Eat your veggies for diet success

[Tatyana]

I have been dieting properly now (the counting calories malarky) now for nearly four months, doing a carb cycling thing for about two.

I have records for close to a year now of comp dieting.

There are a couple of things I have noticed.

Dieting really sucks sometimes, even though the results are great.

There does seem to get to be this freaking hungry almost mad state, feel tired and horrible.

You know the only thing that brings back the balance and sanity?

Vegetables


I have seen a lot of your diet plans, and I know most of you are not on comp diets.

I have also noticed that there is a distinct lack of fruit and veg in a lot of them, and if there is, there is not a lot of variety.

I would highly recommend eating a really wide variety of foods when you are dieting, otherwise, it is just soooooooooo easy to fall off the bandwagon due to boredom or those cravings.

If you are not sure what to do with some veggies, or you want some recipes with some veggies, or you want to try something new, feel free to ask.

 

[jenscats5]

Good point, I agree!!

 

[letsrun4it]

in fairness to many of us on here, we eat greens and broccoli but don't feel need to mention foods we can eat unlimited amounts of--

 

[princesa]

I have been dieting properly now (the counting calories malarky) now for nearly four months, doing a carb cycling thing for about two.

I have records for close to a year now of comp dieting.

There are a couple of things I have noticed.

Dieting really sucks sometimes, even though the results are great.

There does seem to get to be this freaking hungry almost mad state, feel tired and horrible.

You know the only thing that brings back the balance and sanity?

Vegetables


I have seen a lot of your diet plans, and I know most of you are not on comp diets.

I have also noticed that there is a distinct lack of fruit and veg in a lot of them, and if there is, there is not a lot of variety.

I would highly recommend eating a really wide variety of foods when you are dieting, otherwise, it is just soooooooooo easy to fall off the bandwagon due to boredom or those cravings.

If you are not sure what to do with some veggies, or you want some recipes with some veggies, or you want to try something new, feel free to ask.

So TRUE...i've been on many diets and at the end it all comes down to veggies and fruits...I've been training really hard lately and not going too crazy counting cals (in the past i used to be very neurotic-down to the last cal.)...just eating as many veggies as possible thru out the day i could already see the difference- my skin looks great, lots of energy-even after my 2 hr run and in a good mood...Not to mention its the easiest thing for someone on the run, there is days i have 4-5 servings of veggies with a can tuna and im good to go-if i feel my sugar dropping or a little hungry a spoon of peanut butter is life saver. YOu are so right i have my sanity back
As always GREAT POST!!!!!!!!

 

[velvett]

in fairness to many of us on here, we eat greens and broccoli but don't feel need to mention foods we can eat unlimited amounts of--

Where to did you get that from this thread?

 

[letsrun4it]

Where to did you get that from this thread?

I'm not sure what part of this you don't understand.

Thread is about how many of the people on the diet forum neglect veggies but that is based on our sample meal plans we write up....vegies, like drinking water, go without saying for many people.

I see no need to ask how much spinach I should eat with each meal because I really can't eat too much of it

 

[Tatyana]

I'm not sure what part of this you don't understand.

Thread is about how many of the people on the diet forum neglect veggies but that is based on our sample meal plans we write up....vegies, like drinking water, go without saying for many people.

I see no need to ask how much spinach I should eat with each meal because I really can't eat too much of it

I know some consider some veggies as 'free' but if you have a diet of 6 meals of 250 - 300 kcals, then spinach can add up. I cook mine, so it gets even smaller, and I have eaten 400 g in a go.

It may not make a difference for a big guy when your meals are around 500 kcals.

Spinach 100g

kcals 25
protein-2.8
carbs- 1.6
fat - 0.8

Please list that you are eating veggies. There are loads of people who read this forum, but don't post, and they could be looking at YOUR diet plan as an example.

 

[Tatyana]

Now that winter is here, I like to eat more root vegetables in stews.

Here is one I made tonight

1. Add 500 -750 ml of water to a big pot with 2 low sodium organic stock cubes

2. Wash and prepare veggies (I usually cut most into circles, half-moons or strips for root veggies and stews)

3. Weigh the veg after prep.

4. Look up the values on an on-line site like Fitday or CalorieKing. I use the raw weights.

Celeriac (1/2 Root bulb) 290 g

122 kcals - 4.4 g protein - 26.7 g carbs - 0.9 g fat

Swede/Rutabagas 590 g (1 medium sized one)

212 kcals - 7.1 g protein - 48 g carbs - 1.2 g fat

Parsnips 183 g (3 medium sized)

137 kcals - 2.2 g protein - 32.9 g carbs - 0.5 g fat

Yam 278 g (1 large)

239 kcals - 4.4 g protein - 55.9 g carbs - 0.1 g fat

Carrots 229 g (3 medium)

94 kcals - 2.1 g protein - 21.9 g carbs - 0.5 g fat

Leeks 692 g (3 large)

422 kcals - 10.4 g protein - 97.9 g carbs - 2.1 g fat


Weight of veg in stew 2262 g or 2.3 kg

Total macros

1226 kcals - 30.6 g protein - 283.3 g carbs - 5.3 g fat


5. Add into the mix parsely, sage, rosemary and thyme (there is a reason for that traditional song, they taste fantastic together), and a couple of bay leaves.

6. Cook until the veggies are soft.

7. I cook chicken separately, usually boiled for stew in the same herb combo. This way I can weigh out the amount of chicken/protein I need and put it in each individual portion.


8. Check final weight of stew, in this case 2171 g (note the calories etc are not going to change, this is just used for working out portion size)

Then I put all my meals together based on what I know I need.

Most of my meals are about 200- 300 kcals as I will eat between 6-8 times per day.

This is a high carb meal, but my protein usually stays at around 40-50 %


Chicken 80g
88 kcals
18.5 g protein
0 g carbs
1 g fat

Stew 1226 kcals - 30.6 g protein - 283.3 g carbs - 5.3 g fat divide this into 10 so the macros will be:

123 kcals - 3.1 g protein 28.3 g carbs 0.5 g fat

Total weight of stew is 2171 (divide by 10 as well) so I would weigh out 217 g of the stew.

Total meal with chicken and veg


211 kcals - 21.6 g protein - 28.3 g carbs - 1.5 g fat

Check the ratios

21.6 g of protein x 4 kcals/g of protein = 86.4 kcals from protein/ 211 total cals = 40.9 % of meal is protein

28.3 g of carbs x 4 kcals/g of carbs = 113.2 kcals from carbs/211 total cals = 54 % of meal is carbs

1.5 g of fat x 9 kcals/g of fat = 13.5 kcals from fat/211 total cals = 6.4 % of meal is fat.

I could eat a bit more protein, so I may have 90 or 100 g of chicken with these meals.

This is for me on my comp diet, this is just an example of how to work out your diet so you know what you are eating.

 

[Sim882]

I agree with veggies being vital, but also caisin protein shakes are very filling to me. One at night seems to make avoiding carb binging a breeze, and means I don't wake up during the night hungry. They seem to be very bloating and therefore filling.

I also think oat bran as opposed to oatmeal is underused. 40% less calories, more fibre, less carbs, more protein and far more nutrition. It is just as filling as oatmeal per 100 gram serve, but has far fewer carbs and cals, and importantly taste the same.