I haven't been on here for a while, and I'm still overweight! I think I'm about 212 pounds and I want to get down to about 160-170 range. I'm away at college and we have a dining plan. I try to eat a lot of fruit daily and not eat too many carbohydrates. I can't eat dairy, and I only drink water. Typical day is like this:

Breakfast:
Eggs, 1 pancake, or cereal with soymilk (all portioned)
Banana
Apple or Plum

Lunch:
Salad- lettuce, beans, olive oil, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes (and whatever other vegetables there are.
Fruit

Dinner:
A small portion of whatever is served. More fruit.

I've been bad the past two days, but I will be back on track soon!!
Sounds good?

If you're trying to watch carbs, fruit is NOT your friend (especially bananas, they're very starchy). You're also sounding very light on the protein - try to get a solid serving at each meal.

If you can't guess at calories, might I recommend following a food-type plan like Atkins or Southbeach, or a simple exchange plan, so you can control calories through portion a little more rigorously? That's my best advice.

Yes, my first impression is that's a pretty carb-heavy diet. I would suggest logging all of your food for a few days or a week just to get an idea of what your usual foods consist of nutrition-wise.

Oh! You ladies are wise!! But I think I may be aiming for not having any extra carbs (like bread and other things).

Thank you Arctic Mama! I do think that I'm trying to eat well, but I don't really know what I'm doing lol! I'll look into a plan that I can follow!

Juliana77- I think I will make a food journal, and track my carbs.

I admit I'm a fruit junkie, too; it is pretty awesome (plums are my favorite!)! However, it can catch up on you if you're not careful, especially depending on the fruit you're eating. Calorie-wise, apples and bananas are a little on the heavier side at 80-100 calories a serving, while things like oranges and berries give you more bang for your buck at 50-60 calories a serving (One cup of strawberries is roughly 50 calories; that's actually a lot of strawberries!). But if you're looking at carbs, those are a whole different ballgame and if you're trying to keep track, I agree with ArcticMama -- you might wanna cut back.

I usually stick to 1-3 servings a day. It looks like you're eating about 5 -- you could easily take out 2 or 3 of those and replace them with more protein/more veggies. You can't go wrong with protein and veggies!

Do you have a smartphone? If so I would recommend My fitness pal. I LOVE it. It tracks your calories, fat, dietary fiber, sugars, sodium, all that stuff. It tells you it gives you a goal of how much of each thing you're supposed to have in a day, and so by the end of the day you can see if you are getting enough calories, fat, sugars, vitamins, etc. It also tells you if you're getting too much. I've never calorie counted before but this app makes it so easy because any food you eat that has a barcode, you can just scan it and then quickly enter how many servings you're having. If it doesn't have a barcode, you can type in the food and hit search, and then find the result that best matches what you're eating. I've been doing this and I've been losing about 2 pounds a week, which is something I have never done before while dieting. Hope this helped, let us know how things go!

I also don't see any fat in that meal plan. You absolutely need fat in your diet to keep you satisfied and to keep all of your body's hormones in balance.
There is no reason to fear fat, and with the exception of trans fats they are all fine for you! You should be adding in avocado, nuts, nut butters, olives, olive oil, fatty fish (like salmon) bacon, and normally dairy (though I know this isn't something you can tolerate.)

If you're going to count carbs, why not count calories? It's not much different of a process. I personally hate weight loss plans without calorie counts, because the fact of the matter is you could be staying within your parameters and still be eating a lot of calories (unless you're on a specific plan that deals with this problem). And "whatever is served" could be close to 1,000 calories if you're not careful. Fruit also adds up surprisingly quickly.

Fruit DOES add up quickly. I like to snack on grapes (as opposed to BBQ Fritos) and yet, un-counted grape snacking can lead to 400 calories before you're half-way aware you've eaten that much. This is why I COUNT MY GRAPES.

But fruit is STILL way better for you than BBQ Fritos. I'm pretty sure of that!

Thank you ladies!! Here's what I got from this:
- While fruit is good for me it is loaded with carbs and calories.

My only problem is that it's hard for me to count calories when I don't know how many calories are in what I'm eating. I don't know all the ingredients that they put into the food that they give me. =/

That's why it's best to stick with the whole food options in your dining hall: veggies/salad, and protein. Learn what a 3 oz portion of chicken looks like, and count it. Estimate the calories in your every day salad, and count it, and so on.

Also, many colleges put nutritional information on their dining hall website. Are you sure that yours doesn't?

Find a similar dish online and use that calorie count. Calorie counting isn't really an exact science because there are so many variables.

I don't weigh or measure things unless it's a high calorie item (peanut butter, for example) and estimate and round calorie counts. It's how I dropped my weight and have been maintaining my weight as well.

Here's a post from my tumblr about portion sizes. I googled "3oz of chicken" and other foods I eat in order to get a better idea of how much each portion looked like. It's really helped me when I'm out at a restaurant or something of that nature.

+1 to this advice! Sticking to whole foods makes it SO MUCH easier to figure out how much you're eating—plus they're so much better for you!