Judge my diet!

[LegOfSpam]

I’m gaining and I don’t know why?

I think I eat okay, I have a toddler so I’m on my feet a lot, housework and walk loads and loads. Swim once a week too.

Yesterdays menu:

Breakfast:
Greek yogurt, strawberries raspberries and blueberries, drizzle of kefir with mulled nuts and seeds on top. Not a huge bowl, about 3 tablespoons of yoghurt and a small handful of berries. A tablespoon or milled nuts and seeds.

Lunch: One slice of sourdough toast with airfried mushrooms, tomatoes and feta. Handful of leaves on the side.

Dinner: Roast chicken with cauliflower, parsnips, red cabbage and carrot and suede mash.

It’s not bad diet is it? So why do I seem to be getting bigger?!?

Do you eat like that every day?
Any alcohol?
How active are you?

No alcohol, coffee, cigarettes. I don’t eat desserts but I do like chocolate here and there.

Yes mostly like this! I mean, I have other bits and bobs here and there, I’m not perfect, but this is quite typical. I usually eat that breakfast or eggs. We have picnics a fair bit To save on money when we’re on days out but I’ll have a salad sandwich and fruit.

Dinner is often lentils or a homemade chicken and veggie curry or rice and vegetables. I think I eat okay? So I’m confused!

I could be more active but I’m either with my toddler or I work two days a week at a computer. But I’m often with my DC doing a walk or bike ride or swimming. I do all the housework and gardening which is active. And I walk in the evenings a couple of times a week. But I don’t go running or go to the gym or anything like that.

I think you eat ok too, though people will probably tell you fruit is the devil's work. could get more protein into lunch? Though it sounds delish.

It looks good but your portion sizes might be a bit large. Can you try leaving a third of the food on your plate, and saving it for another meal or give to someone else? Use smaller plates?

I'd say maybe more protein at breakfast, like a couple of eggs along with yoghurt and fruit?

Swede, carrots etc are a bit carby, so maybe have just one of those and then green veg like spinach, asparagus, green beans as rest of the veg. If you are big on gravy, try and make one that's less thick, and use a bit less on your plate?

You're eating really good stuff though! Are you drinking plenty of water too?

I was just coming on here to be judgy about your UPF consumption but there's no UPF😂I will say that as someone who eats a lot of lentils and curries, I have to watch my rice intake as it's easy to eat too much.

I imagine your portions are too large. Some of that is quite calorie dense - thinking nuts. The breakfast sounds lovely but when I did the same it would have to be quite large to fill me and then I may as well have had eggs or similar for better satiety.

Are you accidentally hoovering toddler food? I did that!

Have you put this into something like MyNetDiary and actually checked the calorie counts for it?

Healthy food still adds up the calories, 4 brazil nuts are over 100 calories for example.

That would be your best course of action to see what the problem is.

Yes, I'd also try logging the food you are eating accurately to check calories.
Don't guess, use scales to weigh what you eat.

It sounds pretty good. Probably would be worth meticulously food logging for a while for a reality check on portion sizes, and maybe exercise tracking too. I'm using nutracheck at the moment, which integrates with my Apple Watch so it gives a pretty good idea of whether I'm in deficit or not.

Are you feeling well? The other thing that might throw things off is something like underactive thyroid.

I’d say portion size.

i’d also be brutally honest with yourself about stealth eating. As pp said- do you pick toddler leftovers? Have a snack thinking oh it’s only a little penguin/slice of bread/chunk of cheese, it doesn’t count.

that’s my downfall. If I stick to a 3 meals a day, plus one snack, I lose. If I relax a bit I find I’ll be having a couple of extra rice cakes as a snack, or a bag of crisps, without thinking about it taking me over my calorie load.

I agree with checking portions. It’s really easy to eat a lot of rice or potatoes. Do you put a lot of oil or butter in things? That’s fine it’s just that you need to account for it as they are quite high calorie so bear that in mind. Good fats are good for your diet so you don’t need to cut them out perhaps just use less.

I would keep a track of what you eat for a week and see if something is creeping in - finishing food from your child’s plate, snacks that you forget you have eaten.

If you are getting bigger then you are eating too much. Maybe you're underestimating your portions, maybe the odd bit of chocolate is more often than you realise, maybe you're having weekly 'cheat meals' 💁 None of us know the reason why, but if you are getting bigger then you are eating too much.
Maybe weigh, measure and count calories for a few weeks and see what's what.