Let me tell you about my eating habits.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

The way I have best described them in the past is snake-like. Eat rarely, eat big, skip chewing.

Here’s how I did it untill about a month ago, along with timeframes.

Get up. Skip breakfast, cause I don’t get up early enough to eat before leaving. Go to work. Drink a cola. Drink about a half gallon of water. Go home, pop a family size Dinner in the microwave. Eat it all. Drink a glass of juice. Cook dinner for Mrs. C. (usually something extremely fattening) Eat at least two full portions of it, too, usually at about 8PM. Watch TV. Go to bed. Get up 30 minutes later, drink a cola. Eat a single serving TV dinner. Go to bed and sleep.

A month ago, I added having a burger for lunch in there. Mushrooms, Bacon, and gorgonzola cheese smothering a 1/2 lb. burger. Yummy.

Just under a week ago, I decided that I have become far too bulky to feel happy. I actually have gravity.

Well, I’ve modified my diet a bit. Check it out.

Get up, go to work. Immediately eat three apples and a banana. Drink a diet cola. Drink water all day from there on out. Eat a cup of chicken soup between breakfast and lunch. For lunch, an apple and banana and orange, unless I go out for a salad. Late afternoon snack = apple or orange. Get home, make dinner and eat immediately, usually something pasta, or just a low-cal TV-dinner, depending on my mood. Drink juice. Go to bed. Get up 30 minutes later and sit in front of computer till 2, drinking milk.

So, do you think that this shocking change to my intake will cause unnecessary stress to my system? Will I become an apple? Or, will I reach my goal of dropping 60 lbs by Christmas?

The suspense is killing me. As is the constant hunger. I am finding that the lack of meat in my diet is making me ravenous. In the past, I would start to bite my wife on occasion when not getting enough red meat. She would dispatch me to the kitchen, where I would fry and eat at least a pound of ground beef in a single sitting, whereupon I would return to normal.

How’s it all going to end?

2

It seems to me that you are lacking some important things there. If you are going to restrict your meat and dairy so much like that, you should check into how vegans eat and stay healthy. Not that you have to follow a strictly vegan diet or anything, but you could maybe get some ideas of what you are missing in that “fruit diet” of yours. You should check into some high protein foods like beans and tofu and some high calcium foods like enriched Rice Dream. Unless of course you are taking supplements. But still it is almost always better to get your nutrients from food. Calcium is very important to your body’s working (blood pressure, muscles, etc.) and it will take it from your bones if you don’t feed it some several times a day.

BTW, your original way of eating was horrible. That’s the way my dad ate before he was diagnosed with diabetes (which turned out to be pancreatic cancer) only not as bad as you.

3

Perhaps you should go ahead and eat a little lean meat. I noticed that it helps when I eat something more lunchlike for breakfast, like a sandwich. It keeps me full so I don’t pig out when it really is lunch.

I think it’s wonderful that you are eating so much fresh fruit, but maybe you could substitute some vegetables and maybe a little whole grain bread and cheese? Fruit is full of sugar, and you might be one of those people who get ravenously hungry after having sugar.

I’ve also found that beans keep me filling full for a long time. I mean yeah, it’s gas, but at least I’m not hungry. There are lots of delicious and nutricious dishes that you can make with beans, and as a bonus they are very cheap.

4

You should not be getting hungry. You should ‘graze’ every two hours, that means eat a lot of carrots, first, then go to fruit if you still aren’t satisfied. Go with beans to take the place of meat, or stick with chicken and fish. For breakfast you should have some type of cereal such as Raisin Bran with skim milk.
Following this diet I am losing about 5 pounds a week, men lose more and lose it faster.

5

Two things struck me as I read your post:

  1. You’re never going to stick to a diet that drives you crazy. Just eat some meat or fish when you feel like it and don’t try to stick to some extreme regimen. A good recommendation I heard recently is to picture a meal plate as 4 quarters. Fill up 1 quarter with protein, one with carbohydrates and the remaining half with veggies or fruit. (This was offered as the best formula for fighting off that ravenous feeling.)

  2. You don’t mention exercise at all. Bottom line: You are not going to lose weight and keep it off without regular exercise. 5 or 6 days a week, at least 30 minutes.

And stop going to bed at 2:00!

(Mommy-mode off.)

6

Thank you all for your advice! As is plain to see, I’ve never paid any attention at all to what I’m eating, or when. This is definitely giving me ideas!

As much as I’d love to get more dairy, I’m horribly lactose intolerant. Thump my tummy after a cheesefest, and I sound like a drum. Although, I admit, I’m masochistic enough to eat it sometimes anyway. I’m hoping to manage that with that good ol’ Lactaid milk.

Tatertot, Perhaps the idea about sugars making me hungry is correct. I mean, I’m eating enough to be full (I would think!) but I’m still absolutely ravenous.

Ultress, chicken would seem to be the best choice for me, in order to keep the meat intake going normal, but I just don’t like chicken at all. I worked in an egg farm when I was a kid. It was AWFUL. Never have liked anything to do with chickens since. Is fish hard to cook, or what? I just ruin it every time I try.

SoMoMom, do you have any recommendations on what books to get hold of? I really want to make this work, so that I can return to my former self. My feet hurt from the increased burden :o(

cher3, I play a lot of softball these days. Left field. I get a LOT of running time in, although anaerobic. However, before this started, I was completely sedentary. And I wanna stay uuuuupppp!

Thanks again!

Brian

7

for details on the egg farm horrors:

look here

8

I can recommend a really good cookbook: Moosewood Kitchen Cooks at Home. It has lots of light (but tasty!) vegetarian recipes if you omit the cheese (which you will, obviously). It also contains a lot of good, easy fish recipes. All of the Moosewood books are great.

The cereal for breakfast thing is a good idea. If you don’t really like Lactaid (which I don’t, I find it too sweet) then try Vitasoy Original flavour soy milk. It doesn’t taste like hay (which a few other brands do), it’s as thick as milk, and it comes fortified. I can get it at the grocery store but then, I live in SoCal.

Another breakfast idea is smoothies. You can whip them up the night before, leave them in the fridge, and grab’n’drink. There are a lot of good vegan recipes out there, and the nutrient content is better than just fruit, especially if you use tofu (Stop gagging. Once it’s blended, you’ll never know it’s there.)

And skip the diet pop. The sugar isn’t helping.

(It’s 2pm and I haven’t had lunch yet. Talking about food is making me hungry!)

Hope that helps at all.

9

I’m an idiot! I meant, “the sweetness isn’t helping.” It just makes you want more carbohydrates.

10

Well, I’ve been doing a lot of research on this lately. I had a baby about 10 months ago and the weight was not coming off, in fact it was inching up. Every reliable source I went to said that regular, aerobic exercise was crucial. Otherwise your body really tries to fight weight loss–your metabolism drops to the basement, especially with a low calorie diet.

The formula I’m trying to stick with is this: At least five days of exercise (I usually walk for an hour.) On three days I also do strength training with small free weights, and some sit ups. I eat three meals and a couple of snacks. The formula I read was to multiply your current weight by about 14 to get the calories that would maintain your current weight, then subtract 500 to lose a pound a week or 1000 to lose two pounds a week. More than that isn’t recommended, because low calorie diets slow down metabolism and drive you nuts–as you already know. (BTW, you can use an hour’s exercise to count for about 300 calories, so dropping the other 200 is pretty simple.)

Your sleep habits are your own business, of course. But it’s harder to get yourself to exercise if you aren’t getting enough sleep. (Take it from the mother of two kids under 3).

11

I agree with what cher3 says.

Also, Mr. Cynical, from what I can tell of your first post, of COURSE you’re hungry. You need to eat a lot more during the day. I don’t mean to pig out, but from what I can see all you eat until the evening is fruit and some veggies and some soup. For God’s sake, man, get some protein & (gasp!) fat in there!

I don’t know how tall you are or what you weigh, but I think the formula cher3 says is right on target. Also, watch the fat intake - get less than 30% of your diet from fat. One gram of fat = 9 calories, so if you’re eating 2000 cals a day you should get no more than 600 calories of that from fat.

You might want to check out http://www.nutrio.com. They’ll ask you some questions and print out sample menus for you. I had good luck following a program like this.

12

I can offer some advice, as a current dietitian intern (til May 25th!!!)

It’s good you realized that your previous diet was not appropriate. You were starving yourself the entire day, and then going home and eating two large dinners.

The low cal frozen dinners can be a good option, but they are small, and with your appetite, your’e going to need something more. Have a slice of wheat bread, another serving of nonstarchy vegetables (not corn, peas, baked beans, etc.) and a glass of milk. But make that your final dinner! Have a snack later on that night if you feel you need one (cereal and milk, fruit and peanut butter, toast and light jelly, a bagel and light cream cheese, etc.)

You are eating a LOT of fruit. Fruit is good for you and I’m sure youre getting your fiber requirement for the day before dinner time…but fruit can be high in calories, which is not going to help you lose weight. Get up 15 minutes earlier, and have cereal and milk with a glass of juice, or a bagel and light cream cheese, or a toaster waffle or two with a little margarine and syrup.

The idea of dividing your plates into quarters is a good one, cher3. Keep that in mind when you cook dinner for yourself. Chicken was mentioned as a healthier protein source, but if you will get egg farm flashbacks, pork, turkey, fish and very lean beef (with fat trimmed) can all work as well, as long as you keep the portion sizes down.

The average healthy adult only needs about 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram. An ounce of cooked meat contains about 7 grams per serving, so you can figure how many ounces you should have per day. We don’t need these huge servings of meat!!! Fill up on salad, cooked vegetables and drink a large glass of water before beginning to eat.

Good luck on your new way of eating (don’t call it a “diet”!)

13

That nutrio website looks really good.

I think a major factor for me is that I am too damn lazy to cook or shop well. With a list, as provided by nutrio, I have a fighting chance.

Suo Na, I thank you for your smoothie recommendation. I’ll check into that as well!

And, MissMonica, I’m bad at math. How much is a gram, in relation to a pound? :slight_smile:

14

MrC, there are 454 g in a pound, or a little more than 28 g per ounce.

15

Mr. Cyn, if you want to find out your protein requirements, divide your weight by 2.2 to get Kilograms, then multiply this by 0.8.

I agree that the nutrio site is a good one. Lots of people with good credentials on the expert panel!