Confused about people and food?

[kez17]

Most places I look and read people are eating salads all the time but I'm having things such as brown rolls or brown pitta bread or brown pasta with chicken and salad instead of just salad and chicken, I still stay under 1400 calories and everything but I just don't understand why people choose to eat salad when they can have a much more filling meal?

[returner]

Hi kez17,

Bread isn't really all that great as it can quickly add in the calories / use up your daily calorie allowance.

However, if you limit it - say two slices a day - and if it's 'good' bread, i.e. wholegrain, so you're getting at least some other stuff with the calories, then it's probably not too bad a way to go. If you're eating lots of bread, then it probably is not a good way to go.

In general, if you're going to eat 1400 calories a day - make sure they're accompanied by the full range of nutrients.

The extreme in the other direction is the sugary carbonated drinks that are just plain 'empty' calories.

[returner]

Oh, and pasta, much the same, but watch the portion control - weigh it out, don't guess.

[kez17 in reply to returner]

I weight out everything that goes into my mouth, even every last grape I have as a snack I always weight out everything, even my 30g porridge with 150ml skimmed milk every morning,

But all the labels are green on the brown wraps (I meant wraps not rolls) so they're healthy right? Plus high fibre and low fat

How many calories do you eat?

[Zest Healthy BMI]

Hi Kez17,

I prefer to mix my foods so that a typical meal for me would contain a bit of protein, some healthy carbs (wholemeal bread or pasta) and lots of vegetables, plus I like to eat a couple of pieces of fruit or berries and seeds etc, plus a few nuts. I think it's healthy to ensure the balance of food groups are part of each meal. Therefore I agree with you that having some salad with some chicken and also a few potatoes, or a piece of wholemeal bread or pasta would be a nice and satisfying meal. I also like to ensure I have some healthy fats and oils with my meals - i.e. using olive oil dressing on salads, a bit of butter in my jacket potato, and I also like avocados as healthy additions to a meal. Oily fish is good too.

Hope you're enjoying your healthy filling meals so far this week.

Lowcal

[kez17 in reply to Zest]

Thanks low cal may I ask your personal weight loss routine?

How many calories do you eat? And how often do you exervise and what do you do for exercise? You seem to be the person everyone looks up to!

[Zest Healthy BMI in reply to kez17]

Hi Kez17,

To be honest, my calorie intake varies day to day, and so does my exercise. I know that probably isn't particularly helpful to say that, but it is true! I try to go for a walk about 6 days per week, and I try to get to the gym about twice a week. I usually do about 50 minutes in a typical gym session, consisting of 20 minutes running on the treadmill, 20 minutes on the cross trainer and the remaining time on the bike. I also try to have a run about once a week - about a 40 minute jog really.

I am hoping to start doing some weight training to tone up, so that is one of my goals to start some kind of regime to do that in the next couple of weeks.

I don't know if anyone looks up to me, but I am quite tall - 6 feet 1 inch...

Lowcal