I am a pretty simple guy when it comes to food. I am looking to lose weight, and would love to eat just one or two meals throughout the day to lose weight. I don’t want heavy preparation. Any suggestion on some basic things I can throw in a tupperware container and eat every meal?
I am 6-3 , I weigh between 245, and 250. I work for a moving company so I am constantly busy and lifting. I would classify myself as having a gut for sure. I have good cardio and I would say my strength is my lower body and core.
I am a pretty simple guy when it comes to food. I am looking to lose weight, and would love to eat just one or two meals throughout the day to lose weight. I don’t want heavy preparation. Any suggestion on some basic things I can throw in a tupperware container and eat every meal?
I am 6-3 , I weigh between 245, and 250. I work for a moving company so I am constantly busy and lifting. I would classify myself as having a gut for sure. I have good cardio and I would say my strength is my lower body and core. [/quote]
Please see some of the HUNDREDS or nutrition articles on this site.
[quote]Brandon27 wrote:
I am looking to lose weight[/quote]
Just to clarify, you’re looking to lose fat. Losing weight is what most of America wants with Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, and P90x, but weight loss - just making the scale read a smaller number - does nothing to build or preserve muscle, and muscle is what’s going to make you actually look better at the end result.
Make sure you’re getting enough high-quality protein (1 gram per pound of bodyweight is a general guideline) and you should be able to stay on track with the muscle.
This article has some tips for making food prep easier:
It kinda depends on what type of diet plan you’re going for (low carb, intermittent fasting, etc.), but for a super-basic go-to meal, it’s hard to beat a few whole eggs. 3 or 4 hard-boiled eggs and a bunch of green vegetables (like a diced cucumber/celery/bell pepper mix) would be a portable, filling, fat loss-friendly meal with a bunch of good protein and healthy fats.
Do you have a regular training routine (lifting and/or cardio) or is work your only “exercise”?
I think I have a good foundation of muscle, I’m not a small guy. But I really need to lose fat.
I joined gold’s gym to supplement my furniture moving with cardio. I’ve been running a mile or so 5 days a week, as well as 500 skips of the rope a day. I’ve been doing light lifting as I don’t want to go heavy because I need my energy for moving furniture.
Is there a convenient bar or something that I can bring along for my snacks? Its difficult to eat that much on the job but I see here that its important. What do you suggest?
Replace the cardio with weight training. You may feel weaker and sore for a week or so, but who cares. You will be building muscle, stoking your metabolism, and getting stronger. The stronger you are, the easier your body will have to work to perform your job.
I use either MAG-10 or Metabolic Drive with either a handful of nuts or some sort of fruit (apple, kiwi, banana) for 2-3 meals/day, almost always while I’m at work. Easy and quick, and I know I’m getting some solid nutrition. Chris is right on too!! Can’t beat a few hard-boiled eggs and some veggies.
Get most of your CALORIES from the meat (muscle and organ) of organic naturally fed animals (grass-fed or wild animals eating the foods that they are supposed to eat). Also eggs from organically grown pastured chickens. This will give you most essential nutrients (except vitamin C) without consuming excessive carbohydrates. Organic may not make a big difference for weight loss in the short term (nor overall, but an unhealthy body is not an efficient body, nor is it something to strive for. Organic fats are far more important than organic veggies/fruits).
Make sure most of the VOLUME of food that you eat comes from green vegetables. This is how to get your vitamin C and fiber without consuming excessive carbohydrates. Put good quality (California) extra virgin (cold pressed) olive oil all over it, but don’t fry in the stuff. If you must, fry in (grass fed) butter or (organic virgin) coconut oil.
Avoid most fruits and all fruit juice because of their fructose content. Wild berries are great and very healthy and should be eaten, or get something like Superfood sold on the site here. Juice, bananas, pineapple, etc are not a good idea.
Avoid all grains and legumes because of their carbohydrate and anti-nutrient content.
Avoid most dairy. Raw grass fed cheese is fine, and raw fermented products like yogurt are fine as well. Good luck finding either.
Avoid all roots and tubers.
Many would be better off to avoid nuts and seeds as well. They are high in cals and way to easy to over-do. Some seeds and nuts are common allergens and or contain anti-nutrients as well. You can soak raw nuts/seeds for 12-24 hrs to remove these.
I hear you gregron, but I didn’t number them to be considered “commandments”! Weight loss aint pretty, nor easy. But it can be simple, and can improve health. I numbered them in order of importance for weight loss. Above all, eat less. I’m not blind to that. So if you wanna eat beans, then eat some beans! Throw in a sweet potato or piece of cheese. If you get most of your cals and volume from a variety of good quality meat and veggies, you will have good results if you burn more than you consume.
The OP said “I don’t want heavy preparation. Any suggestion on some basic things I can throw in a tupperware container and eat every meal?” What’s more simple (and what better could you suggest be eaten in two meals??) than a bunch of meat and veggies? For a person who is “6-3 , I weigh between 245, and 250” with a gut would probably benefit most from this.
This is not an attack on you OP, and gregron, to clarify I didn’t say no rice. I believe in the mountain dog diet. It’s great and does allow rice, sweet potatoes, and oatmeal… But… those should be eaten in moderation for fat loss, mostly for recovery and or to fuel workouts. For weight loss, macros make a difference.
In yall’s opinion: What macros and food choices should he be following? Am I wrong? Is what I posted simply too restrictive? If you actually tried to eat like this, you might be surprised how easy and delicious it really is. You get plenty of fat, plenty of protein, and plenty of nutrients and volume. It makes more sense to me than a lot of other strategies, unless of course, you want to just “workout and eat more clean” but you said “Weight Loss 101” and that’s pretty much what I gave.
I was just giving you a hard time
I agree that what you wrote is a good dietary goal to shoot for but is probably too restrictive for most people. That would be a HUGE nutritional change for most people and would take time to fully make that switch IMO.
I like what you laid out though.
As far as macros goes it would help if the OP was currently tracking his calories and macros but I doubt that is happening. With that being the case (more than likely) I would have him start with a baseline of 3,300-3,400 calories a day (assuming the weight x 15 = maintenance calories calculation) which would put him at a 300-400 calorie deficit to start with.
I would say to shoot for 1-1.25 grams of protein per pound, which would be anywhere from 245-310 grams a day (1,000-1,200 calories). Then, depending on how his body reacts to carbs vs fats he should just fill it in from there.
This is all just very basic and would definitely need tweaking but it would be where I would start if we didn’t have an accurate picture of where he is starting from dietarily speaking.
[quote]gregron wrote:
I was just giving you a hard time
I agree that what you wrote is a good dietary goal to shoot for but is probably too restrictive for most people. That would be a HUGE nutritional change for most people and would take time to fully make that switch IMO.
I like what you laid out though.
As far as macros goes it would help if the OP was currently tracking his calories and macros but I doubt that is happening. With that being the case (more than likely) I would have him start with a baseline of 3,300-3,400 calories a day (assuming the weight x 15 = maintenance calories calculation) which would put him at a 300-400 calorie deficit to start with.
I would say to shoot for 1-1.25 grams of protein per pound, which would be anywhere from 245-310 grams a day (1,000-1,200 calories). Then, depending on how his body reacts to carbs vs fats he should just fill it in from there.
This is all just very basic and would definitely need tweaking but it would be where I would start if we didn’t have an accurate picture of where he is starting from dietarily speaking.[/quote] I knew you were just razzin. For every potential solution, there are often two opposing sides that are equally right, not that I’m saying you are the dark side, nor would I ever admit defeat, lol. As for too restrictive for most I agree but I personally don’t mind what I eat, even if it’s whacked out. I like optimization and all that good stuff, but yeah I recognize that what you said is probably true for most people. The advice you gave is solid.
As for tracking calories, I’d add that the OP should get a decent digital food scale. Only needs to go up to 500 grams or so. Another idea for tracking calories, though far less precise is that you can honestly track calories pretty easily by adding up whatever is on your food receipts! Tracking receipts is also a good record to keep yourself accountable and acts as a decent food log. It can help pinpoint potential for areas where you might be nutrient lacking as well, but there I go again…
