I just started this new way of eating and trying to lose weight yesterday. Honestly the reason I started on a Friday is because we are having a "biggest loser" contest at work. I know that I have to get my body used to this new lifestyle change, but dang it I am starving. Today for breakfast I had two packets of oatmeal, lunch i had a grilled hamburger patty and an orange, and for dinner tonight i had grilled pork loin a baked potato and a salad. I have been drinking some water have to get myself to gradually drink it, i hate water. But right now my fiance who is suppose to be eating healthier with me is eating chips and cheese dip... its not fair, i want something like that too.... quick help me what do i do... what are some of ur go to snacks?

Drink tons of water. Thats what helps me. I drink sometimes more than 96oz a day. It helps keep me from getting hungry. My husband is eating chocolate chip cookies and milk right now in the other room. I just get up and go find something to do until he is finished. It gets easier. Try drinking ur water with ice and a straw. Makes it easier for me. You can do it!

Oh sorry...go to snacks for me if I have to have something are sugar free jello or pudding.

my go-to snack if i absolutely can't help it are special-k multi grain crackers. sometimes with hummus. they're really good and fairly low-cal, plus with the hummus being beans it will satiate the hunger pangs fairly quickly (i LOVE the roasted red pepper flavor) and i saw somewhere that someone posted a link to a recipe for a DESSERT hummus flavor, probably great with apple slices.

Hard boiled eggs, most kinds of nuts (for low carb)

Are you counting calories?? I am just wondering, you may not have eaten enough.....

I calculated your BMR, best I could and to mantain your weight if you are 30 years old, would be about 2300, so if you reduced calories to 1900, you will start to lose weight.

So you might want to track, you may not have eaten enough to keep your body going

I would check out one of the online calorie tracking sites....

My Go to snacks - celery, baby carrots with hummus, Low fat micro popcorn, cheese sticks, almonds, fiber one bars.

I am 27 and honestly I havent really looked into how many calories i should be eating. I have always done ww in the past, but it doesnt work for me unless i go to meetings and its not an option at the time. I am really new to the whole counting calories part. not sure what most foods have in them. i think that i might be in over my head. I just ate an orange because thats really all that was available i need to go to the store tomorrow.

I was wondering about that too. If you're counting calories, that sounds like a pretty small amount, although I don't know for sure because serving sizes can vary so widely.

I noticed that you don't have a lot of volume in your breakfast and lunch, and you didn't mention snacks. Adding those two things might really help you out with the hunger. One thing I learned from this site that has been vastly helpful is this: no meal is complete without a fruit or vegetable. I don't always adhere to it, but I do about 95% of the time.

Add an orange or grapefruit to breakfast, or try something savory like a veggie-laden omelet. Include some steamed or sauteed snow pea pods with your lunch. Put some fresh vegetables on your plate with whatever you're eating for dinner or a snack. It helps to have stuff that takes up space along with the stuff that gives you satiety; that way you're fulfilling both types of hunger: stomach hunger and "head hunger."

As for snack ideas, I like:

- fresh raw vegetables and hummus
- half an ounce of cheese, a crispbread or two, and an apple
- Greek yogurt with honey and nuts mixed in
- a slice or two of turkey or ham rolled around a slice of cheese
- Prosciutto wrapped around steamed asparagus with parmesan cheese flakes
- Flat-Out wrap with peanut butter, bananas, and raisins (I have to be careful on the calories on that one because some of these foods are healthy, but calorie-dense)

If you're doing the calorie-counting thing and feel a little overwhelmed, try something like Fitday or Daily Plate or Sparkpeople; all three are daily calorie calculators that let you enter your foods and portions in. They do all the heavy lifting for you and figure up your total caloric intake for the day.

You might also want to invest in a kitchen scale no matter what plan you're doing; it makes portioning foods a breeze if the scale has a "zero" or "tare" function. Set plate on scale, hit "zero," add food, and voila--there's your serving amount. Soooo simple, and you don't have to wash measuring cups or spend time adding and subtracting dollops.

I count calories and if I don't have the package I go to their web site and check. I try to stay right below or at 1,200 for the day. Which I normally do and I don't get hungry. Sometimes I do go above it. If I do, I don't panic. I just hop on the elliptical and burn it off.

Make a food journal. Nothing fancy. I use a spiral notebook and have three lines going down the page: Foods/Bevs (what it is I'm eating), Cals In (the amount in the serving), Cals Out ( where I write down how many I burned off). If I go over I burn them off and write it down. So, at the end of the day I add up the Cals In and minus the Cals out. Example: Total for the day: 1439 Total bunt off: 200. 1439-200= 1239. I'm over 39 for the day. So tomorrow I make sure to burn those off, plus whatever I need for that day.

As far as fruits, vegs and nuts there is a site I love. Called Worlds Healthiest Foods or whfoods (dot) com, they have a list of foods and tell you EVERYTHING that is in them. After the com, /foodstoc.php and click on a food. When you want to know everything in it, click the "Nutritional Profile" then in "In-depth" click the food........Once I get 25 posts I'll just post the links. Some of the stuff I would never think of in foods is there. All the vitamins, minerals and so forth are listed.

Good luck!

Snacks for me:
•Popcorn
--Really! An entire bag of Orville Smart Pop! has 30 cals and is 94% fat free (0 when popped.
•Cereal
--I have a bowl, 1 cup + ½ cup Skim milk. It gives me the sweet I crave, is filling and helps me sleep.

Hi,
I struggle with being a big girl, how are you doing on your diet? You mind me asking how your losing? is it a particular diet? I know what its like to have a fiance who eats chips and dip and you feel obligated to eat with him, its so hard.

Danell

I love veggies, especially Celery and Cucumber, Snow Peas, Green Beans, Chopped Peppers they fill the "crunch" factor. W/ Cucumber even, I would sometimes eat salsa as dip for a lower calorie but flavor packed dip. Sometimes low cal salad dressing but they are good on their own too depending on your mood and cravings.

Other than Veggies, a SMALL handful of nuts, if you are anything like me measure them out before you start eating. Ext say 12 almonds, if I do not measure them I will just keep eating them and eating them and eating them.

My other fave snack to try and kick hunger, is All-Bran Buds, a 1/3 cup serving (they sell them in boxes of cereal or in "singles" sachels. If I buy them in the big box, I measure out 1/3 cup into little ziplock bags to make them easy to grab! Its full of fiber and its crunchy but it is an acquired taste. I like it because it is crunchy and healthy.

I love low fat/low sugar yoghurts for a sweet treat. And blueberries and strawberries for a rare treat.

When I want a milk shake, I usually do a banana smoothie, sometimes I even add a couple teaspoons of cocoa and splenda to make it a banana chocolate smoothie. (I love my magic bullet blender!)

Hope those ideas help... Oh and water is good... hopefully you'll get use to drinking it because for me I feel WAY better when I have drunk water. teas and flavored drinks like crystal light taste great but nothing makes me feel as hyrdated and good as plain cold water.

You aren't in over your head dear, you just might have jumped in without really looking where you are headed.. thats OK. But it's time to look

I planned my lifestyle change by getting my info 100% over the internet and with no money (or desire to spend money) on any "program" that I felt certain would fail. I had to go about designing a plan that would work for me and was tailored to what I was after.

Here is my suggestions on steps you can take to get going, educate yourself, and design a plan that you think will work for you (If you want to see what worked for me, go to my blog, linked at the bottom)

1) Decide on your main goal, and then some mini goals in between. A good way to pick you main goal is to pick a weight based on BMI (BMI is a whole 'nother can of worms, but it is what the medical establishment relies on) http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/

2) Figure out how many calories per day you need to maintain your weight, and how many to lose 2 lbs per week (2 lbs per week is the maximum loss you should go for according to a lot of doctors, including my personal physician. There is controversy everywhere though...).

http://www.bcm.edu/cnrc/caloriesneed.htm

Take the number you come up with from the link above, and subtract 1000 calories per day. That is your total calorie intake you should be getting to lose 2 lbs per week. If you want to go slower, only subtract 500 calories per day for 1 lb loss per week.

3) Find a way to log and calculate your food that works for you. Get a scale that measures in grams to make this MUCH easier. Some people use pen and paper, and calories books. I have relied on FitDay.com from day 1 since it has a lot of food already in the databank, and it has a way for you to enter personalized items for what isn't there. There are other sites like it, too.

4) Decide if you need to increase water intake, and if you need to add some exercise and make a plan to get what you need.

5) Make sure you are getting the nutrients your body needs, and not using up your calories on junk - in other words, make sure most of your calories are spent on fresh fruits, veggies, legume, and whole grains (tip: try to get as much sugar and white carbs out of your life as possible - they have SO many calories and do crazy things to your blood sugar / hunger levels). Here is a simplified article about nutrients:
http://www.realsimple.com/health/nut...735/index.html

Hope that is helpful for you. Being hungry is a downhill slope to going back to old eating habits and I think you are here to avoid that

Others will likely disagree with me, but I need coffee and tea to survive. Water is a necessity, but there's something about putting a warm drink in my stomach that makes me feel more filled. (Obviously not at night unless it's a bedtime tea.)

I'm doing lower carb, so I love string cheese--the full fat stuff with lots of calories. Beef sticks and beef jerky if I'm craving pure junk. Pork skins do it for me too.

When I was calorie counting, I was addicted to dill pickles. Veggies with FF Italian were on the menu too.

Good luck.

I agree with the hot drinks thing. They take the edge off of hunger if I'm an hour or two away from my next meal.

Otherwise, what PacificaBee said!

I just wanted to jump in and wish you luck, nomore I think you can totally kick your colleagues' (and your fiance's!) butt!

I would recommend doing some reading about calorie counting and low-carb eating plans, just for the sake of understanding and developing a plan that's good for you, that won't make you feel like your starving!

(To me, that's the worst feeling.)

I recommend eating more meat and veggies and fewer carb-starches (like oatmeal) as meals, just because the proteins keep me feeling full much longer.

I also recommend tons of tea - black, green herbal, fruity teas. It'll flavour your water, be comforting and keep your hands busy instead of munching (That is, if you're like me...) Try making milder teas, and don't add any milk or sugar.

As for snacks: apples and nut butter, almonds, 1/2 an avocado sprinkled with salt, cherry tomatoes/carrots/green peppers and a cheese (goat, laughing cow, I even like cottage cheese that's been blended to eliminate the curds.)