Here’s the situation: I have about 40 pounds I’d like to lose by August.
I live in the middle of nowhere in Montana, and I work as a volunteer and live with other volunteers as part of a Peace Corps-like organization. I make $80/month with my personal stipend, and I and my community-mates each get $70/month for food and community expenses (we’re supposed to practice simple living). So, basically, I’ve got very little money.
I also live 45 minutes from the nearest (dang small) grocery store, and ~75 minutes from the nearest (regular-sized) grocery store. So I don’t have easy access to fresh, healthy food.
I’ve been hearing about the eDiets.com website and service, and it sounds like it would be a really handy thing to join – I take it they customize your diet and give you a suggested shopping list, and they also provide support (message boards, etc) if you have questions, and you input all your progress online (so you don’t have to go to meetings) and then they re-tailor your diet/fitness suggestions based on your progress – all this sounds great, and it’s pretty cheap (~$4/week).
The thing is, when you make $80/month, a $16/month expense is big. Plus, if I have to buy different food than my community, that’s an added expense.
So, the pertinent question is, to anyone who’s tried eDiets, is that $16/month worth it, or would I be better off saving that money and just eating less/moving more?
To be honest with you eating healthfully and getting foods that will be satisfying but have less calorie density usually costs more than eating poorly, sometimes considerably more. I’m a bit confused as your stated gross income (5 dollars a day) is insufficient to purchase anything but (possibly) bulk carbohydrates.
Assuming you’re getting some sort of cafeteria or common area meals you need to talk with the food service to see if there are some alternative meal choices. Beyond that until you have access to more money and food choices rigorous portion control, sustained daily aerobic exercise and a daily multivitamin are your (current) best options.
The bottom line is to lose weight you need to (in some fashion) control calorie intake. The simplest thing to do (though a bit tedious at first) is to simply count calories. So if you want to lose 40 lbs by August you’re going to need to lose around 5-6 lbs per month starting now. At 3500 (roughly) calories per lb of body fat that equates to reducing your current calorie intake by enough to yield 6 lbs of fat loss per month x 3500 (calories in a lb of fat) = 21,000 calories monthly / 30 days = approximately 700 calories daily you need to eliminate from your current intake.
This is around 1.5 lbs per week and should be achievable through basic common sense portion control and giving up junk food and snacks along with some exercise. You don’t need a special diet tracking system. A notebook (or use your PC) , a calorie counting booklet (calorie content info is also available free online) are all you need.
I use WeightWatchers online and the thing that makes it MOST valueable to me is is food journaling aspect of it (well, points tracking, which is sort of different but you DO journal your food). Keeping yourself accountable for what you eat is a great way to keep yourself in check, as astro said.
I used to use a site called FitDay (www.fitday.com) which is completely free and fairly easy to use. What you need to do is figure out the best calories-per-day limit for your goals, and do some reading on a good healthy fat/protein/carbs ratio, and then use FitDay to track yourself.
In my experience, alot of diet plans assume you want to eat different things every day and give you great recipes - but they’re only feasible if you’ve got a large well-stocked kitchen with lots of ingredients. Sure, baked eggplant parmesan is good and filling and healthy, but only if you’ve got eggplant, and the ingredients to make the coating, and a wide array of herbs and spices. And fresh veggies to go along as a side. That’s where the costs come in, I feel.
Seems easier to find a menu that’s within your budget (I like frozen low-cal dinners - they’re always on sale and are tasty) and stick with it for a week or two, or until you’re just sick of it. Spend some cash on healthy snacks for when you get the munchies and you should be all set. You cna even pre-plan (make sure stuff fits within your allowable calories and fat/protein/carbs ratio for the day) by using FitDay.
You are correct – we eat a lot of pasta, rice, and cereal, because we can’t afford too much else. Luckily, my job provides lunch, which is usually well-balanced and that’s where I get my access to fresh fruit and salads. It’s dinner that’s my downfall, partly because of the high-carb food we eat at home and partly because I live with two guys who are well over 6’ tall and are hardcore athletes, and watching them eat huge heaping bowls of pasta without weight-gain makes me think I can, too. Uh, wrong.
And I do eat a lot of chocolate – I bet if I cut that out and exercised more, I could easily eliminate 700 more calories a day.
ZipperJJ, I didn’t see your post earlier – thanks for the FitDay link! I really like the idea of keeping records of your food/exercise in an “official” capacity rather than just writing in a journal. Somehow it keeps me from fudging the numbers if I feel that ultimately someone else (even an anonymous website) is holding me accountable. (I guess I don’t respect my own authority. )
I did eDiets years and years ago. Given your income and access to groceries, I’d advise against it.
At the time (and I don’t know if they have changed) eDiets suggested a list of foods for the week, you could chose between pre-packaged convenience foods (you’ll need a microwave and the cash to buy 3 frozen meals a day - not cheap, and a ton of sodium), completely making three meals a day (for which they provided the recipes - you’ll need an oven and the ability to cook), and a combination of the two. Every week, you spend time picking out what you’re going to eat for the week, it balances the calories (so you don’t have to), and then prints a list of what you’re going to need to buy for the week.
The thing that makes it “better” than fitday is that you don’t have to worry about figuring out your meals or portion sizes. It does that for you. (For someone like me, that’s better. The chore of doing that every day gets to me and I just stop paying attention after about 3 days). On the other hand, you’re constrained to eating pretty much what they’ve suggested because you know that will work, especially for the homemade meals.
On the bad side, making all of your own meals every day is time consuming. When I did it, while they said the recipes were designed for single servings - HA! It was obviously (OBVIOUSLY) taking recipes for 4-6 people and dividing the values (“beat 1/2 an egg”). And you’ll have to plan exceptionally carefully or have a ton of wasted food, especially perishables (or food that will get eaten by your roommates).
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