts. You dont need equipment, loads of body strength based videos online and on tiltok. Building muscle will help your body burn fat more efficiently and you’ll feel and look good too.

It is entirely because my portion control is crap and I love crisps.

You know your issue which is portion control.

Eat whatever you want but count the calories and have smaller portions of the meal that your kids are having and have extra veg.

The only diet that works is one that you’re going to stick with long term.

People (including myself once) spend their lives yo-yo dieting because they cut out all of the crap and eat extra healthy for a few weeks and then fall off the wagon.

Protein fills you up and veggies are full of fibre, vitamins and are very low in calories and so I always make sure I eat lots of veggies with my meal and make sure I have protein.

There are nothing wrong with crisps and they’re usually pretty low in calories.
Carry on eating your crisps but just make sure you add them to your daily calories.

If you do over eat one day just carry on as normal the next day.
Don’t drastically diet or anything to make up for it.

I am ok when it comes to exercise. I am a dance teacher (on maternity leave), so being active is very much a part of my life.

I don't drink much alcohol, maybe 2 glasses of wine per month. And 2 or 3 cups of tea/coffee per day, but I have swapped to sweetener instead of sugar. Otherwise I only drink water.

Cutting carbs further is just not realistic for me. I know myself and if I try to cut it completely, I will binge. I also want my kids to see me eating a balanced diet, and they have the same food I do.

I may try the intermittent fasting. Breakfast isn't key to me and I was doing it to kick-start my metabolism.

This is what I do.

The idea is to eat as much food as you can within your calorie limit.

You’re looking at 200-300 kcals on the avocado alone.

If you like it then that’s absolutely great!

But if you’re only eating it because you think it’s healthy then eat something else instead.

I don’t like avocado or hummus so I’d personally get rid of them and use the 400+ kcals on a much more filling meal.

1,700 ish calories isn’t much. The average woman needs 2,000 calories.
You should lose weight on that amount, and I’m presuming that over a week there’d be more variety and more veg.

I wouldn’t go below that and would instead increase activity levels. Walking/dance are cardio. You should add in a weight based exercise.

You don’t want to lose weight fast, you want it to be gradual. That is the healthiest way and the way that sticks…losing weight fast is never sustainable and that’s how you get yo-yo dieting patterns.

You need to weigh and measure everything you eat and drink.
A portion of granola is tiny if u sneezed it’d all b on the floor, very easy to over eat. Swap to something more filling. Lunch looks strange too, Eggs, beans and avocado all of which would be fine on toast separately as long as u r weighing and measuring them but u don’t need all of them together.

If you’re not already using it, download the My Fitness Pal app and log your daily intake. It gives a break down of carbs, protein and fats.

Also, if you’re in a calorie deficit and not losing weight you might need to increase your exercise. Your body adjusts to activity you do routinely so becomes less beneficial when looking for results. I have a very active job but also have to do HIIT and weights or run regularly or my weight increases or stays static.

I'm on a weight loss kick at the moment. I'm doing intermittently fasting and using Noom.

These conflict slightly as noom is obsessed with breakfast.

I've been trying really hard to up my veg/ salad game as I'm a carb monster. So lots of pasta dishes with a massive pile of salad on the side.

I've subbed in a lot of fruit and 0% greek yog as pudding. And apple and peanut butter as a snack (the peanut butter is quite calorific but i stay fuller for a lot longer if I add it).

I've lost a stone. And tbh this way of eating feels quite sustainable. I've fed several friends and they haven't even really noticed that the menu was a "diet" one.

I'm really liking Rukmini Iyer's roasting tin books - some of the recipes are quite calorific (i've been working out the calories after I've made them) so will need tweaking before a second outing. The goats cheese, pesto and red pepper pasta bake is a case in point!

Noom also talks about subbing in wholewheat or other pastas e.g lentil but I've not found any yet (I live centrally and shop almost exclusively in convenience size stores).

Your metabolism isn't broken and doesn't need to be kick-started, you're eating too many calories. Your exercise is great but you're still eating too many calories. Intermittent fasting can be great for some but if you eat that in the eating window, you will still be eating too many calories.

Calculate your BMR. Stay below that.

Eating healthy and eating for weightloss are two different things in essence. Healthy foods can be very high cal. You can always amend the recipe. Eg, bit less gnocci, bit more veg etc. That's how I did it. I hate avocado and granola etc so that was no loss for me

This!

I actually like avocado, so that's why it features in my food. I'm also not having the same thing every day. Tomorrow looks like this (adjusted from the original plan to the new better version):

Breakfast: Porridge with cinnamon and apple
Lunch: Half a ham sandwich (DS has the other half) with salad (cucumber, tomato, avocado, black olives, and mozzarella)
Snack: Easy peeler orange
Dinner: Thai peanut curry (contains red pepper and onions) with rice

I am absolutely sticking to the right portions now and hoping that I feel less peckish soon.

Granola is surprisingly unhealthy, as I discovered when looking at ultra-processed foods. I home make mine now, it's really easy.

I worked out the calories in my food for about a month. It was quite illuminating because I'd cook something I thought was low calorie and healthy but it wasn't.

I've found trying to eat less ultra-processed stuff has helped me lose weight. I guess it's a combination of the non-processed stuff sometimes being lower cal, but also it's often high cal but I presume used by the body in a different way.

It's certainly changed my taste buds. I am not enjoying the junk food I used to love anymore. Tastes synthetic.

Hi OP. I think a lot of people get confused these days and wrongly believe that cutting down on meat will make you healthier and loose weight when in reality the best thing you can do is eat low carb and plenty of meat, by cutting meat out you're basically just carbing up (carbs turn to sugar when your body doesn't use them up)
I have lost 2 stone by changing to an animal based diet so plenty of wholesome meat and eggs - the protein will keep you fuller longer and so so healthy. Deffo cut out the granola! Have scrambled eggs for breakfast instead or even that bacon with eggs. Cut out bread, potatoes, rice, pasta and instead carb wise have a small serving of pulses, for example chickpeas. But honestly the best thing you can do is eat more meat!

Breakfast: Porridge with cinnamon and apple
Lunch: Half a ham sandwich (DS has the other half) with salad (cucumber, tomato, avocado, black olives, and mozzarella)
Snack: Easy peeler orange
Dinner: Thai peanut curry (contains red pepper and onions) with rice

For example, to make this a healthier day you need to massively reduce the carb overload. Porridge really just basically just sugar then the apple is extra sugar. Bread is sugar. Then an orange. Then you've got rice as well later on!

To improve it have scrambled eggs for breakfast with a couplle of pieces of bacon, lunch the salad part of your lunch but with a piece of protein (chicken breast, fish, even steak)
Then for dinner the peanut curry is fine but served with cauliflower rice instead of rice.
You can also try fasting until lunch time which has been really beneficial to me..its helped me with my self control massively and means you automatically cut a meal out of your day
Boil some eggs up and keep them in the fridge if you need a snack, or a small handful of almonds.

I'm a great believer of everything in moderation, I've lost 7 stone over the last 2 years and haven't given up carbs, sugar, fats, just had smaller portions and topped up with loads of vegetables. Still having a weekly treat of some chocolate/takeaway/meal out, not feeling deprived either which I would if I cut out carbs, sugar, fats.

Unless you're eating a massive salad for every meal and avoiding carbs like the plague you'll never get any credit for a meal plan on here.

Porridge really just basically just sugar then the apple is extra sugar.

wow if you think porridge and apples are just sugar then you have an unhinged view on food items

Definitely volume rating is good if you like decent portions
Like think of a bag of salad leaves and how much volume you get for a tiny amount of calories
I prefer to do that and add in decent stuff like butter, avocado etc rather than waste my calories on lighter versions of stuff so I get the satiety from fat but less cals
One thing that helps is those steam frozen bags of veg, I add one to most meals to bulk it out

This Instagram is good
https://instagram.com/thefitnesschef_?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

So if you're on mat leave, you have a child under the age of 1?
You're a dance teacher so normally are very active, and I presume if you teach dance you have a history of being very active and knowledgeable about nutrition.

How much weight do you actually need to lose? Maybe it will come off and you'll tone up when you go back to work.

Breakfast: Raisin granola in a cup of milk
Too sugary and fatty
Swap for shredded wheat and milk, yoghurt with added fruit, or scrambled egg on toast

Lunch: Scrambled eggs, baked beans, and avocado with a slice of toast
Way too much fat and too little veg
Swap for beans on toast or beans on jacket spud + salad/veg

Snack: Carrots, cucumber, and celery with hummus
fine, but I'd have it as lunch or evening meal not as a snack

Dinner: Baked gnocchi casserole with bacon
Ditch the gnocchi, only a little bacon

Overall, not enough veg.

No, I don't. It's a very simple way to put it but yes carbs literally turn to sugar. Don't get me wrong you can enjoy fruit and porridge in a balanced diet but the OP was asking for advice and a big thing that helped me was when I learnt that a lot of food that are marketed at being healthy choices, aren't.

It sounds like you’ve got used to eating large servings - you don’t need egg and avocado and toast and beans in one meal.

So it’s partly a question of reducing portion size and getting used to eating less.

Cutting carbs further is just not realistic for me. I know myself and if I try to cut it completely, I will binge.
The granola (high-fat & high-sugar combination) as a start to the day will make you crave carbs.
Don't cut out carbs, but eat ones that aren't empty calories.

If you have a tendency to binge that needs to be tackled separately OP - emotional, compulsive eating can’t be fixed with a diet.

If you can say I have to eat x amount of carbs otherwise I binge there’s something wrong.