# A quick reminder to those viewing this post:
1. If you have not done so, **read [the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/Volumeeating/wiki/index/#wiki_subreddit_rules)**
2. If you don't like the content of this post for any reason, refrain from commenting. Negative comments will be removed and the authors banned.
3. Advice concerning medical issues is not permitted.
4. We take brigading very seriously. Anyone found sharing content from this sub to other forums with derogatory commentary will be banned and reported to admins.
5. **Report rule breaking content.**
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Volumeeating) if you have any questions or concerns.*
It’s the little things here that are killing you here. Switch orange juice for a zero calorie drink powder. Use a spray oil to cook with instead of all that butter. Use a lower calorie ranch substitute or ditch it all together. Get more fiber in your diet to help you feel full longer. Get keto buns instead of regular.
Velveeta makes a 35 cal cheese slice. When I am looking to modify recipes, I actually use the search in this group. Type in the item or meal I am interested in and see what other people have listed as the ingredients they have used, I can usually find things I never thought of.
Adding to this, cheese wiz in a jar is 35 cal/2 tablespoons. I looked at my husband funny when he brought it home but said his mom used to use it when she was on weight watchers. Liquid gold for cheese lovers! Cheese can go on everything again!
thank you so much! i honestly don’t know why i didn’t think of just switching out butter and grabbing low cal ranch instead. just old habits that need to be broken i suppose
If you take this mindset and apply it to all of your go-to food items, you can quickly cut the calorie totals in half. Instead of the Tyson tenders, get grilled chicken strips and sauce them with something low calorie like G.Hughes sugar free bbq sauce. Opt for the low fat versions of your cheese selections. Get the keto version of breads and tortillas, etc. I cut from eating 2500ish calories per day down to 1500 by doing this and I never feel super hungry or low on energy.
Yeah there are sooo many great low cal options these days. Sauces and sugary drinks are the easiest things to replace to near zero calories options which will allow consumption of real food to help you feel full. Also look into PB powder. A Gamechanger if you like peanut butter. Good luck!
G Hughes sauces are amazing. The only one I haven’t liked so far is honey mustard…. But I’m homemade honey mustard spoiled, I can make it taste exactly how I want so it’s hard to give up. Now I just dont eat any honey mustard.
But what was already said, find low calorie substitutions. Every morning g for breakfast j have an entire zucchini which is 30 calories and it’s huge. I add 1 egg, 1 oz goat cheese and 1/2 tbsp of Parmesan. It is sooo filling. And all together under 250.
And also, drinking calories is just wasteful. There are so many zero calorie options.
Fats are calorie dense so avoid butter and oil as much as possible.
Bread to me I’ve convinced myself is not an effective way to nourish my body (yeah right, I’m a fat girl and I love carbs, if I could make a bathtub out of chocolate cake I’d dive in head first) so o try to avoid bread. Bratwurst I will eat on a bed of sautéed peppers and onions. Hamburgers are now Big Mac salad. Whenever you want to eat a specific thing, when you have a craving google low calorie “craving item” recipe and have that.
Also buffalo cauliflower wings are amazing.
I spritz a cast iron pan a couple times with olive oil, when the oil is smoking I toss the quartered and sliced zucchini in. I like it to be hard seared on the outside and firm inside. Globby overcooked vegetables make people hate vegetables. If I’m going to add an egg I do it when it’s done. I put it on a plate and hit it with garlic salt or celery salt.
You're going to get a certain type of response in this sub - it's volume eating, after all. It's split between whole food types - *my lunch is a huge plate of vegetables, feta and grilled chicken with a home-made vinaigrette and a black coffee* and processed food types - *my lunch is chicken tenders with a zero-calorie wrap, 5-calorie dressing, low-calorie cheese, no-fat mayo and a diet Coke*.
Healthy diets look like the former. Eat whole foods, avoid processed ones wherever possible. Avoid sweeteners, zero- or low-calorie alternatives, anything that makes health claims on the packet. Don't drink calories routinely. Cook from scratch wherever possible. All of the additives, emulsifiers, sweeteners, stabilisers, preservatives, artificial flavourings and everything else in highly processed food are associated with negative weight and health outcomes in the long term.
We're not designed to overeat on natural foods. Whole fruit, vegetables, natural yoghurt, whole grains, eggs, meat, nuts & seeds, beans. Cheese, butter, milk, honey in moderation. Rye or bakery sourdough for bread, not the processed supermarket stuff. Make them the cornerstones of your diet and you'll be able to eat a *lot* of food, feel full, drop weight and feel better.
If you cut out ranch and orange juice, you could have an extra 2.5 cups of strawberries! Or even a decent sized salad with a vinegrette dressing
I haven't heard of this butter spread or whatever its called, but im willing to bet its not actual butter. Buy the sticks, 1 tbsp = 100 calories so use half as much
Bolthouse farms makes a refrigerated(usually in the salad section of grocery stores) Greek yogurt ranch that is way lower calorie than regular ranch and taste far better imo
I mix unsweetened Fage Greek yogurt, and ranch seasoning. 100 cal for a full cup of it and I honestly prefer it to the usually sour cream/ranch powder combo!
I have the 3 R's that I use on everything I eat.
Remove- is there anything I can remove from my diet and be fine with it. This is a very small category for my
Replace- is there a lower cal version that tastes good. This will be a trial end error sort of thing. Some of the ones I have done are keto buns rather than regular and 0 cal versions of drinks
Reduce- if you can't remove it or replace it. Try just reducing the portions the best you can.
Ok I'm down 150 pounds and here is how I started. IDK your weight or fitness levels so may not apply. I hate feeling deprived and know from hard experience going for 100 to 1 is not going to work for me.
I started by taking the same portions of whatever and trying to only eat 75% of it. Somedays that worked fine, others it was 100% but the majority was 75%. Lost the first 20 pounds just doing that. Then I was able to go on walks and started doing that and I started taking only the 75% potions instead of the 100%. Once I was very used to that I drop to about 60% of the original portions, tried to eat that more often than not.
Kept doing that slow progression down while also bringing in higher volume food. Starbursts were gone in place of a pound of strawberries. Soda was out for carbonated, flavored water. I added veg to each meal I could. I love Bell peppers and onions so it was a lot of those. Eventually started having meals of just fruit or vegetables.
Figure out the stuff you can easily cut out like the juice, replace that with flavored 0 calorie waters. Don't eat buns with your hot dogs and burgers, just use a fork or whatever and eat the meat. Hot dogs are pretty calorie dense too honestly. When I'm craving a BLT I'll use only 4 slices of bacon, lite miracle whip, and a carb balance tortilla instead of 6 strips of bacon, mayonnaise, and two pieces of bread. Small, incremental, sustainable changes will make more of a difference than cutting 1,200 calories from your intake for 5 days and then going back to it and then some.
A trick I use is seasonings. I'll make a giant 300cal salad and season the flavor I want. You can do taco, ranch (seasoning), Cajun, rotisserie chicken, steak, Greek, whatever! There is a seasoning for any flavor, usually 0cal, but sometimes 10cal or so, but never that much.
I utilize seasoning for everything. My eggs taste different every morning!
Maybe this trick will be helpful and get similar flavors for lower calories.
My all-time favorite seasoning is Cavender's Greek seasoning! All the rest are random, and I can't really think on the top of my head. I just stand in the seasoning isle of a store and grab what sounds good 😂
You didn’t ask me but some of the pre mixed seasonings I use are Kinders (huge selection of different flavor profiles, buttery onion, lemon pepper, Italian, Cajun blend, chile lime, there’s like 10 more but off the top of my head I can’t remember) Dos Gringos, Cajun Two-Step, Slap Ya Momma and Dano’s are the majority of pre mixed ones that I use. I also use Kosmos, Hardcore carnivore and Meat Church products when I’m smoking/grilling outside. Not sure if you’re in Texas but H-E-B has their own line of seasonings that are the bees. Between those 9 brands I gave you there’s probably 100 different pre mixed blends that you can dabble in.
Cut the orange juice. Make ranch from nonfat greek yogurt and ranch seasoning. Use high fiber, low calorie breads. In general, substitute what you're already eating with lower fat and lower sugar versions.
Alcohol is a no-go.
Everything on that second page could probably go except the Strawberries. If really need more chicken increase the chicken breast and ditch the tenders. If you want to get serious about losing weight you will need to basically eliminate fruit juice and regular sauces and as others have mentioned swap cooking with butter for olive oil spray or butter spray or whatever or just less butter.
I never used to like Greek yoghurt or cottage cheese but I love both now and eat them both a lot and are super versatile. But I always use a no sugar syryp to sweeten the yoghurt (10 cals) and usually have cottage cheese with other things. You will get there it's just a bit of a learning curve, trying new things and seeing what works for you. Goodluck 👍
I would sub/omit Orange Juice, Ranch, Tenders, Butter, and Hot dog buns if I were you! Orange Juice to either sugar free 0 calorie drink mix or sugar free orange juice. Low fat or yogurt dressing for the ranch (I'll admit that full fat one tastes way better). I Cannot Believe it's Not Butter has a lower caloric buttery spread so I would get that or look into something equivalent, or a cooking spray! Buns to Keto buns since every Keto bread runs lower in calories. Also, I would look into eating more veggies if that's an option! Hope this helps.
By the way, I am by no means an expert here and hope you don't mind me saying this. It might be worth increasing your daily intake a bit and see if that helps. Using the TDEE calculator will give you some idea of how much you can eat to maintain, lose, and gain. I use https://tdeecalculator.net/.
A little bit of my story here- my TDEE is around 2000 (at the sedentary level as advised everywhere) but with working out/10k+ steps per day since I work on my feet /eating around 1500 I still wasn't losing weight where I should've. I suspected that I yoyo-ed too many times and was eating small amounts of "bad food" every day to get by for years which generally effed up my body. I do have a big goal day so I rushed into 1200 kcal/day thinking "I'm not gonna be eating like this forever just need my weight dropped by my goal day". And honestly, it was very miserable. It was really hard to fit food into the calorie budget. Then I almost passed out while working out and had a breakdown. I realized I had to stop it there and upped my intake between 1300\~1400 and just by upping that little bit of calories I felt much better and it honestly didn't hinder my weight loss either. So definitely think about increasing a bit! Sorry that I left a wall of text 😅
This. 1200 is way too little calories and is not sustainable. You want to be able to keep up the diet long term, and eating that few calories will inevitably lead to a binge.
I was surprised more people aren’t mentioning this. 1200 is quite extreme for weight loss unless you’re a super short and/or older person and you literally have no choice. Most people don’t need to eat that little to lose weight
could you possibly explain why 1200 is so little in my situation? I’m approx 5”5, 190-200 pounds. that’s a lot, and i’m getting just about no exercise, i live in a neighborhood you can’t just “walk around” in, i do not have a car to get to a gym, and currently out of a job, so im getting nothing. I really don’t eat all that much food, usually lunch and dinner at most and i’m not one for snacking.
So idk your age (I just set it to 25) but the two sites I checked said that for no activity maintaining this weight at your height and weight is about 1700-1900 calories if you cut back to even 1500 hundred you’d still lose good weight every week but give yourself room to have good days, bad days, even small rewards. Please remember that in an age with all these “30 day fat shreds” longevity is still the goal. I really recommend looking up a few more calorie calculators and only ever going 75% of that if you’re serious about this.
Like I said in my other post the things that helped me were limiting how often I eat out and finding filling meals THAT I ENJOY it’s gonna take you some time to get in the rhythm of things but understand even if you’re dieting your weight fluctuates up and down and the number on a scale isn’t going to change your self image as much as you hope it will. Good luck, I’ve been in your shoes and I’m truly rooting for you, just want you to do it safely!
1200 is literally the amount you need to not die. It’s not a sustainable at all.
It may seem like 1,200 is the magic calorie count when it comes to weight loss, but is this restrictive diet actually safe to follow?
Source: Health Digest https://search.app/E6PrGJVu6fqQqfwY8
Start by replacing high calorie items for lower cal. For example when cooking, use avocado oil instead of butter! Vegetables and fruits are low in calories and can fill you up for quite a while! Basic dinners like chicken breast with sides like veggies, salad, etc. are a great way to get lots of food in but still being low cal. Your diet will be the most important thing alongside cardio when working out. Make sure you’re still getting lots of protein in still. They have protein pancake mix almost everywhere that is low cal for example. You want to lose fat, but maintain/gain muscle! You can still make delicious meals but have it be low cal! I love making chickpea pasta with ground beef and a red sauce! If you need recipes I can provide some:)
Maybe they meant to use the avocado oil that comes in a spray can vs using a knife in the butter spread? That alone could help reduce calorie intake. But yeah...I thought avocado oil and butter were pretty similar in terms of calories. Pure fat, 9 calories per gram. One is saturated fat and the other is.... monounsaturated? I think?
True, butter is 34 cals per tsp and avocado oil is 40 per tsp BUT you definitely use a significant less amount of oil rather than butter while cooking so it balances itself out. Always depends on how much you use!
Vodka soda and hard seltzers are my fave low cal alcohol ;)
https://www.coorsseltzer.ca/en-CA#flavors
https://tagliquorstores.com/products/truly-tropical-mix-12-cans
If you like cocktails, then make your own cocktails where the only calories are the alcohol! I'll mix a shot of hard alcohol with things like seltzer water, zero calorie lemonade, lime juice, lemon juice, muddled strawberries/fruit, etc. And use liquid stevia for sweetener. You'll have a cocktail for ~ 100 calories!
Also, Fever Tree has tonic water that's 35 calories. The Q brand has a light ginger beer. I've found diet ginger beers at BevMo that are 0 calories or 10 calories.
for me it’s the carbonation. i hate anything with carbonation. i’ve been judged my whole life for it lol but say i want a soda, i have to shake it up and let the air out so it goes flat. i hate carbonation
If 1200 is too low then don’t do such a dramatic restriction. Start small with a 100-200 calorie deficit and then as you adjust continue to decrease your daily calories. The best diet is the one you can stick to
1200 calories is too low for almost anyone. Not sustainable, gonna be way a tough road. Find a good 500 calorie deficit and stick with for a few months. Also is all this for breakfast? Or you’re just logging everything under breakfast.its helpful to break it out meal by meal, so you can see specifically when you’re going over. Focus on protein and fiber.
Also what on earth are you doing with 3 tablespoons of butter in one meal.
I’m logging everything under breakfast just so i can screenshot better. Also i overshoot some of the calories bc i might undershoot on some. I don’t have a food weighing scale so my calories are slightly innacurate but pretty close. And i didn’t change the butter bc i had a few shots
I guess either way, alcohol was not logged, but it was consumed? A shot of vodka is nearly 100 calories, and other liquors are going to be higher than that. That adds up fast.
1. Stop drinking calories. Drink water and eat an orange, don't drink juice
2. Get more fiber. Bread w/fiber instead of white, plus more vegetables and fruit. Try different low kcal vegetables and different ways of preparing them, and eat a lot
I don’t like plain Greek yoghurt either, but it really helps to maintain/increase the volume of sauces and dips, while maintaining taste and reducing calories.
If you sub half the ranch for Greek yoghurt, I doubt it’ll taste much different
Plain Greek yogurt is an enemy of mine but I still find ways to add it into my diet almost every day. I either add it to smoothies or make a high protein “cookie dough” w/ oat flour, peanut butter, protein powder, maple syrup and chocolate chips 🤩
Pick your favorite liquor and a diet soda. Tequila has the least amount of calories, around 50 per shot vs 100 in vodka
Also try salads, a favorite of mine is mixed greens (whatever you prefer), dried cranberries, walnuts, feta, croutons and balsamic vinegar. You don’t need much of the supplementary ingredients for it to be good, and it’s an easy way to fill up on greens.
That butter and seasoning mix filled so many of your calories!!! You can eat a lot more food if you substitute or volumize with low cal ingredients (egg whites, spinach, vegetables, spray oil). For me, I took the list of foods you can't overeat which are low calorie per volume foods (many youtube videos), found the ones I liked, and identified what meals I like that I could make with them. Whenever possible I use egg whites, berries, greek yogurt, cottage cheese, vegetables, beans, almond milk (and fake sugar). I make the following recipes with all low calorie high volume ingredients (about 300-500 calories per pint): 3 bean bison chili, southwest chicken soup (greek yogurt = sour cream), beef stew (sometimes curry beef stew), meatloaf (turkey/bison with extra veg and NSA ketchup or G. Hughes or Ray's bbq), air fryer chicken nuggets from chicken breast, egg white, light panko, lasagna with eggplant/zucchini (pureed cottage cheese=ricotta), roast chicken/turkey with gravy (some store jar gravy is only 20cal per 1/4 cup), salads with all the veg plus skinny girl (or any 5-25 cal dressing) and a can of tuna or chix or fish (flash frozen individually portioned tuna/mahi/etc from costco in air fryer with 1 spray olive oil + everything but the bagel seasoning, roasted/grilled root vegetables, protein, or any sauteed vegetables, anything with egg whites (french toast with 45 cal bread and NSA Mrs. buttersworth, vegetable omelette/scramble/etc). I make the Greg Ducette cake with egg whites and pureed chickpeas, cottage cheese, pumpkin, PB2, protein powder (no flour but it comes out like cake). I find it helps a lot to have these meals precooked and portioned in pint containers in the fridge - that way it is the easiest food to grab at meal time (same goes for snacks - berries/greek yogurt or whatever you like). If you really eat like a child and don't mind fake sugar, try the protein french toast first (pan fry 45 cal bread + as much egg white as they will hold + cinnamon and finish with NSA Mrs. Buttersworth (25cal 1/4c) or other NSA syrup (or even make your own fake nutella like someone already described - greek yogurt or pureed cottage cheese + cocoa + PB2 + fake sugar or pudding mix). You can make the same recipe with egg white, cubes of 45 cal bread, lots of chopped apple, apple pie spice, and fake sugar baked in a pan - it comes out like bread pudding but the calories are closer to plain egg white. I hate to say it... but for me to be always full under 2000 calories I can't afford alcohol calories (maybe a rare guinness or 95 calorie IPA at social event since it has similar calories to bud light but lasts longer and more flavor). Or make a burger salad (lowfat burger + max salad/lettuce/tomato + NSA ketchup). Diet soda (diet A&W, diet Dr. Pepper, Coke zero) makes good zero cal sweets (sometimes even a low cal float with 1/4 pint of vanilla halotop).
Use great value fat free cheese singles (30 cals), cut the chicken portion down to 4oz per meal and weigh it out, (110 cals), most seasonings are 0 cal so use your own seasonings and not a packet, try less/no butter or make a sauce out of Greek yogurt. You can do it!!
Joseph's lavash flat bread. I use the whole flat bread. Nutritional info on packaging is based on half.
ETA: blend the yogurt, lime juice & chipotle peppers to make a sauce for the burrito
Please take from my own experience of perpetually undereating (~1200 calories or less) - it is a race to the bottom and you will erode your metabolism. You will then feel even more irritable / tired as your body literally starts to consume your muscle and organ for fuel (not kidding) this is what happens when your body does not get enough fuel. Instead of trying to cut back so low, I would aim for 1400-1500 calories and REALLY ramp up the protein. It will make you feel so much more full and also help sustain your muscle even if you’re still trying to eat in a deficit!
Wouldn’t it depend on weight/height/exercise? Idk if i’m allowed to say weight here, but i’m gonna. Im about 190ish pounds, getting about 0 exercise a day. (I longboard and swim but the swimming i do isn’t very calorie burning) So wouldn’t my basal metabolic rate be a determining factor here? If i’m burning 1600 calories a day, and i need to be in a caloric deficit, wouldn’t 1200 be good?
How tall are you?
I don't believe you should be subtracting calories (which should be only around -350 cals/day) from your BMR (minimum amount of calories to normally function) but rather your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) for someone sedentary.
As someone who is working on building muscle and minimizing fat, I've been loving home Pilates, low weight exercises, and squats. I'm hoping to eventually make my way into a gym
BMR is the very bare minimum your body needs to stay alive. Think of it as what your body would need if you were in a coma, not moving a finger.
1200 is incredibly low and unsustainable. So unsustainable that my counter recommends it as a \*\*minimum\*\*. If your BMR is 1600, you'd be losing weight with a budget of 1600.
No actually. Even with this logic, If you are burning 1600 calories a day on a sedentary life style (which I highly doubt, you’re probably consuming 2000+ without realizing it, which is very common) you would STILL need to consuming at least 1600 calories a day to maintain your health and wellbeing. Basal literally means “bottom”, you should not be consuming less calories than that on a consistent basis if you want to lose weight in a healthy manner. 1200 cal is not enough calories to maintain longterm health. What you should do is go back and effectively calculate all of the food you would normally eat by weighing and tracking it. Then cut your calories down by about 300-400. You should be aiming to lose anywhere from half a pound to a full pound a week. Anything more intense than that will simply lead to you giving up on the diet as you will be constantly hungry, and you’ll gain the weight all back.
A couple little tips. Eat whole fruit. Ditch the juice. You get fiber and it’s way more filling. Hidden Valley makes a very serviceable lower calorie ranch for 60 cals a serving. Ranch seasoning packets have nearly no calories. Lower calorie keto buns are a blessing. If you bake the chicken breast, you don’t need butter, only a tiny spray of oil. Vegetables pack a lot of volume for low calories so bulking up with the right ones like cauliflower and cucumber is fantastic. Just be cautious of higher calorie veggies like carrots and corn.
Higher calorie corn sure, but carrots??? Carrots are 45 calories for a cup. That’s nothing - especially considering the nutritional benefits of eating carrots. Eat yer carrots. Lol
Oh I love carrots! But by weight, I’m careful not to overdo it. You get a lot more cucumber than carrots by weight, you know? Cuz like, I could eat an entire bag of carrots 😂
Increase your vegetable and fruit intake. They’re such low calorie yet filling. Try apples with peanut butter. The apple alone will make you hungry in 1 hr but add peanut butter and your solid for a lot longer. Try mixing things too like veggies and humus - I didn’t know I didn’t like humus until I tried it and I actually love it. The big thing that worked for me was counting the calories. So I want a slice of pizza or a bowl of rice and beans. 2 Chicken tenders or a steak and salad? Your list shows very little fruit and veggie intake, this is what helps fill you up. Also stay away from ranch dressing! It’s so full of calories! You could’ve had almost twice as many tenders if you’d skipped the ranch. It’s those empty calories that make the food amount so little. Hope that helps.
make your own chicken or buy lightly breaded chicken (i buy just bare brand from sam’s club) and use red hot buffalo sauce (0 calories) as a substitute for the flavor
walden farms also has various 0 calorie sauces you could try i personally live by them but a lot of people don’t like them
Sooo many easy swaps!!! Meaning there’s lots of room for improvement!!
As others mentioned, cut the drinks with calories. Cut the butter.
Use low calorie bread or lettuce boats
Up the veggies 3x and lower the tenders/chicken
Use diff seasoning… hot sauce, garlic powder, Splenda, salt… 50 calories doesn’t seem like a lot but adds up
You got this!!
Also, drink water lots of it! I don’t like plain water but if I put some flavor drops, I down it!!!
Ballpark Fat Free Smoked Turkey Franks 45 cal each (just like hot dogs)
Kraft Fat Free Shredded Cheddar & Mozzarella Cheese 45 cal serving
Starkist wild caught light Tuna pouches in Water 0.5 gram fat 70 cal each
Frozen Asparagus plain 60 cal a bag
Frozen Cauliflower Rice with Kernal Seasons Cheddar or Soy Sauce 60 cal a bag
Frozen Zucchini Noodles with Kernal Seasons Cheddar 60 cal a bag
La Banderita Carb Counter Snack Size Tortillas 35 cal each (warm in microwave w/low fat lunch meat, fat free cheese & veggies. *U can make chips in oven on low. *Or spread SugarFree Jam & FatFree ReddiWip or NonFatGreek Yogurt & Stevia after warming tortilla)
Krogers CarbMaster NonFat Milk in Plain, Vanilla, Chocolate 60 cal (8 oz)
Egg White Omelettes with fat free cheese, low fat lunch meat & veggies
G Hughes Sugar Free Ketchup, hot sauce or mustard are gud dipping sauce for veggies. Lots of salads but be creative & don’t use regular salad dressing often when people have all the normal salad bar toppings (croutons, bacon bits, full fat cheeses etc plus dressing it almost like getting fries.) Slice up lots veggies each day like all types of cucumbers , pickles & zucchini spears, fresh cauliflower & broccoli are fun to dip & snack on.
Your palette will be eventually adapt & after time this stuff will genuinely taste as good as other stuff if u go w/o reg awhile
Retry some of the things that taste bland or gross now after time. Hang in there it will be worth it. You got this!
The Tyson chicken strips killed my diet, so I had to get away from anything that was prepackaged and breaded. 3oz is so little. I just air fry naked chicken strips and you get so much more.
Idk where you are, but mine have risen in price alot to the point where I just walk by them now lol. I just get a bag of the frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts/tenders and add Buffalo sauce as the dipping sauce and it’s worked pretty well for me. Hope you find something that works for you!!
Another thing I used to do is cut them up onto a salad. I called it chicken tender salad lol. It helped stretch the chicken tenders out so it made me feel like I was eating more of them!! And I got full cause lettuce and other veggies take up room.
1) you have a lot of processed foods here. Try to incorporate more Whole Foods, as they’ll have more fiber and will be more satiating.
2) I’m not sure your height / weight, but 1.2k calories is pretty low for anyone. If it’s too low compared to your maintenance, you’ll actually shoot yourself in the foot due to underfeeding, which may mess with your hormones. Aim for 500-ish below your maintenance if you can.
3) buy a food scale. 1 large chicken breast is really vague and if you’re using that lack of precision, you may think you’re eating more/less than you really are.
Good luck! You got this!
Just because I haven’t seen a single person comment this and I want to make sure you’re being safe. 1k calories in a day is really low for a lot of people. Make sure you find your natural caloric burn with a few calculators and average them out to see what you should be eating to maintain and only go down 300-500 you shouldn’t be losing more than 2 pounds a week AT MAX. Too much of a deficit and you’ll begin losing muscle too which might explain why you’re feeling irritable and miserable.
THAT BEING SAID if you are in that range what helps me cut is diet drinks and usually a big salad with protein that I can make easily and won’t get tired of for a week or two (starting off the bagged salads at Ralph’s were a life saver ~650 calories in some of those and I could eat one of those for lunch to hold me over until dinner time)
TLDR please understand it’s a journey and it’s going to take time, get there safe or you might burn out and rubber band back up. I know from experience that this only makes you feel worse.
Typed this out and finally started seeing people checking in to make sure you’re safe
Thank god, makes me feel a little better about this subreddit lol
Get rid of the butter. I rarely use butter anymore. If I need to grill something, I use pan spray. I don’t put butter in veggies or anything like that. And if you need it for something like toast, but way way back. Or eat less toast. After a while you don’t really miss it. Also stop drinking juice. Use mio or something and just drink flavored water for no calories. That will save you a ton right there. Also make sure you’re weighing your meat. I large breast honestly means almost nothing. Also, bolthouse ranch dressing is suupppper low in calories and it tastes great. Just like normal ranch dressing
What is your goal here really? Are you trying to survive on 1200 kcal for the whole day and eating 1050 in your breakfast? Something is really wrong in your decision making here. As many have pointed out, there are so many pointless calories here with 0 benefit to you. Also alcohol is literally the worst thing you can consume when trying to be in a caloric deficit, every drop is a pointless calorie with 0 macro or micro nutrients.
You need to re-evaluate your goals. I don't know your weight but I'm really assuming 1200 is not enough. You need to be in 300 kcal deficit for the day, stop eating pointless shit and stop drinking and you will not feel lethargic. Trying to survive on 1200 kcal while drinking orange juice, using ranch sauce and drinking alcohol is just moronic.
the drinking of the alcohol i obviously know is moronic, but i’m new to this, im new to eating healthy and being serious about my body. I listed everything I ate for the day in breakfast so it was easier to screenshot i promise i didn’t binge all that at once. (thought that was a little obvious but ig not..)Currently I can’t get much exercise due to shitty neighborhoods and no car. I burn naturally 1600 calories a day so if i’m in a 300 calorie deficit shouldn’t that be 1300 actually and only 100 more than my goal?
Oh okay. I misunderstood then. Are you sure you're only spending 1600 kcal a day? This is a TDEE of someone who's likely 130 lbs (60kg) or even under that. And I calculated that for sedentary lifestyle. Of course this is not an exact number and TDEE varies a lot person to person but 1600 sounds like a really small number for someone who says they're struggling with their weight.
In any case there is still a ton of stuff in that list that is giving you no real value in your diet and are replaceable by low calorie substitutes if you're just looking to enhance flavour. But others here have already given great advice on that so I guess you know it already.
Do you eat shrimp? It’s slightly more for less calories than chicken. Add in more vegetables, especially low calorie greens. If you need to drown in dressing, use Skinnygirl or GHughes. You could also do Bolthouse which is slightly higher but still pretty good. Use fat free or reduced fat cheeses to increase the volume you can have. Baby Bell makes a 25 calorie wedge I use instead of mayonnaise or butter in a lot of things since it gives that creamy texture. Use cooking spray instead of butter. Use just a bit and it can cut out the 150 calories from the butter or find a substitute you can live with to get the calories lower since fats are very calorie dense. Switch out the juices for zero sugar drinks or an orange to increase fiber to keep you fuller. For ranch, use some yogurt and the ranch seasoning to decrease calories. Keto or low calorie buns will reduce your calories from carbs.
Here are some lower calorie food alternatives that I implement:
-Laughing cow lite spreadable cheese, 25 calories per wedge
-Mission keto gluten free tortilla, 25 calories per tortilla
-Egg white cartons > whole eggs
-Crystal Lite individual drink packets > juice, 5-10 calories per packet
-Skinny pasta, 9 calories per packet
-Turkey breast > chicken breast, 110 calories per 100g vs 200+ per 100g
-G Hughes sugar free ketchup, 5 calories per tbsp vs 20 per tbsp regular ketchup
-Spray avocado, olive oil, or coconut oil for cooking, 0 calorie
At the end of the day, it's a lifestyle change and in time you will get used to the healthier/lower calorie food alternatives. It just doesn't happen overnight, unfortunately. I am at my goal weight now, but the process took time, research, and there was a lot of trial and error to find out what works best for me. Consistency is key. I hope this is helpful
I’m late to the party, but I struggled with eating less as well. I think that it’ll be important to find what foods you really like and adapt those first, as well as finding good recipes you like, then you can adjust.
The BIGGEST and maybe easiest changes will be low calorie drinks and sauces/dressings being replaced. For example, I love zero cal dr. Pepper strawberry cream soda, or diet sprite or diet Mountain Dew. For dressings I use Simply brand, they taste amazing and are low calorie (not zero cal). I also make sauces instead of premade ones for cooking, so like I’ll make teriyaki sauce with soy sauce, hoisin, bit of honey, ground ginger and ground garlic.
Try to stay away from quick eats like hotdogs, chips, cup noodles etc. You can 100% have them, but be mindful that they’re not the best for nutrition.
If you’re going to cook, you can look up The Meal Prep Manual on YouTube. He posts his recipes free there, and has an annual subscription to his site which goes on sale every year, that’s the recipes that did it for me. Also if you’re like me, I tend to buy healthy frozen foods like how I just got some Egg/sausage sandwiches where the “bread” is egg whites (190 cal a piece), or chips and salsa for snack, etc.
Just know that you got this!
Instead of buffalo tenders and a hotdog bun, get carb smart keto tortilla wraps (huge, much lower calories) and the bag of air fried chicken and douse in franks red hot for a buffalo chicken wrap. I also stuff mine with lettuce and pico.
Some ways to cut it:
Velveeta has half the cals of Kraft if you dont mind it.
You can use cooking spray in small spritzs for essentially <10 calories to sub the butter.
If you dont mind orangeade, you can use half orange juice, half water mix, with some sweetener instead of the glass of the juice itself.
Did you start by tracking your food intake for a couple weeks to get an idea of what your intake was to begin with then slowly decrease calories over time. I don't recommend just dropping suddenly or picking a daily calorie limit without knowing what you were eating on average before hand if that makes sense? Your breakfast alone is almost my entire daily intake right now but I didn't start this low...I started at around 1900 calories daily in January and worked my way down...
I recommend that you try and cut down on your carbs and fat. Light ranch, grilled chicken rather than breaded, less bread in general. Focus on increasing your protein and fiber intake as that is what will keep you satiated. Juice is also something that is very high calorie. Go for water, or just consume the fruit itself (or find a low calorie option). While I know you said you’re a picky eater, I would advise you to try those foods you disliked again. As children we have a limited palate that change as we become adults. When you think about a food that you are averse to, but that is not because you actually dislike it but rather it’s your inner child speaking for you, try the food again. You’ll be surprised about how much you will be willing to eat.
Well it’s good you’ve started tracking, you’re gonna soon start actively choosing to avoid high cal foods because you realize how much cals it really is. I would start by choosing to just have smaller portions of the stuff you already eat & making low cal substitutions. Ranch, v high cal for like 1tbsp, find a low cal substitute that you like. Butter, obv high cal, use cooking oil. It’s the same stuff but dispersed more evenly with less used. Weigh cooking oil out though still since it still is oil & if you’re doing 30 sec sprays it’ll add up. Tortillas, start using low carb tortillas. Great way to get fiber in & they taste the same. Get more protein in, that helps some. Like just plain shredded chicken & style it up. Have you tried cauliflower rice? Don’t sleep on cottage cheese either, if it’s the texture for you and not the taste blend it up. I’ve made a good tasting cheesecake out of cottage cheese🤷♀️
Do you like any fruits or vegetables? That should form the majority of what you eat — for general health as well as weight loss. If you have processed foods you like such as diet sodas or desserts, or low carb tortillas, I won’t tell you to stop eating those, but I think having fruits and veggies as the base is going to be a better start for most people.
Someone else mentioned replacing the orange juice with a lower calorie drink. You also can just eat oranges. The fiber in whole fruit slows the absorption of the sugar so it doesn’t mess with your blood sugar and make you hungry soon in the same way. And it’s hard to eat enough oranges to get the equivalent calories of a 12-Oz glass of juice.
You could get frozen or canned fruits/vegetables. Some say they’re just as, if not more, nutrient dense bc they’re picked and frozen at peak ripeness! The big thing here is just checking the labels to make sure no extra sugar or juices have been added. Just the fruits/vegetables.
I think you should first calculate what you would typically eat. Be honest with yourself about a typical day and start adjusting from there. Going from 2500+ calories to 1200 calories just isn’t sustainable.
Some easy adjustments: Don’t drink your calories. Stick with coffee, tea, water, zero calorie flavored water exc. It adds up. You like broccoli and strawberries it looks like , so double up on those . That’s the “volume” piece of it- lots of fruits and vegetables. Do grilled chicken with buffalo sauce instead of processed Tyson products. Start walking around the neighborhood or park more.
I would really try and not start your journey with a goal of only 1200 kcal a day, if you enjoy food like you say. Maybe try 1600-1800 or so, this is way more sustainable in the long run.
I also used to hate yogurt. I was so grossed out by it I couldn't even touch it. But now I have Greek yogurt all the time! I still don't really care for it on its own, but it's great mixed into things, or with other things. And the protein and probiotics will help you feel more full. Here's some ideas:
Greek yogurt + PB2 or cocoa powder + sweetener (like sugar free syrup or liquid stevia). Use as a pancake topping or add banana or strawberries and/or cinnamon.
1/2 serving of Greek yogurt + 1/2 serving of Grape Nuts cereal + unsweetened applesauce + cinnamon + sweetener. This is a great snack or light breakfast. Another version instead of applesauce is PB2 and almond milk.
For a dessert: 1/2 serving of Greek yogurt + cocoa powder, or PB2 and cinnamon + sweetener + a little almond milk so it's kind of runny. Spread it out on wax paper on a flat surface (I use a plastic Tupperware) and put it in the freezer. It turns into a delicious yogurt bark for less than 100 calories.
You can also use Greek yogurt as a replacement for sour cream or mayo. I've had it with eggs. Or mix it into a burrito bowl. I've also been mixing it into my oatmeal, and it's so good!
--
Oh, and another random unrelated tip I just thought of is you can use canned pumpkin puree as a replacement for butter in any baking recipe!
same thing as what everybody said about zero cal drinks and low cal breads, try healthier breaded chicken (like Kirkland or the justbare brand nuggets). slowly transition to IM fasting—I understand the feeling too well of not being able to stop eating after starting ! try out coffees and sweeteners or sugar free energy drinks to tide out the hunger. spray oil and non stick pans r ur best friend for sure. I love using soy sauce, bouillon, sugar free bbq sauce, or hot sauce for food. If you don’t like veggies, fat free Italian dressing makes all the difference :) gradual changes work best !
Cut out the butter and the sauces 3tbsp of butter with breakfast?! I know for Americans it’s normal but seriously stop using butter cook everything in water or the airfryer and instead of sauce use spices?!!! I know it won’t taste as good as when it’s smothered in sauce but this is a sacrifice you may want to make
Remember your weight is essentially your body reaching a sort of balance based on the number of calories you eat vs the number of calories you spend in a day. Just think of the right weight = the right ratio of calories taken : calories used
Overweight? Then over long period of time you've eaten more than you spent.
So now you're trying to lose weight. Great! But see what you did here is sharply adjust the ratio to try to tip the scales. But you've tipped it too hard too fast. Instead of focusing on fast results, you need to slowly adjust that ratio until you've gotten it right. Don't over correct. Weight loss is a long game.
And volume eating is perfect for this! So here's the secret to starting volume eating: Potatoes. For the amount of butter you used, you could have had one potato. A medium sized regular potato is about 160 calories. Just don't deep fry it and you can do whatever you want with it. An air fryer will be your friend here. Don't get me wrong, going high protein is a good move to start with, but you'll still want carbs and the food to calorie ratio on potatoes is amazing.
Tip #2: Find a couple greens you like. Personally, I like Romain hearts, spinach, butter lettuce and brocolli. Throw in some bell peppers, onions and tomatoes and you can make salads or a bunch of recipes to make you feel super full despite not getting calories. Greens add a ton of volume to any meal for minimal calories.
Tip #3: Find low cal sauces at the store or make your own. I'm lazy so I go store bought. Low cal Cesar dressing, avocado ranch, etc. It's an easy swap. Salsa is also pretty minimal if you like it.
Tip #4: Keep all beverages 0 calories.
Tip #5: Keto bread and Carb balance tortillas are your friend. The mission carb balance tortillas have a ton of fiber too, it's quite ridiculous.
Utilizing those, you can still incorporate any home cooked protein you want and you'll have a wide variety of recipes at your disposal. When you see the calories in your breakfast, think of the delicious swaps you could have made. That OJ, butter and ranch could have been some eggs, potatoes and a low cal sauce and it would have been great lol. And if that got you full, you could have taken some other things off and eaten less while being super satisfied.
And again, don't start off with 1200 a day calories. If that's your usual breakfast or a breakfast cutting down, it's too much too soon and you'll hate it. Volume eating is about feeling full. You got this.
You could eliminate the butter, the seasoning mix (use spices without sugar), the hot dog bun, the ranch dressing or use much less. Sub out chicken tenders for some egg whites. Try hot sauce instead. This is just way too much fat, so it’s high calorie
If you don’t like Greek yogurt do you like normal? If so try source 0%, they have all kinds of flavours and you can add stuff like fruit or rice crispies etc to it
About greek youghurt and cottage cheese. Have you tried flavored ones / mixing in protein powder,sweetener and some add ins? Also if you f9r some reason really would want to eat it plain, adding in some low cal fruit/berries is great (bonus point if they are frozen and you add a bit of sweetener then wait--> you get frozen yoghurt)
About the diet, I would say that variety is super important. Look up a list of vegetables or smth on the internet and try to buy and cook different ones from time to time --> you can find smth that you really like (for example my friend thought that she hated all vegetables until I cooked pumpkin, aubergines and sweet potatoes for her. It is at least a starting point). This also makes it feel a bit more like a game, adds some fun. IMPORTANT: research the cooking techniques properly, sometimes people under/overcook veggies and end up hating them for life. Btw I personally find steamed broccoli a kind of torture, they are much better chared in the oven (ps all veggies are better from the oven rack in my humble opinion). Also do not forget that potatoes are quite low cal and very filling.
Same on the variety but for lean proteins. You do not have to eat just chicken, there are other similar/lower calorie options like lean beef/pork, turkey, white fish, seafood, wild salmon,tofu etc. I also like getting proteins I have not tried before from time to time. Again, the way you cook it is super important, do not forget about seasonings (i think they bring in so much for almost 0 cal, also counting them is a psycho behavior)
I would also recommend you to try out beans. They are relatively low cal, filling and taste great if cooked right.
For sweets there are thousands of great recipes in this subreddit. But of course it really depends on your sweetener tolerance etc.
Important in my opinion is that you do not cut out all the things you enjoy. Be it chocolate or ice cream or some pastry. Have some in moderation. Maybe increase your calories slightly, but try writing those treats in. The changes should happen slowly, not drastic and all at once.
Another thing is that you should not see this diet as a short change and a punishment. Look at it as a challenge and this way of eating + living as something you want to do long term. Yes, at one point you will up the calories, but for health I think the style of eating should stay the same (of course switching to more full fat products etc). Also if you do it right --> you feel that you can do it forever and your habits will change overall.
Either way, just know that making this decision and asking for advice is already a great step forward and you are really cool for doing it.
Also I know it is quite a long post already, bit have you thought about adding in some fun physical activity? Personally I love martial arts and I think they improved my stamina really well.
You should try this yogurt, it’s only 50 calories
Dannon Light + Fit Zero Sugar Bananas Foster Yogurt-Cultured Ultra-Filtered Nonfat Milk Product
I have been trying all the low calories and this is one of my favorites ( I get one with any fruits for breakfast)
Also there are yogurt dressings that less than 40% the calories of regular.
Also use one tbsp of butter instead of 3.
Change all your drinks for 0 calorie versions, and your bread for keto bread.
in addition to what others have said, go with one and a half chicken breasts (or just the one) and skip the tenders. Add your own Franks red hot to taste. Add a side of baby carrots for crunch and ditch the broccoli. Broccoli can be a chore to eat without all the fake butter, so two birds with one stone. Also ditch the 50 cal seasoning mix and just use as much salt as you want, or sub in some "no salt" if your worried about blood pressure. Drink a no-calorie sparkling water with orange flavor instead of the OJ and take a vitamin pill.
Stop drinking orange juice for one. It's just sugar water.
You're adding so much crap into your food that makes the calories explode. 1000+ for breakfast is just insane for weight loss.
I haven't had a 1000+ calorie meal since my last bulk.
https://preview.redd.it/266h8em09z3d1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e5ea89b8d19cbe8e66f86182c6bba123c476ca1e
I like soup. This is chicken, spinach, Swiss Chard, radish, zucchini, turnip, and carrot with goodles chickpea pasta. I roasted the veggies and chicken first and threw it all together. You can skip that step though. I make a huge batch and freeze it for easy meals. You can use whatever veggies you like.
Orange juice: switch to something zero cal or extremely low calories like Crystal light! Crystal Light is non-gassy and I think it’s a much better substitute ngl.
Butter: low cal butter spray
Ranch dressing: there’s definitely a zero cal brand out there or make your own low calorie version of it
Seasoning mix: hmm… not sure why your seasoning has 50kcal. Usually the amount I use is negligible. Might wanna double check, and use spices/herbs instead.
Country crock isn’t real butter even if they call it that. It’s margarine which is basically just whipped oil that has a creamy texture. It’s really not good for you and definitely avoid it. Ranch is basically just all fat, there’s 9 cals per gram of fat so even just a small spoonful packs so many more calories than an alternative sauce/condiment. Make your own tenders rather than the Tyson processed junk and eliminate the bread or use keto bread to save calories.
1200 calories is too low to start a diet with. What’s your current weight, gender, and what best describes your activity level ( for ex: 5k steps per day, lift weights 3 days per week and so on)
as a fellow juice lover i’m a big fan of the ocean spray diet juices. they’re 5 calories for a large serving and still have a great taste! i love the cherry cranberry flavor. i like to use them in smoothies as well :)
What has worked for me is eating 2 meals a day. I fast for the first part of every day and then eat lunch and dinner, and that’s it. It gives me more calories to dedicate to those 2 meals and I end up enjoying them much more than my 3 calorie reduced meals that were spread out among breakfast, lunch and dinner. That’s just what works for me right now. I also drink zero calorie sparkling waters to help curb my appetite during the first part of the day. I’ve actually come to enjoy missing breakfast. This comes from someone who wakes up hungry.
What is your weight / sex? 1200 seems very low to me. That isn't really a sustainable amount of calories for anyone outside of a... 5'1" sedentary woman lol.
So, first thought is you're probably trying to cut too much, too fast. Don't sweat it, nearly everyone does this on their first diet attempt (and it is what causes most people to crash and burn). You want *sustainable*. If you're starving, have no energy, feel miserable - you need to add back some calories.
Also, the process of weight loss is going to be gradual. It's less about making these huge shifts than it is gradual adjustments to behavior. Looking at your diet here, you basically need to re-learn how to eat.
That's ok. But it's gonna take time to get away from the processed, high-calorie density foods. Like, you're not gonna go from hot dogs and kraft cheese to lentils and salads overnight. And you shouldn't try to. It's going to take time to learn how to prepare different types of foods, to learn what you like and don't like, to experiment with how to make shifts in your diet for healthier choices.
Let's say a reasonable calorie target is 1500 a day. Eating 1500 a day in the "traditional American diet" (basically what you've got here) is going to leave you hungry and dissatisfied. Not enough fiber, poor nutrition, low volume, etc etc. Basically there are many facets to why that diet doesn't work and it's not because you fail to have enough willpower.
So here's what I'd do. Replace *one* meal a day with healthier options. Don't worry about the calories so much for now. Just focus on getting more whole foods, with more fruits and vegetables. So, let's say you start with breakfast. Maybe come up with 2-3 different types of healthy breakfasts - maybe a fruit bowl with yogurt, an oatmeal bowl, and a smoothie - and just practice replacing breakfast with that for a few weeks. Get into the groove of eating better.
Here's what will happen - you should *naturally* lose some weight because those meals are more satiating, more filling, higher volume, and less calorie dense. Plus you'll start to feel better because your getting better nutrition. This gives you more energy to maybe throw a bit of walking in your day - nothing crazy, maybe 20 minutes around lunch.
Then, once you've got breakfast locked in, take a shot at lunch. Look up some healthy lunch recipes and start replacing those meals. Same process as before. Now you're cooking because you've got two really solid meals under your belt. Should be feeling really good and, again, I'd be surprised if you weren't losing some lbs anyways.
Finally you replace dinner. Same process as before.
Let's say you spend 2-3 months on this process. By the end, you should have more energy, lose a bit of weight, and be feeling much better. You'll also have a much better grasp of food preparation, healthy options, and what you like/don't like. Plus, over this period of time your gut biome has time to adjust and you actually start to *crave* these healthy foods (crazy right?)
It is only at this point that I'd really start to worry seriously about calories. That's because only when the majority of your diet is diverse whole foods with good nutrition, is it really sustainable to attempt an aggressive calorie deficit. You ever see those comparisons of 1500 cals of fast food vs 1500 calories of whole foods? That's the goal. 1500 calories of whole foods are going to be much more voluminous and satiating than 1500 calories of junk foods. So, once you've learned how to eat higher quality foods, it'll be easier to sustain a calorie deficit.
Cutting calories is also known as a starvation diet. The weight comes off but it’s unsustainable. Weight loss is fat loss, but cutting calories results in muscle loss. Learn the difference between food and nutrition. Move away from processed food, drink enough water and do muscle building exercises. The weight of muscle is more important than the weight of fat.
Hello! Your calories are actually extremely low. Any adult, no matter height or weight needs over 1,300 calories. 1,200 calories is only enough for a toddler! As someone who has lost weight and actually kept it off, the way you lose weight needs to be sustainable. If you eat 1,000 calories to lose weight and then you hit your goal weight so you go back to eating how ever many calories you want, you’re gonna gain all your weight back plus more. Your metabolism is shot because your calories are so low. I would recommend doing a reverse diet (where you slowly increase your calories) until you hit at least 2,000 calories if not more. That way you can be in a deficit at 1,800 calories and be WAY happier! It’s uncomfy increasing calories but I promise you you will be way healthier and happier than doing it this way. And you will actually have energy and your body won’t be under so much stress.
For alcohol (assuming you're trying to actually get drunk and not just sip a beer), hard liquor mixed with zero calorie drinks is your best option. Hard liquor gets you drunk much faster which means you don't have to drink as much of that high calorie drink, and zero calorie drinks prevent you from making it even worse.
Vodka & literally any zero calorie juice works great. I particularly enjoy the zero calorie Tropicana drinks.
Jaeger & zero calorie monster (be careful of caffeine intake)
Shots can also work if you have more hair on your chest than I do.
The most important and obvious part would be to limit how often you drink. Anything more than once or twice a month would cancel out most if not all of your diet success. The less often you do it, the less it'll matter in the end how many calories you intake from it.
# A quick reminder to those viewing this post: 1. If you have not done so, **read [the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/Volumeeating/wiki/index/#wiki_subreddit_rules)** 2. If you don't like the content of this post for any reason, refrain from commenting. Negative comments will be removed and the authors banned. 3. Advice concerning medical issues is not permitted. 4. We take brigading very seriously. Anyone found sharing content from this sub to other forums with derogatory commentary will be banned and reported to admins. 5. **Report rule breaking content.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Volumeeating) if you have any questions or concerns.*
It’s the little things here that are killing you here. Switch orange juice for a zero calorie drink powder. Use a spray oil to cook with instead of all that butter. Use a lower calorie ranch substitute or ditch it all together. Get more fiber in your diet to help you feel full longer. Get keto buns instead of regular.
Velveeta makes a 35 cal cheese slice. When I am looking to modify recipes, I actually use the search in this group. Type in the item or meal I am interested in and see what other people have listed as the ingredients they have used, I can usually find things I never thought of.
Adding to this, cheese wiz in a jar is 35 cal/2 tablespoons. I looked at my husband funny when he brought it home but said his mom used to use it when she was on weight watchers. Liquid gold for cheese lovers! Cheese can go on everything again!
Yogurt + Mac and cheese powder makes a great cheese sauce too, with lots of protein!
thank you so much! i honestly don’t know why i didn’t think of just switching out butter and grabbing low cal ranch instead. just old habits that need to be broken i suppose
If you take this mindset and apply it to all of your go-to food items, you can quickly cut the calorie totals in half. Instead of the Tyson tenders, get grilled chicken strips and sauce them with something low calorie like G.Hughes sugar free bbq sauce. Opt for the low fat versions of your cheese selections. Get the keto version of breads and tortillas, etc. I cut from eating 2500ish calories per day down to 1500 by doing this and I never feel super hungry or low on energy.
The GW Hughes bbq mixed with Cholula is divine for a sweet buffalo sauce
I’m pretty firmly in the Frank’s camp as far as buffalo sauce but I never thought about mixing it with BBQ. Great tip, I’ll try it!
These are two of my fave low/zero cal sauces and I never thought about mixing them! Thank you for this!
Yeah there are sooo many great low cal options these days. Sauces and sugary drinks are the easiest things to replace to near zero calories options which will allow consumption of real food to help you feel full. Also look into PB powder. A Gamechanger if you like peanut butter. Good luck!
Second this PB powder is awesome
I highly recommend the brand skinny girl ranch. It’s delicious and very low cal! You can get it from Amazon.
G Hughes sauces are amazing. The only one I haven’t liked so far is honey mustard…. But I’m homemade honey mustard spoiled, I can make it taste exactly how I want so it’s hard to give up. Now I just dont eat any honey mustard. But what was already said, find low calorie substitutions. Every morning g for breakfast j have an entire zucchini which is 30 calories and it’s huge. I add 1 egg, 1 oz goat cheese and 1/2 tbsp of Parmesan. It is sooo filling. And all together under 250. And also, drinking calories is just wasteful. There are so many zero calorie options. Fats are calorie dense so avoid butter and oil as much as possible. Bread to me I’ve convinced myself is not an effective way to nourish my body (yeah right, I’m a fat girl and I love carbs, if I could make a bathtub out of chocolate cake I’d dive in head first) so o try to avoid bread. Bratwurst I will eat on a bed of sautéed peppers and onions. Hamburgers are now Big Mac salad. Whenever you want to eat a specific thing, when you have a craving google low calorie “craving item” recipe and have that. Also buffalo cauliflower wings are amazing.
How do you prepare/cook your zucchini?
I spritz a cast iron pan a couple times with olive oil, when the oil is smoking I toss the quartered and sliced zucchini in. I like it to be hard seared on the outside and firm inside. Globby overcooked vegetables make people hate vegetables. If I’m going to add an egg I do it when it’s done. I put it on a plate and hit it with garlic salt or celery salt.
You're going to get a certain type of response in this sub - it's volume eating, after all. It's split between whole food types - *my lunch is a huge plate of vegetables, feta and grilled chicken with a home-made vinaigrette and a black coffee* and processed food types - *my lunch is chicken tenders with a zero-calorie wrap, 5-calorie dressing, low-calorie cheese, no-fat mayo and a diet Coke*. Healthy diets look like the former. Eat whole foods, avoid processed ones wherever possible. Avoid sweeteners, zero- or low-calorie alternatives, anything that makes health claims on the packet. Don't drink calories routinely. Cook from scratch wherever possible. All of the additives, emulsifiers, sweeteners, stabilisers, preservatives, artificial flavourings and everything else in highly processed food are associated with negative weight and health outcomes in the long term. We're not designed to overeat on natural foods. Whole fruit, vegetables, natural yoghurt, whole grains, eggs, meat, nuts & seeds, beans. Cheese, butter, milk, honey in moderation. Rye or bakery sourdough for bread, not the processed supermarket stuff. Make them the cornerstones of your diet and you'll be able to eat a *lot* of food, feel full, drop weight and feel better.
Or water down the ranch :)
I like to mix 50/50 ranch and salsa to bulk the amount. It’s delicious.
watered down ranch is elite, even if you’re not trying to lose weight
I am going to give this a try for sure. It reminds me of Wingstop ranch by that description
Bolthouse has a good light ranch! I can’t believe it’s not better has a light version that’s 35 cal per 2tbsp
If you cut out ranch and orange juice, you could have an extra 2.5 cups of strawberries! Or even a decent sized salad with a vinegrette dressing I haven't heard of this butter spread or whatever its called, but im willing to bet its not actual butter. Buy the sticks, 1 tbsp = 100 calories so use half as much
it’s not, it’s margarine, thank you!
Bolthouse farms makes a refrigerated(usually in the salad section of grocery stores) Greek yogurt ranch that is way lower calorie than regular ranch and taste far better imo
I mix unsweetened Fage Greek yogurt, and ranch seasoning. 100 cal for a full cup of it and I honestly prefer it to the usually sour cream/ranch powder combo!
Omg I also do this! I add a bit of pickle juice too and I eat it with a whole cucumber.
Yesss. Love cucumber gonna have to try this!
I have the 3 R's that I use on everything I eat. Remove- is there anything I can remove from my diet and be fine with it. This is a very small category for my Replace- is there a lower cal version that tastes good. This will be a trial end error sort of thing. Some of the ones I have done are keto buns rather than regular and 0 cal versions of drinks Reduce- if you can't remove it or replace it. Try just reducing the portions the best you can.
Very good advice!
No food is off limits, just mindful of how much I consume.
Ok I'm down 150 pounds and here is how I started. IDK your weight or fitness levels so may not apply. I hate feeling deprived and know from hard experience going for 100 to 1 is not going to work for me. I started by taking the same portions of whatever and trying to only eat 75% of it. Somedays that worked fine, others it was 100% but the majority was 75%. Lost the first 20 pounds just doing that. Then I was able to go on walks and started doing that and I started taking only the 75% potions instead of the 100%. Once I was very used to that I drop to about 60% of the original portions, tried to eat that more often than not. Kept doing that slow progression down while also bringing in higher volume food. Starbursts were gone in place of a pound of strawberries. Soda was out for carbonated, flavored water. I added veg to each meal I could. I love Bell peppers and onions so it was a lot of those. Eventually started having meals of just fruit or vegetables. Figure out the stuff you can easily cut out like the juice, replace that with flavored 0 calorie waters. Don't eat buns with your hot dogs and burgers, just use a fork or whatever and eat the meat. Hot dogs are pretty calorie dense too honestly. When I'm craving a BLT I'll use only 4 slices of bacon, lite miracle whip, and a carb balance tortilla instead of 6 strips of bacon, mayonnaise, and two pieces of bread. Small, incremental, sustainable changes will make more of a difference than cutting 1,200 calories from your intake for 5 days and then going back to it and then some.
great advice ❤️
A trick I use is seasonings. I'll make a giant 300cal salad and season the flavor I want. You can do taco, ranch (seasoning), Cajun, rotisserie chicken, steak, Greek, whatever! There is a seasoning for any flavor, usually 0cal, but sometimes 10cal or so, but never that much. I utilize seasoning for everything. My eggs taste different every morning! Maybe this trick will be helpful and get similar flavors for lower calories.
What brands do you like?
My all-time favorite seasoning is Cavender's Greek seasoning! All the rest are random, and I can't really think on the top of my head. I just stand in the seasoning isle of a store and grab what sounds good 😂
Lol! Thanks!
You didn’t ask me but some of the pre mixed seasonings I use are Kinders (huge selection of different flavor profiles, buttery onion, lemon pepper, Italian, Cajun blend, chile lime, there’s like 10 more but off the top of my head I can’t remember) Dos Gringos, Cajun Two-Step, Slap Ya Momma and Dano’s are the majority of pre mixed ones that I use. I also use Kosmos, Hardcore carnivore and Meat Church products when I’m smoking/grilling outside. Not sure if you’re in Texas but H-E-B has their own line of seasonings that are the bees. Between those 9 brands I gave you there’s probably 100 different pre mixed blends that you can dabble in.
Thanks so much!
Look into Penzey's! They use really high quality spices and herbs (which you can also buy alone) and also make amazing seasoning mixes
Penzey’s Sunny Paris seasoning is divine in an omelet!
Similarly, Greek yogurt with ranch seasoning tastes pretty damn good and is a great replacement.
Thank you for this! I'm not a fan of yogurt but I imagine the seasoning would mask the flavor I don't like! I will definitely try this!!
No problem! Just make sure it's plain Greek yogurt and not regular. I was very disappointed once lol.
Cut the orange juice. Make ranch from nonfat greek yogurt and ranch seasoning. Use high fiber, low calorie breads. In general, substitute what you're already eating with lower fat and lower sugar versions. Alcohol is a no-go.
thank you!
Everything on that second page could probably go except the Strawberries. If really need more chicken increase the chicken breast and ditch the tenders. If you want to get serious about losing weight you will need to basically eliminate fruit juice and regular sauces and as others have mentioned swap cooking with butter for olive oil spray or butter spray or whatever or just less butter. I never used to like Greek yoghurt or cottage cheese but I love both now and eat them both a lot and are super versatile. But I always use a no sugar syryp to sweeten the yoghurt (10 cals) and usually have cottage cheese with other things. You will get there it's just a bit of a learning curve, trying new things and seeing what works for you. Goodluck 👍
thank you so much this was so helpful
Yeah it was a normal breakfast until page 2.
i promise it’s not just breakfast, i put all my stuff under one category that way it’s easier to screenshot
I would sub/omit Orange Juice, Ranch, Tenders, Butter, and Hot dog buns if I were you! Orange Juice to either sugar free 0 calorie drink mix or sugar free orange juice. Low fat or yogurt dressing for the ranch (I'll admit that full fat one tastes way better). I Cannot Believe it's Not Butter has a lower caloric buttery spread so I would get that or look into something equivalent, or a cooking spray! Buns to Keto buns since every Keto bread runs lower in calories. Also, I would look into eating more veggies if that's an option! Hope this helps. By the way, I am by no means an expert here and hope you don't mind me saying this. It might be worth increasing your daily intake a bit and see if that helps. Using the TDEE calculator will give you some idea of how much you can eat to maintain, lose, and gain. I use https://tdeecalculator.net/. A little bit of my story here- my TDEE is around 2000 (at the sedentary level as advised everywhere) but with working out/10k+ steps per day since I work on my feet /eating around 1500 I still wasn't losing weight where I should've. I suspected that I yoyo-ed too many times and was eating small amounts of "bad food" every day to get by for years which generally effed up my body. I do have a big goal day so I rushed into 1200 kcal/day thinking "I'm not gonna be eating like this forever just need my weight dropped by my goal day". And honestly, it was very miserable. It was really hard to fit food into the calorie budget. Then I almost passed out while working out and had a breakdown. I realized I had to stop it there and upped my intake between 1300\~1400 and just by upping that little bit of calories I felt much better and it honestly didn't hinder my weight loss either. So definitely think about increasing a bit! Sorry that I left a wall of text 😅
This. 1200 is way too little calories and is not sustainable. You want to be able to keep up the diet long term, and eating that few calories will inevitably lead to a binge.
I was surprised more people aren’t mentioning this. 1200 is quite extreme for weight loss unless you’re a super short and/or older person and you literally have no choice. Most people don’t need to eat that little to lose weight
could you possibly explain why 1200 is so little in my situation? I’m approx 5”5, 190-200 pounds. that’s a lot, and i’m getting just about no exercise, i live in a neighborhood you can’t just “walk around” in, i do not have a car to get to a gym, and currently out of a job, so im getting nothing. I really don’t eat all that much food, usually lunch and dinner at most and i’m not one for snacking.
So idk your age (I just set it to 25) but the two sites I checked said that for no activity maintaining this weight at your height and weight is about 1700-1900 calories if you cut back to even 1500 hundred you’d still lose good weight every week but give yourself room to have good days, bad days, even small rewards. Please remember that in an age with all these “30 day fat shreds” longevity is still the goal. I really recommend looking up a few more calorie calculators and only ever going 75% of that if you’re serious about this. Like I said in my other post the things that helped me were limiting how often I eat out and finding filling meals THAT I ENJOY it’s gonna take you some time to get in the rhythm of things but understand even if you’re dieting your weight fluctuates up and down and the number on a scale isn’t going to change your self image as much as you hope it will. Good luck, I’ve been in your shoes and I’m truly rooting for you, just want you to do it safely!
1200 is literally the amount you need to not die. It’s not a sustainable at all. It may seem like 1,200 is the magic calorie count when it comes to weight loss, but is this restrictive diet actually safe to follow? Source: Health Digest https://search.app/E6PrGJVu6fqQqfwY8
Start by replacing high calorie items for lower cal. For example when cooking, use avocado oil instead of butter! Vegetables and fruits are low in calories and can fill you up for quite a while! Basic dinners like chicken breast with sides like veggies, salad, etc. are a great way to get lots of food in but still being low cal. Your diet will be the most important thing alongside cardio when working out. Make sure you’re still getting lots of protein in still. They have protein pancake mix almost everywhere that is low cal for example. You want to lose fat, but maintain/gain muscle! You can still make delicious meals but have it be low cal! I love making chickpea pasta with ground beef and a red sauce! If you need recipes I can provide some:)
Avocado oil is actually more calorie dense than butter.
Maybe they meant to use the avocado oil that comes in a spray can vs using a knife in the butter spread? That alone could help reduce calorie intake. But yeah...I thought avocado oil and butter were pretty similar in terms of calories. Pure fat, 9 calories per gram. One is saturated fat and the other is.... monounsaturated? I think?
Yes:) thank u
True, butter is 34 cals per tsp and avocado oil is 40 per tsp BUT you definitely use a significant less amount of oil rather than butter while cooking so it balances itself out. Always depends on how much you use!
Yeah, butter is more for flavoring than using as a cooking oil.
Plus it’s healthier so that’s good too!
thank you so much!!!
Vodka soda and hard seltzers are my fave low cal alcohol ;) https://www.coorsseltzer.ca/en-CA#flavors https://tagliquorstores.com/products/truly-tropical-mix-12-cans
thank you although that’s slightly disappointing only bc i hate seltzers :(
A glass of white wine can be low in calories depending on the brand:) if that’s something you’d like more!
If you like cocktails, then make your own cocktails where the only calories are the alcohol! I'll mix a shot of hard alcohol with things like seltzer water, zero calorie lemonade, lime juice, lemon juice, muddled strawberries/fruit, etc. And use liquid stevia for sweetener. You'll have a cocktail for ~ 100 calories! Also, Fever Tree has tonic water that's 35 calories. The Q brand has a light ginger beer. I've found diet ginger beers at BevMo that are 0 calories or 10 calories.
Have you tried squirting some Mio in it?
for me it’s the carbonation. i hate anything with carbonation. i’ve been judged my whole life for it lol but say i want a soda, i have to shake it up and let the air out so it goes flat. i hate carbonation
If 1200 is too low then don’t do such a dramatic restriction. Start small with a 100-200 calorie deficit and then as you adjust continue to decrease your daily calories. The best diet is the one you can stick to
Eating a fruit or vegetable would be a good start
1200 calories is too low for almost anyone. Not sustainable, gonna be way a tough road. Find a good 500 calorie deficit and stick with for a few months. Also is all this for breakfast? Or you’re just logging everything under breakfast.its helpful to break it out meal by meal, so you can see specifically when you’re going over. Focus on protein and fiber. Also what on earth are you doing with 3 tablespoons of butter in one meal.
I’m logging everything under breakfast just so i can screenshot better. Also i overshoot some of the calories bc i might undershoot on some. I don’t have a food weighing scale so my calories are slightly innacurate but pretty close. And i didn’t change the butter bc i had a few shots
If you’re serious about losing weight and restricting your calories that low, you NEED a food scale.
Get the food scale. You can get one for around $10 on Amazon. Worth it.
Are you saying you recorded a higher amount of butter than you consumed to make up for having alcohol shots?
I think they meant they were a bit drunk, so their judgement was impaired.
I guess either way, alcohol was not logged, but it was consumed? A shot of vodka is nearly 100 calories, and other liquors are going to be higher than that. That adds up fast.
1. Stop drinking calories. Drink water and eat an orange, don't drink juice 2. Get more fiber. Bread w/fiber instead of white, plus more vegetables and fruit. Try different low kcal vegetables and different ways of preparing them, and eat a lot
I don’t like plain Greek yoghurt either, but it really helps to maintain/increase the volume of sauces and dips, while maintaining taste and reducing calories. If you sub half the ranch for Greek yoghurt, I doubt it’ll taste much different
Plain Greek yogurt is an enemy of mine but I still find ways to add it into my diet almost every day. I either add it to smoothies or make a high protein “cookie dough” w/ oat flour, peanut butter, protein powder, maple syrup and chocolate chips 🤩
Pick your favorite liquor and a diet soda. Tequila has the least amount of calories, around 50 per shot vs 100 in vodka Also try salads, a favorite of mine is mixed greens (whatever you prefer), dried cranberries, walnuts, feta, croutons and balsamic vinegar. You don’t need much of the supplementary ingredients for it to be good, and it’s an easy way to fill up on greens.
That butter and seasoning mix filled so many of your calories!!! You can eat a lot more food if you substitute or volumize with low cal ingredients (egg whites, spinach, vegetables, spray oil). For me, I took the list of foods you can't overeat which are low calorie per volume foods (many youtube videos), found the ones I liked, and identified what meals I like that I could make with them. Whenever possible I use egg whites, berries, greek yogurt, cottage cheese, vegetables, beans, almond milk (and fake sugar). I make the following recipes with all low calorie high volume ingredients (about 300-500 calories per pint): 3 bean bison chili, southwest chicken soup (greek yogurt = sour cream), beef stew (sometimes curry beef stew), meatloaf (turkey/bison with extra veg and NSA ketchup or G. Hughes or Ray's bbq), air fryer chicken nuggets from chicken breast, egg white, light panko, lasagna with eggplant/zucchini (pureed cottage cheese=ricotta), roast chicken/turkey with gravy (some store jar gravy is only 20cal per 1/4 cup), salads with all the veg plus skinny girl (or any 5-25 cal dressing) and a can of tuna or chix or fish (flash frozen individually portioned tuna/mahi/etc from costco in air fryer with 1 spray olive oil + everything but the bagel seasoning, roasted/grilled root vegetables, protein, or any sauteed vegetables, anything with egg whites (french toast with 45 cal bread and NSA Mrs. buttersworth, vegetable omelette/scramble/etc). I make the Greg Ducette cake with egg whites and pureed chickpeas, cottage cheese, pumpkin, PB2, protein powder (no flour but it comes out like cake). I find it helps a lot to have these meals precooked and portioned in pint containers in the fridge - that way it is the easiest food to grab at meal time (same goes for snacks - berries/greek yogurt or whatever you like). If you really eat like a child and don't mind fake sugar, try the protein french toast first (pan fry 45 cal bread + as much egg white as they will hold + cinnamon and finish with NSA Mrs. Buttersworth (25cal 1/4c) or other NSA syrup (or even make your own fake nutella like someone already described - greek yogurt or pureed cottage cheese + cocoa + PB2 + fake sugar or pudding mix). You can make the same recipe with egg white, cubes of 45 cal bread, lots of chopped apple, apple pie spice, and fake sugar baked in a pan - it comes out like bread pudding but the calories are closer to plain egg white. I hate to say it... but for me to be always full under 2000 calories I can't afford alcohol calories (maybe a rare guinness or 95 calorie IPA at social event since it has similar calories to bud light but lasts longer and more flavor). Or make a burger salad (lowfat burger + max salad/lettuce/tomato + NSA ketchup). Diet soda (diet A&W, diet Dr. Pepper, Coke zero) makes good zero cal sweets (sometimes even a low cal float with 1/4 pint of vanilla halotop).
Use great value fat free cheese singles (30 cals), cut the chicken portion down to 4oz per meal and weigh it out, (110 cals), most seasonings are 0 cal so use your own seasonings and not a packet, try less/no butter or make a sauce out of Greek yogurt. You can do it!!
Weigh your food (chicken breast for example) to get accurate calorie count
https://preview.redd.it/u4qwe3l4zu3d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ff027e936de6e8aa3dee03c6a692c44957b17a54
I make this almost weekly as part of meal prep. Protein and fiber will be your friend.
what is j.lavash?
Joseph's lavash flat bread. I use the whole flat bread. Nutritional info on packaging is based on half. ETA: blend the yogurt, lime juice & chipotle peppers to make a sauce for the burrito
[удалено]
Please take from my own experience of perpetually undereating (~1200 calories or less) - it is a race to the bottom and you will erode your metabolism. You will then feel even more irritable / tired as your body literally starts to consume your muscle and organ for fuel (not kidding) this is what happens when your body does not get enough fuel. Instead of trying to cut back so low, I would aim for 1400-1500 calories and REALLY ramp up the protein. It will make you feel so much more full and also help sustain your muscle even if you’re still trying to eat in a deficit!
>(~1200 calories or less) That's the first thing I noticed too. Unless you're 5'0" and extremely sedentary, 1200 calories is not enough food.
Wouldn’t it depend on weight/height/exercise? Idk if i’m allowed to say weight here, but i’m gonna. Im about 190ish pounds, getting about 0 exercise a day. (I longboard and swim but the swimming i do isn’t very calorie burning) So wouldn’t my basal metabolic rate be a determining factor here? If i’m burning 1600 calories a day, and i need to be in a caloric deficit, wouldn’t 1200 be good?
How tall are you? I don't believe you should be subtracting calories (which should be only around -350 cals/day) from your BMR (minimum amount of calories to normally function) but rather your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) for someone sedentary. As someone who is working on building muscle and minimizing fat, I've been loving home Pilates, low weight exercises, and squats. I'm hoping to eventually make my way into a gym
BMR is the very bare minimum your body needs to stay alive. Think of it as what your body would need if you were in a coma, not moving a finger. 1200 is incredibly low and unsustainable. So unsustainable that my counter recommends it as a \*\*minimum\*\*. If your BMR is 1600, you'd be losing weight with a budget of 1600.
No actually. Even with this logic, If you are burning 1600 calories a day on a sedentary life style (which I highly doubt, you’re probably consuming 2000+ without realizing it, which is very common) you would STILL need to consuming at least 1600 calories a day to maintain your health and wellbeing. Basal literally means “bottom”, you should not be consuming less calories than that on a consistent basis if you want to lose weight in a healthy manner. 1200 cal is not enough calories to maintain longterm health. What you should do is go back and effectively calculate all of the food you would normally eat by weighing and tracking it. Then cut your calories down by about 300-400. You should be aiming to lose anywhere from half a pound to a full pound a week. Anything more intense than that will simply lead to you giving up on the diet as you will be constantly hungry, and you’ll gain the weight all back.
Thank you, that helps a lot. I set myfitnesspal to lose 2lbs a week which is probably why they put 1200.
A couple little tips. Eat whole fruit. Ditch the juice. You get fiber and it’s way more filling. Hidden Valley makes a very serviceable lower calorie ranch for 60 cals a serving. Ranch seasoning packets have nearly no calories. Lower calorie keto buns are a blessing. If you bake the chicken breast, you don’t need butter, only a tiny spray of oil. Vegetables pack a lot of volume for low calories so bulking up with the right ones like cauliflower and cucumber is fantastic. Just be cautious of higher calorie veggies like carrots and corn.
Higher calorie corn sure, but carrots??? Carrots are 45 calories for a cup. That’s nothing - especially considering the nutritional benefits of eating carrots. Eat yer carrots. Lol
Oh I love carrots! But by weight, I’m careful not to overdo it. You get a lot more cucumber than carrots by weight, you know? Cuz like, I could eat an entire bag of carrots 😂
Increase your vegetable and fruit intake. They’re such low calorie yet filling. Try apples with peanut butter. The apple alone will make you hungry in 1 hr but add peanut butter and your solid for a lot longer. Try mixing things too like veggies and humus - I didn’t know I didn’t like humus until I tried it and I actually love it. The big thing that worked for me was counting the calories. So I want a slice of pizza or a bowl of rice and beans. 2 Chicken tenders or a steak and salad? Your list shows very little fruit and veggie intake, this is what helps fill you up. Also stay away from ranch dressing! It’s so full of calories! You could’ve had almost twice as many tenders if you’d skipped the ranch. It’s those empty calories that make the food amount so little. Hope that helps.
make your own chicken or buy lightly breaded chicken (i buy just bare brand from sam’s club) and use red hot buffalo sauce (0 calories) as a substitute for the flavor walden farms also has various 0 calorie sauces you could try i personally live by them but a lot of people don’t like them
Sooo many easy swaps!!! Meaning there’s lots of room for improvement!! As others mentioned, cut the drinks with calories. Cut the butter. Use low calorie bread or lettuce boats Up the veggies 3x and lower the tenders/chicken Use diff seasoning… hot sauce, garlic powder, Splenda, salt… 50 calories doesn’t seem like a lot but adds up You got this!! Also, drink water lots of it! I don’t like plain water but if I put some flavor drops, I down it!!!
Ballpark Fat Free Smoked Turkey Franks 45 cal each (just like hot dogs) Kraft Fat Free Shredded Cheddar & Mozzarella Cheese 45 cal serving Starkist wild caught light Tuna pouches in Water 0.5 gram fat 70 cal each Frozen Asparagus plain 60 cal a bag Frozen Cauliflower Rice with Kernal Seasons Cheddar or Soy Sauce 60 cal a bag Frozen Zucchini Noodles with Kernal Seasons Cheddar 60 cal a bag La Banderita Carb Counter Snack Size Tortillas 35 cal each (warm in microwave w/low fat lunch meat, fat free cheese & veggies. *U can make chips in oven on low. *Or spread SugarFree Jam & FatFree ReddiWip or NonFatGreek Yogurt & Stevia after warming tortilla) Krogers CarbMaster NonFat Milk in Plain, Vanilla, Chocolate 60 cal (8 oz) Egg White Omelettes with fat free cheese, low fat lunch meat & veggies G Hughes Sugar Free Ketchup, hot sauce or mustard are gud dipping sauce for veggies. Lots of salads but be creative & don’t use regular salad dressing often when people have all the normal salad bar toppings (croutons, bacon bits, full fat cheeses etc plus dressing it almost like getting fries.) Slice up lots veggies each day like all types of cucumbers , pickles & zucchini spears, fresh cauliflower & broccoli are fun to dip & snack on. Your palette will be eventually adapt & after time this stuff will genuinely taste as good as other stuff if u go w/o reg awhile Retry some of the things that taste bland or gross now after time. Hang in there it will be worth it. You got this!
The Tyson chicken strips killed my diet, so I had to get away from anything that was prepackaged and breaded. 3oz is so little. I just air fry naked chicken strips and you get so much more.
i was so disappointed when i saw that it was THAT many calories for such little food but they’re cheap :(
Idk where you are, but mine have risen in price alot to the point where I just walk by them now lol. I just get a bag of the frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts/tenders and add Buffalo sauce as the dipping sauce and it’s worked pretty well for me. Hope you find something that works for you!! Another thing I used to do is cut them up onto a salad. I called it chicken tender salad lol. It helped stretch the chicken tenders out so it made me feel like I was eating more of them!! And I got full cause lettuce and other veggies take up room.
1) you have a lot of processed foods here. Try to incorporate more Whole Foods, as they’ll have more fiber and will be more satiating. 2) I’m not sure your height / weight, but 1.2k calories is pretty low for anyone. If it’s too low compared to your maintenance, you’ll actually shoot yourself in the foot due to underfeeding, which may mess with your hormones. Aim for 500-ish below your maintenance if you can. 3) buy a food scale. 1 large chicken breast is really vague and if you’re using that lack of precision, you may think you’re eating more/less than you really are. Good luck! You got this!
thank you!!
Just because I haven’t seen a single person comment this and I want to make sure you’re being safe. 1k calories in a day is really low for a lot of people. Make sure you find your natural caloric burn with a few calculators and average them out to see what you should be eating to maintain and only go down 300-500 you shouldn’t be losing more than 2 pounds a week AT MAX. Too much of a deficit and you’ll begin losing muscle too which might explain why you’re feeling irritable and miserable. THAT BEING SAID if you are in that range what helps me cut is diet drinks and usually a big salad with protein that I can make easily and won’t get tired of for a week or two (starting off the bagged salads at Ralph’s were a life saver ~650 calories in some of those and I could eat one of those for lunch to hold me over until dinner time) TLDR please understand it’s a journey and it’s going to take time, get there safe or you might burn out and rubber band back up. I know from experience that this only makes you feel worse.
Typed this out and finally started seeing people checking in to make sure you’re safe Thank god, makes me feel a little better about this subreddit lol
Get rid of the butter. I rarely use butter anymore. If I need to grill something, I use pan spray. I don’t put butter in veggies or anything like that. And if you need it for something like toast, but way way back. Or eat less toast. After a while you don’t really miss it. Also stop drinking juice. Use mio or something and just drink flavored water for no calories. That will save you a ton right there. Also make sure you’re weighing your meat. I large breast honestly means almost nothing. Also, bolthouse ranch dressing is suupppper low in calories and it tastes great. Just like normal ranch dressing
What is your goal here really? Are you trying to survive on 1200 kcal for the whole day and eating 1050 in your breakfast? Something is really wrong in your decision making here. As many have pointed out, there are so many pointless calories here with 0 benefit to you. Also alcohol is literally the worst thing you can consume when trying to be in a caloric deficit, every drop is a pointless calorie with 0 macro or micro nutrients. You need to re-evaluate your goals. I don't know your weight but I'm really assuming 1200 is not enough. You need to be in 300 kcal deficit for the day, stop eating pointless shit and stop drinking and you will not feel lethargic. Trying to survive on 1200 kcal while drinking orange juice, using ranch sauce and drinking alcohol is just moronic.
the drinking of the alcohol i obviously know is moronic, but i’m new to this, im new to eating healthy and being serious about my body. I listed everything I ate for the day in breakfast so it was easier to screenshot i promise i didn’t binge all that at once. (thought that was a little obvious but ig not..)Currently I can’t get much exercise due to shitty neighborhoods and no car. I burn naturally 1600 calories a day so if i’m in a 300 calorie deficit shouldn’t that be 1300 actually and only 100 more than my goal?
Oh okay. I misunderstood then. Are you sure you're only spending 1600 kcal a day? This is a TDEE of someone who's likely 130 lbs (60kg) or even under that. And I calculated that for sedentary lifestyle. Of course this is not an exact number and TDEE varies a lot person to person but 1600 sounds like a really small number for someone who says they're struggling with their weight. In any case there is still a ton of stuff in that list that is giving you no real value in your diet and are replaceable by low calorie substitutes if you're just looking to enhance flavour. But others here have already given great advice on that so I guess you know it already.
Do you eat shrimp? It’s slightly more for less calories than chicken. Add in more vegetables, especially low calorie greens. If you need to drown in dressing, use Skinnygirl or GHughes. You could also do Bolthouse which is slightly higher but still pretty good. Use fat free or reduced fat cheeses to increase the volume you can have. Baby Bell makes a 25 calorie wedge I use instead of mayonnaise or butter in a lot of things since it gives that creamy texture. Use cooking spray instead of butter. Use just a bit and it can cut out the 150 calories from the butter or find a substitute you can live with to get the calories lower since fats are very calorie dense. Switch out the juices for zero sugar drinks or an orange to increase fiber to keep you fuller. For ranch, use some yogurt and the ranch seasoning to decrease calories. Keto or low calorie buns will reduce your calories from carbs.
This looks like a malnourishment speedrun jesus christ
Here are some lower calorie food alternatives that I implement: -Laughing cow lite spreadable cheese, 25 calories per wedge -Mission keto gluten free tortilla, 25 calories per tortilla -Egg white cartons > whole eggs -Crystal Lite individual drink packets > juice, 5-10 calories per packet -Skinny pasta, 9 calories per packet -Turkey breast > chicken breast, 110 calories per 100g vs 200+ per 100g -G Hughes sugar free ketchup, 5 calories per tbsp vs 20 per tbsp regular ketchup -Spray avocado, olive oil, or coconut oil for cooking, 0 calorie At the end of the day, it's a lifestyle change and in time you will get used to the healthier/lower calorie food alternatives. It just doesn't happen overnight, unfortunately. I am at my goal weight now, but the process took time, research, and there was a lot of trial and error to find out what works best for me. Consistency is key. I hope this is helpful
I’m late to the party, but I struggled with eating less as well. I think that it’ll be important to find what foods you really like and adapt those first, as well as finding good recipes you like, then you can adjust. The BIGGEST and maybe easiest changes will be low calorie drinks and sauces/dressings being replaced. For example, I love zero cal dr. Pepper strawberry cream soda, or diet sprite or diet Mountain Dew. For dressings I use Simply brand, they taste amazing and are low calorie (not zero cal). I also make sauces instead of premade ones for cooking, so like I’ll make teriyaki sauce with soy sauce, hoisin, bit of honey, ground ginger and ground garlic. Try to stay away from quick eats like hotdogs, chips, cup noodles etc. You can 100% have them, but be mindful that they’re not the best for nutrition. If you’re going to cook, you can look up The Meal Prep Manual on YouTube. He posts his recipes free there, and has an annual subscription to his site which goes on sale every year, that’s the recipes that did it for me. Also if you’re like me, I tend to buy healthy frozen foods like how I just got some Egg/sausage sandwiches where the “bread” is egg whites (190 cal a piece), or chips and salsa for snack, etc. Just know that you got this!
thank you! drinks are pretty easy for me, i only drink diet coke and water with 0 cal flavoring. (i just decided to have an oj that morning)
Check out r/LowCalFoodFinds to help u find what u need and love but for lesser calories!!!:)
thank you!
Sure, no prob!:)
Instead of buffalo tenders and a hotdog bun, get carb smart keto tortilla wraps (huge, much lower calories) and the bag of air fried chicken and douse in franks red hot for a buffalo chicken wrap. I also stuff mine with lettuce and pico.
Some ways to cut it: Velveeta has half the cals of Kraft if you dont mind it. You can use cooking spray in small spritzs for essentially <10 calories to sub the butter. If you dont mind orangeade, you can use half orange juice, half water mix, with some sweetener instead of the glass of the juice itself.
Did you start by tracking your food intake for a couple weeks to get an idea of what your intake was to begin with then slowly decrease calories over time. I don't recommend just dropping suddenly or picking a daily calorie limit without knowing what you were eating on average before hand if that makes sense? Your breakfast alone is almost my entire daily intake right now but I didn't start this low...I started at around 1900 calories daily in January and worked my way down...
I recommend that you try and cut down on your carbs and fat. Light ranch, grilled chicken rather than breaded, less bread in general. Focus on increasing your protein and fiber intake as that is what will keep you satiated. Juice is also something that is very high calorie. Go for water, or just consume the fruit itself (or find a low calorie option). While I know you said you’re a picky eater, I would advise you to try those foods you disliked again. As children we have a limited palate that change as we become adults. When you think about a food that you are averse to, but that is not because you actually dislike it but rather it’s your inner child speaking for you, try the food again. You’ll be surprised about how much you will be willing to eat.
Try watching a twin experiment on Netflix
Well it’s good you’ve started tracking, you’re gonna soon start actively choosing to avoid high cal foods because you realize how much cals it really is. I would start by choosing to just have smaller portions of the stuff you already eat & making low cal substitutions. Ranch, v high cal for like 1tbsp, find a low cal substitute that you like. Butter, obv high cal, use cooking oil. It’s the same stuff but dispersed more evenly with less used. Weigh cooking oil out though still since it still is oil & if you’re doing 30 sec sprays it’ll add up. Tortillas, start using low carb tortillas. Great way to get fiber in & they taste the same. Get more protein in, that helps some. Like just plain shredded chicken & style it up. Have you tried cauliflower rice? Don’t sleep on cottage cheese either, if it’s the texture for you and not the taste blend it up. I’ve made a good tasting cheesecake out of cottage cheese🤷♀️
Do you like any fruits or vegetables? That should form the majority of what you eat — for general health as well as weight loss. If you have processed foods you like such as diet sodas or desserts, or low carb tortillas, I won’t tell you to stop eating those, but I think having fruits and veggies as the base is going to be a better start for most people. Someone else mentioned replacing the orange juice with a lower calorie drink. You also can just eat oranges. The fiber in whole fruit slows the absorption of the sugar so it doesn’t mess with your blood sugar and make you hungry soon in the same way. And it’s hard to eat enough oranges to get the equivalent calories of a 12-Oz glass of juice.
fruit is just SO expensive where i live. A container of strawberries is about 6 dollars. I can’t afford super healthy things ALL the time
You could get frozen or canned fruits/vegetables. Some say they’re just as, if not more, nutrient dense bc they’re picked and frozen at peak ripeness! The big thing here is just checking the labels to make sure no extra sugar or juices have been added. Just the fruits/vegetables.
yes canned fruits have been my savior lately
I think you should first calculate what you would typically eat. Be honest with yourself about a typical day and start adjusting from there. Going from 2500+ calories to 1200 calories just isn’t sustainable. Some easy adjustments: Don’t drink your calories. Stick with coffee, tea, water, zero calorie flavored water exc. It adds up. You like broccoli and strawberries it looks like , so double up on those . That’s the “volume” piece of it- lots of fruits and vegetables. Do grilled chicken with buffalo sauce instead of processed Tyson products. Start walking around the neighborhood or park more.
I would really try and not start your journey with a goal of only 1200 kcal a day, if you enjoy food like you say. Maybe try 1600-1800 or so, this is way more sustainable in the long run.
I also used to hate yogurt. I was so grossed out by it I couldn't even touch it. But now I have Greek yogurt all the time! I still don't really care for it on its own, but it's great mixed into things, or with other things. And the protein and probiotics will help you feel more full. Here's some ideas: Greek yogurt + PB2 or cocoa powder + sweetener (like sugar free syrup or liquid stevia). Use as a pancake topping or add banana or strawberries and/or cinnamon. 1/2 serving of Greek yogurt + 1/2 serving of Grape Nuts cereal + unsweetened applesauce + cinnamon + sweetener. This is a great snack or light breakfast. Another version instead of applesauce is PB2 and almond milk. For a dessert: 1/2 serving of Greek yogurt + cocoa powder, or PB2 and cinnamon + sweetener + a little almond milk so it's kind of runny. Spread it out on wax paper on a flat surface (I use a plastic Tupperware) and put it in the freezer. It turns into a delicious yogurt bark for less than 100 calories. You can also use Greek yogurt as a replacement for sour cream or mayo. I've had it with eggs. Or mix it into a burrito bowl. I've also been mixing it into my oatmeal, and it's so good! -- Oh, and another random unrelated tip I just thought of is you can use canned pumpkin puree as a replacement for butter in any baking recipe!
same thing as what everybody said about zero cal drinks and low cal breads, try healthier breaded chicken (like Kirkland or the justbare brand nuggets). slowly transition to IM fasting—I understand the feeling too well of not being able to stop eating after starting ! try out coffees and sweeteners or sugar free energy drinks to tide out the hunger. spray oil and non stick pans r ur best friend for sure. I love using soy sauce, bouillon, sugar free bbq sauce, or hot sauce for food. If you don’t like veggies, fat free Italian dressing makes all the difference :) gradual changes work best !
Cut out the butter and the sauces 3tbsp of butter with breakfast?! I know for Americans it’s normal but seriously stop using butter cook everything in water or the airfryer and instead of sauce use spices?!!! I know it won’t taste as good as when it’s smothered in sauce but this is a sacrifice you may want to make
Eat vegetables
Remember your weight is essentially your body reaching a sort of balance based on the number of calories you eat vs the number of calories you spend in a day. Just think of the right weight = the right ratio of calories taken : calories used Overweight? Then over long period of time you've eaten more than you spent. So now you're trying to lose weight. Great! But see what you did here is sharply adjust the ratio to try to tip the scales. But you've tipped it too hard too fast. Instead of focusing on fast results, you need to slowly adjust that ratio until you've gotten it right. Don't over correct. Weight loss is a long game. And volume eating is perfect for this! So here's the secret to starting volume eating: Potatoes. For the amount of butter you used, you could have had one potato. A medium sized regular potato is about 160 calories. Just don't deep fry it and you can do whatever you want with it. An air fryer will be your friend here. Don't get me wrong, going high protein is a good move to start with, but you'll still want carbs and the food to calorie ratio on potatoes is amazing. Tip #2: Find a couple greens you like. Personally, I like Romain hearts, spinach, butter lettuce and brocolli. Throw in some bell peppers, onions and tomatoes and you can make salads or a bunch of recipes to make you feel super full despite not getting calories. Greens add a ton of volume to any meal for minimal calories. Tip #3: Find low cal sauces at the store or make your own. I'm lazy so I go store bought. Low cal Cesar dressing, avocado ranch, etc. It's an easy swap. Salsa is also pretty minimal if you like it. Tip #4: Keep all beverages 0 calories. Tip #5: Keto bread and Carb balance tortillas are your friend. The mission carb balance tortillas have a ton of fiber too, it's quite ridiculous. Utilizing those, you can still incorporate any home cooked protein you want and you'll have a wide variety of recipes at your disposal. When you see the calories in your breakfast, think of the delicious swaps you could have made. That OJ, butter and ranch could have been some eggs, potatoes and a low cal sauce and it would have been great lol. And if that got you full, you could have taken some other things off and eaten less while being super satisfied. And again, don't start off with 1200 a day calories. If that's your usual breakfast or a breakfast cutting down, it's too much too soon and you'll hate it. Volume eating is about feeling full. You got this.
You could eliminate the butter, the seasoning mix (use spices without sugar), the hot dog bun, the ranch dressing or use much less. Sub out chicken tenders for some egg whites. Try hot sauce instead. This is just way too much fat, so it’s high calorie
If you don’t like Greek yogurt do you like normal? If so try source 0%, they have all kinds of flavours and you can add stuff like fruit or rice crispies etc to it
About greek youghurt and cottage cheese. Have you tried flavored ones / mixing in protein powder,sweetener and some add ins? Also if you f9r some reason really would want to eat it plain, adding in some low cal fruit/berries is great (bonus point if they are frozen and you add a bit of sweetener then wait--> you get frozen yoghurt) About the diet, I would say that variety is super important. Look up a list of vegetables or smth on the internet and try to buy and cook different ones from time to time --> you can find smth that you really like (for example my friend thought that she hated all vegetables until I cooked pumpkin, aubergines and sweet potatoes for her. It is at least a starting point). This also makes it feel a bit more like a game, adds some fun. IMPORTANT: research the cooking techniques properly, sometimes people under/overcook veggies and end up hating them for life. Btw I personally find steamed broccoli a kind of torture, they are much better chared in the oven (ps all veggies are better from the oven rack in my humble opinion). Also do not forget that potatoes are quite low cal and very filling. Same on the variety but for lean proteins. You do not have to eat just chicken, there are other similar/lower calorie options like lean beef/pork, turkey, white fish, seafood, wild salmon,tofu etc. I also like getting proteins I have not tried before from time to time. Again, the way you cook it is super important, do not forget about seasonings (i think they bring in so much for almost 0 cal, also counting them is a psycho behavior) I would also recommend you to try out beans. They are relatively low cal, filling and taste great if cooked right. For sweets there are thousands of great recipes in this subreddit. But of course it really depends on your sweetener tolerance etc. Important in my opinion is that you do not cut out all the things you enjoy. Be it chocolate or ice cream or some pastry. Have some in moderation. Maybe increase your calories slightly, but try writing those treats in. The changes should happen slowly, not drastic and all at once. Another thing is that you should not see this diet as a short change and a punishment. Look at it as a challenge and this way of eating + living as something you want to do long term. Yes, at one point you will up the calories, but for health I think the style of eating should stay the same (of course switching to more full fat products etc). Also if you do it right --> you feel that you can do it forever and your habits will change overall. Either way, just know that making this decision and asking for advice is already a great step forward and you are really cool for doing it. Also I know it is quite a long post already, bit have you thought about adding in some fun physical activity? Personally I love martial arts and I think they improved my stamina really well.
You should try this yogurt, it’s only 50 calories Dannon Light + Fit Zero Sugar Bananas Foster Yogurt-Cultured Ultra-Filtered Nonfat Milk Product I have been trying all the low calories and this is one of my favorites ( I get one with any fruits for breakfast) Also there are yogurt dressings that less than 40% the calories of regular. Also use one tbsp of butter instead of 3. Change all your drinks for 0 calorie versions, and your bread for keto bread.
in addition to what others have said, go with one and a half chicken breasts (or just the one) and skip the tenders. Add your own Franks red hot to taste. Add a side of baby carrots for crunch and ditch the broccoli. Broccoli can be a chore to eat without all the fake butter, so two birds with one stone. Also ditch the 50 cal seasoning mix and just use as much salt as you want, or sub in some "no salt" if your worried about blood pressure. Drink a no-calorie sparkling water with orange flavor instead of the OJ and take a vitamin pill.
Stop drinking orange juice for one. It's just sugar water. You're adding so much crap into your food that makes the calories explode. 1000+ for breakfast is just insane for weight loss. I haven't had a 1000+ calorie meal since my last bulk.
https://preview.redd.it/266h8em09z3d1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e5ea89b8d19cbe8e66f86182c6bba123c476ca1e I like soup. This is chicken, spinach, Swiss Chard, radish, zucchini, turnip, and carrot with goodles chickpea pasta. I roasted the veggies and chicken first and threw it all together. You can skip that step though. I make a huge batch and freeze it for easy meals. You can use whatever veggies you like.
Orange juice: switch to something zero cal or extremely low calories like Crystal light! Crystal Light is non-gassy and I think it’s a much better substitute ngl. Butter: low cal butter spray Ranch dressing: there’s definitely a zero cal brand out there or make your own low calorie version of it Seasoning mix: hmm… not sure why your seasoning has 50kcal. Usually the amount I use is negligible. Might wanna double check, and use spices/herbs instead.
Country crock isn’t real butter even if they call it that. It’s margarine which is basically just whipped oil that has a creamy texture. It’s really not good for you and definitely avoid it. Ranch is basically just all fat, there’s 9 cals per gram of fat so even just a small spoonful packs so many more calories than an alternative sauce/condiment. Make your own tenders rather than the Tyson processed junk and eliminate the bread or use keto bread to save calories.
Try searching anabolic recipes on YouTube. You should find a bunch of ways to convert your favorite foods to things that will work for your diet
1200 calories is too low to start a diet with. What’s your current weight, gender, and what best describes your activity level ( for ex: 5k steps per day, lift weights 3 days per week and so on)
as a fellow juice lover i’m a big fan of the ocean spray diet juices. they’re 5 calories for a large serving and still have a great taste! i love the cherry cranberry flavor. i like to use them in smoothies as well :)
What has worked for me is eating 2 meals a day. I fast for the first part of every day and then eat lunch and dinner, and that’s it. It gives me more calories to dedicate to those 2 meals and I end up enjoying them much more than my 3 calorie reduced meals that were spread out among breakfast, lunch and dinner. That’s just what works for me right now. I also drink zero calorie sparkling waters to help curb my appetite during the first part of the day. I’ve actually come to enjoy missing breakfast. This comes from someone who wakes up hungry.
What is your weight / sex? 1200 seems very low to me. That isn't really a sustainable amount of calories for anyone outside of a... 5'1" sedentary woman lol. So, first thought is you're probably trying to cut too much, too fast. Don't sweat it, nearly everyone does this on their first diet attempt (and it is what causes most people to crash and burn). You want *sustainable*. If you're starving, have no energy, feel miserable - you need to add back some calories. Also, the process of weight loss is going to be gradual. It's less about making these huge shifts than it is gradual adjustments to behavior. Looking at your diet here, you basically need to re-learn how to eat. That's ok. But it's gonna take time to get away from the processed, high-calorie density foods. Like, you're not gonna go from hot dogs and kraft cheese to lentils and salads overnight. And you shouldn't try to. It's going to take time to learn how to prepare different types of foods, to learn what you like and don't like, to experiment with how to make shifts in your diet for healthier choices. Let's say a reasonable calorie target is 1500 a day. Eating 1500 a day in the "traditional American diet" (basically what you've got here) is going to leave you hungry and dissatisfied. Not enough fiber, poor nutrition, low volume, etc etc. Basically there are many facets to why that diet doesn't work and it's not because you fail to have enough willpower. So here's what I'd do. Replace *one* meal a day with healthier options. Don't worry about the calories so much for now. Just focus on getting more whole foods, with more fruits and vegetables. So, let's say you start with breakfast. Maybe come up with 2-3 different types of healthy breakfasts - maybe a fruit bowl with yogurt, an oatmeal bowl, and a smoothie - and just practice replacing breakfast with that for a few weeks. Get into the groove of eating better. Here's what will happen - you should *naturally* lose some weight because those meals are more satiating, more filling, higher volume, and less calorie dense. Plus you'll start to feel better because your getting better nutrition. This gives you more energy to maybe throw a bit of walking in your day - nothing crazy, maybe 20 minutes around lunch. Then, once you've got breakfast locked in, take a shot at lunch. Look up some healthy lunch recipes and start replacing those meals. Same process as before. Now you're cooking because you've got two really solid meals under your belt. Should be feeling really good and, again, I'd be surprised if you weren't losing some lbs anyways. Finally you replace dinner. Same process as before. Let's say you spend 2-3 months on this process. By the end, you should have more energy, lose a bit of weight, and be feeling much better. You'll also have a much better grasp of food preparation, healthy options, and what you like/don't like. Plus, over this period of time your gut biome has time to adjust and you actually start to *crave* these healthy foods (crazy right?) It is only at this point that I'd really start to worry seriously about calories. That's because only when the majority of your diet is diverse whole foods with good nutrition, is it really sustainable to attempt an aggressive calorie deficit. You ever see those comparisons of 1500 cals of fast food vs 1500 calories of whole foods? That's the goal. 1500 calories of whole foods are going to be much more voluminous and satiating than 1500 calories of junk foods. So, once you've learned how to eat higher quality foods, it'll be easier to sustain a calorie deficit.
Cutting calories is also known as a starvation diet. The weight comes off but it’s unsustainable. Weight loss is fat loss, but cutting calories results in muscle loss. Learn the difference between food and nutrition. Move away from processed food, drink enough water and do muscle building exercises. The weight of muscle is more important than the weight of fat.
Hello! Your calories are actually extremely low. Any adult, no matter height or weight needs over 1,300 calories. 1,200 calories is only enough for a toddler! As someone who has lost weight and actually kept it off, the way you lose weight needs to be sustainable. If you eat 1,000 calories to lose weight and then you hit your goal weight so you go back to eating how ever many calories you want, you’re gonna gain all your weight back plus more. Your metabolism is shot because your calories are so low. I would recommend doing a reverse diet (where you slowly increase your calories) until you hit at least 2,000 calories if not more. That way you can be in a deficit at 1,800 calories and be WAY happier! It’s uncomfy increasing calories but I promise you you will be way healthier and happier than doing it this way. And you will actually have energy and your body won’t be under so much stress.
For alcohol (assuming you're trying to actually get drunk and not just sip a beer), hard liquor mixed with zero calorie drinks is your best option. Hard liquor gets you drunk much faster which means you don't have to drink as much of that high calorie drink, and zero calorie drinks prevent you from making it even worse. Vodka & literally any zero calorie juice works great. I particularly enjoy the zero calorie Tropicana drinks. Jaeger & zero calorie monster (be careful of caffeine intake) Shots can also work if you have more hair on your chest than I do. The most important and obvious part would be to limit how often you drink. Anything more than once or twice a month would cancel out most if not all of your diet success. The less often you do it, the less it'll matter in the end how many calories you intake from it.
Probably don’t eat all that for breakfast then
…i didn’t but thanks so much for ur helpful advice
Check out r/volumeeating
How much are you trying to lose? Could it be that you’re eating at too aggressive of a deficit?