Monday, September 2, 2019

7 Simple Ways to Stay on Track at the BBQ

Backyard barbecues are a real minefield when you’re trying to lose weight and stay healthy. First, most of them are a carnivore’s delight—lots of steak, burgers and bratwurst sizzling irresistibly on the grill. Second, cookouts redefine salad as “something soaking in high-fat mayonnaise.” And the desserts? Fuggedaboutit, even if you do have room after that outdoor feast.

But if you choose to step away from your diet plan to take in the festivities, you can till successfully stay on track at the BBQ by making good choices and doing a little prep. First, know which foods to stay away from (or at least to keep to a teeny tiny portion size). Click here to get our list of the 5 Worst Calorie Bombs at the BBQ. Then, be smart about the food choices you make while there. Here’s how to keep winning at weight loss without missing out on the fun:

1. Volunteer to Bring the Apps
If you don’t want your only choice to be chips and high-calorie onion dip or a cheese and sausage tray, offer to bring a gorgeous cut veggie plate with low-fat dip, or baked chips with salsa or hummus.

How to Get Your Grill BBQ-Ready

Read More

2. BYOM (Bring Your Own Meat)
Easy enough to do when you’re hosting and much appreciated by your hosts when you’re not, since meat is the most expensive part of the meal. Check first that your host is okay with it. If he or she is planning a gourmet feast of kobe beef or individual quail, you may just want to exercise portion control. But it’s just as easy to throw a turkey or veggie burger or hot dog on the grill when the grillmaster is cooking regular burgers and brats. Friends are usually happy to accommodate you.

If you have the choice, go for grilled chicken, fish or lean beef. Even a regular hot dog is less fatty and calorie-laden than other kinds of sausage. Save a load of calories and carbs by saying no to the bun and cheese. Avoid mayo. Stick to mustard, dill relish or a little ketchup (just a little since it’s full of sugar which can stimulate your appetite).

3. Take a Small Scoop of Coleslaw
Even if it’s made with high-fat mayonnaise, one serving (around three ounces) is only about 172 calories and has two grams of fiber (thank you cabbage!), according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Better yet, make your own—just substitute low-cal mayo for the regular or do a vinegar-based dressing and you can cut the calories by as much a two-thirds.

4. Have Some Baked Beans
Stick to half a cup or less because they’re high in calories. One cup has more than 300 of them, depending on the brand. But they’re high in satisfying fiber—half a cup of Bush’s Original, for example, has five grams of fiber for only 150 calories.* Be sure to opt for low-sodium varieties if you’re the bean-bringer.

5. Load Up on Green Salad
This time of year, produce is abundant. Bring your own green salad (add lots of low-cal veggies) to share as well as bottle of low-cal dressing. Or, opt for grilled veggie kebabs, which are full of fiber and go light on calories.

6. Have Whole Wheat Pasta Salad
The chances of someone making this? Pretty slim. But you don’t have to be much of a cook to throw together an awesome pasta salad. Pick a fun shape, like corkscrew (fusilli), wagon wheels, bowties or gemelli. Add some veggies, like halved cherry tomatoes, fresh peas, snapbeans (blanched a little to soften them), grated carrots, edamame (soybeans), corn, scallions, peppers, onions or whatever you have fresh. Punch up the flavor with fresh herbs, like basil, oregano or mint or even shavings of ginger with a light dressing of olive oil and balsamic or flavored vinegar with a touch of Dijon mustard to bind it. A sprinkling of fat-free feta adds some protein with very few calories.

7. For Dessert, Think Fresh or Frozen
End your meal with a slice of watermelon, a scoop of fruit salad or fruity sorbet, or a healthier frozen fruit bar like Outshine brand*, which has 60-80 calories, depending on the flavor, and contains no high fructose corn syrup, a sweetener research suggests may put you at risk for obesity and diabetes.

The post 7 Simple Ways to Stay on Track at the BBQ appeared first on The Leaf.



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I’ve always been the biggest friend

Hi. I’m 19 years old. Currently weigh almost 260 lbs. I’m the biggest in my friend group. Posting this on my alt bc my fiancĂ©e doesn’t want me losing weight. Trying to eat smaller portions, but I’m transmasc, and on T, so I’m finding it a bit difficult. Breakfast today was a slice of bread with spinach and artichoke cheese and two eggs. I may add a protein shake before I go on my walk but idk. Normally I’d have 3 eggs, two slices of bread, and maybe a piece of fruit. I have the MFP app. My dad is a business man, I want to lose a shirt size before his next trip (in a few months). I struggle with weight loss because of the T, because I have PCOS and had a hysto, and because I’m on a crap ton of psych medications. So yeah. I’m 5’3, and my goal weight is 180 for right now, but I’d really like to get down to 150 or even 130. Sorry for rambling.

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When to adjust TDEE?

Hello!

I have a question I'm hoping this sub can help me with. After how much weight loss should you adjust your TDEE in order to keep losing?

I started my journey focusing purely on diet and have lost a total of 4kg since mid June using CICO. I feel that my progress is pretty slow, but nevertheless steady. I know that eventually I'll need to adjust my daily intake to keep losing so my question is when should I be doing this? My current intake is 1300 calories per day (sometimes less). I've also started exercising 2x per week but I know I shouldn't be eating those calories back and this isn't enough activity to move out of the sedentary catagory.

My stats are: 31F H:155cm CW:79kg GW:60kg

Thanks so much!

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[Question] Weight Loss Diet and Acid Reflux

Hi everyone, this is my second week on a low calories diet, and I am trying hard to stick with the plan. Generally, I eat 3 meals a day (approximately 300 - 350 cals per meal) and do light exercise about 45 mins every day. So far, I have lost about 4 lbs (200 > 196), so I am happy about that, but at night, I have REALLY bad acid reflux that feels like it is eating away the back of my throat. This started after the first week of dieting. I have been doing research about my problem, and most of the articles said it will get better as I lose weight. For now, I feel like I am stuck with it. I try not to eat after 8PM and drink lots of water to dilute the acid (occasionally TUMS, too), but from my past experiences, TUMS kind of loses its effectiveness if you take it too frequently. Has anyone gone through the same situation like me? How do you cope with it without having to eat something at night? Thanks in advance!

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Day 1? Starting your weight loss journey on Monday, 02 September 2019? Start here!

Today is your Day 1?

Welcome to r/Loseit!

So you aren’t sure of how to start? Don’t worry! “How do I get started?” is our most asked question. r/Loseit has helped our users lose over 1,000,000 recorded pounds and these are the steps that we’ve found most useful for getting started.

Why you’re overweight

Our bodies are amazing (yes, yours too!). In order to survive before supermarkets, we had to be able to store energy to get us through lean times, we store this energy as adipose fat tissue. If you put more energy into your body than it needs, it stores it, for (potential) later use. When you put in less than it needs, it uses the stored energy. The more energy you have stored, the more overweight you are. The trick is to get your body to use the stored energy, which can only be done if you give it less energy than it needs, consistently.

Before You Start

The very first step is calculating your calorie needs. You can do that HERE. This will give you an approximation of your calorie needs for the day. The next step is to figure how quickly you want to lose the fat. One pound of fat is equal to 3500 calories. So to lose 1 pound of fat per week you will need to consume 500 calories less than your TDEE (daily calorie needs from the link above). 750 calories less will result in 1.5 pounds and 1000 calories is an aggressive 2 pounds per week.

Tracking

Here is where it begins to resemble work. The most efficient way to lose the weight you desire is to track your calorie intake. This has gotten much simpler over the years and today it can be done right from your smartphone or computer. r/loseit recommends an app like MyFitnessPal, Loseit! (unaffiliated), or Cronometer. Create an account and be honest with it about your current stats, activities, and goals. This is your tracker and no one else needs to see it so don’t cheat the numbers. You’ll find large user created databases that make logging and tracking your food and drinks easy with just the tap of the screen or the push of a button. We also highly recommend the use of a digital kitchen scale for accuracy. Knowing how much of what you're eating is more important than what you're eating. Why? This may explain it.

Creating Your Deficit

How do you create a deficit? This is up to you. r/loseit has a few recommendations but ultimately that decision is yours. There is no perfect diet for everyone. There is a perfect diet for you and you can create it. You can eat less of exactly what you eat now. If you like pizza you can have pizza. Have 2 slices instead of 4. You can try lower calorie replacements for calorie dense foods. Some of the communities favorites are cauliflower rice, zucchini noodles, spaghetti squash in place of their more calorie rich cousins. If it appeals to you an entire dietary change like Keto, Paleo, Vegetarian.

The most important thing to remember is that this selection of foods works for you. Sustainability is the key to long term weight management success. If you hate what you’re eating you won’t stick to it.

Exercise

Is NOT mandatory. You can lose fat and create a deficit through diet alone. There is no requirement of exercise to lose weight.

It has it’s own benefits though. You will burn extra calories. Exercise is shown to be beneficial to mental health and creates an endorphin rush as well. It makes people feel awesome and has been linked to higher rates of long term success when physical activity is included in lifestyle changes.

Crawl, Walk, Run

It can seem like one needs to make a 180 degree course correction to find success. That isn’t necessarily true. Many of our users find that creating small initial changes that build a foundation allows them to progress forward in even, sustained, increments.

Acceptance

You will struggle. We have all struggled. This is natural. There is no tip or trick to get through this though. We encourage you to recognize why you are struggling and forgive yourself for whatever reason that may be. If you overindulged at your last meal that is ok. You can resolve to make the next meal better.

Do not let the pursuit of perfect get in the way of progress. We don’t need perfect. We just want better.

Additional resources

Now you’re ready to do this. Here are more details, that may help you refine your plan.

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Here we go again!

Hi all. After loosing almost 3 stones and managing to “find” them all again I will be trying to drop some weight again. I have had mixed results over the years with weight loss but it got to the point that I have to do something about it and make sure that the fat will stay off. I am at 245 pounds at the moment and there will be no target weight to achieve. I fell also that I know everything there is to know about how to loose weight from the huge amount of articles read, videos watched etc. I think that as hard as shedding pounds is, many of us, including myself, don’t put enough effort and work to achieve success. I have tried all the OMADs, IF, CICO, counting, exercise like mad but never lasted for more than couple of months. This time I will play the long game, lifestyle change one and try to use my knowledge when making food choices.

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NSV and some thoughts I just gotta let out

I still don't know how to do the flair, but F 25 5'10'' SW 210 CW idk I don't step on scales when I'm not at the doctor lol. Sorry for the long intro, if you only wanna read the NSVs I'll put them in a list.

It's been about 7 weeks since I changed my diet. I did that mainly for health reasons because like while 210 lbs might sound like a lot, I still easily fit into the biggest size in non-plus size stores, I was still considered more curvy than fat and you know that saying that assholes often say "big boobs on fat girls don't count", well on me they apparently still counted lol, and generally, my weight was not an obstacle in my day to day life. Working out, getting cute clothes, dating, all went fine.

Anyway, I decided to change my eating habits because my blood sugar was getting kinda high for a 25 year old woman, so my main motivation was keeping my limbs and eyesight for the next 50 years. I talked to my closest friends about that change as soon as I began and addressed it with friends I hung out with but wouldn't consider my closest friends the first time we saw each other, because I'm generally someone who always has to share every little detail lol. So, whenever my friends who knew about me doing this said something like "you already lost a bit!", I didn't take it too seriously because like, when you know your friend is trying to lose weight, you just say something like that.

But a few days ago I was at the farewell party for a friend who I'm really not that close with, who didn't know about my actual effort and who I haven't seen in about half a year and she noticed! I don't know, her saying it, someone who didn't know about it and who isn't hellbent on complimenting me, made it more "real" to me than my friends who are in on it saying it.

so yeah, here's my list of NSVs:

- friend who didn't know I'm trying to lose weight noticing that I lost weight

- i have to pull the strap of my fanny pack tighter all the time lol

- my slim fit mom jeans now look like baggy boyfriend jeans and not flattering at all anymore which is cool on one hand because it means I'm probably a whole jeans size down, but lame on the other hand because I'm too broke at the moment to buy new clothes lmfao.

Another thing I wanted to talk about is more something I wanna remind myself of. This weekend was pretty much a cheat weekend, because of the farewell party and that friend who's moving is a huge party animal, so when you drink from 9 pm to 6 am, you're 100% not within your calorie limit anymore lol. I absolutely don't regret it and I know a lot of you on here cut out alcohol completely, which totally makes sense imo if you're more the type of person who drinks 1-2 glasses of wine or beer every day after work, but that's not how I drink. I drink alcohol max twice a week, more like once in two weeks and usually in a celebratory manner, so while I respect everyone who cuts it out, I don't want to lol. Okay, kinda getting off-track here. What I actually wanna remind myself of is that weight loss is not necessarily linear. Now with the semester slowly starting again, farewell parties for friends moving to other cities every week (one of them probably my own lol), I don't want to limit myself to one drink per party, I don't wanna spend half the date checking the menu for which meal gives me the most volume of food for the lowest calories and price and if everyone else in the group wants to order a pizza to share, I wanna have my 2 slices lol. I'm still gonna stay on track on days I spend alone at home, so I'm not scared of gaining back the weight I already lost, but I won't be mad at myself, if I don't lose weight as fast this month as I did last month and that's okay. I don't have a specific date where I wanna hit a specific goal weight and sometimes you plateau, sometimes you lose, sometimes you gain and that's okay, I have time and right now I wanna spend it with my friends as much as possible.

Okay, I'm done, sorry that this isn't super interesting lol.

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