Analyse My Diet Please!

[Dramatic_Star]

This is a bit of a silly post, but got to be honest with myself in order to lose weight right?

I live in constant fear that I am going to pile the weight back on. I’ve stuck to my calorie allowance pretty much everyday until yesterday when I had a glitch. However, I still feel like I’m eating too much bread and not enough fruit etc but then the other half of me feels that because I’ve reduced my portion sizes so much I should eat what I want in that allowance not what I feel I should do.

Here is an example of my daily allowance:

Breakfast
1 x slice of WW bread/milk roll slice toast with marmite & butter

Snack
1 x Go Ahead yoghurt bar/Special K bites

Lunch
1 x slice of milk roll with beans/pasta shapes/cottage cheese

Dinner
Pasta or rice dish with chicken (usually)

Snack
Skinny cow lolly/WW pudding

Usually total around 1,000 calories but feel bloated all the time. Help!

 

[SarahSez]

1000 calories??? isn't that a little low for maintenance? your body will go into starvation mode, which is why you are probably feeling bloated.

Your breakfast should be 200 calories, lunch 200-300 cals. I think you're not eating enough.

Perhaps add a piece of fruit with breakfast, one piece mid afternoon and some fruit salad after dinner.

HTH

 

[Dramatic_Star]

1000 calories??? isn't that a little low for maintenance? your body will go into starvation mode, which is why you are probably feeling bloated.

Your breakfast should be 200 calories, lunch 200-300 cals. I think you're not eating enough.

Perhaps add a piece of fruit with breakfast, one piece mid afternoon and some fruit salad after dinner.

HTH

I'm not maintaining just yet. Another 3 pounds to go

 

[Iris]

I can empathise with the fear of regaining. It's like you're trying to drive with a monstrous dog sitting in the back seat, wondering if he's suddenly going to turn rabid, right?

To be honest, looking at that particular day's eating, I'm not sure where the bulk of your vitamins and nutrients are coming from. It doesn't look like you're eating much except processed food, refined carbs, hidden sugar. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not one of these 'carbs are the enemy' folk. Carbs are great, carbs are necessary for energy and (to me) for a happy life. If you are truly happy and content with this diet, then that has to be the main thing. But with such a restrictive cal total and such a narrow range of food, are you really happy eating it? I don't think the amount of bread is the major problem - bread on its own never made anyone fat, just what is normally put on it! But is it possible you may have an intolerance, be particularly sensitive to gluten? Would explain the bloated feeling. Opting for wholemeal and seeded multigrain loaves some of the time would be good, I think.

Just on a general note, I wouldn't cut anything out of your diet because like you say you enjoy what you eat and that's important for keeping you sane, but what I'd do is add an extra 250-300 calories a day to be 'spent' exclusively on fruit and vegetables. Just for health and well-being, with the added bonus that you'll be able to bulk out your meals and feel fuller with vegetables, and the fruit will make for great regular snacks. I think they may also help with the 'bloated' feeling - it's possible you feel bloated and rather gassy because you're not giving your digestive system enough fibre to work with. I'd be surprised if you could eat that kind of diet without getting serious constipation, and it can be so bad for your health in the long run, as well as making you feel tired and generally crappy.

Trust me on this - you will *not* gain weight on 1300 calories a day, and the feel-good benefits of the fruit and vegetables are excellent. In fact, upping your calorie allowance may well give your metabolism a little kick up the derriere if you're struggling to shift the last few pounds. Sometimes you need to actually raise calories to get the results - I know it sounds strange but it's true! Don't feel like you're slipping by eating more fruit and veg in addition to what you eat now. It's actually a reward for your body.

 

[Dramatic_Star]

Iris, thank you so much for useful information! I'm pretty sure that I am intolerent to something, but I was never sure what. Looking at that 'menu' has made me realise how much gluten I probably consume, so I've been to the supermarket on lunch and bought some yoghurts, fruit and veg.

I do eat veg with dinner, but not fruit an awful lot.

Feeling awfully bloated at the moment. Will be interesting to see how it goes. :cry:

 

[Dramatic_Star]

Right, I've 'planned' my diet for tomorrow, taking into account I'm going to cut out bread to see if that reduces the bloatedness!

Breakfast
Mullerlight peach yoghurt

Snack
100g beetroot

Lunch
Cottage cheese with quorn chicken piece
Sliced apple
Snack a Jack salt & vinegar

Dinner
Chicken curry (from Cook Yourself Thin: containing lots of veg!)

Snack
Some sort of dessert style low calorie snack

What do you think about that? Anything else I could add/substitute to help?

 

[Iris]

The veggie curry sounds fab! Great veg intake for the day, too. Only thing I'd say is that it's still so low in calories! Don't you get ravenously hungry? It's very possible I'm just a greedy-guts (I know I am) but I'd be fit to sink my teeth into a buffalo's backside by lunch time if I'd only had a yoghurt and some beetroot. Do you like weetabix? A couple of weetabix with 200ml of hot milk and a chopped banana makes for a pretty satisfying breakfast. Only around 300 cals for the lot. If you need a bit of extra sweetness, you can get a couple of little canderel sweeteners and add them to the hot milk before you pour it over the weetabix. A couple of dark rye ryvita slices with your cottage cheese and quorn might be nice - would help with fibre intake and fill you up a bit. A nice little snack for mid afternoon might be a handful of juicy prunes, only around 100 cals and it'll really help with the bloated feeling... they're a great digestive aid. Some more healthy fats might be an idea, just for general well-being. A handful of nuts, the odd avocado, and especially your couple of weekly portions of oily fish. If you like kippers, they'd make a fab breakfast on wholewheat toast - really set you up for the day.

Just don't let yourself get too hungry, particularly if you've got a busy day and you're quite active. You don't want your metabolism to slow down, and regular little meals and healthy snacks will keep it ticking over. I think it's virtually impossible to eat too many veggies, so never be scared to add a portion to any meal just to pad your diet up a bit and give your system some fibrous bulk to work with.