If yoi are slim or losing weight: what do you eat on a normal day?

[Croissantsfordinner]

I am 5ft2 and 11 stones heavy. The heaviest I have been in my whole life.
I need to get back in track with gym and moderate eating, was wondering if you’d like to share an average day pf eating, if you are someone who is careful not to gain weight/stays slim.
Obv I appreciate it also depends on how much movement, metabolism, age etc.
I have a big appetite and usually have big dinners, as well as a couple of take outs a week which together with a sedentary office life, have slowly contributed to my weight gain.

I fully agree @TallulahBetty that sugar is the enemy- I've been trying to cut it out for a year - but it sneaks back in so easily. And it is addictive, when I do have it, I really crave it the next day.

I had someone work out my calories and I target 1700 and 100g protein every day. I’m losing 1-2lb a week starting at BMI 25 and wanting to get back to BMI 22.

B - chia pudding or two boiled eggs on a slice of rye bread toast or a Purition shake
L - homemade soup or salad, usually with lentils/chickpeas/beans. Piece of fruit.
S - protein bar or Greek yogurt with chopped apple, peanut butter and honey
D - something healthy ish - lots of chicken and veg mostly. This week we’ve had a butternut squash & cashew curry, chicken pizziaole, chicken tagine and a stir fry with noodles and veg. I skip potato/rice and have extra veg on the side.

Four cups of tea/coffee a day. Glass of wine on the weekends at night and the occasional chocolate biscuit, but it has to fit in my calorie allowance.

Busy mum of 2 smalls, working FT - timepoor, love to cook though! Have lost 14 kilos in the last 4 months, and continuing to lose about 2-3 kilos a month.

Method: 1000-1200 calories a day.
Key assumptions: I never ate breakfast but I always enjoy an evening snack in front of telly - so I embraced that as decided that my "breakfast" is at 9 pm, and I eat in the 1-9 window.

Lunch: A Covent Garden soup + an apple (averages about 300 calories)
Late afternoon snack: 100 calories of something (could be carrots with hummous, could be 2 poached eggs if WFH, whatever).
Dinner: Family meal - cooked by me, without oil, and I eat without the carbs with piles of vegetables. (tracked on MFP at 400 calories)
"Breakfast" at 9 pm in front of Netflix: Arla Whipped Skyr or some other really decadent yogurt, or skimmed milk and 30 grams cereal (150-175 cals) - you can see it is "obvious" breakfast food - just that it hits my cravings at 9 pm and uses the fact that I dont eat breakfast.

I also drink 8 pints of water a day. I am a teetotaller.

The last 4 months have involved all our birthdays, christmas and many celebrations. For those days, I simply fast all day - and use my allowance for the evening meal and it is working a treat.

The other benefit of the calorie approach (Rather than cutting out an entire food group like carbs etc) is that - if "life happens" - like PMS, or whatever - I can then eat what brings me momentary comfort - as a one-off, as long as it fits within my calorie budget. I shall give you an extreme one-off example. After a month of super healthy eating, one fine PMS afternoon my entire being craved specifically Jalapeno and cheese crisps. You know what? I ate 300 calories of those crisps for lunch - logged it on MFP, and forgot about it. I didn't deprive self of them, or eat them as an "extra". I just told myself - it's one day, you are very very hormonal, you've got 300 cals for lunch - it is what it is.

I find - with these small contingecy plans and flex for the odd off day - my plan's worked so well for the last 4 months and fingers crossed 1 more stone to go :)

That sounds really achievable for me @lampshadelampshade I really want to get into healthy homemade soups- so I will try making some this weekend.

I think I would be too hungry with your plan @SittingNextToIt but I have been thinking MFP and calorie limit would be the logical next step for me. Did you say 1000 calories per day? That would kill me. I just can't function hungry.

I am in normal weight range and eat:
Breakfast - eggs on toast or yogurt and fruit
Lunch - leftovers or a pita with chicken and salad, followed by fruit
Dinner - normal meals like spaghetti bolognese, chicken burger and wedges, salmon mash and veg

I do snack and this is normally a banana, a portion of cheese, rice crackers and chocolate of some sort. I don’t really exercise as much as I should. I do try to compensate if I’m going out and skip the snacks and have a lighter lunch

So I was really surprised myself. I've always been a foodie and cook and for me portion control has always been such a huge issue. We'd think nothing of two burgers and chips for example not one burger.

I was crazily surprised as to how swiftly after one painful week my system just ..... adjusted? It was insane. I couldn't understand it. I eat huge amounts of veg and drink lots of water and it was a painful week pr fortnight initially and took a lot of work to achieve at least 5 a day, up the protein, maintain calcium intake, enough fibre and lower the carbs and all within 1000-1200 but I sometimes don't understand how something flipped and I went from "let's have a massive pile of chips as a second dinner in front of telly after kids bedtime" person to this.

I genuinely don't fully grasp it but am going with the flow.

Aim is after this last stone to get back up to 1500. I gain from around 1750 ish I've found or even 1700.

I'm the same - aim for 1000 per day to lose 1-2lbs per week. At 1200 I lose but more like 0.5-1lbs per week. It's very manageable though, now that I'm off the crap carbs rollercoaster. I'm not a fan of breakfast so have two meals of 500kcals each, which is plenty and leaves me feeling satisfied and full until the next meal. Today for lunch I've had a chickpea salad (half a tin of chickpeas and lots of other veg), with a whole packet of prawns (100g). Followed by a bowl of chopped fruit - a kiwi, a plum and half a punnet of raspberries, with a dollop of oat yogurt. 462kcal and stuffed. Dinner will be a pork chop with roasted veg and fancy coleslaw. I feel best on plenty of protein and fibre and not many simple carbs.

My main problem is controlling the impulse to reach for something at the slightest sign of stress or emotional discomfort. I have lost the taste for sugary shite so it's more likely to be walnuts than chocolate now, but still needless overeating.

Watch The Glucose Goddess

You do know how carbs work though?

I do, but I stand by what I said.

I totally agree @TallulahBetty, while other foods may turn into sugar in your body.

Actually consuming refined sugar is very dangerous for your body. It is processed and refined to such an extent that it's turned into a drug. And it is really addictive, which prompts you to keep eating it at the time, but also seek it out the following day.

Some people can handle it much better, but in some ways not everyone becomes addicted to cigarettes or alcohol for example.

But cutting out sugar is such a daily and ongoing battle for me.

When my mum got diabetes recently I felt frustrated with all the conflicting advice from doctors- such as lumping carbs and cheese into the same bucket of dangers - in that way sugar doesn't seem that bad.

But if you could completely cut that out alone you would be more than halfway there.

The problem with carbs (and I’m talking about bread, pasta, rice, oats etc, not vegetables) is they raise your blood glucose significantly.

That means that, although they’re not ‘sugar’, when you get the corresponding blood sugar crash your body is more likely to crave sugar. It’s why some of the posters above say they can’t stop snacking.

By keeping your blood sugar more stable throughout the day you don’t experience the crashes, therefore you’re less likely to reach for a sugary snack.

The way to do that is to focus on foods that keep your blood sugar stable, like fibre, fat and protein.

The Glucose Goddess explains it all brilliantly, as does healthylynlee on Instagram.

Bang in the middle of my weight range so not skinny but not overweight.

Breakfast - granola and natural yoghurt/ poached egg on toast/ half an avocado on toast/ tomato and onion on toast/ Banana on toast/ peanut butter on toast/ porridge

Lunch- homemade soup/ salad with greens tomatoes pepper cucumber and either feta or hummus or half a chicken breast /salmon flakes.

Tea- normal tea, spaghetti Bolognese, curry, burrito, tray bake but a sensible portion with lots of veg/ salad.

I don't snack much. When I do it's fruit or nuts/ raisins mainly with the occasional small slice of homemade cake or 2 squares or dark chocolate.

I don't really drink, the odd glass of wine maybe twice a month.

I have takeaway or eat out once every few months and go the coffee shop maybe once a month for coffee and cake.

I am a south Asian woman, and I know for a fact, two things.

1. First, I was raised in India on a diet based very heavily on white carbohydrates and from my very first baby, weaning mouthfuls till I left India in my early 20s, white rice and white. I mean, the winning ceremony in my part of India is actually called a rice eating ceremony. That shows you! Rice and Chapaties offered a kind of comfort in combination with curried potatoes that nothing else could provide.
2. Second, I also know a second fact, that every female family member of mine in India has type two diabetes and is obese.

I have had to reconcile these two facts and accept that there is some kind of correspondence between these two facts. They are not unrelated facts. I have also accepted that the challenge for me as a born and bred Indian is precisely that the food I was trained to seek comfort, and sustenance in is precisely the food which is also priming me for type two diabetes, unless I do something about it.

So I did something about it.

My attempts as described in this thread to seriously lose weight, has also meant going cold turkey on certain very specific food items like white rice and white flour and chapatis and potatoes. But I do not count carbs in other things such as vegetables and yes, if there is a complete off day and I'm about to start my period and on that one off occasion I do crave a refined carb as described in this thread I will then give in on that one particular location within my calorie limit

But overall, it has meant a complete re-orientation of myself, and my tastebuds, because I was forced to face the fact that the lovely potato curry and chapati and rice that my heart and mouth craves and which I was raised on has a linkage to my mum and my auntie's, and my grandmothera obesity and type two diabetes.

Apparently there are high rates of diabetes in China too due to all the white rice that is consumed.

And if I might list what I was taught to find comforting, and still would find utterly comforting, it would be

1. White rice, mashed up with boiled potatoes and boiled eggs with dollops of butter, which is basically carbohydrates with more carbohydrates and fat with some protein I guess

1. Parathas rotis "luchi" and Chapaties involving white flour, beautifully fried in ghee or topped up with ghee served alongside some very gorgeous tasting potato curries. In other words, carbohydrates, with carbohydrates and fat.

1. White rice in unlimited amounts for gorgeous dinners of curried fish, curried, chicken, lentils, and several helpings of fried vegetables to go with the lentils and white rice. All in one meal.

1. Delicious biryani involving white rice with one piece of chicken in the biryani and two massive biryani potatoes.

I've got to be honest, and admit that even at the ripe old age of 40, and even after having left India, 17 years ago, the pull that these items represent for me is insanely powerful. Every time I visit India, every time I feel homesick the pull is profound. Absolutely profound.

It has been far from easy to not lead life that way anymore. Thankfully, having two small children, a very busy career has meant that I do not have the time to make chapatis or prepare delectable curries. That helps.

But of course, sometimes, especially when I am about to menstruate, and things are difficult, or work has been difficult, sometimes it is also about mindfully, sitting with the fact that yes, today, cauliflower rice with my grilled chicken with Indian spices is not hitting the spot I want to get hit. But it is okay.

I’ve heard the opposite. Because if eating a traditional Chinese diet they are not eating other crappy carbs and it’s a bit of a paradox. I heard this from Dr Jason Fung.

https://www.glucosegoddess.com/en-gb?srsltid=AfmBOoqYo8sjpR7FAsiU11T76y2YBTbJCEMjC4hOyazNHgUYfLNGMC7n&view=sl-6497B7E4

I’m 33, 5ft4 and about 8.5 stone. I don’t eat before 12 (I will have a coffee or 2) to keep a 16 hour fast. Eat between 12-8pm. I don’t deny myself anything really but I stick to whole foods, high protein (nuts/seeds) and lots of veg with dinner. Most days have a sweet treat after tea but always homemade flapjack or something - almost no upf. Fat and sugar are not the enemy- natural products like butter fine in moderation. Avoid chemical fats and sweeteners etc or that creates cravings

I'm in my thirties, 5ft 3 and a couple of pounds over 8 stone. This is the lightest I've been in 10 years. I generally eat what I like at the weekends and am more careful during the week. I've lately had some issues with harder, chewier foods so what I'm eating at the moment probably seems a bit strange as it's softer food than usual for me. But it does mean I've also cut out crisps, chocolate and sweets lately. I am trying to focus on protein and fibre. This is what I've had over the last few days:

Breakfast is either just a glass of skimmed milk or some high fibre bran cereal
Lunch is big bowl of porridge with fruit or a homemade smoothie with loads of fruit and greek yoghurt in it and a hot cross bun
Dinner this week has been either chicken or tuna mayo wraps
Later on this week I'm going to be cooking a spaghetti with wholegrain pasta, quorn for the fibre and loads of vegetables. Then egg sandwiches at the weekend for the protein.

I do quite a lot of exercise and tend to keep an eye on the calories I'm consuming during the week but never set a real calories target for the day because that's when you get restrictive. I definitely believe the best way to do it is to still eat a bit of what you want and just work it into your diet

Breakfast - greek yogurt
Lunch - homemade fruit smoothie or falafel/tofu/rocket wrap + banana + orange
Tea - usually some sort of homemade curry/chilli/fajitas/scrambled eggs or beans on toast/savoury rice/soup
Snacks - corn cakes/fruit

So decent meal portion size in the evening with fish and lots of veg. It's not often but I might have a treat after but rarely. During the day I'll have one or two protein shakes and lots of water and a spicy bean soup if I'm hungry. I need to drink more and I drink a lot of black coffee too but no alcohol. Tonight I've had faggots and petite pois .. I really enjoyed it. For much a tuna sandwich which was delicious and a cinnamon bun. This is a lot of food for me.

Do you have milk in the morning coffee? I’m trying to cut out breakfast but do want a cup of tea with milk.

My motivation is weighing myself pretty much every morning unless I am away. It keeps me on track so that I can maintain.

i am never hungry first thing so generally eat around 1pm, that’s my breakfast which is always mixed flakes (oat, rye, spelt, quinoa) porridge with blueberries, peanut and almond butter. Makes a massive bowl! I also eat far too much fruit (maybe 2-3 apples, and 2 clementines) during the day.

Evening dinner is a normal meal but usually low ish on the carbs. I avoid processed foods and don’t snack often apart from fruit. Occasionally have a small bowl of muesli before bed, or greek yogurt and honey. About a bottle of wine a week. And my one vice is a hot chocolate/cocoa every night.

I exercise daily, run weights or spin and am around 5ft2 and 8 stone.

Yes I do have milk- strictly speaking that breaks the fast but I hate it black! I’m not trying to lose weight but if I was I’d probably swap to herbal tea to keep the fast