Hey guys,

I just decided to lower my calories. I've been eating 1600-1700 a day and I've lost a grand total of 2 pounds in 1 month. I don't wanna spend the rest of my life trying to reach goal.

So here's today's plan (I eat the same things every day and I'm ok with that. The only meal that changes a little is lunch, but it's always in the same calorie range):

B (6 am): high-fiber cereal (similar to all bran), skim milk- 280 cals

S (9:45): cereal bar - 100 cals

L (12:00): rice, mixed veggies (carrots, corn, peas, green beans, peppers, broccoli), chicken breast, 1 banana, 1/2 pear - 430 cals

S (4:30): cereal bar - 100 cals

D (8:00): 2 slices low-cal bread, low-fat cream cheese, 2 slices turkey breast, skim milk, low-cal chocolate dessert - 380 cals

So that's 1290 cals. I know what you guys will say: too much low-cal, low-fat stuff, not enough real food. I'll tell you what I can't let go: the chocolate dessert, for my mental sanity. I'm pretty happy with what I eat, but I know that on this menu I'll be starving at around 6 pm, so I need help with my afternoon snack. I know those cereal bars are loaded with sugar. I should eat something else instead. But what? Please don't tell me to eat vegetables in the middle of the afternoon, that's not gonna happen! Should I try to eat oatmeal then? I'm not very used to it, but it'd probably keep me going till dinner.

Any thoughts?

Clara, I'd suggest having some protein for your mid-afternoon snack. Peanut butter on a slice of whole wheat, oatmeals with walnuts, even a piece of meat or a boiled egg. That definitely helps get me through the afternoon.
You might want to try having more protein in the morning, too. It really does decrease appetite.
Good luck!!

Hi, I agree have some protein at snack time. Some fruit and cheese, cot. cheese with fruit or veggies (sorry I mentioned veggies), peanut butter, roll up a couple slices of turkey with an apple or a protein bar instead of a cereal bar.

I am sure you will get lots more ideas....

Phyllis

I would ditch the two processed cereal bars (Floridarusty had some great snack ideas) and the low cal chocolate dessert for whole foods. Baked apple with blueberry would be a better dessert option for weight loss! I would also add some vegetables to your sandwich at dinner - lettuce, tomato, roasted peppers, anything!

I know you said you wanted to keep the chocolate, but I found the more I ate whole foods, the less I craved sugary foods. I don't want that stuff anymore and it's amazing - I was the kind of person who could eat an entire bag of Hershey's miniatures in a day.

Maybe you could have some fresh strawberries and drizzle a little chocolate on them? More fiber and all the goodness of berries, same sweetness.

Cottage cheese works for me when i have to have something. I get the 1% kind.. Eggs/Egg whites are also good (depending on how many calories you want). I hard boil the eggs, eat the white, and give the yolks to my chickens, because i usually cant afford the calories of a whole egg, unless its for breakfast. My chickens love them, lol Another snack i love is peanut butter and honey on a piece of toast. VERY good. Or...1 cup of sliced strawberries w/ light chocolate syrup and sugar free whipped cream....very good as well, and extremely filling, lots of fiber.

I personally do much better if I have protein at each of my 5 meals. I add 1 oz of walnuts to my b'fast cereal or have peanut butter on my toast; have a hard-boiled egg mid-morning; and eat cottage cheese with fruit mid-afternoon. (Lunch and dinner always have protein, of course) I add a spoonful of DH's vanilla yogurt to the cottage cheese which seems to make it more palatable, and if the fruit is/was frozen, keep it in a separate contained til I want to eat it. Somehow pink (from strawberries or raspberries) or blue (from blueberries) cottage cheese is not all that appetizing. I always keep those little applesauce and fruit cocktail containers at work if I need "something" more.

So how about adding some lettuce and tomato to your dinner sandwich, or having a salad along with it. I hear you on the chocolate dessert - there are some things you just need for your mental well-being.

Thanks, guys .

I forgot to say I don't really like eggs and we don't have peanut butter here. But the other suggestions are totally doable.

Even the veggies in the afternoon, they sound weird, but I *like* vegetables, it's more of a cultural thing, you know? Veggies are just not a snack food where I come from!

Glory, I've read most of your posts and I know how happy you are with your new eating habits (and you are a great inspiration ) , but I honestly don't think I can live without chocolate! I've maintained and even lost weight with chocolate, and the times I tried not to eat it it totally backfired, so the chocolate stays, hehe. But I've been meaning to ditch the cereal bars for a while now. We'll see.

Thanks again. Anyone else? Susan?

Oh, I definitely eat chocolate, just not multiple times a day like I used to. I am going to have a chocolate biscotti with my coffee this afternoon I allow myself more indulgences now that I'm maintaining.

What do you do for exercise? Personally, I think that there comes a point where it is much better to increase your calories out rather than decrease your calories in. Especially by adding strength training, you can make it so that your body burns a lot more in a day and you don't have to limit yourself as much with your meals.

Beyond that, I do agree that you're menu seems a bit scarce on protein, and you've already had some great suggestions. Cheese is great, so is fruit (not for protein, just because it's yummy!), and I'm a fan of beef jerky.

Sigh... I can't do weights. I have tendonitis in like 3 different places, and I *really* can't lift weights. I hate to sound like a whiny old lady, but my multiple pains do get worse when I try to lift. Besides, I'm in my healthy weight range, so I guess lowering my cals might be the only way to go .

If you're already in your healthy weight range that could be the reason you're losing slowly... your body may not see a need to drop the lbs even though you may think you need to. Can you go for a walk and burn some calories that way??? I think more exercise would probably be more beneficial than dropping your cals further.

I am on a 1,300 calorie a day diet and I also tend to get hungry in the afternoon.

I eat a lower-calorie high fiber cereal for breakfast - 130 calories per cup. I eat Flax Plus, but there are a bunch of them out there (Heritage Flakes, Amaranth Flakes, Safeway even makes a generic oat flakes cereal that is in the same calorie range). With 4 oz unsweetened soy milk, this makes for a breakfast of about 180 calories. That would free up 100 calories for you to eat in the afternoon. Soy milk is comparable to skim milk in terms of calories/nutrition, so that choice is just a matter of taste.

I try to keep my lunch at around 350 calories. It usually consists of a sandwich on fat-free, low calorie bread (I get Trader Joe's fat-free multi-grain bread, which is 70 calories a slice). Up until today, my sandwich was PB&J, but I am switching from peanut butter to a turkey sandwich. My personal trainer doesn't think peanut butter every day is a good idea, so I am going to cut back on it for a little while (but peanut butter is for me what chocolate desserts are for you, so I still plan to have it a couple of times a week). So today's sandwich will be two slices bread (140 calories), 2 oz 98% fat free turkey breast (65 calories), artichoke spread (from Trader Joe's, 40 calories per 2 tbsp serving), roasted red pepper (25 calories per serving), and thinly sliced cucumber. The whole sandwich should come in somewhere under 290 calories. I also have a couple of pickles (5 calories) and 50 to 60 calories of some other snack with my sandwich. Right now it is cherries because they are in season here.

I'm not sure how you feel about sandwiches, but this would cut about 100 calories out of your lunch, giving you another 100 for snacks in the afternoon. I also see that you are having a couple of pieces of fruit with your lunch. You might just save the fruit to eat throughout the afternoon and keep the rest of your lunch the same.

I eat a salad consisting of a cup of lettuce and 1 tbsp low calorie dressing with almost every dinner. The salad is usually under 30 calories and the extra volume in terms of food helps me feel less hungry.

I also eat a lot of low-fat, low calorie items, so what you are eating doesn't seem excessive to me in that regard. 1,300 calories is a darn small amount of food and frankly, low cal, low-fat food is keeping me alive. But I'm not a nutrionist and I haven't had a nutrionist help me with my menu, so I'm not sure my opinion is worth that much.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of bananas. They seem really high in calories for not a lot of food and not being very filling. My favorite fruit snacks are pineapple (80 calories per cup), raspberries (60 calories per cup), cherries (50 calories per 10 cherries), apricots (20 calories per fruit), grapes and apples (60 calories per fruit).

- Barbara

ValRock, I do walk. It's only weight training I can't do. I should walk more, and I'm working on that. I'm at the very high end of my healthy range, and I used to maintain at 10 lbs less, so I'm sure this weight should be coming off a little faster...sigh...

Barbara, thanks for sharing your menu. I do love sandwiches, but I already eat that for dinner, so I'd rather have some "real" food for lunch. I'm Brazilian, and one of our national favorites is rice and beans, which is very healthy and filling, and I eat that for lunch almost every day (or at the very least 2-3 days a week). We also don't have the cereal brands you suggested, or maybe we do but they're outrageously expensive . We do have lower calorie options than the one I ate today, though. All bran has fewer calories than that. Oh, and please don't touch my banana! The banana stays. WITH the chocolate, thank you very much . Seriously, thanks for the input. It's good to know what other people are doing on the same "budget".

I ended up eating oatmeal for my afternoon snack (I know, not what you guys suggested, but I wanted to give it another try). It had 220 cals, so that's 120 more than planned, but I'm pretty sure that hot, steamy bowl of food will keep me full a lot longer than the cereal bar. We'll see.

Thanks, everyone!

I would also like to add that going from 1600-1700 a day, down to 1290 a day is a pretty BIG Drop at once. Usually a drop in calorie level equates to about 100-150 a day, not 300+ at one time. I would recommend cutting your drop in half at first...down to maybe around 1450 a day.

I would also recommend putting some sort of *whole* food in place of the cereal bars-it can be yogurt, cottage cheese, skim milk, fruit, peanut butter-ANYTHING as long as it isn't just a refined starch for the snack.

I would thirdly recommend that you really look at your exercise. Think about what you have been doing, and ramp it up if you have been doing the exact same thing for a long time.
It doesn't have to be a *huge* change in routine-it can, in fact, be very simple. If you use the treadmill and walk a mile each time, then do 1.25 or 1.5 miles each time now...or if you do a video with 2 pound hand weights, then buy some 3 pound weights instead...if you normally do a beginner level dvd then start doing a more advanced version...add 5-10 minutes a day to your outdoor walk/exercise bike/whatever you do...you don't have to go from doing 20 minutes a day directly to 1 hour, or any big leap all at once. Baby steps...but be sure that you are taking them.

Another idea is to eat a different kind of chocolate treat -- perhaps a smaller treat that has less than 380 calories? That's a lot each day to fit in around other nutritional needs...

And I agree with Aphil, don't jump all the way down to to 1200 right away (and maybe then you can keep some chocolate more easily!)