Ok so my cal count is about 1500 daily and I want to know if this is food or to much or is it goood for dieting =) thanks in advance!!!

Breakfast- 1cup wheat cereal NO SUGAR & 1 cup skim milk
Snack- Special K bar n cup skim milk
Lunch- turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread kraft singles cheese slice and small amount of mustard
Snack- Yogurt its light yogurt yoplait
Dinner- chicken salad light dressing small amount of cheese
And 64 ounces of water at least through out the day

where are your fruits and veggies? I'd lose the special K bar and lite yogurt and add fruits and veggies to every meal, and snacks.

+1 on the veggie comment, in particular. Fibrous veggies such as all the cruciforms (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kohlrabi), the dark green leafies (spinach, chard, kale, collards), the high-water content veggies (lettuce, cucumbers, celery, asparagus) will fill you up, provide essential nutrients, and keep you regular.

Fruits and starchy veggies (potatoes, winter squash, carrots, green beans) are also good to incorporate, although if you're counting calories they can add up.

As it is, your breakfast and snack foods have a substantial amount of sugar and sugar clones. OK in moderation, but they pack on calories without providing much bulk, satiating power, or nutrients.

As for the total #of cals, it depends on your goals, your metabolism, your activity levels, and a bunch of other stuff. But, at 172 pounds, 1500 cals is in the ballpark for slow-n-steady fat loss.

//b. strong,
Kim

Thank you tons!!! I'm glad to know I'm doing my cals right!! Ill be having lettuce with my salad tonight so ill be going to the store soon to get a fruit n replace the special k bar n yogurt. I'm just very new to this and not sure exactly what to get ot eat yet but I'm getting the hang of it.

Tiffany Lynn Do you feel hungry at all? I'm impressed. I am eating about 1200 calories a day, but actually eating a lot more food. If you're feeling hungry, let us know, we may be able to come up with some ideas to help arrange your calories Granted, if you're not hungry, and that's enough food (I'd be STARVING...lol) then good for you (aside from the fruits/veggies )


Christine

Wait!!! You can help me with tht lol? Yes I'm starving!!! 24/7 I thought I'd just have to adjust it was normal llol. HELP me =) and I eat 1200-1500 cals a day

I do things like, instead of having a sandwich I'll use a whole wheat wrap, weight watchers ones are small, but only 90 cals, so I pack mine full( alfalfa sprouts are a staple for me, a small slice of tomato cut up, maybe some onion, a slice of kraft fat free cheese, a slice of roast beef, or 1/4 can of plain tuna, no mayo, then some low fat dressing or some tzatziki), then add more cals, depending. I personally don't "drink" milk. I only use a tiny bit (3 tablespoons or so) in my cereal, just enough to wet it all (I'm not a real milk fan).

I make things, like maybe a bean/lentil soup, and will sometimes add 1/2 a serving (which of MY soup is 1/2 a cup) to lunch sometimes..I find that often I have calories left over.

I'm just no good at this stuff seriously give me a pen and paper tell me to write down healthy stuff to eat would be what I wrote up top. I don't know how to make to much so I try to find something simplle and easy for me to do lol I'm so terrible!

I seriously just have no clue about this stuff I watch the clock until I can eat again I just don't know what healthy stuff is. Boooh!

Tiffany, I totally understand, this is still pretty new to me too. I have only been at it a couple of weeks. I starved the first week, then ended up on a binge. So I learned from my mistakes, and started buying more low cal food, so I could eat more. It's a learning process Everyone here is AWESOME, and will help where they can.

So, another thing, I happen to like egg in the mornings...if you buy the egg whites in the container you save TONS of calories. 2 egg whites is like 30 calories, but 1 whole egg is like 75 calories!

I am experimenting a fair bit with my lunches. I will not cook for just myself, so I make up big batched of stuff, and put it into portion sizes in the freezer, then I can just grab and go (which I did with the bean/lentil soup). It's all a learning process. I just thought when I saw you meal plan "wow, I'd be staaarving if that was all I ate"....so wondered if I could find a way to help, cause frankly, starving sucks!! And I think constant hunger is a recipe for disaster.

Thank you!!!!

You're welcome. I'm sorry it's not more, but maybe others will add to this. Like I said, I am still new, but wanted to share the few little tips I had figured out so far

The single biggest thing I learned here at 3FC to help me not be hungry was that a meal isn't a meal unless it includes a vegetable or fruit. I'm doing 1500 calories a day too, and I'm sitting here typing this about an hour after eating dinner and I am still quite sated--so feeling satisfied on 1500 a day is VERY doable.

- Every chance you get, add non-starchy vegetables and/or fruit to your meals, even breakfast. Adding some bulk, flavor, and fiber to your meals will really help with hunger. If I learned nothing else from the wise folks here, I learned that lesson for life.

- If you can cook even a little, cook. You'll make way better food for the calorie count than you can buy, you'll save money, and you'll have some left over for tomorrow's lunch or dinner. A big pot of chili, soup, or beans can last you a long time, especially if you freeze portions of it.

- Wraps are awesome. I haven't given up sandwiches on regular bread, but they're an occasional thing--wraps, on the other hand, are almost everyday foods. You can pack them full of all the good stuff and really pare down on the empty carby calories. Be sure to read labels, though, and look for calorie counts of 100 or fewer per wrap; there are some out there that pack 200 calories and more into one wrap. Yikes!

- If you have the time to prepare meals this way, eat a little of a lot of different things at a sitting. For example, make your lunch a half-sandwich or wrap, a small bowl of soup, and a salad. All those different flavors and textures and temperatures make your mouth happy and keep it from feeling munchy an hour after you eat.

- Try eating all your carbs in conjunction with protein. If you can get a little healthy fat in there too and eat all three at once, even better. Carbohydrates alone are readily and quickly digested, but protein takes longer to process; eating both at once keeps you fuller longer.

- Speaking of fuller longer, drink plenty of water with your meals and add soup wherever you can. Your stomach empties more slowly when liquids and solids are in there together. I wish I could find the link to the show that someone linked here about that--they actually tested this on Army personnel and their stomachs stayed physically fuller for hours longer with soups than with solid food alone.

Listen to everyone about veggies. Don't think of veggies as something that takes up a third of the plate--think of veggies as something that fills the plate. I buy these "steam in a bag" frozen veggies that are sized to be the side dishes for 4 people and eat the whole bag myself as a snack. As long as you stay away from sauces and starchy veggies (potatoes, corn), you can eat and eat and stay in your calorie limit. The steam in a bag veggies are a great introduction to the world of vegetables: once you are comfortable with those, you can start experimenting with cooking fresh veggies.

Develop a list of very low/no calorie ways to add flavor to food--typical food gets it's flavor from fat and sugar, so if you just cut those out, you'll feel deprived. The mustard is a great start. I also use tons of black pepper, hot sauce, soy sauce (some people avoid sodium. I don't), low-sugar ketchup, low sugar spaghetti sauce (the Hunt canned sauce), seasoned salts, etc.

Dump the cheese. Cheese is so caloric, and not at all filling. We've been conditioned to think that cheese just belongs on everything, but once you stop expecting it, you really don't miss it. So no cheese on the turkey sandwich, and eat a banana instead. You'll be much less hungry. Cheese is special occasion food.

This is what 1200 calories for me looks like...now add a couple of servings of fruit, yogart and maybe a low calorie treat and your between 1400-1500 cals!

Cooking helps you to be able to control more of the ingredients in your food and EAT MORE for less. I would try to avoid processed/canned foods as much as possible. Also, I do recommend you keep your sodium at under 2,000 mgs./day to avoid constant weight fluctuations and bloat.

Hope these help.