Okay, so I've been following Weight Watchers for awhile now, working on losing this weight I gained last year. I'd lost 50 pounds on WW while I was training for my first half and it was super easy. Then the program changed and I've been struggling. So with my leg being hurt, I started thinking about what I was eating and thought that I wasn't getting enough protein. So I inputed my daily food on myfitnesspal.com last night. I track my intake on the WW website every day. Yesterday I actually went over my points allotment but when I put my food onto myfitnesspal, I came back at only 950 calories!! No wonder my leg isn't healing!! So now I'm questioning the entire WW plan since some healthy foods are extremely high in points (a handful of cashews cost me half of my daily intake), and junk foods are lower (like marshamallows are only 3 points). I have about 20 pounds to lose and I've had issues in the past with very low calorie diets. And when I'm not on a "diet" I tend to eat willy nilly, mostly poor choices, hence, the weight gain. When my leg heals, I really want to eat healthy with enough calories, and the right type of calories to adequately train for my marathon.
So......what do you eat? Do you watch calories? Thank you!
Go figure
I am horrible at eating. I was just whining in another thread that I want a chef because I'm tired of feeding myself, so I'm definitely not the person you want responding to this post. Fortunately, with the amount of miles I run, the furnace burns pretty hot and I seem to be able to get away with eating whatever I feel like. Some days I eat a lot, other days I hardly eat.
I did well today in that I had half a portion of rice and some potatoes and vegetables, and a granola bar for breakfast. Oh, I also had a 44oz icee from Speedway. I try not to do that more than twice a week, but in the summer they're all I think about on my runs.
The only real consideration I give to my intake because of running is to do something like a Muscle Milk or other similar product after quality workouts. It's not that I don't buy into the fact that better eating could improve my performance, it's just that I'm too lazy to make the effort.
Trying to find some more hay to restock the barn
Hip Redux
What do I try to eat, or what do I end up stuffing in my pie hole? lol
I have never counted calories. I try to focus on real foods - limit processed and packaged foods as much as possible. So a lot of meat and veggies and fruits, mostly. However, in reality, there are times when I am so hungry that I will find myself at the vending machine selecting the bag of Cheetos. Hey, no one is perfect.
I also cannot tolerate gluten or dairy, so I am 100% GF but like 95% dairy free because I need milk in my coffee and sometimes I cave to cheese. But I almost always regret that....
I do a lot of meal and snack planning at the start of the week, and try to prep as much food as I can on the weekends, to make the good choices easy during the week. That helps limit the impulse bad choices!
Mmmmm...beer
I started off counting everything, then it just became a habit. Dropped 85lbs in 10 months and have kept it off for 8 months now. I eat a lot of fruit and veggies, fair amount of protein, and some whole grains. I try to keep the candy/junk to a minimum, but I still have some every now and then, in moderation. One thing that worked for me when losing weight was to find foods that I like that are fairly low cal by volume, like strawberries, they're only around 240cal for a pound, so you can eat a lot of them compared to some other foods. That way I could eat more and still keep my overall calories down.
Most important thing for me, was to stop using the word diet as a verb and just change how I eat and live. It sounds cliche, but it's true. So long as people approach it as a temporary deal, I'm going to diet for x amount of time, or until I lose x amount of weight, then they're probably not going to succeed long term. Because once most people reach that goal, they go right back to what made them overweight in the first place.
-Dave
My running blog
Goals | sub-18 5k | sub-3 marathon 2:56:46!!
My theory is that if you stick to real foods, like meat and veggies, you rarely overeat the highly caloric stuff because it's usually nutritionally dense, as well. Snack food and processed foods are SO much easier to gorge and overeat because they also tend to be full of nothing but calories. I could eat a lot more donuts than I can eggs, for example - at some point, your body is like "yeah, I'm good". And I also tend to stay full longer.
I dropped 25 pounds by cutting out gluten and dairy - which made up 90% of my processed foods anyway (pasta, bread, cheese, etc) I just have to make sure I have enough carbs for exercise - which is usually in the form of sweet potatoes or rice.
Sloooow.
I eat lots and lots and lots
I tried calorie counting, but focusing so much on eating, made me hungrier. I generally eat around 2000- 2200 calories a day and I've steadily been losing about 1lb a week (down nearly 50lbs since August last year).
My breakfast most days is cereal or eggs. Most lunches during the week are cream cheese, turkey and sriracha wraps. Dinner varies, last night was salmon, wild rice and creamed leeks. Tonight is spaghetti bolognese.
I wonder to what extent people that have been overweight and successfully made changes actually eat better than folks that haven't had weight struggles?
Also, what qualifies one as skinny-fat? Is that just someone that is thin and eats poorly, or is it a comment on actual body fat? I'm actually extremely body conscious, and did the bod-pod testing and found out that I have very low body fat, but wonder if I still fall into the skinny-fat category because of how I eat.
Sorry for the thread hijack, I'm just bored.
I have a friend who is skinny with unhealthy habits. Never works out, eats whatever... and she's a rail. She knows it too, but doesn't have any real motivation to change.
Jess runs for bacon
I wonder to what extent people that have been overweight and successfully made changes actually eat better than folks that haven't had weight struggles? Also, what qualifies one as skinny-fat? Is that just someone that is thin and eats poorly, or is it a comment on actual body fat? I'm actually extremely body conscious, and did the bod-pod testing and found out that I have very low body fat, but wonder if I still fall into the skinny-fat category because of how I eat. Sorry for the thread hijack, I'm just bored.
I think a good indicator of that would be your cholesterol?
i had a nice long post written up, of course I lost it. uggh
I agree with this, though what I think I should do and what I actually do don't always align.
I don't count calories, just try to focus on real foods, etc. Eat when I'm hungry, stop when I'm not hungry any more (not 'full', just not hungry any more). Try to limit stuff that's basically pure sugar (very rarely drink soda, I'm trying to cut down my candy habit).
I am also trying to make an effort lately to eat less of the things that are high in both carbs and fats (donuts, french fries, ice cream, potato chips, etc.) since these foods tend to be 1) calorically dense, 2) not terribly nutritious, 3) not actually filling, so you can eat a ton and not really notice or get full. The only food that's found in nature that's high in both carbs and fats is milk, so if you stick to natural, whole foods, you aren't going to be eating a lot of that stuff anyway.
Runs4Sanity
I eat food...
Seriously though I barely make it to 2,000 calories most days and on days I run more than 8 miles I have to force myself to eat 2,000-2,100 calories and that is really hard. I love my salads - spinach, red leaf romaine, dried cranberries, sliced almonds, some crutons and a little bit of light ranch. I love Chobani Greek Yogurt, blueberry, black cherry, strawberry. I love fruit but I have to be careful cause I can end up retaining a lot of water with just a couple strawberries or a couple slices of watermelon. I get my protein mainly from protein powder mixed with water, but sometimes from food. I enjoy chicken and turkey, some fish and the only beef I'll eat normally has to be 90% lean, or filet mignon. I avoid pork like the devil. My weakness is dark chocolate, or a chocolate chip cookie from subway with my 6" oven roasted chicken breast on wheat with bacon, provolone cheese, spinach, pickles and mustard. Vegetables are green beans, squash, sweet potatoes, and a couple others I can't remember. I also love coffee, love it and am happily addicted to it. Other than coffee, I drink water or Snapple Diet Green Tea. The fact that I can remember just about all of the food I eat shows how boring my life is, but I like it cause I know it and it has helped me lose my baby weight, that is my food life.
I use myfitnesspal too
*Do It For Yourself, Do It Because They Said It Was Impossible, Do It Because They Said You Were Incapable*
PRs
5k - 24:15 (7:49 min/mile pace)
10k - 51:47 (8:16 min/mile pace)
15k -1:18:09 (8:24 min/mile pace)
13.1 - 1:53:12 (8:39 min/mile pace)
26:2 - 4:14:55 (9:44 min/mile)
Heh, yeah, I know. Do as I say, not as I do! lol
I also think that the more you cook yourself, the better off you will be making good choices - you are in better control of what goes into your food.
That said... some weeks, I eat out a lot. lol
delicate flower
Most of my core diet is healthy enough. Lean meats, lots of produce, whole grains, Greek yogurt. Problem is, I supplement that with a lot of crap, mainly sweets. I have a mean sweet tooth and I do my best to keep it happy. I do try to eat healthier snacks like pretzels and popcorn. Well, except the movie popcorn but that's like once a month. I gained some weight after knee surgery but thanks to all the running I am back to my "game weight" of 152.
<3
Will run for scenery.
I used MFP and calorie counting to lose 30+ lbs before I began running. My only exercise during that time was daily walking. This may or may not work with your shin situation.
Foodwise my goal was not to make any hard sacrifices but to work towards long-term sustainable habits. So first, there were some easy sacrifices :
1) Soda. Absolute garbage, entirely unappealing once I stopped.
2) Fruit juice. Tons of calories, it's like soda in dusguise.
3) Ice Cream. It is in fact awesome, but I was able to give it up w/o cravings.
4) Pasta and rice. I like 'em, but it was easy enough to let 'em go.
Next, I identified foods that were truly, deeply satisfying. By this I mean that 10-20 minutes later I still feel very glad I ate it. For me, these were all lo carb, high protein and reasonably high fat foods. Rib eye steaks, tuna packed in olive oil over white beans, roast beef, grilled salmon, good imported cheese. Round out with fresh veggies. That's the core of what I ate.
The important thing to notice us which foods are not truly deeply satisfying. These are the things that seem awesome as you bite into them, but only leave you craving more. No amount of shoveling ever makes you feel content. For me this was sugary and other carby food : french fries, ice cream, cookies, and so on. Whenever I started feeling tempted, I just thought about the longer-term and tried to find something that would leave me feeling content afterwards.
Stupid feet!
Stupid elbow!
"Skinny-fat" seems to be someone who has a normal BMI, but a high body fat percentage.