What foods should I eat?

[madhatter]

Hi! I'm 14 years old and my height is about 5'1". My current weight is about 160 lbs. My goal weight is atleast 130. I've been rummaging my way around forums and managed to make my first thread .

I don't really have a target date, but I just want a fairly steady pace of losing weight so I can make my parents and family proud.

I know what the basic drill for losing weight is, eat healthy, excercise, and drink lots of fluids. Mainly water. I have a big concern on what to eat though. Up until now, i've been pretty much a carnivore. I would eat way more meats than vegetables or fruits, and thats why I've decided to quit. So now, I've decided to become a vegetarian until I get to my goal weight. Yes, I know its going to be very hard, but it all will be worth it in the end.

But with all that talking, I still don't know what kinds of foods I should eat because I'm taking a pretty big leap from my usual eating habits. The only thing I know what vegetarians eat are veggies and fruits.

Any help?

[abrannan]

My first piece of advice is to make your dietary changes more gradual. A hard cutover from Meat to vegetables is more likely to leave you feeling deprived, and will lead you into an all or nothing mentality that spells disaster for a diet. Definitely eat more vegetables, fashion your meals so your main course is vegtables, and your side dish is meat. Stop drinking soda if you're currently drinking it, or at the very least start drinking diet. Either way, make sure you're drinking at least as much water as other stuff each day. Stay away from fried foods, they're just sponges for the fat they're fried in. Stay away from sugars and simple starches like pasta, white rice and potatoes. Get a variety of colors in your diet, reds, blues, greens, the darker the color, the better it is for you. If you have to eat breads and pasta, eat whole grain, and eat very little of it.

Just start adding those rules into your eating over time. As you go, it'll feel less like a diet, and more just the way you do things. And that's the real determining factor of success. If you can diet without "dieting", you're bound to succeed. Otherwise, you'll go back to eating the way that got you to where you are today.

Also, make sure to talk to your doctor before you get started, they can offer a lot of advice, and can help you set a healthy goal weight and progress.

[madhatter]

what can I replace instead of white rice during meals? My family depends heavily on the use of rice with our meals. My parents usually make soup and whatnot to go with rice.

[abrannan]

The soup is good, you could just skip the rice. The other alternative is to switch to brown rice, which is processed less and has more fiber. Or even just reduce the amount of white rice you eat with thte meal.

[xstatic]

I'm going to chip in here. Becomming a vegetarian in NO WAY makes you loose weight! Look at Abrannan's rant on simple starches. I GAINED a LOT of weight by becomming a vegetarian by replacing my meats with simple starches - NOT INTENTIONALLY!! You just sort of reach for them because they are an option. It took a LOT of work for me to cut down on simple starches as a vegetarian.

[Grant.]

What about pita bread? I checked out the calories and it's only like 60 per piece.

[abrannan]

Pita is better than most breads, but white pita still suffers from the same refined carb problems as other breads. It's not so much the calories as what it does to your body. Simple starches are easily digested in your stomach, so they move on to your intestines quickly, where the carbs are quickly absorbed into your bloodstream, causing a large blood sugar spike. Now, that's a lot of energy being pushed into your body, so your body needs to counteract it and conserve the energy (Particularly if you aren't working out at that moment), so it releases a lot of insulin to capture that energy and store it for later (i.e. Make fat). So now you've got a bunch of problems, your stomach is empty (all the carbs were digested very quickly), you're coming down off of a sugar high, so you're lethargic, your body is producing and storing fat, and you've got a lot of insulin running around in your blood, which can lead to insulin resistance (See: Type II Diabetes). This process is the basis for the Glycemic Index diets (GI Diet, South Beach, the NEW Atkins, the new food pyramid). A Food's Glycemic index is a measure of how quickly it raises your blood sugar. Foods with lower GIs are better.

So why whole grains? Whole grains are high in fiber, which is largely undigested by your body. It sits in your stomach a longer time, promoting a feeling of fullness and encouraging you to eat less. And when it is passed into your intestines, it just keeps on going through (and out) taking a whole host of other waste with it, rather than being absorbed by your body. Green leafy vegetables are also chock full of fiber, as well as other vitamins and minerals.

[tr4106]

You can also replace white rice with long grain basmati rice, it has better flavor than brown rice and it is on par with brown rice as far as its GI rating. It isnt as nutrient full as brown rice, but I personally cannot take brown rice. Sweet potatoes are a great alternative to white potatoes also.

Also meat isn't bad at all. Chicken Breast, Lean steaks, lean ground beef, and most fish are a great source of protein. (And in fish, a great way to get your omega 3 fats).

You may want to look into taking EFA's (Essential Fatty Acids- Flax oil or Fish oil you can buy the pills for very cheap at walmart)

And get a multivitamin.

(GI = Glycemic index - see Ab's post. Also this rating is significatnly lowered when you eat proteins with the carb in question - still avoid starches if you can)

Simple starchy carbs are good sometimes but in certain conditions (IE: right after weight lifting - with a fast asboring protein like whey)

If you drink a diet coke make sure to drink 2 glasses of water to match that, for an average person you want to take in 1 oz per 1 kilogram of bodyweight.
(1 kilogram = 2.20462262 pounds)


If you don't want to count calories also a good ruleof thumb for eating is:

-Eat 5-6 meals a day
-Space the meals 2-3 hours apart
-In 2 of the meals have a portion of protien, carbs
and veggies
- In the others a portion of protein and carbs

A portion is:
For a protein rougly the size of YOUR Palm
For a carb roughly the size of YOUR fist
For a veggie the amount you can hold in YOUR cupped hand.

This is ripped directly from body for life (portion counting) but its a good palce to start.

Sorry if the post is a little akward, I'm typing on the fly.

[abrannan]

Aside from a disagreement on how much water the average person should take in per day (Your recommendation of 1.5 gallons, 196 ounces, is triple the 8-8oz glasses recommendation, and you taking in nearly 400 oz of water per day is a bit hard to imagine), these are all good pieces of advice.

[Grant.]

Whole grain pita's it is then (that's the only kind we have in the house too because i requested it xD)

[tr4106]

Your right, I had a brain fart inthe middle of work and was thinking 1 oz per lb rather than 1 oz per kilogram.

I was thinking 1.5 for someone ~200 lbs and went with lbs instead of kilograms in the conversion.

I actually do consume around 350 oz of water per day.

I drink 6-7 32 oz jugs of water during my working hours (6am-4:15 pm) and I typically drink about a gallon or more at home.

Sorry about that - I'm going to edit that post.

[abrannan]

tr4106 said:

I drink 6-7 32 oz jugs of water during my working hours (6am-4:15 pm) and I typically drink about a gallon or more at home.

Yowza. Do you work the long day because you're hitting the bathroom a lot?

[tr4106]

Nope I work the long day becasue I don't work fridays

But yeah, many many bathroom runs for me

[xstatic]

grant said:

Whole grain pita's it is then (that's the only kind we have in the house too because i requested it xD)

I had one for lunch. It was mmm mmm good.

[Grant.]

heart pita bread. and there is this new salad dressing i found that i love so i use it instead of mayo. that'll help a LOT in the long run.

[agent709]

I just eat fruit cups, frozen dinners, protein bars.... drink LOTS of water and like, 2 cups (measurement cups) of milk everyday... lets see.... chicken breasts are tasty.

Pitas with peanut butter are good.