Nutrition Help!

[elynne2012]

Hi – I’m looking for some nutrition help! I’ve been in a funk/rut. Back story: in the past 18 months I’ve lost about 14-15 lbs and gone down almost 3 pant sizes to probably the fittest and in shape I’ve been. I used MyFitness Pal to track calories and took up running (see my 1st marathon post below) and most recently weights and resistance (TRX, Body Pump) to drop the weight.
Lately, I’ve been less diligent about tracking but when I do; I’m starving. All the time. Ravenous. I’m up like 7-10 lbs but I think a lot of that is bloat (bad weekend ending) and am in a total rut about what to eat so I feel hungry. I’m not a deprive myself type of person at all so I really don’t want to do anything extreme but I need to shake about 5lbs to feel comfortable again. I’m about 5’7 and around 145lbs. I’d like to be about 140.
Any help/guidance is appreciated. Just in a funk for some reason….

[mrshandy]

Congrats on the progress you've made so far!

Could you post a typical day's eating?

[elynne2012]

Great question!

for breakfast, I usually do cereal or oatmeal or a sandwhich thin with peanut butter.  And a banana for mid morning snack.  I will have a bagel if I did a long run. 

Lunch is usually soup or leftovers or I'll have light healthy ham on a thin. 

Snacks are usually protein bars, kind bars, almonds, skinnypop popcorn. 

Dinner we usually eat a regular meal (I have two boys who eat a ton) - lots of crock pot meals, chicken, tacos.  We will have fish, salmon.  I probablly eat too much pasta and rice though.

Overall, I'm aware I probablly eat too much packaged food and need to adjust there. 

[gt7301b]

I'd suggest more protein and fat, especially at breakfast. I usually have some type of eggs with avocado or protein pancakes for breakfast.

[emilyinchile]

You're getting practically no protein and very little fat until dinnertime. Look at your macros in MFP on the phone app to see your overall %s of carb/fat/protein and also look on your computer to see each meal's macro breakdown (I can't figure out how to see that on my phone). I bet you'll find that you're pretty low on protein and fat, and that's why you're starving. It's also going to help your weight loss to lower the carbs a bit - I'm not a low-carb person at all, but increasing protein gets you lean.

Great job on your successes so far, now it sounds like you need to start appropriately fueling your new activities.

[mrshandy]

I'm not an expert on this, but when my husband and I cut way back on complex carbs and added sugar I dropped those nagging 10 lbs.

Replace your breakfaast with eggs and veggies(and maybe a simple carb like sweet potato). Lunch, lots of veggies and protein.

Dinner, try to do portion control. Fill up on veggies. Add some healthy fat.

I'm doing Whole 30 right now and it has been really good for cleaning up my diet. It's hard, no doubt. But I feel so good about the food I'm eating and I dropped the holiday weight.

[elynne2012]

Thanks for the suggestions! I suspected I was low on protein. Besides grilled chicken, any suggetinos on lunch ideas?

[mrshandy]

Jan 27, 2015 11:12:46 GMT -5 elynne2012 said:

Thanks for the suggestions! I suspected I was low on protein. Besides grilled chicken, any suggetinos on lunch ideas?

My husband and I make a big pot of soup each weekend. I usually use whole 30 or paleo recipes (so lots of meat and veggies). We freeze the portions and can pull them out on a daily basis. It works as weekday lunches and sometimes weekend.

[wambam]

I recommend focusing more on protein and vegetables with some good fat sources for both your breakfast and lunch. Protein is incredibly satiating and increasing your intake will help you with your ravenous feeling.

[wambam]

Jan 27, 2015 11:12:46 GMT -5 elynne2012 said:

Thanks for the suggestions! I suspected I was low on protein. Besides grilled chicken, any suggetinos on lunch ideas?

The same types of meals you would eat for dinner. Make a double batch of dinner and eat the leftovers for lunch.

[ktzmoh]

You could keep the oatmeal, but it really depends on what you put in it. I usually do a mashed banana for sweetness, use steel cut oats (1/3cup dry), almond butter and hemp seeds or pumpkin seeds. That's a protein packed breakfast that will keep you feeling full, much more so than cereal, which I find just leaves me hungry very quickly.

I'd suggest making changes to dinner, it seems like you are backloading all your calories to the end of the day. If you get to dinner and you are starving, it's so hard to do portion control. Try to even out your calorie intake across all your meals so that you don't undo your effort at the end of the day. I like the suggestion of using leftovers from dinner for lunch. So if you are able to improve the quality of your dinner meal, then you also get a healthful lunch the next day.

Also, I'd suggest taking a look at all the things you are eating for sugar content. Make substitutions for those items with hidden sugar. Also for snacks, you cna swap the popcorn (which has so little nutritional value) for some fresh veggies.

[labbie]

Jan 27, 2015 11:12:46 GMT -5 elynne2012 said:

Thanks for the suggestions! I suspected I was low on protein. Besides grilled chicken, any suggetinos on lunch ideas?

I usually eat a large salad for lunch with beans, nuts and sunflower seeds on top. On days I feel hungrier, I'll add tuna to it as well. The fat really keeps me satisfied.

[elynne2012]

Thanks all for the great replies. I always find I know the basics and what I should be doing; just helpful to get support and other ideas when stuck in a rut.

[bostonmichelle]

I agree looks low in fat/protein. I know when I switched to higher protein/fat I was a lot fuller on fewer calories. And I dropped those last 5 lbs that I could never lose.

For lunch we usually make 4 servings of dinner and just have leftovers since its just DH and me. I've also made soups on Sunday and used up all those random leftover veggies from the week for lunches.

[emilyinchile]

Jan 27, 2015 11:12:46 GMT -5 elynne2012 said:

Thanks for the suggestions! I suspected I was low on protein. Besides grilled chicken, any suggetinos on lunch ideas?

Haha, what's so magical about grilled chicken at lunchtime? Just eat any protein you like combined with some vegetables! Or more leftovers (I missed in your first post that you were already sometimes eating leftovers for lunch).

[wambam]

Jan 27, 2015 13:51:48 GMT -5 emilyinchile said:

Jan 27, 2015 11:12:46 GMT -5 elynne2012 said:

Thanks for the suggestions! I suspected I was low on protein. Besides grilled chicken, any suggetinos on lunch ideas?

Haha, what's so magical about grilled chicken at lunchtime? Just eat any protein you like combined with some vegetables! Or more leftovers (I missed in your first post that you were already sometimes eating leftovers for lunch).

I want to know the answer to this so bad. I hear this all over GBCN and I've never understood it.

[emilyinchile]

Jan 27, 2015 13:53:05 GMT -5 wambam said:

Jan 27, 2015 13:51:48 GMT -5 emilyinchile said:

Haha, what's so magical about grilled chicken at lunchtime? Just eat any protein you like combined with some vegetables! Or more leftovers (I missed in your first post that you were already sometimes eating leftovers for lunch).

I want to know the answer to this so bad. I hear this all over GBCN and I've never understood it.

Haha I hadn't seen it before, but I got a laugh out of the implication that the only lunch options in the world are soup, leftovers, ham on a cracker and grilled chicken. I think lunch just got a whole lot more exciting for OP!

[wambam]

Jan 27, 2015 15:44:03 GMT -5 emilyinchile said:

Jan 27, 2015 13:53:05 GMT -5 wambam said:

I want to know the answer to this so bad. I hear this all over GBCN and I've never understood it.

Haha I hadn't seen it before, but I got a laugh out of the implication that the only lunch options in the world are soup, leftovers, ham on a cracker and grilled chicken. I think lunch just got a whole lot more exciting for OP!

I was sort of amazed when I realized that a lot of people have very specific meal labels for their food. Even before I was "into food" I ate whatever, whenever. It didn't matter what time of day.

[emilyinchile]

wambam I more understand separate breakfast foods (although as we've discussed before, as a kid I preferred "regular" foods like lasagna for breakfast) because stomachs can be weird early in the morning, plus I feel like society/media give us more breakfast-specific messages for foods. But lunch and dinner to me are pretty much completely interchangeable.

[shauni27]

Jan 27, 2015 11:12:46 GMT -5 elynne2012 said:

Thanks for the suggestions! I suspected I was low on protein. Besides grilled chicken, any suggetinos on lunch ideas?

I do a huge lunch prep on Sundays--lots of soup.  The paleo spaghetti pizza pie kams posted last week.  Quinoa stir fry with lots of veggies and some sort of protein.  Salads with chicken on them.  I usually rotate through those.

I also think you will find if you add a little more protein and cut out some of the junky carbs and added sugars you will see that you will lose some LBs.  I started the whole life challenge just like 10 days ago and my pants already fit better.

ETA: good job on the success you have already had!  Nice work!  You know you can do it again, it just takes work.

[elynne2012]

Thanks so much!