Ive been working a new schedule and have to be at work at 6am. I cant seem to get up early enough to make something. I need something quick. Also Im so clueless on how many cals i need to eat to lose. im 270 and 23. so do i start high and lower as I lose? Ugh ive been at such a struggle lately trying to lose. I dunno what to eat and how much. Any suggestions?

Do you have a microwave, toaster, or anything at work that you could use once you get there? I have to be at work early and don't have time to make anything in the morning. I usually drink a protein shake (protein powder mixed with water) first thing and then once I get to work I will eat oatmeal or a bagel thin. You could bring a container with cottage cheese and a piece of fruit?
As too how much you should eat I'm not sure. Have you tried entering your info into a site such as myfitnesspal? It will give you several options and give you an estimate of how many calories to eat. Good luck!

Oh I hear you! I work every day at 6am, monday to friday and I'm up at 5am, out the door to catch a bus at 5:30 am. The key is you gotta make everything the night before. Sometimes I just have packaged oatmeal I bring to work and whatever I choose for lunch. Other days I'll make myself an omelette for breakfast. I like the healthy microwavable foods for lunch before there filling and salad. I don't always eat them, lately I find myself to be eating more of them because I'm lazy. But definitely make everything the night before, put it in the fridge and when you wake up in the morning stuff it in a bag and you're set to go.

My typical day is

6am coffee
7-8am 1/2 cup cottage cheese
9am - oatmeal with milk, or denver on white with cheese from a deli
11 - some sort of fruit banana, or maybe veggies like carrots
noon - Lean cusine (something along that line) salad sometimes
2pm - home time
3pm - workout time
4 - 5pm - dinner (various)

I honestly eat anywhere between 1400 - 2000 calories depending on the day, sometimes I'm more hungier then others. I still lose weight so I don't worry much as long as I'm eating healthy or semi healthy stuff.

Yep, pack your lunch/snacks the night before. Protein bars or shakes are good for breakfast if you're super rushed, or get up 15 mins earlier. When it's that early... what's another 15 mins. (I leave the house at 6:45 and get up at 5:15 so that I have time to sit and have coffee/breakfast and email/fb/3fc, haha)

As far as calories, I second myfitnesspal - I've been using it for over a year. I eat between 1250-1400 cals a day now, but when I started at around your weight I was at 1450-1650 depending on exercise.

i have the same work schedule.

i find myself taking a few top contenders:


breakfast is usually
-oatmeal or a serving of dry cerealt
- along with a protein shake

lunch- can be number of things
top easiest?
1 sandwich
2 lean cuisine
3 Hormel Meals
4 Campbells soups
5 left overs if the dinner that was made is healthy and low in calories

hope this helps!

I agree with the others that you should prepare the night before. I have to!

I don't think that there is one right way. I started many diets with 1200 calories but gave up. I was successful when I decided to start at 1800 and then adjusted as I went. Do what works for you.

I understand that. I ate so poorly for so many years that I was lost. I got a nutritionist to give me a list of foods to eat. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/publ...wt/fd_exch.htm will give you some ideas of what to eat. To find out how much, look up the calorie count and then weigh and measure.

When you first start, you will have to spend some time on planning but it gets easier and quicker as you go.

The main thing is to get started and stick with it. You can do this!

You have some good suggestions , above. You might also include yogurt. Laughing Cow Light, String Cheese, SlimFast, Carnation Breakfast Essentials. These require no preparation or minimal preparation, grab it and go.
As for calories, if I were you I would start at about 1800, but again it takes a little trial and error until you find what is best.

Hi, there are busier women out there than I, but may you will find this helpful
My life-I work a full time job, just started going to the gym and I have a 1 hour commute back and forth in NYC (so I have to wake up around 7:30 am and I come home 6:30 if I have nothing else going on). Every Saturday morning, I wake up around 7:30 am to go to the farmer's market (40 min to and from) to buy meat and eggs. When i get home, I cut up my meat into 3-4oz portions and freeze it and pull it out when I cook. I have no car, and I grocery shop, so every few days I buy veggies.

First thing I did was I considered my priorities-keep relative cleanliness (do dishes, wipe down the counters, take out the trashy, do laundry), pay rent/bills, make doctor's appointments and of course, getting more fit-working on diet/general activity (walking) first, and then working out. Doing both was too much for me.

To calculate cals, first I think about what I ate in the past and try to guesstimate the cals I would usually take in. I also use the mifflin st joer and enter my activity level. I subtract 500 from my cals burned a day and that is what I tend to go for if I want to lose 1 lb/wk. I would start from there, plan your meals to fit in with that and see if you get results for a few weeks. If you want to see more immediate results, try to be careful with the calorie counting and don't consume more sodium/bloating foods than you already do (or much less).

I try not to do much else other than cook my meals and I have been waking up earlier in the morning to go to the gym-I figure, I am grumpy anyways, might as well be here. I could go after work, but I do intermittent fasting-I take my lunch hour to walk and by the time I get home, all I want to do is eat and sleep most days. On the weekends, I am outside for hours and I meet up with people in the evening sometimes.

I make reminders to pay my bills. I know people who get Freshdirect. I am considering splurging on a maid just for a deep cleaning maybe 1X every few months or more.

I couldn't manage this when i was looking for a place to live or looking for a job-I just didn't have the time to develop these habits, but I try to be flexible so that in case something happens, I don't drop everything.

Also I put your height/weight/age (hey we are the same age!) in the mifflin st joer formula, if you are sedentary, based on this you burn around 2398 cals a day.
So 1800-1900 might be a good starting point if you want to lose a 1 lb a week.

I agree with everyone else in making things the night before. There are even things you could make on your day off for the entire week! Sometimes that helps.

Perhaps using something like myfitnesspal, fitday, or (my personal fave) sparkpeople, so you can track your calories if that is something you want to do. There's a learning curve to learning what to eat! For me, I like to pick things that I can eat a good serving size of rather than something higher in calories that I can only have a tiny bit of (although sometimes I choose that, sure). So I like chicken breast, tofu, lean ground turkey, greek yogurt, and lots of veggies (I get the frozen ones in a bag because I dislike cutting up a million veggies everyday, only get fresh sometimes).

Stick around here and you will find tons of helpful info from really awesome people!

I pre-plan and cook because it's easiest for me. If you don't know what to eat, my nutritionist always said that meals should be half non-starchy vegetables. I take that to heart. If I can put vegetables into something, I certainly will!

What are you eating now? Maybe we have some suggestions on how to get the same flavors/satisfaction but more nutrition into your days.

Re breakfast, you might try making a batch of egg muffins with cheese and veggies. Those can be baked on the weekend and then quickly nuked when you are ready for breakfast.

There are lots of recipes on the web, but here is a start:
http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2006/10...ted-again.html

For breakfast, try a cup of low-fat yogourt (or greek yogourt for proteins!), 1/4 cup granola and a sliced fruit ! Fast, healthy, no cooking, TASTY... it's the perfect breakfast !

I agree with everyone about pre-planning and preparing stuff the night before. My day usually looks like this: wake up at 5:30am, out the door by 6:40, get off work at 5:30pm, gym from 6:15-7:00 3x a week, home by 7.20ish. Then I have to make dinner for DH and I, we do the dishes, prepare lunch for the next day and try to catch the news or something on TV before bed. Trust me, I REALLY treasure my weekends with that schedule! Lol.

Something I've found that helps me is preparing things in bulk on Sundays for the rest of the week. I make a large batch of steel cut oats in the crockpot then portion it out into 10 servings for breakfast for both of us for the week, prepare and peel a dozen HB eggs, pre-slice celery and carrots for snacks, and depending on the loss leader for the week, bake up a tray of chicken breasts or whatever other meat I pick up from the store. Come evenings it's just a matter of throwing everything together into lunch bags and popping those into the fridge for the next day.

I splurged a little bit on nice lunchbags (can't post links yet ) from Amazon as well but they make me happy and more likely to bring a lunch everyday when the containers are all coordinated and not a hodgepodge of Tupperware that I lug around in a plastic bag. Just something that works for me