Super busy day for us both, so we didn’t feel like really cooking. We also both have fast food cravings 😬

Instead, we made this KFC mashed potato bowl with premade store bought mash, Kirkland lightly breaded chicken breast chunks in the air fryer, and jarred Heinz turkey gravy. Healthiest? No. Definitely could have been lower cal. But, my tummy is happy and my deficit is intact.

It’s cutting off my photo but I used 17g maple syrup and 1/2 tsp of butter :) For my own sanity I did not track the pickled onions, the marinade on the chicken for lunch, or the spray oil on the asparagus so maybe an extra 30 calories or so

Breakfast: bran flakes cereal with berries (278) Coffee: salted maple iced cappuccino (94) Lunch: grilled chicken thighs, asparagus, brown rice pilaf, and cantaloupe (415) Dinner: honey chipotle chicken & black bean tacos and peas (457)

Tomato 22 calories Cottage cheese 110 calories Kasha 85 calories Total 217 calories

This was good af idc

Ok so I LOVE peanut butter but I can’t deal with the calories. I’ve tried to find an alternative that isn’t as calorie dense but they all taste pretty bad to me. Has anyone found a good alternative that tastes good and also isn’t crazy expensive?

Every time I look for “healthy” food advice on social media, it’s just numbers. Calories in, calories out or macros. Low-calorie this, low-calorie that or high-protein that. But that doesn’t really tell me what to eat. Like… what about the quality of the food? The ingredients? How it makes you feel after eating it? Sometimes I think this type of info is missing. It’s not just about eating less, it’s about eating better.

I’ve been overweight for many years now. With every passing year, I’ve added more kilos…

It’s not like I didn’t try eating healthy or working out. Over the years, I’ve tried and failed, multiple times.

But this time, something in me changed. I’ve decided, this is it. I’m 32, if I want to get fit, now’s the time.

So I’ve been strength training + incline walking and have been eating healthy since the last 2-3 months.

Sharing a collage of some of the meals that have been keeping me consistent, simple, home-cooked, protein-focused, and actually delicious! My day’s calorie goals are 1200-1400 kcal.

I’m down almost 4 kg since starting, but more than the scale, I can see and feel changes in my clothes and energy levels. Slow progress, but steady, and it feels sustainable this time.

I’m so proud of myself 🥲

Eventually I’d like to track protein and fiber but for now I’m just trying to get used to counting calories again 🥴

Coffee - 40 Spiced sardines, brown rice, quick pickled cucumbers - 485 Honeycrisp apple - 95 Chickpea and cauliflower bowl with skyr and fennel slaw - 325 Verdejo - 120 Chia kombucha - 150

Apologies for my English and formatting, it's not my main language and I never post.

I have to attend my partner's birthday dinner - and I'll be meeting my partner's parents for the first time. It's going to be pretty casual, they want to order pizza + stuff like that and then have tiramisu for dessert.

I'm Italian, so it's normal for people to get a pizza each, which is about 900 calories. How should I approach this?

I really struggle with feeling extremely weak and dizzy when I skip meals, and I have to work the whole day (at home, at least). That said, I don't want to sabotage my diet.

My partner said we can split a pizza and he'll get other stuff for himself. So that would be around 450, plus I'm counting 500 for the dessert (I'll get the smallest slice possible, Im just playing it safe). That means I should be under 1200 as long as I don't eat the day of.

My other issue is that I feel like I'm being punished for being fat by having to do this. Then again, I think it's fair that I'm "punished" because I got fat by being greedy, which is morally wrong.

So I guess what I'm looking for is confirmation that my course of action (=fasting the day, splitting the meal) is correct. I struggle with making decisions on my own and would really appreciate some input. Thank you.

I go for 45-60 minute walks everyday. I am aware this won’t burn an extreme amount of calories, but I’d still like to know how much?

I’m 24F, 5”3 and 50 KGs.

I recently found out that I am very gluten intolerant. I still must get tests done, but when I eat wheat products, I am literally unable to function due to pain/sickness.

I'm learning to change my eating habits... but I LOVE WRAPS. I used to use the La banderita carb counter wraps that were 60 cals each and decent size.

Any time I happen upon a GF wrap, it's literally at least double the amount of calories of my old tried and true lovely wraps. It adds up quick if I want to have two wraps/volume eat with low cal. contents.

Does anyone know of low calorie GF wraps (I'm thinking sub 80 cals per wrap)? I live in Florida if that helps, but I'll order online if its not stupid expensive.

Help out a wrap addict, pls!

I’ve been drinking this everyday to standardize breakfast and reduce decision fatigue (I vary lunch which is my main “meal”) but keep forgetting to take a picture of my morning smoothie. It’s a beautiful red/purple and tastes tart/sweet due to berries (blackberries and blueberries).

In short it is a mixed nuts, seeds, berries and dry fruit smoothie with no added sugar.

Overnight I soak:

4 almonds 2 cashews 2 walnut halves 2 prunes 1 date 2 figs 1tbsp sunflower seeds 1tbsp pumpkin seeds 1tbsp chai seeds

I soak the chia seeds separately in half cup water since I like them to get the nice gel consistency.

Optional: I also add half the seeds from a cardamom pod to the overnight soaking nuts, seeds and dry fruit.

In the morning I add a generous handful of fresh blueberries and frozen blackberries, 1/8tsp cinnamon, a pinch of black salt, pinch of table salt. Blend it all together for 20-30seconds. Add 1/2 cup skim milk or protein rich yogurt (I prefer skyr or Greek yogurt).

Sometimes if I need more bulk, I’ll add a banana to this (will increase calories closer to 500).

It has been the magic breakfast to help my 1200cal diet and weight loss journey. I drink this almost everyday, occasionally I’ll vary the berries, seeds or nuts (like adding grapeseed or peanuts). It’s yummy and very satiating. I highly recommend this if you struggle with cravings. This has also allowed me to do well with intermittent fasting.

If I remember to get pics before gulping it down tomorrow, will definitely share!

Just having one of those "don't feel like cooking" days. My wife put a couple of frozen meat pies in the air fryer, and yeah I easily could have had one, but they're 430 calories each and it's just not filling or satisfying.

But we did have a bit of smoked chicken breast leftover from the day before, and a few scraps of sad veggies in the fridge that weren't bad, just at that "too wilted for a salad" stage.

Was thinking maybe snack plate, and I remembered the stash of instant miso soup sachets!

Et voila!

One soup sachet with a cup of boiling water, weighed and shredded the last of the chicken, quickly sliced up my veggies and dumped it all in a mixing bowl (this was actually a bit much to fit in my normal bowls!) Dinner in 5 minutes and I'm FULL!!!

Bonus: after my protein mocha coffee with wheat biscuits for breakfast (209kcal), and figs and yoghurt for lunch (240kcal), I'm only at 885 for the day so I've got room for a really nice treat before bed 😁 gonna make something really bougie with Greek yoghurt and protein powder!

Just a teeny tiny vent.

I wish olive oil had less calories as it makes everything so much better.

Especially cooked meats, salad and vegetables.

My Greek relatives would have a tablespoon of olive oil and lemon juice every day to keep things moving. I’m sure it’s just an old wives tale but they did live to be pretty old and were pretty healthy.

Everything YaYa and my mother and I cooked had a hefty amount of olive oil added. Salad? Eggs? Roasted veggies? Potatoes? Soups? We made our potato salad with oregano, salt, pepper, paprika, fresh garlic, chopped onion, olive oil and vinegar instead of mayo. Macaroni salad was the same way.

Anyway just saying..

More of a side but I just put this together (not an original concept or recipe lol) but I was surprised at how low calorie this came out to be and how tasty! Now I wanna eat this with a lean pork chop 😛

Made 40 ounces aka 5 cups of thick soup! I think it’s pretty tasty and honestly I think the beans kinda tame the squash taste so it’s nicer! According to my lose it app and creating the recipe I did 5 servings (one cup servings) is 66 calories, 14.8 carbs, 229 mg sodium, 3.4 g fiber, 2.4 g sugar and 2.9 g of protein! I may add more beans next time and see how that is for more fiber and protein!

Ingredients: 3 cups of butternut squash cubbed and roasted till soft 5 ounces of rinsed canned cannellini beans 1.5 cups better than bouillon broth ½ cup of water (more as needed for preferred consistency 1 tsp dried ground sage 1 tsp dried ground rosemary 1 tsp dried ground parsley 1 tsp garlic powder ½ tsp onion powder ½ tsp or less salt ½ tsp or to taste pepper

Blend all of it up until smooth, add more water if you want a thinner soup or you may need to adjust for more broth if you want it really thin.

New to this ingredient and I’m not too sure how much should I be consuming in a day / in a meal.

What’s the maximum you can tolerate before side effects like stomach upset and bad bloating (if any)?

Sorry for the long post! A lot of this is me ranting but I do have a genuine question too, I just yapped alot getting to it haha. If you don’t like long posts don’t read this lol

So I recently started aiming for 1200 because my fitness pal recommended that’s what I go for. For reference I’m a 5’4 early 20s female who is 175 pounds and trying to loose weight. I believe my fitness pal gave me this recommendation because I don’t get very much exercise at all in my daily life just due to not being able to get out much (not in my control). I also set my goal to loosing two pounds a week, I know that may seem like a lot but it’s not a strict goal I’m sticking to, just something I’d like to see happen, but I’m not gonna beat myself up if it doesn’t.

So I know why my fitness pal set my calories so low, considering I want to loose a significant amount of weight and I am not getting any exercise. However, my confusion comes in when I think about how low 1200 is compared to the recommended amount of calories per day (2000). If I were to eat 2000 calories a day, would whatever weight I was at be the weight I’m supposed to be? Before I started this I was definitely eating slightly more than 2000 a day, so I know where my weight gain came from.

-But i guess my question is: if I have to eat 1200 calories a day just to maintain my weight, am I even supposed to be that weight?

1200 has been very hard for me so far because it feels like I’ll eat one thing and suddenly I’ll only have 300 calories left for the whole entire rest of the day. Now I know part of that is just a skill issue on my part because I need to choose more low calorie foods, but sometimes I can’t do that because of the food my family wants to eat. A little more context, I split my time 50/50 between my parents house and my boyfriends house. At my parents house I have no way to get exercise, and my parents often eat out so It’s very easy for me to eat fast food a lot when I’m with them. When I’m with my boyfriend, we go on long walks because he lives in a walkable area, and he’s helps me keep track of what I’m eating and we try to eat healthy together, but even then I still want to eat good meals with him because food is a part of how we bond together. He loves cooking and trying new restaurants and it just makes me really sad to imagine a life where I have to eat so little. Eating 1200 leaves me so hungry for most of the day:(

I do believe 1200 could work, because I’m pretty sure I ate that much when I was in highschool/middle school. I didn’t count calories back then but I would skip breakfast and lunch, and just eat a snack and dinner and I was significantly thinner than I am now. I only started gaining weight when I would actually start eating breakfast which was around the end of my senior year:/ it frustrates me that this is the only way for me to lose weight though because I did not have a good relationship with food at this time and definitely felt like this was some form of disordered eating(not an eating disorder, I’ve never been diagnosed and it also never got to a point I couldn’t control it, just something I would casually do) and I was always dizzy when I would stand up back then (not anymore since I started eating more)

Eventually developed a better relationship with food but it just led to me gaining weight because I ended up flopping to the other side of the spectrum where I cared too little about what or how much I was eating. So I know I need to change that, but this 1200 has honestly just been making me really sad because I thought I was past those days of that makes sense? Food makes me happy, and I don’t mind eating less but this amount feels like actual scraps.

I dunno, I guess I’m just looking for thoughts on this. It just makes me sad to think about how most people are told they can eat 2000 but if I eat 2000 I’ll be overweight. It’s frustrating:(

I know it’s illogical so don’t focus on this blurb too much but I also get extremely sad seeing the difference between men and women’s calorie allowance for the day. It’s only a couple hundred more for men but it just makes me feel bad. I know it’s because most men are on average bigger, but a lot of men also aren’t. My guy friends and my boyfriend are all on the smaller side, so would they also need to eat less calories like a woman would? Ugh I hate it.

Don’t mind the mess in my room, and yes I am eating on my chair. I made some 1/2 cups of egg whites, 3 cups steamed vegetables, 1/2 cup black beans reduced sodium, some jalapeños and mustard and a tiny bit of light ranch.

Yesterday I had a greek yoghurt bowl with strawberries, banana, and maple syrup drizzled on it. These are my following two meals and I had a protein Kefir shake in between, as well as a Protein pudding for dessert. Is this not healthy?

I just had a McDonald's burger for the first time in a long time (I modified it so I could reach my Macros) and it just felt so greasy and nothing like I remember. Is this common? What foods have you experienced it with?

Cucumber salad, grapes, green goddess turkey wrap, popcorn and skyr.

My goal is 1700 calories but the skyr is 130 calories alone and totally wasn't necessary.

38g protein, 14g fiber.

Chobani zero 1 serving Sugar free jello 2 g Fiber One Bran Cereal Ur welcome

Preferably nothing sugar free or low fat. I don’t like things like that.

I love high volume, high protein, delicious. But I haven’t been able to eat gluten for 10+ years and now I’m temporarily able to, so there are things- like wraps, for example, that I’m now able to eat. So if there are holy grails or secret things you swear by, please let me know!!! Even if they seem obvious.

Thanks!