Calorie Help Please :)

[Mish]

Thanks for all your replies. It's really interesting to see what other people eat! Veronica, your diet sounds like you would never be hungry, is that right?

I've also stopped eating stuff at work I haven't taken in myself. I now make my own vegetable soup (no cream), and have that with brown bread for lunch. It's a lot more effective than I thought it would be.

I'd also never thought of seeing a dietician... That sounds bizarre to me now. Thank you for that suggestion, I think a little investment in that direction will be well worth it.

Elaine

[Veronica]

I'm actually pretty hungry when it's time to eat. I work out most morning before I go to work and my job isn't sedentary - elementary school teacher. It's not like digging ditches, but there's a lot of movement throughout my day.

Veronica

[Mish]

Well, I am happy to report that the scales have moved! Not a lot, but I have lost 3 pounds. More importantly, I have also dropped a dress size, so I am happy I'm doing something right. After all your advice, I am now eating 1700 calories a day, which I will monitor as the pounds come off. thanks again

[azfiddle]

I lost about 40 lbs (from 150-111 lbs) on weightwatchers several years ago. I started cycling after a 2 month plateau (after I lost the first 13). I have gained back about 10 pounds over the last 3 years, which really frustrates me, because I ride 80-100+ miles a week. If I don't track, my weight inches up again.

I've found it's sometimes hard to balance the eating/ exercise. I get hungry the day after a long ride, but of course then I'm not using up the calories so it's frustrating.

I think weightwatchers can be a good and effective program however. Good luck with whatever you choose to do, and good for you in making a choice to become more healthy and fit.

[shootingstar]

Are you diabetes 2, Mish? If yes, then cutting back on heavy pastas, processed breads and white rice down to only once a month or so. There are much lighter pastas that are less hypo-glycemic.

If you do make permanent food choice changes and eating habits, your palate will probably change. If you reduce drastically butter and heavier cheeses, a few months later, the same stuff will taste rich and heavy. So for heavy pastas --which I enjoy maybe 1-2 times per year, handmade Italian pasta with a lovely sauce, etc. Butter sauces give me diarehea...which I actually consider a good thing. It's warning signal for me not to eat too much butter in 1 sitting.

Another consideration, is don't buy for the fridge or cupboard anything that's unhealthy for home. Leave that for restaurant / cafe, if you would like to indulge abit occasionally. Forget premade frozen food from store if you can. The closest I get to this, is handmade frozen perogies from a local Ukranian maker and only once a month or less. I don't even buy frozen Chinese dim sum: if I'm going to have it, it's best tasting when freshly made and hot in restaurant. ....seems to be only 1-2 times a year. (Yea, unbelieveable. But this hasn't been any different for the past ....few decades.)

Reconsider going even more ethnic and diverse....with a broader range of veggies and fruit (ones you may have rarely/never tried before) with whole produce food cooking, healthy recipes and spices that don't use cream nor any fat as a base.

[Blueberry]

Here's an interesting perspective: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/op...-why.html?_r=0.

We are all different. If I don't incorporate sufficient fat and protein into my diet, I am constantly starving. My body will NOT lose weight on a traditionally "healthy" low fat, low processed carb diet. I do cut out the breads and such, but cannot cut out fat and protein. This article, I think, is spot on for what happens to me. I actually noticed that I was still hungry after a sufficiently large dinner last night - because it was *very* light on fat.

[shootingstar]

Sure, agree Blueberry. I'm the opposite. I know I should have light fat in my diet. It doesn't work for me otherwise, I'm small boned, etc. Lean meat protein is only 1-3 times per month or less for me...which is very different when in my 20's I was eating meat nearly every single dinner.

I think some of all this, is what type of food I was raised on as a child/growing teen --low fat, less heavy cheese, very little butter, cream and a lot less sugar (not true now) back then. I really think at childhood, this sets some of our body's natural predispositions later on in life.

I'm pretty certain it's me naturally cutting back on heavier pasta, etc. that's helped me maintain my weight past 6 years or so after my diabetes 2 scare. My metabolism is slower because I am at menopause stage..no period for last 2.5 yrs. and I haven't cycled as much compared to 5 years ago.

Mish, a sister of mine who is a doctor, gave herself her own weight loss after diabetes 2 reading (she obsessively tested herself twice, to make sure the reading was verified), she changed her diet, took up jogging and lost 50 lbs. Then later with child 2, she had to monitor her eating, because she was verging on gestational diabetes.