Please judge my foot intake harshly

[Summerflab]

Hi all,

Following on from yesterday, asking you to harshly critique my food intake!

I’m trying to eat more healthily and run 4 x week. For info I’m 5ft4 and need to lose a stone in the next 8 weeks so need to eat 1200 calories a day. Please be really harsh and rip up my food intake/ give me tips if needed.

Thank you

Breakfast: (not sure on cals)
2 pieces mango
Handful blueberries
Handful raspberries

Lunch: (about 350 cals)
1 chicken breast with ginger, soy sauce and garlic
Lots of broccoli (poster yesterday said to fill up on veg 😉)
50g brown rice
2 satsumas

Dinner (approx 550 cals)
Medium portion of beef and chickpea stew with cous cous (beef mince, chickpeas, cous cous, spray oil only, tomato paste, garlic, harissa, beef stock cube, mint, baharat and chopped dates and apricots).

Snack:
1 bitesize piece Turkish delight

Drinks:
2 x tea with hazelnut milk
Lots of water

I think mfp is brilliant, especially if you add exercise on, that way you can actually see your calorie defect. I lost about 2 stone using mfp, eating around 1600 calories a day and walking loads, I just walked everywhere that was possible.

This all sounds really extreme to me especially cutting out meals or having half a chicken breast. You may lose that stone but its pretty much guaranteed that you'll gain it back and more once you stop dieting. Obsessing over diets like this just leads to food issues. I'd say up your calorie intake to at least 1400, eat the right foods (lean meat, fruit & veg, fish, wholegrains, eggs, dairy for calcium etc) and exercise loads.

@SolitudeAtAltitude I am quite short (5ft4) and have a stone to lose- currently at very top of healthy weight bracket but have a very small frame so it’s all flab!

Morning @Havenly! Perfect timing thank you- was just about to reach for the bran flakes (and dust them off as they’ve been hibernating at the back of the cupboard 😂). 30g it is!

@LettuceP always helpful to get different perspectives thank you and don’t want to go to to crazy. I’ve stuck to my whole (small) chicken breast with lots of broccoli and a (v small) portion brown rice). I think the amount of food seems really low to some as they are lucky enough to be much taller than me and not built like a bird (with lots of flab) 😂🙈.

LettuceP, so agree with that

Don't cut out exercise it's good for you, your weight may not change as you may build muscle but measurements and how your clothes fit will. Don't cut out lunch you'll just end up hungry.

Team RH on Facebook seem to talk a lot of sense about calorie deficit and food groups if you are struggling. They show you can eat a good amount of good food and lose weight. But be aware if you have only a stone to lose it will take longer.

Can you tell us how much you weigh now? I'm a bit worried you're already in the healthy weight bracket and want to lose a whole stone. Your diet sounds very healthy already.

@SolitudeAtAltitude just to reiterate again this isn’t a crash diet- I’m a tiny build and my above plan has 3 substantial meals a day with lots of protein and veg and some carbs. I’m also have small snacks of what I fancy as and when it’s needed (e.g. Turkish delight some days).

@LoubyLou1234 definitely won’t cut out exercise- I love walking and running (at a very amateur level) and they are like a way of life for me 😊

@ScabbyHorse I think the healthy weight range for someone my height (5ft4) is from 7 stone 10lbs to 10 stone- so a big range!

I’m aiming to get to just over 8 1/2 stone as I’m tiny- think tiny wrists and ankles, narrow hips, no natural boob and lots of fat round my middle. My waist to hip ratio is very hard to get to a healthy place until I get to 8 1/2 stone!

And @ScabbyHorse this diet is much healthier, but I used to snack on rubbish all day and eat out too often- hence the posting my new, improved food plans for comment as I’m so inexperienced at good, solid healthy eating!

@Summerflab
I think you might be eating a lot over 1200
I put your food diary into the nutrition analysis website I use (cronometer) and the result was over 1600 calories.
Picture attached.
I think you shouldn't have meat twice a day (especially if you have meat AND chickpeas in the same meal) or rice/couscous twice a day.

Have salad or soup for one meal, being very mindful about the dressing and of course no cheese or bread with soup.
Careful with the dates or turkish delight, they are calorie bombs.
Hope this helps!

Thanks @LiliesAndChocolate for going through the plan- very helpful. I am looking to cut down the brown rice portion so hopefully that should help!

Re dinner, I know it was 550 cals as followed a cook box that details nutrition info per packet, so was safe!

That should read ‘*per meal’ not per packet as it wasn’t a packet dinner!

Hopefully this all makes sense and people are reassured I’m not trying to be underweight/unhealthy!

Use Cronometer on laptop or wholesome on phone, both free, to control your calories. I use them to track my nutrients as I follow a plant based diet and it takes a lot of planning to reach all the minerals and vitamins, but I found it quite accurate on the calorie front.

Brown rice is fine, having whole grains is actually beneficial but don't have couscous on the same day. Try to avoid the turkish delight or other very sugary snacks. You shouldn't be hungry on this balanced diet so any snacking is more out of habit than true hunger.

This is a very well designed meal plan, but not something I would call weight loss plan. Could you switch the evening meal for a soup or have a green juice like this one for lunch (don't be fooled, it doesn't exactly taste great, especially if you don't put too much banana, but the effect on the skin is amazing, a week of that amount of kale will give you a rosie glow) or a huge salad, with butter lettuce, tomatoes, grated carrots, cucumber, chopped kale, green beans, sliced red cabbage and a hard boiled egg.

If you really really miss something to snack on, have some frozen berries and eat them frozen, sucking on them as if they were lollies, great for you and your skin!

Well done for picking a very healthy diet, with just a couple of adjustments, you should be able to lose the weight on time.