Healthier eating advice - Is this too much food per day

[paranoidpammywhammy2]

I'm 5 foot 8 and wear size 18. I'd always been very slim and verging on underweight until about 5 years ago. I wore size 10/12 before. I've always had a huge appetite. People wondered how I stayed slim.

I was happy at size 14. I felt I had a bit of flesh on my bones. My parents made unflattering comments but I ignored them. They have weird food issues and I felt starved by them as a child.

Now at a size 18, I am determined to lose weight as I feel insecure about the size of my belly. I've cut down on unhealthy food, more fruit and veg, drink plenty of water and reduced snacking. I already get plenty of exercise.

I still have a huge appetite but munch on carrots, cucumber, oranges etc. to fill me up. I drink as well if I'm hungry. I took 5 years to gain the weight so plan to lose it gradually.

This is a general typical day's food.

Breakfast - 2 small slices of toast with thin layer peanut butter or bowl of all bran.

Lunch - tin of mushroom soup, 2 low fat cheese slices on 2 small slices of toast

Dinner - large salad with feta, peppers, red onion, cucumber, tomatoes, olives, lettuce and low fat dressing or walnut and feta salad.

Snacks are oranges, cucumber, carrots etc.

I am happy with my diet. I am seeing a small decrease in my belly and feel healthier. I still have a huge appetite and my family still say I'm overeating. I struggle to eat less. Are they right to criticise?

You're undereating. You don't want or need to be hungry to make this work. I would have added about 75 g of cheese to that.

What was in the soup? Sometimes there is potato as filler and that's a carb ...

What was in the egg salad? Anything other than egg or mayo?

soup had potato starch in it! I was trying to avoid the carbs so had a two egg salad with carrot, lettuce, beetroot, tomato, cucumber, pepper, red onion with mayonnaise.

Ok so if you want to lose weight immediately stop eating carbs. No bread, no potato, no rice , no pasta etc.
Instead fill up on vedge, fish, eggs, full fat everything and meat. No low fat so called he's slimming good as it's full of sugar.
If you want a dessert stick to fruit and natural or Greek yogurt. Dark 85 percent chocolate is ok for a treat as its low in sugar

• healthy . Umm what else. Oh yes cheese. Cheese is good. Also consider intermittent fasting. You basically stop eating by 8pm at the latest and skip breakfast, eating only dinner and tea. You could also consider a 24 or 48 hour fast each week ( I'm currently on a 24 HR fast ). Not only does fasting encourage fast weight loss but it releases all the toxins in your body. It is proven to extend life and even kill cancer cells , cure diabetes, and Improve brain function.

The soup ... Need to stay away from that stuff. It will impede your progress and make you hungry. It may be why you're peckish - the blood sugar fell and you've got to eat again.

The egg salad seems perfect.

Try to find substitutes for the soup when you know it has carbs in it. Cheese is all fine - do you like cheese? Greek yoghurt wo sugar or fruit. Nuts are usually good; some (walnuts) are better than others (cashews).

Feel free to add olive oil to your salad.

Or to add coconut oil to your coffee.

Or butter to your veggies.

www.healthline.com/nutrition/10-health-benefits-of-intermittent-fasting#section2

I have also done a 48 hour fast and then a 24 hours only a few days later, so three days in one week.

@Blahblahboo: Agree with all that. IF is great. But @paranoidpammywhammy2 needs to get into ketosis before trying IF so she's not hungry all the time. IF is too hard on a carb-heavy diet.

I didn't bother doing that. I just went straight Into it, had a break while I was pregnant and now my son is almost a year so I've restarted. This time though I'm making sure to stick to a low carb on my eating times or days ( except two days this week when I had a very rare treat of krispy kreme lol).
I actually find I prefer skipping breakfast and I've found some little bars of dark chocolate in aldi that I have. Only 4 gram of carb per bar and that's my daily treat, only I've ran out now lol.

I've been looking at Dr Berg's videos. I think getting the snacking sorted in my priority. I'm very interested in the IF. I could probably do the 16:8 fasting easily as it's in the day I snack. But I drink a lot of tea and Dr Berg says a lot of tea isn't good.

I've always thought the soup would fill me up and stop me feeling hungry. I love cheese feta and walnut or grilled halloumi.

I've not had coconut oil before. How does it taste in coffee? I always have milk or baileys.

Looking at blahblahboo link now.

@paranoidpammywhammy2 : I like coconut oil in my coffee. That or single cream bc lower in carbs.

Remember IF is not a diet so it won't get you as far as you may wish to go. You need to get your food macros sorted first. Dr Berg can help with that - he is v well researched. But if you can deal with being hungry initially, then IF might be OK for you. But you won;t be able to stay on IF if you're not also on low carb; it's too hard.

Olivia What carbs can I have on low carb?

I was thinking root vegetable stews when it gets colder. I tend to do parsnip, sweet potato, carrot and beetroot chips also. I can do cauliflower rice instead of rice but pasta is one of my favourites.

I've done about an hour of walking today so it's been quite slow and relaxed. Normally it's about twice that and a bit more physical activity. I'm going to be on my feel for the next two hours though.

Carrots , potatoes, peas , beets, and any root vegetables are the worst things for a low carb diet.

@paranoidpammywhammy2

You can eat up to 30 g of net carbs a day (ie fibre is fine in unlimited amounts). You must measure using MFP until you know what you are doing.

Hardly any of the foods you listed is going to work: parsnip, sweet potato, rice, pasta must all be out.

Carrots and beetsroot in moderation.

I would totally avoid them all if you can. And really limit fruit. I'm talking no more than one piece of fruit a day or half a cup. As for what fruit you can eat, think berries. Strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, etc. No orange, pineapple, apples are iffy. Plums are ok and peaches from what I read.

blahblahboo It was after my daughters birth that my diet started to suffer but I've only gained weight in last 5 years when my diet had returned to pre-birth foods. I think my metabolism has slowed down because I'm eating all the same things I used to and just as active. Probably used to have more sex though. That and more stress are the only things that have changed.

@Blahblahboo is giving good advice but plums and peaches are not OK. Only berries and I would not even touch those if I were starting low carb high fat until a few months from now - going out of season anyway.

And absolutely no bread, breadcrumbs, pasta, rice. Nothing made with flour or anything starchy basically.
In other words only eat fresh meat, fish vedge, limited fruit, full fat natural yoghurt, eggs , cheese.

I'll have to do more research on this and plan my meals. I don't want to restrict my daughters foods in any way so I'll need to rethink.

@paranoidpammywhammy2 : if I'm honest, your metabolism is low bc your exercise is off.

As we get older two things are paramount:

1. mobility. yoga is great for that. It's so important to maintain strength through the various positions, hips especially
2. strength. low repetition (5) heavy weights. Why? because of sarcopenia: we lose about 1% of our muscle mass every year bc of age and changes in hormones
3. cardio: if you can find the time, do light aerobic work for 45 minutes. If you're brave go anaerobic ...

Are there any pasta equivalents? I think there was a spaghetti aubergine thing a few years ago but can't recall what is was,

I'm offline now until later.

@paranoidpammywhammy2 what's going to be good for you is going to be good for your daughter! This is not just weight loss but healthy eating. unless your daughter is into anaerobic sports she does not need carbs even if she can process them fine as she's young. Problem is you are forming an addiction of your daughter to carbs and sugar - setting up for problems in the future.

@Blahblahboo making more great suggestions. Completely on board.

For pasta I make my own sauce and use courgette strands as the pasta. I got the idea from Dr Berg again . It tastes the same as pasta; I didn't believe it at first

I'm bringing my son up in low carb ( barring the little Aldi chocolate bars I mentioned and the occasional donut) , but also low to no soy which is a great health hazard and in most processed foods.