Is this too much lunch for a diet?

[Hatehooveringsomuch]

Trying to shift a couple of stone.
I eat v healthily, but probably too much, I don’t work out normally, but have started again.
I’m a person who has to cut back a lot and not eat much/work out daily to stay slim.
In the past when I was v slim, I went to the gym and had less carbs & smaller portions. I’m trying fasting also.
I’ve had no breakfast, just got in from school run, morning work and walking the dog.
Is this too much?
There’s two tins of tuna and two crackers, the rest is just salad? Assuming that’s okay?
Dinner is broccoli, cauliflower, carrots & chicken, piece of fruit afterwards.
I’m attempting to cut right back on carbs, my portions seem big though 😂but I’m hungry
Desperate to lose weight

On here you are a pig if you eat more than half a cherry tomato and quarter a stick of celery every other day. balanced by 5 hours of cardio and a morning and evening weight lifting session you should also do 5 sessions of yoga a day.

in the real world that looks fine

@Pollis can I ask gently what age you are please? You have a very out dated and rather inflexible view of nutrition, which makes me think if you genuinely are a nutritionist, and I have to say I’m not convinced, and even if you are, not everyone who is a nutritionist is a good one. then you were trained a long time ago.

Actually I seem to read the opposite.

Like when I read 'what did you eat today' many posters' lists are as much as I'd eat in a week.

Or rather what I'd never eat ever- lots of sugar, processed food, snacks etc.

You don't need sugar to live,.pollis

And you said sugar would be compared to cocaine soon - surprised you aren't aware of White and Deadly: How Sugar Is Killing Us and What We Can Do to Stop It [[https://amzn.eu/d/jhHHuFY amzn.eu/d/jhHHuFY as a nutritionist.

I'm 35! I qualified two years ago. My views aren't remotely outdated. They might be unfashionable, but they're not outdated.

I'm not even sure what you think my views are?

All the competitive under eaters on here...🤣.

Tuna is protein which will keep you full, especially if you're working out. Keep up water content too. Be prepared for headaches if you are literally cutting carbs out!

I would cut down to one tin of tuna and maybe consider adding something like chickpeas for added fibre and protein plus one of your five a day.

The salad itself is great. Non-starchy veg like lettuce, kale, broccoli etc you can more or less eat unlimited amount of. It's good for you and will help you keep full and stay in a calorie deficit. Add extras to these with your meals if you want bigger platefuls without upping your calories too much.

I have reduced fat mayo which still tastes pretty good and does the job. Is it as delicious as the full fat stuff? No. But it still tastes good and has significantly less fat and calories.

And maybe consider having a small breakfast, even if it's some fruit or a couple of hard boiled eggs or some yoghurt. If fasting then means you overcompensate with bigger meals later on, the calorie deficit is getting cancelled out anyway.

Keto and very low carb diets have done a lot of damage tbh. The amount of people I've seen baffled as to why they aren't losing weight because they are "low carbing", and then you get them to keep a food diary and find out they are eating 2000 calories a day as a short, sedentary female.

*add extra servings of non-starchy veg to your meals! oops.

@pollis regarding the 'value of calories' are you aware of the book that was published a couple of weeks ago by Dr Chris van Tullekan? Ultra processed People (book title.)

Like another poster I am starting to think your knowledge is not up to date.

He refers to the science of eating the same calories but with very different outcomes. In his own one-person experiment, he put on several kilos by eating processed food compared with eating the same number of calories from whole foods.

Likewise, do please look at Zoe and the library of podcasts and science, as it is very interesting. (Join Zoe is the website)

Thats a shame it didnt work out for you.

Just read my response back- your lunch is not a particularly big meal or an overcompensation for fasting in the morning- just something to keep in mind of you are starving by lunchtime or find yourself wanting bigger servings at dinner.

I'm not low carbing or keto. I just avoid table sugar and sugary foods.

You are not up to date. Sorry!

You don't seem to be aware of some of the latest research on processed foods and how they affect the gut and weight, and how it's very individualised.

It's not about 'fashion'. It's about the advance of science and you don't appear seem to have heard of the work of Prof Spector and his team of nutritionists like Dr Sarah Berry at Kings College, London. Because if you had, you'd not be posting some of the points you are. (and he is very critical of the NHS outdated guidance as it happens.)

Do you think I advise my clients to eat ultraprocessed food? I don't . I eat very little of it myself, as you'll see if you note my own food diary above. Please don't patronise me when this is literally my job.

I'm surprised too. My mind was blown by the new insights into diet and metabolism detailed in books by Tim Spector et al. 100g of whole almonds is metabolised differently by the body to 100g ground almonds. The two are not equivalent. I'm not surprised that your average mnetter is still spouting the 'a calorie is a calorie' credo, but a nutritionist is something else.

But then official nutritional advice is often dubious. It was hospital nutritionists who suggested I feed my dairy-allergic son all manner of processed crap in the name of dairy equivalence. If you look at the list of ingredients in a supermarket non-dairy yoghurt or 'cheeze', why the hell would you think that was a good thing to feed your kids?! These people also told us back in the day to eat margarine instead of butter, and avoid eggs because cholesterol.

Calories in/calories out is a massive over simplification.

If I had 1500 cal of bread every day I would whack on weight due to the insulin I have to take to deal with that.

If I have 1500 cal of salad and low fat meat, I won't.

Now yes, not everyone is an insulin resistant insulin dependent diabetic, I am an extreme example but, inside all your bodies, you're dealing with different food types in different ways and some will cause you to store fat, and some won't - regardless of the calorie content of that food.

Being aware of the calories in things is a smart move - many people WILL lose weight if they realise that for example, a flat table spoon of mayo is 100 calories, thus a heaped table spoon is probably 200 calories and really, they can get as much flavour out of the mayo if they only had the actual flat tablespoonful!

Calories are hard to calculate in home made foods, you can only guestimate and if your guesses are massively out of whack to start with... you're fighting a losing battle.

I too am critical of the NHS guidance, it is horseshit (I no longer work for the NHS). Do you really think I haven't heard of Tim Spector?!

Hello. I found this principle from weight watchers really helpful :

1 slice of jammy toast vs an English breakfast (consisting of grilled trimmed bacon, grilled sausage, mushrooms, a hash brown).

Both could have the same calories but the simple sugars in the jam vs the breakfast meant the body stored the jam as fat but took energy to consume the healthier breakfast. So it was better to have the breakfast.

I also lost weight on slimming world that really restricted bread but allowed other carbs and the goal for a meal was to be a quarter protien, quarter carb and half veg

Key was controlling the volume of carbs and avoiding bread!

Patronise you? I'm making valid points that your training or further reading doesn't seem to have covered.

I've asked if you have heard of the work of Tim Spector and his book The Diet Myth and you don't reply.

He is far more qualified than you (I assume) so maybe don't be so dismissive and defensive?

They're not hard to estimate if you're cooking from scratch and you're consistent with weighing.

Use a tiny bit of mayo mixed with apple cider vinegar, it’s delish!

I'm pretty sure a slice of jam toast would have less calories than the fry up. Happy to be corrected.

Indo this and agree it's yum

I've already said twice that I've heard of Tim Spector! It's not my fault you're not reading my posts.

Tim Spector is not the one golden god of nutritional expertise on this planet.