Originally Posted by
toysrus
One of the best things you can do is measure the portions of foods you eat regularly, so you know the calories for those regular meals and can put it in your eating plan then you can guess the calories for the rest of the food you eat when you out and about. It sounds like a lot of work but in reality you only do it once. Once you know the portions sizes then you don't need to calculate the calories again. For example for breakfast I eat oats (unflavoured not the sugar shit), now if you look at the nutritional information at the back of the bag, it says 1 serving size is 50 grams and it tells you the calories based on the serving size. Except I used to free pour my oats for years and one day I decided to measure a free pour and it turned out to be 2 servings. So I bought one of those measuring cup sets and now I scoop the oats into the 1/2 cup to get 50 grams before I drop it into the pot. I also bought a kitchen scale to measure things like nuts, these can get away from you if you just eating from the bag and those calories add up. 1 ounce of almonds is 28 grams and since 1 almond is 1 gram, I grab a handful of almonds throw it in a small bag chuck it on the scale. The bag is 2 grams, so 30 grams is 1 ounce of almonds. Takes 5 seconds to measure and now I don't binge on nuts because I've got my daily ration.
Another tip is natural flavouring, for example flavoured yoghurt. Those artificial flavours are all sugar so it really jacks up the calories. Lets say per 100 grams its 170 calories. Compared to unflavoured yoghurt which is say 100 calories. So you buy frozen fruits, chuck it in the unflavoured yoghurt and there is your flavouring (it tastes better actually). The calories will be the same in the end but the difference is you are consuming 100 grams of yoghurt and 100 grams of fruit. So now you have consumed 200 grams of food instead of 100 grams and you will feel twice as full for the same calories. You could argue that it is more expensive to buy the frozen fruit, but in reality you would need to buy 2 tubs of flavoured yoghurt to match the same quantity as 1 tub of yoghurt and 1 bag of frozen fruit. As a general rule I don't buy flavoured anything, just remember 4 grams of sugar is 1 teaspoon of sugar, there is a lot of sugar in these things.
Another thing is when looking at nutritional labels, like the yoghurt example. You should always look at the nutritional information based on 100 grams because then you can calculate and compare to other products when looking at a consistent weight. Even if you wouldn't eat a 100 grams of that food. This is because there is no standard of serving size between food companies, if a company make really unhealthy food they could just make the serving size smaller and say well this is the recommended amount to eat.
This is what I would typically eat in a day.
Wake up have a glass of water and banana, go for a 45 min walk. (I knock out 6000 steps first thing so the rest of the day I only need to do 4000 steps and that's my cardio done.)
Breakfast: 50 grams of protein oats, light milk, frozen mixed berries, cinnamon (ceylon), level table spoon of peanut butter.
Brunch: Two large boiled eggs
Lunch: Maybe a chicken or turkey with salad/veg on wrap or with rice.
Early afternoon: Casein Protein shake
Mid afternoon: Apple or 1 ounce of almonds, sometimes both.
Dinner: Some kind of meat and steamed mixed vegetables (all kinds), every day is a different meat so chicken breast, salmon, some white fish, kangaroo, beaf steak.
After dinner: greek yoghurt and frozen mangos
Before bed: casein protein shake
Just some points for breakfast, if you cook oats in a pot it expands so 1 serving is very filling. When I used to free pour oats I stuck it in the microwave and that's why it never felt like a lot of food because microwave doesn't cook long enough for it to expand. Then it expands in your stomach and by then its too late you have eating too much food. Peanut butter is really calorie dense, I don't advise eating peanut butter if you have a binging problem. I only add a little into my oats for flavouring also the fats in peanut butter offsets the lack of fat from the light milk, I wouldn't use it with full cream milk. I would never take a tub of peanut butter to the couch and start eating it on its own, that is one way to wreck yourself.
For lunch you can see I eat carbs but I don't go crazy on carbs, like I might not finish all the rice. However carbs is important for replenish your muscles glycogen stores, you should eat carbs it's not empty calories and it is filling. When it comes to losing weight feeling full is very important. Many people talk about low carbs and then they blow out their daily calorie intake with other stuff like sodas or smoothies or whatever. Usually if someone has a weight problem they are eating something they haven't accounted for, everything besides water has calories.
I drink casein protein because its slow digestion and keeps you full longer and I prefer the thickness and taste. I generally only drink whey protein if I had a long training session and haven't eaten in ages and I'm hungry then its better to eat something that absorbs faster. The post workout protein shake requirement is a myth, your body increases protein synthesis for 48 hours after workout, and your muscles doesn't just evaporate if you don't eat for a while. The only reason to chug down a protein shake straight after a workout is if you are starving. Otherwise I favour staying full for longer as its easier for weight loss. Actually just today I bought pea protein, lately I have been thinking there is too much dairy in my diet so I am going to experiment with that. But for now i got my weight loss results drinking casein protein but no reason whey protein wouldn't give the same results.
The best meat to eat would be chicken breast, white fish, turkey, you can't go wrong eating these as as they are the lowest calories. Salmon is good with healthy fats but its higher in calories you probably want to stick with once or twice a week. Steak is obviously lots of calories and lots of protein, if I eat a steak (ribeye once a week) I probably won't have an evening protein shake or yoghurt since I'll hit my protein numbers with the steak and I don't want to blow out the daily calories. Kangaroo meat is something I would eat once a week too and its leaner than beef steak but again I'll likely cut back on the other stuff because of the amount of protein/calories in kangaroo meat.
Regarding the above point about steak/kangaroo, whenever I eat heavy stuff I think of the daily intake as a whole and adapt the rest of my eating for the day. Also I don't care if I have dinner late at night, if I'm still on target with my daily calories. We are humans not gremlins, eat whatever time you like.
Since I suck at cooking, I just steam vegies every day for dinner. I buy the fresh mixed vegetables bags (not the frozen bags) from Coles and just chuck it in the steamer. Takes like 5 minutes while I'm prepping the meat. Really it doesn't matter what vegetables you eat they all pretty healthy, of course broccoli and spinach are low calories but I eat all the other veges too. Seriously no one gets fat by eating the "wrong" vegetables and fruit. 99 times out of 100 its portion size and added sugar that is wrecking you, along with alcohol.
That's all I can think of for now.
I don't go to FS joints that often anymore. Some regulars think I lost too much in my face when I was at my leanest, since you can't choose where to lose fat.
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