Posted on 07/18/2010 1:55:44 PM PDT by Feline_AIDS
Hey Freepers,
Would any of you skinny folks like to share you daily meal habits? How many meals do you eat, when, and how big are they? What sort of things do you eat?
I ask this because I've recently embarked on a "big breakfast diet" and so far it seems like a great idea. I just want to see if it's sustainable long term, and if people are already doing it, that would indicate that it is. (The basics: Eat a huge protein-packed breakfast that includes one sweet indulgence and some carbs, then a reasonable protein lunch and little or no supper. It's like eating in reverse order.)
[Before anyone jumps on the "fad diets are stupid" bandwagon, just let me say that this diet is reasonable in that it doesn't restrict what type of food, just what time it's eaten. Basically, carbs only at breakfast when the body isn't just going to store glucose. This just seems like a more reasonable way to eat than going with nothing until 3 or 4pm and grazing til midnight.]
Also, this old feller claims that eating only breakfast and lunch is why he's 113. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-09-24-oldest-man-diet_N.htm
Instead of eating two big meals, you should eat smaller meals at different times of the day.
You need a minimum amout of calories = 9.8 X (your body weight), to keep you metabolism up. You need to watch your protein intake as well as your carbs. Go to the gym lift weights and do cardio (I would suggest Zumba).
I generally follow the menu and eating program of Compulsive Eaters Anonymous. Took off 70 lbs with it and kept it off.
Breakfast: eat like a King
Lunch: eat like a prince
Supper:eat like a pauper
Mine is easy,I eat when I feel hungry.
Same here but I’m pretty active.
Since then I have not had a problem because I work on it all the time and here's my secret. I eat whatever I want...JUST NOT ALOT OF IT. I do eat breakfast, because it is my favorite meal of the day. I limit carbs. If I order a sandwich, I take off one piece of bread...I don't eat everything on my plate. I am aware of what I put in my body and I (and everyone else) knows when it's been too much.
I don't like to exercise...but when I do, i feel better. But I don't as a rule, exercise. The bottom line is I have a range I like to be in, and if I step on the scale (as I do everyday), and I am near the top of that range, I stop eating carbs for a few days and it comes down.
AGAIN, NOT ROCKET SCIENCE.
I have gone from size 12 to 8 since March. All I did was cut my portions in half and splurge on whatever junk I want one day a week. After a few weeks I could not physically eat larger portions without getting sick from overfullness. I also started hiking and walking the dog. How I wish for the coolness of Fall, so I can do the last part again.
Not everyone wants to cook dinner at 6 AM, but it was an interesting way of life.
Eat small meals 3x a day. Reduce fat intake (hint: most low-calorie and low-carb food is high in fat). Don’t worry about carbs and calories. Exercise lightly, but regularly.
I lost 35 pounds this year by doing the above.
I never skip breakfast (cereal and milk, it’s easy), then I have “linner” (lunch-dinner) around 3pm, and then a snack or small meal around 7 when I’m done working on the farm. Nothing like constant excersice to keep you from weighing 400 pounds. If I had a desk job, forget about it, I’d be a real heifer.
Whatever works for you. I like the small meals throughout the day theory to keep blood sugars from spiking and keeping them rather even.
One thing I’ve tried without success to impress on my husband, is that his drinking of sugared soda as if it were water, is a very very bad thing. I estimate if he stopped doing that, he’d easily drop 20 pounds the first year without even missing that sugary crap. As a treat, soda is fine, but not by the huge glassful like water.
Best of luck on finding the best way for you to eat healthy.
I need to take more time to shop and get more fruits and veg. I tend to get too busy and send the hubby to the store for food staples. I know I always feel better when I eat closer to the cave man diet than the Little Debbie diet.
: )
I lost 20 pounds over 2.5 months using this diet. It is extremely simple.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwdxTRAH_Gs
I lost 20 pounds over 2.5 months using this diet. It is extremely simple.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwdxTRAH_Gs
I grew up in a family that ate backwards as a diet plan.
I once had a boss that followed that approach. Whatever his wife prepared for the evening meal was saved and reheated for early morning. He ate a light lunch and a very light evening snack. He seemed to do okay with it.
O**ma’s America.
Eat and live like a pauper.
1. NO refined sugar
2. NO refined flour.
3. Eat REAL food, ie no "ingredient" list. Beef is food. Broccoli is food. Twinkies is not food.
My breakfast is steel cut oats, fruit and yogurt (greek strained yogurt, no added sugar). Lunch is a bowl of vegetables, heavy on broccoli and cauliflower with a vinegar olive oil dressing. Dinner is usually a gourmet meal - most anything, lots of butter sauces, chicken, beef, fish lamb. Cut out the refined flour and refined sugar and you can eat most anything you want. Plus I play racquetball every day for about an hour.
This is a 90 minute video on the dangers of sugar. Sugar: The Bitter Truth
Do not draw conclusions from one man or a small group of FReepers. Both samples are statistically insignificant and unreliable. A scientfically valid study requires a much larger sample.
I lost about 20 pounds since starting to work full time at a local factory. It’s because 1. All of a sudden I am standing or walking 7 hours a day; 2. It’s hot in there and that kills my appetite; 3. My job is kind of nerve-wracking, which also kills my appetite.
However, after hitting a plateau I started eating breakfast every day; a light lunch; and instead of Cokes drink water plus Crystal Light. This instead of starving all day.
I often do lunch with a co-worker who lost 60 pounds by using portion control and more exercise.
My BP is about 110/70; resting heart rate is 56; fasting blood sugar was 80 last time I was tested; but cholesterol was 264 (with no meds). This was down from 300+ but still not where it needs to be.
I can’t emphasize enough what a difference exercise has made.
That’s what my mother swears by. Works for her.
I basically eat only two meals per day: a 600-800 calorie brunch and a 700-1000 calorie dinner. Not gaining but not losing either. I don’t care what anyone says. Once you get past your mid-20s, it’s HARD to lose weight, especially if you have a sedentary occupation. I laugh when I see these nutritional guidelines that recommend 2000-2500 calories per day. If I ate like that every day, I’d be obese in 6-12 months.
I’m 51, 5’5”, 110 pounds. I eat whatever I want during the day (when I’m hungry) but not large meals, usually 7-8 snacks during the day. I was 125 pounds and lost 15 pounds by not eating after 7 in the evening several years ago. This does not mean that I believe calories in the evening are some how different it is just that not eating for a part of the day probably led to fewer calories overall. I move around constantly, even standing at the computer to work. I exercise 3-4 times each week.
Something I read in a health magazine a few weeks ago was very interesting, basically it said when we were all young and went on the starvation diets that let us lose all that weight really fast... well a lot of that loss was lean muscle mass and when we regained that weight the muscle we lost was replaced with fat and that is much more difficult to lose so the yo-yo dieting actually has contributed to many people being fat as they get older... the best weight loss is slow and steady and exercising so there isn’t a loss of lean muscle mass.. which actually helps us lose weight easier... one reason sometimes you exercise and gain weight but lose dress sizes, the muscle weighs more than fat....
I’m a male 58, 6’ 1” and weigh 188. I never eat anything heavy at night. Remember, you have to BURN more calories than you intake to loose weight. If you dump more water into a bucket than evaporates, eventually it will overflow.
My Mom who did not have a weight problem said “to eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper.”
Worked for her.
I eat what is known as the “Hunter/Gatherer” diet. Eat what would normally be hunted or gathered such as meat and fish, fruits and veggies. Nuts and berries, also. Eat as naturally as possible. In other words: an apple is great, apple sauce not so great, apple pie is not good.
I was at 315 pounds, I am now at 245, and have to lose anothe 30 or so pounds. I am 56, heart rate of 65, cholesterol at 133, triglicerides at 125, BP at 130/82. I climb mountains and distance bike riding... and I feel GREAT!
I started the Flat Belly Diet about 6 weeks ago and feel AMAZING. You eat 4 times a day, every 4 hours. It cuts out extra sugar and salt and bulky foods that clog the digestive tract. The diet is heavy on MUFAs (monounsaturated fatty acids) - avocados, nuts, oils, dark chocolate), fresh fruits and veggies, whole grains, and lean meats. You make a pitcher of Sassy Water every morning and drink with each meal, to keep hydrated and ease digestion. I really haven’t felt this great since I was 19 or 20. And I’ve been consistently losing weight (and keeping it off). I lost 8.5 lbs the first 4 days, due to the Jump Start.
My brother did the large breakfast, heavy on protein thing a few years ago, but after a while, he just had to go back to regular eating. He did lose a lot of weight, though (20+ lbs in about 2 months).
Ditto. Breakfast is half a banana and black coffee. Lunch IF I have it is a granola bar or piece of fruit. Supper is a normal meal but I’ve had to cut it in half. I try not to snack after supper. No sugary drinks. Mostly un-sweet tea or water, an occasional diet soda. 1 splurge item a week to feed the sugar habit. I’m 62 and have a few health issues that keep me from being to active.
They should change the food pyramid. Top Protien, fruit, veggies, dairy, then grains at the bottom.
If I ate 2000 calories a day I too would be a blimp. I maintain about a 140-145 weight level, I’m 5’1” medium frame.
Portion size is the key. A number of years ago, I was in Spain and saw very few fat people. I ate in a number of Spanish restaurants and the portion sizes of the typical meal you were served was probably half of what it is in the U.S.
The portion sizes of food served in a lot of U.S. restaurants are insane. I usually eat half of what I order and take the rest home.
If you want to loose weight, do push aways. Push yourself away from the table sooner and start shrinking your stomach. Eat more a lot more protein than carbohydrates. AND you must exercises. Don’t think of it as a “DEIT”. Think of it as getting back into shape. Do not weigh yourself, you will know if you are replacing fat with muscle. Remember, muscle weighs more than fat.
I weighed 145 Lb in high school and I still weigh 145 Lb now, 43 years later.
I’m certainly not an expert, but my weight has not wavered more than 10 lbs. in either direction for the past 40 years (since my late teen years) so my approach has worked for me.
Simple fact is that if you eat more calories than you burn off each day, you will gain weight. Duh.
Most adult women of average size need about 1600-1700 calories to maintain weight. Men need a few hundred more. Either burn off an equivalent of 300 more calories a day or take in 300 less calories a day for gradual weight loss (half a pound or so a week). Count calories but make sure your calories come from healthy sources like lean protein, fruits and vegetables and whole grains. Don’t waste your calories on food that has no nutritional value like chips or cookies, but do allow yourself an occasional treat like pizza or ice cream.
As a rule, people underestimate the amount of calories expended in exercising. Walking an hour a day at 3 MPH, e.g. only burns about 250 calories.
If you need outside discipline and respond to peer pressure, the Weight Watchers program is excellent and the people I know who have done that program have lost weight and kept the weight off as long as they didn’t go back to their old eating habits. The exercise standard for WW is 10,000 steps a day which is the equivalent of about 5 miles. That is about 90 minutes of walking at a moderate pace - having a dog to walk helps! A sedentary person only walks 1 to 3K steps a day.
It’s not easy and what works for one person may not work for another and you have to be committed to healthy eating as a life long endeavor, not just temporarily to lose weight. Good luck.
By the above, I didn't mean that exercising is not worth it. It most certainly is important for more health reasons than just keeping your weight down. But be careful not to overestimate the amount of calories you are burning off and then be tempted to reward yourself with a treat that contains more calories than what you expended.
Two words FRiend: Oat-meal.
If these people were eating a 'light evening snack', how did they have leftovers from the evening 'meal' to heat up in the morning? Obviously, I'm missing something here.
These people weren’t eating a light evening snack, just the one. Whatever the wife cooked for the evening meal was put up for breakfast be it steak, roast, fish, etc. veggies, salad or whatever else and he ate it in the morning..
For how long were you on Medifast?
bttt
bump for later read
LOL!
That’s a good bit of advice. If I may add a trick. Try to do most of your shopping around the perimeter of the grocery store and avoid the boxed food isles. Eat small frequent meals so the body doesn’t store fat in preparation for a fast.
Or start smoking crack. But that’s costly and could land a guy in jail.
I agree with the Oldest Man.
I eat a high protein breakfast with some fat ... Eggs and cheese. Then a very early light dinner.
I have found that high protein keeps the weight off better than any other method. Oh, and relatively little carbs.
You are 100% correct.
I do what I call my, “Tiger’s Metabolism,” diet.
I eat one hugh meal every 24 hours. Mostly burgers, fast food, Luzianne iced tea and cheetos.
For example, A regular meal for me when I’m heading off for a 12-hour shift on graves would be:
2 Big Macs, 1 Double 1/4 cheeseburger, 1 SS Fries, 1 SS Coke
I’m not really concerned with my weight, though.
I walk 15 miles a day at work.
I love sugar, but I recently cut back to about 10% of my former consumption, and I now find that things like donuts are unbearably sweet. I use Stevia whenever I need a little sweetening.
Eat small meals, every 3-4 hours. The meals should be mini version of a big meal: A protein, some veggies, and a very small amount of carb.
If you get hungry, EAT. Don't starve yourself.
ping
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