How does red meat fit into a low calorie low fat diet? We like to eat steak, and roasts and pork. Will low cal work with these meats? I know if I want to lose weight and keep it off I have to make a lifestyle change. But I rarely eat chicken and I don't like fish at all. What can I do>?

amanda

hey aces65, You sound like me, I don't eat fish and don't really like chicken. I eat 4 oz steaks when I eat red meat. I also like a lot of vegetarian dishes, so yes you can do local with red meat, just eat lean cuts and less of it.

aces65,

I just looked at your profile and you were born on my birthday!

Here is a link to a PDF file from Beef.org that shows the calorie and fat content of various cuts of meat:

http://www.beef.org/documents//NUTRIENT_COMPS_chart.pdf

Each serving is 3 ounces of cooked meat.

Beef isn't the best thing someone can eat, but anything can be enjoyed within reason. Choose the leanest cuts as possible, prepare them without any additional fats, and limit your portion sizes.

One solution would be to use beef as an ingredient in other dishes, instead of serving a whole steak or slab of roast. You'll consume less that way, but still enjoy the flavor. We have very few beef recipes on site, but I just did a search for beef recipes on the cookinglight.com website and found some delicious ideas such as
Asian Beef Noodle Salad (wow it looks good!) Beef Stew with Leeks and Beer, Cheesy Beef-and-Rice Casserole , and many more. They have 169 Beef recipes and nearly as many for pork.

In my area there is a woman-owned firm producing a specialty beef that is extremely low fat, low calorie and 100 percent organic with no antibiotics, etc. This beef is expensive but worth it for taste and health benefits. This product can run approximately one-half the calories of even the leanest cuts of run-of-the-mill beef. So maybe there is a similar specialty beef in your area?

Beef really is not the health villain it is often thought of as being. I used to be a vegetarian but for various reasons decided to go carnivore a few years ago. Beef is the main reason I did that. It is an excellent (one of the few) source of heme iron, which is only found in red meat. However, you don't need a lot of beef to receive sufficient amounts of this, so the idea of using beef as a kind of seasoning as Suzanne said is a good one.

Pork is generally a very lean meat these days, similar to turkey and chicken but offering different nutritional benefits.

IMO, there's no reason not to eat pork or beef if you like it and eating a variety of protein sources can offer health bonuses you won't get if you just stick to chicken. Moderation is the key to any healthy weight loss diet, IMO!