Calorie Reduction Needed??? Please Help!
 

Hi Chickies. Can I get your opinion of my normal diet. I'm losing 1 - 1 1/2 lbs a week on Phase II. I feel like I'm eating a lot of fat/calories. Can you recommend some changes (if needed) to my normal meal plan?

Breakfast - Weekdays Frozen Chef's Omlete Western Style (160 cal, 9g fat, 12 protein - Whole eggs w/ ham, peppers, onions and cheese) or Weekends 2 eggs scrambled with peppers, onions and cheese)

Morning Snack - 1/2 Med Green or Red Pepper dipped in Baha Ranch dressing

Lunch - Chili (White Beans, Black Beans, Spinach, Tomatoes, Green Peppers, Onions, Garlic, Chicken Breast)(Black Beans, Kidney Beans, Grean Beans, Tomatoes, Green Peppers, Onions, Lean Hamburger)

Afternoon Snack - 2% Cheese - I get about 4 days worth out of one block, 15 cashews and a 7up Plus (has fruit juice in it)

Dinner - 2-3 Chicken Tenders (no breading) cooked in olive oil with a ton of veggies (zuchinni cooked in olive oil, steamed broccoli, steamed asparagus, SB spinach dip with red peppers) or 3/4 can of fat free refried beans with lettuce and tomatoes or WW torilla with black beans, onions, green peppers, spinach and tomato filling or WW torilla with 2 chicken tenders sliced, 2 slices turkey bacon, spinach, tomato, cheese and LF mayo

The best suggestion I can give you is to run it all through www.fitday.com to see exactly what you are eating for fat and calories. It can be a real eye opener. It was for me. I use it every day and it really keeps me on track and loosing.

I can tell you from my experience that if I was eating cheese, nuts and ranch dressing every day that I would be very much stalled and not loosing. I finally had to cut the nuts out of my diet completely and only eat ranch dressing as a splurge item 1-2 times a month. I also only eat one serving of cheese about 3 times a week.

When I started SBD I was eating alot of the those items but have slowly weened myself off of them.

If after you run it through fitday you find that you are getting to much fat you might want to look at maybe changing your SB spinach dip for non fat milk at dinner and cooking your red peppers with the zuccini. Another thought that I do sometimes is blend a little non fat cottage cheese in the blender until smooth (sometimes I add a little bit of non fat sour cream to give it a different flavor) and add spices to it to get a dip for veggies. My biggest problem was/is learning to think out of the box to come up with lower/good fats to replace some of the higher/bad fats and still keep some of the flavor I am craving.

Hope this helps you. And Good Luck!!

Well, your current rate of loss is excellent so I wouldn't fret it. Run your meals through fitday and see what the proportions of fat/carbs/pro are. You may think you are eating too much fat but your body needs at least 20 30 grams per day in order to utilize the nutrients in your food.
Sheba's Mom is right - cheese and nuts can really put those calories up.

Do you have any good snack suggestions instead of the cheese or nuts?

How about hummus and raw veggies? Popcorn cauliflower? Roasted chick peas?

Check out the recipe section.

OK this might be the stupidest question ever - but what is hummus? Is it something you buy or something you make? The roasted chick peas sound wonderful, but I'm not even going to try them as they sound like a calorie trap for me. I did get some Laughing Cow spread - finally found it and ate it on red pepper. It was wonderful!!!

Hummus can be made. I think we have some recipes in the forum for it. You can also buy it in the grocery store. Some brands are Athenos and Tribe but there are others depending on where you live.

I agree with Ruth. You are losing a good amount of weight. I wouldn't change too much. Especially if you are feeling full and satisfied with what you are eating. fitday.com is a great tool though. :)