Got the exercise part. Can't get the eat less part.

[Raindrop]

First, try to make eating easy....and adventurous. Try a different fruit AND vegetable every week. There a lot of new choices in our vegetable sections these days. Sometimes, I like to concentrate on new mushrooms, which by the way can be grilled or sauteed with spray-vegetable oils and added to salads, or beans etc.

Then, speaking of beans. Try to incorporate that into your diet. If the side-effects are too much, buy Beano. But beans are a great source of protein and fiber and make you feel full a lot longer.

Diets are bunk! Eating is how we live so try to make it healthful but exciting. More garlic and hot peppers and less lettuce and cucumbers.

Also, soups are great. There is some scientific backup to the fact that our stomachs register satiety via fullness or weight. So, soups with lots of vegetables (add more via frozen veggies) are a great way to feel full and satiated without a lot of extra calories.

After all, we can scarf down a Big Mac in a few minutes, but some really hot soup or hot beans over some brown rice (with cumin, garlic and maybe a few extra veggies) not only take longer to eat, but have more volume, nutritional vaule, flavor and nutrition.

[CyclChyk]

Grog - I am not sure if you misunderstood me or if you can't fathom how I could have ever willingly eaten McD's; Dominos; etc. Some people love black coffee. Some people have to have sugar in their coffee in order to drink it. Some people HATE coffee. (I know - hard to believe but its true).

Whereas I no longer eat those foods nor find them appealing at all, I did at one time. I savored greasy fast food. I craved it. And I would have thought YOU were the weird one for not liking it as well.

A person can get used to anything. Take Steak TarTar for example. I cannot think of anyone who would look at a basically raw piece of meat and say to themselves "D*MN that looks good! Don't bother cooking it, I want it to moo!". I would imagine its an aquired taste. The same as McD's; Dominos; etc.

And for the record, I stated that I USED to eat that way. Thats why I was fat.

Just MHO; FWIW.

[Offthegrid]

Wow, you guys are amazing. I was so afraid to post this because I feared there would be backlash for such an overweight person being into cycling (I'm very self-conscious). And some GREAT suggestions here. I probably AM eating too few calories for breakfast and lunch.

I have actually done two sprint triathlons in the past, but I never lost weight because I love to eat and am not a good cook -- a bad combination.

I'm going to try making a better lunch: chicken breast, sweet potato and veggies on the side. I'll switch the salad as a side to dinner (I use only a little bit of low-calorie Italian dressing). The salad just isn't working for me as a lunch.

I'll also try switching to the regular oatmeal, and I'll add eggs on the days I don't swim in the morning (right now I'm swimming two days a week before work and I want to get it up to three days a week until the spring). The oatmeal is easy to make in the office. To get the protein in, perhaps I'll have an apple with peanut butter as a snack.

And I'll give the full-fat yogurt a try, too. I can't eat much cheese because I'm lactose intolerant, but the yogurt is supposed to help things. (Oh, how I wish I could have cottage cheese!)

[jeannierides]

Good morning.

Offthegrid, what a wonderful thing you are doing! You're taking control of your life! We are all about everyone - no matter what their weight or size - having great cycling experiences!

The wise ones before me have all given great advice. I'd like to add a bit of mine. Good carbs... whole wheat everything, pasta, bread cereal. Good oils... olive, walnut, even canola. Full fat dressings w/olive or canola oil - simply measure out a tablespoon... it's better to have just the tiniest taste of that wonderful flavor than a quarter cup of some bland no-taste *filler* dressing. Stay away from trans-fats AND high fructose corn syrup (as a sweetener) - you'd be surprised what you'll find those things in, and they are the worst offenders! Use the *real* deal - maple syrup or honey - in smaller measures.

Be sure you get enough protein before your workouts or rides, as well as carbs... oatmeal is great, but add an egg white (if you don't want the whole egg) or a cup of yogurt. Snacking on apples w/peanut butter is great too - just be sure it's only about 1T of pnb, though... it's easy to end up with 1/4 cup! A handfull of raw almonds is a great way to get protein too - and very little fat.

Anyway, you're doing great, and have my admiration!

[KSH]

Wow, you guys are amazing. I was so afraid to post this because I feared there would be backlash for such an overweight person being into cycling (I'm very self-conscious).

Well, cyclists (and triathletes!) come in ALL shapes and sizes! And honestly, I respect someone who has a few extra pounds on them... getting into cycling/etc.... more so than a fit person getting into cycling/etc. Good for you for getting out there and doing it!

OK... about the food... I will try to give you an idea of what I eat. I actually log all my food... and I wish I could just do a copy/paste of my days! HA! I log my food on www.sparkpeople.com, you might want to check it out.

A little information about me and my dietary needs:

I am a 15 year-vegetarian.

My body burns 1600 calories a day, this is my RMR (resting metabolic rate).

I am 5'4" and 125 pounds with 25% body fat.

I have currently been eating 1600-1800 calories a day, because I was up to 130 pounds- and I needed to lose a few pounds.

I exercise 5-6 days a week on average.


Here is a typical day:

BREAKFAST, 8:00 AM-
2 slices of Sara Lee Delightful Wheat bread (YUMMY!)- 90 calories
3 slices of veggie bacon - 90 calories
2 slices of FF American cheese (It's good cheese!)- 60 calories

SNACK, 10:00 AM-
Quaker Instant Oatmeal- Brown maple sugar- Low Sugar- 160 calories

LUNCH, 12:30 PM-
A frozen low fat/calorie meal- around 300-400 calories

SNACK, 2:30 PM-
2 String 'ems Mozzeralla Cheese - 140 calories
1 Lite and Fit Smoothie- 70 calories
1 Kashi Trail Mix bar- 140 calories

SNACK, 5:00 PM-
A health bar- Luna/Mojo bar/etc. - 180 to 200 calories

DINNER, 8:00 PM-
A frozen low fat/calorie meal- around 300-400 calories


Here is a great dinner as well, that is easy to make and low calorie!
Have a bowl of soup. You can get a large serving of soup for 200 calories.

Make a grilled cheese:
2 slices of Sara Lee Delightful Bread- 90 calories
"I can't believe it's butter" Spray - 0 calories
2 slices of FF American Cheese- 60 calories

TOTAL FOR THE MEAL: 350 calories and very filling!


The key to your healthy eating is picking the foods that stick with you. For example, I use to eat a bagel at 10:00 AM, but I would quickly get dizzy and hungry. So, it was a wasted 300 calories. I found that my 160 calorie bag of oatmeal filled me up more and stuck with me fine through my AM workout and until lunch.

Also try to drink a LARGE glass of water when you feel hungry. Oddly it helps with the hunger pains.

Try to only eat ONE cheat meal a week! Learn how many calories are in all the foods you eat.

It's so easy to eat too many calories, when you don't look up the calories. www.calorieking.com has the most comprehensive food list I have ever found.

You can easily look up food for just about all restaurants too. So, if you are going out to eat, you can plan your meal ahead of time. It's harder to cheat when you walk in with a plan.

[sarahkonamojo]

This post is timely for me. Like you I love to cook, exercise a lot, am often hungry, and am continually frustrated by my weight. Not sure why I am posting because I'm not having much success in losing any weight. On the bright side, my weight is not increasing. I have even gone as far as giving up dark chocolate and peanuts!

My diet consists of a breakfast of grapenuts w/ soymilk with fruit and coffee. Lunch a salad and a slice of cheese. Dressing is oil and vinegar. Dinner is usually something I have cooked fish, chicken, and/or legumes. Usually no sides. Snacks are a couple tamari almonds or an apple. Cytomax and diet lipton tea and some water. And of course I cheat. For instance, we have a tomato glut so I make salsa. And with salsa those corn chips are hard to resist... Never eat fast food. Rarely eat prepared foods. Occassionally go out for dinner.

Exercise most days: Cycling 3-5 days, running 2 days,weird indoor team sport 1 day, yoga 2 days. Obviously, they overlap.

I find my biggest problem is portion control, portion control, portion control and beer. (I only drink beer 1 night per week, but might have 2 and they aren't lite beers.) I would prefer to give up volume than taste. I have downsized my spoons. My goal is to lose 10 pounds.

Best of luck. It is nice to know you are not alone.

sarah

[Squeaky]

Grog, I'm copying your pizza and burger recipes to a word document for future reference .

Lately I have been lazy about eating whatever I can get my hands on for dinner. I really am too busy to prepare stuff, but as others have said, a little more effort will go a long way. I'm good about what I eat during the day (during the week) as all my meals are scheduled and thought out in advance... gee, you'd think I could do that with dinner.

The problem (excuse ) with dinner is that by the time I get home, it's late and I'm tired and starving. That's if I can make it home without caving in and stopping for a fast food chicken sandwich or sometimes a burger. Although I need to loose weight, my problem with the fast food isn't the calories as much as the nutritional value, and lack of taste (and the thought of it lately is kinda gross). No reason I can't pre-make some of those yummy burgers instead. DH is supportive whenever I try to clean up dinner, but it's too easy for me to bail when he feels like "cheating" or I'm famished. I'm even the first to blow it alot of times.

My other, bigger, problem is portion control when we go out to eat. I swear, all control goes out the window and by the time I'm done eating, I can't remember enjoying any of it and I'm so full it hurts. That's when I remember that I was going to try to slow down when I eat. Funny how it doesn't occur to me before a meal.

Breakfast usually consists of whole cut oats mixed with either peanut butter or yogurt. Lunch is starting to get boring (packaged frozen meals), but it's easier to bring all my food to work at the beginning of the week so I can ride my bike. We have a cafeteria, but it's too easy to stray and I don't want to spend the money.

With all the excercise I get, if I could stop stuffing my face I'd be skinny in no time. I used to strictly watch what I ate and although I was at my lowest weight ever, I started to develop an eating disorder. Now, I refuse to deprive myself of eating whatever I want, it's that pesky portion control. I'm an all or nothing kind of person, so I can go weeks eating clean, but then once I stray that's it. For instance, I can go without eating chocolate and then once I do, say goodbye to the whole bag... oh, and since I did that, I may as well have a whole pint of ice cream for dinner. I've come a long way since having the eating disorder, so I do try not to beat myself up too much. I know I need to learn to eat just one piece and move on, but after 25 years of trying, it's not looking good. Makes me mental.

Wow, that got long. Guess I needed to vent.

[Offthegrid]

With all the excercise I get, if I could stop stuffing my face I'd be skinny in no time. I'm an all or nothing kind of person, so I can go weeks eating clean, but then once I stray that's it.

This is so me!!!!!!! I'm exercising 5-6 days a week (twice a day on swimming days) but I just love to eat and preparing food in advance is tough. Then I'm driving home from work or the gym or whatever, and I'm just SO hungry. Stomach is in full protest. It literally hurts. And I either stop and get junk or make waaay too much food because I feel so hungry, and end up eating it all.

I think, too, my mentality is that I exercised, so I deserve all the food. In fact, nutrition professor Brian Wansink is studying this mentality now. He has people go through an unlimited buffet, and those that exercised eat more and way overcompensate. (I read about it in the NY Times, but now it's marked as a Select article, so linking is kinda pointless.)

[Squeaky]

I think, too, my mentality is that I exercised, so I deserve all the food.

yep yep yep! That too. It seems like you should just be able to say to yourself not to do it and have some will power. I'd really love to learn how to stop doing this. I mean, I know I'm going to get to eat again and it's not like my previous meals were that unfulfilling. Granted, there is a difference between eating a Healthy Choice frozen meal and Chiptoles (um, how can you not pig out on that), and I know I can have Chiptoles another day, yet I must eat the whole thing right then.

[mimitabby]

Hey, Grog, I'm with you. another advantage of cooking from scratch is you are getting more exercise. When I start to cook, i am on my feet at least another 45 minutes. Chopping carrots, potatoes, etc, I use a knife!
I knead bread dough by hand. the only thing I have used a blender for in the last few years is to make a pesto..

I recently learned some of my grandmother's recipes (for desserts, actually) and they are HARD WORK!!

There are days (and days and days) when we don't have enough time to cook and instead go somewhere to eat, but at my house, we eat hotdogs maybe 2x a year. (hot summer day, picnic!! in the back yard)

I love food and now that i am in my 50's I am hungry a lot of the day too and I don't know why.

I eat chocolate every day. but only a little bit of it.

[love2bike]

I've lost 25 pounds and will be thin when I lose another 15---I ditto every thing Grog said....take a look at this website: www. dietfacts.com . It will give you the calorie counts for food at your favorite restaurants. A super sized lunch at McDonalds is well over 2000 calories, more cals. that I should consume in one day!!!

When I'm in my weight loss mode I can usually lose a pound a week if I keep my calories at 1100-1200 per day. I have a food journal and I list every food and the calories for that food that I eat for the day. So if I have a big lunch I know that I have to go lighter at dinner. It keeps me accountable. I have a digital scale that weights the food, and when I punch in a food code that gives me calories for that portion. I think Salter makes it, I got mine at Linens and Things. Without that scale, I ALWAYS underestimate the true calorie count.

It sounds like alot of work, but when you get into the habit, it's really ok.

[CR400]

Well first off Grog thanks for making me hungry. I'm trying to follow my own advice I'm about to give.

Anyway what I usually do is just flat out and ignore the feeling of hunger after I know that eating has only been a short time ago. Us overweight people have a problem, our bodies really do not want to loose the extra weight, and they will do whatever it takes to keep it on. Sometimes it is to give us the feeling of hunger to make us eat because it worked in the past when we didn't care about loosing weight. Plus if you have significantly dropped calories from what you were eating before your body thinks that it is starving. So it tries to get you to eat more. In reality in a small way you are starving your body because you are not eating as much. You must take in few calories or expand more then you eat to loose weight thus the starving part. Not literally starving by eating nothing though, please no one even think about that.

[mimitabby]

For those of you driving while hungry, isn't there something you can keep in your car for those times, something that takes the edge off, but isn't something that you will feel like eating too much of?

Like carrots or apples?

Then you can get home without the screaming stomach and make a good dinner?

I think i'm too cheap to snack like that (go to fast food places) i would be feeling guilty about all the good stuff i have at home!

[Squeaky]

I usually try to be prepared, but yes, I need to make sure I have something with me at all times. The problem is, I eat one of these snacks before leaving work, then I go do one of my activities, which burn through that snack fast. I'm usually an hour away from home at that point, and another apple or pretzel is unappetizing. hmmm, what else besides apples, cereal, pretzels, and granola bars are easy and convenient snack foods that I can keep in the car even when it's hot out?

[EBD]

This is going to seem off-topic, but Offthegrid's story sounded so familiar. I have been 10-15 pounds overweight for years, and despite lots of exercising that never seemed to change. I was up for eating at any moment, and had all kinds of cravings, especially at night. The a few months ago, everything changed overnight - I stopped craving, I was less hungry in general, and my whole attitude toward food changed - despite the fact that I was exercising more than I have in my life, in preparation for my first Olympic tri. What was the change? I stopped taking birth control pills. (Didn't quit all the way, but switched to Nuvaring.) Seriously, the first day I was off the pill, my appetite went down, and it has never bounced back. I've lost 10 pounds without trying, even though I'm not training intensively anymore. I still love to cook and eat, but I don't crave snacks all the time, and when I am hungry I can choose good food with my brain, because it is not overpowered by hormonal cravings.

So, this may not apply to most people, but if you really are hungry all the time, it might be worth examining your medications. (Although I know there are not good substitutes for many other meds, like there are for the Pill).

The only thing that bugs me is - does this mean that I could have been thin for the last 8 years? (That's how long I was on the Pill). Darn it! Being thin in my early 20s would have been a lot of fun .