Grad school = stress. Your body needs fuel to run that brain of yours. Be kind to yourself. How about mixing up the veggies and getting some variety in? Have some raw bell peppers with cheese for a snack... add more fish in... have some nuts other than almonds here and there... How about a salad with tuna on top? Some raw tomato slices with mayo? Celery and greek yogurt dip?

How's your water intake? Try infused water with cucumber slices or lemon wedges instead of diet soda. How about going for a walk as some stress relief with the block exams going on? Also, have you had a "free day" recently, or have you been eating this rigidly for a lengthy period of time? A free day is good for your mental health, which can reduce stress, which can then help you get moving...

I'm going with stress being your major problem instead of exactly what you're eating. More variety would be good for more nutrients... I see a lot of cruciferous veggie and not much else...

Hang in there. Professional/grad school does a number...

From my own experience if you're going to reduce your carbs you can't skimp on your fats and protein. What I see in your menu is a lot of empty calories that would better be spent on protein and higher quality fats. Mayo is garbage, dreadful stuff, you'd do better using pure EVO or even real butter. You're wasting too many calories on yogurt, chocolate and nuts (nearly 1/3 of your allotment). Raw nuts are a high quality source of healthy fat and a pinch of protein but just 1 oz is usually 200 calories so you need to be careful. Nut butters can also be a great fuel source but watch out for sugars. One tablespoon of natural nut butter with no sugar added can go a pretty long way spread on anything from a slice of low carb toast to celery.

Are you using 1 teaspoon of the chili sauce or 1 tablespoon? The first ingredient is sugar and it's quite high in carbs (1 T. has 8 carbs). Kind of a waste again. I know that foods can get bland but think savory, or add actual chilis instead of a processed sauce. Also consider mustard, a vinaigrette or pure balsamic vinegar.

You seem to be hanging onto that "sugar" thing. Diet soda, candy, gum, sweet chili sauce, yogurt, all sweet in some way and I've discovered for myself artificial sweeteners make things much, much worse. I don't care what the studies say or why, I know if I consume artificial sweeteners they throw something out of whack and I'm dreadfully famished, even if the calories are the same.

The lower carb thing is tricky, I'm nearly 50 and losing has been a nightmare until recently. I'm trying it myself for the first time in conjunction with calorie counting and seem to be finding success but I've learned I have to log things very carefully in my diet diary until I found my personal "sweet spot" calorically and carb wise.

One other thing, types of carbs really seems to matter (which is another reason why I mention the chili sauce and yogurt). After a lot of trial and error I've discovered certain carb sources don't work for me, period. Brown rice is an issue for me. I can have some once or twice a week, but regularly, nope, like hitting a brick wall, even just 6 oz a day, even if the carbs come under my allotment, it'll stall me faster than anything. I suspect everyone has foods like this that just flip some metabolic switch and turn off/prevent fat burning. I know a lot of people believe "a calorie is a calorie" but I don't, or at least I know as far as my own body is concerned, that is not the case.

I wish you all the best of luck in your diet journey and studies!

Your carbs are too high for a low carb diet. You don't get chocolate or yogurt at the beginning either. You need twice the protein you are getting and drop the oat bran. Have you used an online calculator to see how your macros are? A low carb diet is going to be a high fat diet and moderate protein. A good calculator for low carb is myfitnesspal.com or fatsecret.com.

For the person who asked about the low carb yogurt - I get it at Kroger. It is their brand and called carbmaster and is 10 for $4.00 most weeks. Tons of flavors, too.

I love the carbmaster yogurt! It's very satisfying when I want ice cream and I can have yogurt instead (ice cream makes my stomach all weird too!) I buy them at Fry's (Ralphs in Nevada) and I buy 10 of them $4! It's a great deal I think! I actually don't have a problem craving sugar, I want things like potatoes, breadsticks, hashbrowns, it's really awful I usually don't even care for those things.

When you say low sugar, how low do you mean? I haven't actually restricted myself to a number with sugar, maybe I should try that!


How low should I be keeping them? Below 50g? I'm sorry I'm a little confused the chocolate and yogurt at the beginning, do you mean I shouldn't include them since I'm starting the low carb diet? The reason I kept the chocolate was because I was craving sugar and the chocolate chips were 10g carbs/80 cals for one tablespoon, the yogurt is just something I like too, also low in sugar and carbs.

I thought I would still lose on this diet, because the calories are still low, so it shouldn't matter so much as long as I was eliminating the heavy carbs? Maybe I should re-evaluate my macros, thanks for the suggestion!!

Maybe I should switch things up, I've been eating this for the past month, im a little bored of it, and it's good timing since I'm out of the sweet chili sauce and chocolate/almond mix (this was actually raw almonds plus 1 tablespoon chocolate chips)

thanks for the replies! I will definitely try changing things around. I find the foods when I'm on a diet to be so boring so I guess a change right about now would be good.

Try walking for exercise.

Your plan looks good to me overall. But personally, I'm never able to lose weight while eating artificial sweeteners. Nuts & cheese are great foods, but for some reason - even counting their calories - I don't lose weight quickly when I eat much of them.

Skip the chocolate chips, aim for quality protein (less processed if possible), and rotate some new veggies in.

Remember that every body's different. What works for one person may not for the next. Just tweak your plan and see how you do.

Oh! And honestly, if you're like me, those cravings won't go away until you stop trying to satisfy your sweet tooth. Maybe a few months down the line you can play with that, but at the beginning, just skip all the pretend treats. In a few days, you won't even miss them. Promise.

Hello

the meal plans and snacks that you have shared seem very healthy and definitely the right approach. It's good to see that you're exercising 5 + times a week it will definitely help you lose weight and also maintain better health.

the best thing you can do is write down the goals that you want to achieve by what time frame you want to achieve them by. This will help you stay motivated. Good little tip would be to write down a few goals to active each week.

the most important thing is that you have clear goals most people are simply training and trying to lose weight but they don't know how much weight they want to lose or what they want to achieve.

are you writing down what you eat on a daily basis?
how are you tracking your goals?