‘Lean’ eating tips

[HessianSack]

Not really exercise related but fellow exercisers will hopefully have more relevant advice to offer than general dieters, so here goes!

I generally eat quite well - love food - but my weakness is sugar and refined carbs, especially in the winter. I would have toast every meal if I could! I also don’t drink a lot of water - mainly just tea. Main areas of concern are lunch and daytime snacking (I work from home). I exercise on average 4 times a week and want to reduce my body fat just a bit to show off my muscles haha. My BMI is normal and I’m 48.

What easy swaps can I make do reduce carb intake and increase healthy stuff/protein? Any tips which work for you?

I make sourdough bread then freeze it.
SD is naturally lower in carbs and freezing it reduces the resistant starch.
Homemade soup is a great filler, you can make spicy soups and put in cannellini beans, chick peas etc.
Poke bowls with brown rice, wholemeal pasta or bulgar wheat.
Omelettes, wraps instead of bread.

Lots of lean mince, chicken, eggs etc. The protein stops me snacking!

A lot of green vegetables, plus red & orange ones. Roast sweet potato in moderation has that luscious carb effect but is nutritionally far more valuable than toast.

Steamed broccoli then grilled with soy sauce and grilled tomatoes is also very filling and tasty. I can eat up to 300/400 grammes of broccoli in a meal, and with soy sauce or soy sauce with some green miso paste in it for taste punch (umami?). Have this with fish or chicken breast. Very filling and so nutritionally dense.

Thanks for the tips. Are you cooking from scratch every lunchtime or do you batch cook? I find it hard to balance time, nutritional value and cost. Time probably being the hardest one. And some family friendly meals are pretty low in protein especially if they're pasta-based.

I do feel more full if I have protein in the day. Currently I try to have muesli every morning (it's a no-sugar nutty variety so pretty good I think) and then at least I know I've started right if it all goes wrong after that...!

I'd start the day with egg whites actually, not muesli (which can spike your blood sugar).

Start to batch cook, and organise your lunch around, say, a grilled chicken breast + steamed broccoli + grilled tomatoes & peppers. Or a piece of fish - tuna, salmon, cod, basai, whatever you like really.

That all fits into a container, can be frozen, and then defrosted/heated up in a microwave, if you work. If you're at home, it's dead easy & takes as long as it takes to steam the broccoli. I buy bags & bags of frozen vegetables, looking for the least processed in terns of added ingredients. Food like broccoli is processed & frozen literally as it is picked, and so is still full of nutrients, and you don't have to deal with the stalks. Ditto for cauliflower florets. I don't buy frozen peppers or onions though.

If you want to reduce fat, the nutty muesli might be a lot more cals than you think.
I do greek yogurt with blueberries for breakfast. I used to fast through until brunch so this yoghurt is just a snack really. I find if I start eating early I just eat more through the day so try to hold off.
Lunch ideas that are quick:

• one tin of tuna mixed in with half a tin of mixed beans, lettuce, onions, radish, whatever other raw veg.
• I often have a chicken breast with broccoli and other veg, maybe some cheese.
• I batch cook Bolognese/chicken curry with chickpeas/Shepard's pie and freeze portions. I then heat up and have a load of greens with it. No pasta or rice.

I always use a veggie base for the above, slow cook with loads of veg then blitz it before turning into Bolognese or curry or whatever (this is also so I can get veg into the kids!) I boil a load of eggs at the start of the week and snack on those. I personally don't find soup filling at all no matter what's in it. It's like my brain only sees it as a drink! Looking forward to the ideas on this thread.

Also, when looking for protein rich foods, the simple tip is: look at the container and check the grammes of protein per serving, or 100 grammes or whatever. THen look at the calories for that serving size. If the calories are more than 10 times the protein, it is not a protein-rich food.

For example: nuts are offered as a protein-rich source of food, but 20 grammes of hazelnuts is 126 calories and only 3 grammes of protein. For nuts to be a protein rich source of food, you'd want around 12 grammes of protein per 20 gramme serving. 50 grammes of raw oats are 182 calories, and only 7 grammes of protein. You'd want 18 g of protein to make it protein rich.

But if you added 100 g of 5% fat Greek yoghurt, for 93 calories, you'd add 9g of protein. Oats and yoghurt together are still only 16g of protein. Whereas, half a cup of egg white is 63 calories, and 13g of protein.

Try and get some protein with every meal as that balances the sugar spike and reduces hunger.
Also, prepping is key for diets (in my experience): get your 'good' snacks ready and don't buy the things you are not supposed to it. Good habits need to be facilitated! It is so much easier eating well if you only have access to the right food. For instance, I stopped buying carbs snacks so I don't have them accessible in the house. On Sunday I boiled some eggs, cut up some cheddar, cut up carrots and cucumbers, portion hummus etc so I know they are ready to be grabbed.

I've lost 20 kg since January 2025 - I was exercising before the weight loss and still am now so it really was diet that was the issue. What I found is things that work for one person may not work for another but prioritising protein and fibre and whole foods in what I eat helps me feel fuller quicker and for longer and seems to be working for me - and drinking lots of water and herbal teas stops me reaching for snacks too quickly when working from home.

Doubling down on protein to try to hit 30g in each meal seems to work for me and stops the mindless snacking too - e.g.breakfast is overnight oats/chia greek yoghurt combo, lunch is a quinoa salad with pepper, beans, sweetcorn, spinach and chicken and small amount of avocado, dinner is salmon, asparagus, cherry tomatoes and seeded sourdough...

I'm not an expert on this, but am very similar to you in that I would live on toast and sugar if I could. I've kicked sugar completely - it was the only way for me. I can't even have sweet fruit as it triggers my sweet tooth. And IBS means I can't really have bread without consequences.

I start the day with greek yoghurt or eggs plus smoked salmon and spinach.

Lunch is a salad of some kind (I like broccoli and avocado but it doesn't really like me) with protein - eggs, chicken, tuna. I will have the heck GF sausages or low % fat burgers if I need something speedy.

Then meat and veg for dinner.

I have eggs and cheese to snack on. Or nuts (but the IBS again...). (and also I simply can't stop at 5 brazil nuts).