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 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Depends what your goals are.

I’m looking to shed weight, and am doing so by calorie counting, trying to come in under 2,500 a day consistently, and matching that with increased activity such as gym and floor exercise at home.

If you’re just trying to cut down on The Tasty Crap?

Healthier crisps exist. Snack-a-jacks have an amazing, if mouth melting, Salt & Vinegar. Baked crisps have less fat. If you don’t mind wholemeal bread, that makes for a more nutritious and slightly less calorie dense sandwich. Choccie bars can be swapped out for say, a Tracker bar. Still sweet, but much less chocolate and sugar. Yogurt can be healthy, but you’d need to check your brands and that.

A big saver can be using a sweetener in your cuppa, or even going sugar and sweetener free.

Yeah have been dabbling with the above.

Goal in a nutshell is staying alive! My grandad and my uncle both died of heart attacks in their mid 50s. I'm 47 and picked up 2 years ago that my blood pressure was sky high. So losing weight would be beneficial - I'm not huge, but I'm 1m75 tall, weigh around 93kg, and suffice to say virtually none of it is muscle... I could do with reducing salt, reducing fat and probably eating more fresh stuff and less processed stuff. And doing some exercise too - I was doing a lot of walking but I more or less stopped after the last charity trek I did (about 18 months ago now) rather broke me.

I got as far as installing the couch to 5k app - but so far it's had very little effect

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
True that. Currently struggling having pulled both my calves, so change in diet is having to do the, aha, lifting for the next few days. I’m more or less fine once I’m up and about, but man I’m bandy like a Cowboy for the first few steps!

But it’s genuinely not too bad. Snacks are now fresh fruit and veg, so knocking out calories and increasing nutrients. Dinners are still pretty satisfying overall.

What I will need to watch is my salt intake. Not like a hawk, but just be a bit more aware of what’s already in the fresh ready meals I’m having.

If you're largely eating fresh and not adding tons of salt yourself, odds are you're doing fine. It's prepackaged food that tends to have the excess salt. Don't even get me started on canned soups. Dry soup mixes and boullion are right out.

It’s a mix. Fridge currently has ready meals, but they’re the sort that don’t have a long shelf life, so aren’t massively packed with salt - but still more than I might use when cooking.

Weekend I’m doing my jambalaya. There, I’ll be using Stock, Smoked Sausage and Chorizo, so will need to go easy, especially when seasoning it when it’s on my plate.

Thinking about it, it seems my eating habits haven’t been terrible. Not great, certainly not even lgood. But not as awful as they could’ve been. About the level where making a conscious switch isn’t proving massively difficult. So that’s something!


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 lord_blackfang wrote:
Remember, pure calorie counting works in a calorimeter, not in a living body. You have hormones and gak. You need to be mindful of your blood sugar especially.

True that. Also when starting out, remember stuff like sugar is actively addictive, so you maybe feel pretty rubbish through withdrawal.

I should also point out this is Budget Allowing. I’m single, the only idiot I’m trying to keep alive on a daily basis, is me. I also work from home, which let’s face it simplifies things massively. I could cook fairly elaborate, multi-stage dishes every day as I’m never that far from my kitchen. Heck, I’m even going to be ditching my weekly shop in favour of walking down the shops every day, to ensure my fruit and veg is fresh, and I’m getting in that little bit more exercise. So I do appreciate I’ve some big advantages here.


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Also, on small swap outs?

Just looked at Warburton’s Wholemeal Pita Bread.

Compare to 112 Calories for a slice of white, or 88 per wholemeal slice? A Pita Bread is 155 for wholemeal or 161 white.

Not a huge cut, but as you only need one per piece, a cut is a cut, and not a negligible one.

Shopping at Aldi yesterday, found some low-calorie bread. 35 calories a slice, and a decent amount of fiber to boot. Pretty good tasting too. Not as good as fresh-baked, of course, but decent.

If you have a breadmaker it might be worth making your own, where you can control what goes into it and therefore your exact caloric, carb, sugar, and sodium content. AND it'll be absolutely fresh to boot, no need for preservatives.

For cooking with spice mixes, I make my own using recipes found online (and cutting the salt as needed) rather than using prepackaged mixes which almost always have a ridiculous amount of salt in them.

Canned goods are always a bit of a struggle, as lots of salt is almost always included. Got to read your labels carefully if you're going to use them.

But if you have the salt under control in most of your food, you can hunt around to find decent sausage and cheeses - both typically high-sodium foods - that won't bust your daily allowance when eaten in moderation.

It’s definitely worth shopping around for better bread.

Made a second Shakshuka today for my post gym late lunch. Same as before, but I upped the Smoked Paprika, and put a wee bit of salt in during the cooking. I also baked it at 220 for 12, instead of 180 for 10. Came out lovely, with a nice depth of flavour for such a simple dish. And it’s pretty damned filling.

Hard to get a calorie amount though. The recipe I found online (which I didn’t use!) is for four people, and says 462 per serving. I didn’t use the Feta that recipe did, and whilst I ate what should be for two, I only included two instead of four eggs.

Either way, it’s low fat, lots of veggies and I guess probably around 600 calories?

Certainly I’ve calorific wiggle room today, which is nice as I’m off to the pub to bother my friend during her shift. Don’t intend on drinking a lot, but knowing I’ve “calories in the bank” means I can have two or three without worrying.

Might have half that Quiche that’s in the fridge before I go. That’s around another 450, as it’s crustless.


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Vulcan wrote: For cooking with spice mixes, I make my own using recipes found online (and cutting the salt as needed) rather than using prepackaged mixes which almost always have a ridiculous amount of salt in them.

Is that packet spice mixes? Like Ranch?

I can’t speak for my countrymen, but for me spices come powedered in jars, costing around £1 a pop.

Has anyone tried any of the low sugar/sugar free jams/jellies/marmalades/preserves on the market?

My go to snack that takes me back to happy fun childhood is the classic PB&J... It's my go-to antidepressant in food form.

But its not the healthiest of products and I'm trying to find a less-bad alternative. Any suggestions?

Tonight’s dinner?

Brace of slow cooked Gammon Shanks in a honey mustard sauce (614 Cals)

Creamy Cabbage (140 Cals)

And, like, some air fryer Chips (probs around 200-250 Cals, depending on how many)

I’m really looking forward to it, even uncooked the Shanks smell heavenly.

Ugh. I Might not survive until dinner time.

Ever performed some mindless eating where you turn your brain off and just snack away?

I did that. Ate an entire box of Fiber Bars.

I'm not looking forward to my future.

I do indeed.

Which is why I now buy fresh fruit more or less daily. Basically, when I’ve run out, I go buy more. Which also helps me be that little bit more active, day to day.

My stomach is going to be very active.

I'll be lucky if I can range 20 meters from my home this evening.

But there's always tomorrow!

That, was a bang up dinner! Certainly far tastier than 1,100 or so Calories might suggest.

Even better? It’s left Calories for pudding!

 Quixote wrote:
Ugh. I Might not survive until dinner time.

Ever performed some mindless eating where you turn your brain off and just snack away?

I did that. Ate an entire box of Fiber Bars.

I'm not looking forward to my future.

That's my biggest problem, and possibly the biggest reason I weigh probably double what I should. Mindless grazing while doing other stuff. Well, that and I probably eat too much pizza, although I've cut back on that significantly in recent weeks.

I'm also pretty lazy and don't like to do meal prep type stuff. I know I should as I could be more in control of what I eat compared to my current habits of just eating various frozen dinners that are no doubt full of preservatives and other crap (or just running to various nearby fast food joints and ordering their infamously unhealthy offerings). And then snacking on stuff like potato chips, Chex Mix, and my real go-to snack of choice, tortilla chips dipped in spicy salsa. I was doing better on avoiding sweets, but then Easter rolled around and the stores (including the one I work at) started putting jelly beans on the shelves, and those are one of my big favorite sweet treats.

Another thing that hurts me on the meal prep front is that I'm a notoriously picky eater. At least on those rare occasions where I make myself a salad I do get a nice spring mix instead of plain iceberg lettuce (which I've heard is basically just water and cellulose). So good green lettuce and spinach. But I like Thousand Island dressing (one of the worst possible, healthwise, or so I'm told), and I'm very picky about what stuff I put on top (I don't do fresh tomatoes or mushrooms, to name a couple of examples). Sunflower seeds and croutons, and maybe carrot slices if I feel like cutting up a couple of carrots are my go-to toppings. Somehow or other I have to make myself get over my pickiness and learn to eat better stuff even if it doesn't taste particularly good.

I probably need to replace at least some of the unhealthy snacks with fresh fruit, and that means more than just the occasional banana or orange that I currently do (and those not nearly often enough).

I'm sure my sedentary lifestyle isn't doing me any favors either, but that's a whole other can of worms.

I’d advise All Things In Moderation.

I’m aiming for around 2,000 calories a day, which with increased amount and frequency of exercise should see the weight come off quite comfortably.

But even with that, I’m still eating quite hearty meals. And my snacks I’m just doing fruit and flavoured rice cakes.

So it’s not No Cake, All Exercise. It’s Less Cake, More Exercise. It does take commitment and willpower. But it also takes a little honesty with oneself when it comes to the snacks.

I’d also argue it doesn’t have to be all at once. You can cut back by degrees, and substitute out regular snacks for healthier options.

Just don’t beat yourself up if you backslide a bit. It’s not a race or a competition.

Also also? I think the change in diet just gave me my first Bum Jumble Sale. Which honestly felt pretty good, and has left me feeling a lot lighter.

Gym again tonight. Not sure what I want to do about dinner. Been doing my usual fruit and veg snacks throughout the day, so can have a big one if I want.

And that could potentially extend to a McDonalds. Large Quarter Pounder with Cheese Meal (so with Large Fries) is a little over 1,000 Calories. And I should’ve burned 400-500 by then.

Except, that’s not terribly filling. Tasty in shamefully bland way, yes. But not filling. Also, if I’m gonna do Junk Food this week? I think I’d like to hold out until Friday Night, as there’s an amazing chippy down by the pub, both on the seafront. And what better way to begin my weekend relaxation than a bag of chips, down by the sea, then a few pints? And I do mean a few, not loads. Because that’s responsible, and also beneficial to the old Mental ‘Elf. And by positioning it at the end of the working week, it’s something to be “earned”. Certainly a self appointed award for having done my exercises, and eaten sensibly the rest of the week.

Never, ever neglect your mental health. I had a breakdown around 2018. Do Not Recommend. So even when changing your eating habits to be generally healthier, if you’re craving a bag of chips? Have a bag of chips. Just know you may have to offset certain indulgences with healthier meals elsewhere and some light exercise.


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Did a Jambalya in the end. Chorizo is perhaps slightly naughty, but pretty much everything else in it is super lean.

I’ve also been eating fruit and veg the rest of the day, and some flavoured rice cakes.


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Sorry for the spam.

But using the Mayo Clinic’s calculator, entering my age, height and weight, it’s recommending I get 2,750 Calories to maintain body weight a day.

And of course, I’m aiming well under that.

Does anyone know if that’s a reputable source? I mean, it’s a name I’ve heard before, but then there’s a lot of names I’m familiar with (Pol Pot, Jeffrey Dahmer for instance) you wouldn’t want advice from!

Good job on consistently going to the gym Mad Doc!

My wife and I started an "Introduction to Yoga" at the local leisure centre a few weeks ago. I mainly did it to get her doing some exercise, but has been surprisingly enjoyable for me too.

Also matching it with home exercises and daily walks. Living on the coast most definitely has its exercise perks!

 ZergSmasher wrote:
That's my biggest problem, and possibly the biggest reason I weigh probably double what I should. Mindless grazing while doing other stuff. Well, that and I probably eat too much pizza, although I've cut back on that significantly in recent weeks.

Grazing (along with overeating) was a massive problem for me. Buffets were the best deal ever for me as if I just waited 15 minutes I could clean off another half full plate even when stuffed. At work, the worst for me was someone putting out a bowl of community chips or candy as I've take a few every single time and the only thing stopping me from finishing off the bowl entirely by myself was the shame of doing it in public. For me, fasting has worked well to control that; I have the willpower to eat absolutely nothing for that 16+ hours but once I start then I feast (on relatively healthy low glycemic high protein stuff that is). I found I had the willpower to say no to everything completely for a time as well as say no at the grocery store but no where else; portion control was simply not in my vocabulary unfortunately and any semi-tasty snack in the house suddenly turned me into Gollum looking for my precioussss.

Another thing is to figure out what you actually enjoy most and focus on that. I found I was eating things simply because they were there and not because I particularly enjoyed them. A typical weekend/saturday afternoon for me used to be having a big bowl of potato chips appetizer followed by almost an entire large pizza (I'd leave one token slice typically for the next day out of guilt) followed by a bowl of ice cream with hard shell chocolate (read: oil and chocolate syrup) toppings. I enjoyed the pizza the most so on my cheat day I said I could have half the pizza... but none of the rest... and the other half of the pizza stayed frozen for the next week as I couldn't trust myself with it cooked/chilled in the fridge. For me, I'd (over)eat anything if put in front of me but I truly enjoyed the savory things the most so I cut out the gratuitous carbs (like pasta, bread, rice, potatoes) and most of the sugar (except for fresh fruit and plain yogurt/kefir). I'm not low enough to be considered on a full keto diet but, combined with the fasting, I am in ketosis (which no one tells you about but you can literally smell it in your sweat!).

I still can't fully trust myself with ostensibly healthy things as I overdo them with 3-4 servings a day (most recently roasted almonds, 85%+ dark chocolate, and high protein fiber bars) but I just stopped buying them and that helped. I'm down almost 60lbs (or 27kg for the metric world) since July 4th 2024 and I can honestly say I haven't been dieting in the sense that I'm eating 2500-2700 calories a day typically (maybe 3000 on days I lift weights). Shamefully, I've still got another 10lbs to lose before I'm back to my prepandemic weight when I lost 120lb in 14 months (though at that time I was actually calorically restricting at 1500 cal for the first 6 months and then increasing 100cal each month till my goal weight).

I need something that I can carry with me, that I can eat in case I get hungry that's filling, but not sugar-garbage... or melt as I am walking for miles in 90 degree Florida heat.

(And is Aspartame free, as that stuff gives me migraines).

 Quixote wrote:

(And is Aspartame free, as that stuff gives me migraines).

I have no idea why (other than maybe it interacting with the fasting) but every artificial or even "natural" sweetener I've tried over the years gradually gives me insomnia if used daily even in moderation (like a tablespoon once a day in my yogurt). It's not instant but within a week or two I wake up at 3-4am and can't fall back to sleep (though I have no trouble getting to sleep initially though). Same thing when I tried creatine when I started exercising which never bothered me in my 20s when I also took it.

I had Nachos today.

Out the box, 80g or so of cheese, and a bunch of pickled Jalapeños because pickled Jalapeños kick all sorts of ass.

I’m very much subscribed to “all things in moderation” when it comes to my new diet. It is a bit boring having to calculate calories, but preferable to “no calories, no joy, no taste, no fun” of certain fad diets.

I am super wary of bread still. Mostly because living on my own, as part of this new dietary regime I can’t really get through a whole loaf before it goes off.

I'm a bit jealous in that nachos with that disgusting fake cheese and jalapenos used to be my go-to theater snack of choice back in the day. Popcorn with theater butter always gave me stomach cramps (at least at the "zero portion control" amounts that I would invariably eat).

Oh this was with a decent cheddar, not that liquid muck that stained my Doc Martens when I worked in a cinema.

Nothing that stains good quality leather is going in my body!

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I am super wary of bread still. Mostly because living on my own, as part of this new dietary regime I can’t really get through a whole loaf before it goes off.

Have you considered freezing your bread?
It's what I do, although it does mean you always have to have toast.

Yeah, but I don’t like defrosted bread. It’s always kinda gummy to me.

Plus, it means when I’m working from home, instead of slapping a sandwich together, I go make Ramen. Add some pre-cooked chicken and sliced veggies, and it’s a tasty, filling, fairly low calorie but shame about the sodium lunch,

Last year I found out I had celiac disease. It'd been making me gradually sicker and sicker over the last decade and then flared up with some fairly alarming symptoms, some related to vitamin deficiencies from my ravaged digestive tract not being able to absorb stuff properly any more.

Once I switched my diet around and took some multivitamins for a prolonged period, the change to my wellbeing was incredible. I really thought feeling like crap all the time, being bloated, having constant digestive troubles, being really tired and struggling to focus were just me hitting middle age and everyone went through it, that I just needed to suck it up. But it turns out I had really bad chronic inflammation of my intestines!

So I've had to give up loads of stuff and switch to expensive, not as tasty and often not as healthy alternatives for some of my diet. On the plus side, I've had to quit beer pretty much (you can get gluten free beer but I don't enjoy it enough to drink it very often) and I drink a bit of cider now when I feel like a drink. I also don't really eat out any more - I'm so sensitive at the moment that any cross contamination at all can cause me to bloat up and have pretty bad symptoms that last a few days, so it's just not worth the hassle.

Had to switch to eating a lot more rice - my lunches for work are now a lunchbox of sushi rice with some fish and vegetables in, which is probably a lot better for me than my old staple ham and cheese sandwich!

It's really eye opening having something like this happen, you really realise how much you take for granted. And people can be really weird about gluten stuff - I've never had so many people tell me it was all in my head or I didn't really have the issue as I've had with this, and people get weirdly pushy about offering you food, which never happened to me before.

My friend is a coeliac, and she has to be super careful.

For instance, there’s Gluten Free Fish and Chips, and there’s Gluten Free Fish and Chips.

The batter can be entirely gluten free. But if it’s cooked in the same oil as regular batter? She’ll get Glutened. And it can potentially kill her.

So you’ve my indirect sympathies on just how much care a coeliac needs to take.

Yeah it's not worth the hassle because a lot of restaurants are used to gluten sensitive people who probably won't have much reaction to that kind of cross contamination. But in my case it really screws with me for 3-4 days. No chance of killing me, but really not good for me either.

I think it's a bit unreasonable for me to expect restaurants to cater for it to be honest. Wheat is such a staple crop and it's in so much stuff, avoiding cross contamination for someone as sensitive as me is a total nightmare. After a few bad experiences I've just given up eating out. I still go along with friends and have a drink or something, but I'm not interested in running the gauntlet. One time we had indian food from a local restaurant and they advertised as gluten free, and usually we'd no problems because it was all chickpea flour and so on. But then that night they had their auntie in filling in in the kitchen, and the way she made her onion bhajis was with wheat flour. Honest mistake, Auntie didn't look at the recipe because she knows well how to make 'em. They were really apologetic and I didn't mind too much, but they lost me as a customer because I don't feel like rolling the dice every time!

Even just for healthier eating take aways are a risk.

I mean, Pizza Hut and Dominos both show their Calories, as does McDonalds. So I can at least plan around that.

But my local Curry Houses and Chinese places? Not at all.

Indian food can be very healthy, using typically lean meats, lots of veg and pulses. But if it’s cooked in butter or bad fats? The calories come screaming back in. And you’ve never much of an idea how much salt is used.

But, whilst I’ve not made a Madras in a while, I at least know I can make Indian food more or less from scratch. Really must try a Chickpea curry soon. Love me some Chickpeas, and it’s never a bad idea healthwise to reduce how much meat we eat.

We do curries with Quorn more often than not, as my eldest doesn't really like chicken. We also occasionally do curries with paneer and carrot instead of meat, which also works well.

I've always had a somewhat complicated relationship with food, that I've been trying to fix lately.

I don't know how healthy my diet is at the moment. On the plus side, I've seriously cut down on the fizzy drinks and snacks and dinner is almost always homemade, on the negative side though, I eat too much toast, dinner involves a lot of pasta bakes and casseroles and I'm still not great at portion control.
Hopefully it evens out to being healthy-ish.

Today's breakfast was the usual instant porridge with frozen fruit (Blueberries) and two slices of wholemeal toast (One buttered, one peanut butter and jam), dinner is https://skinnyspatula.com/three-bean-chili/ with rice and a roll (With luck I'll get at least 4 portions to put in the freezer).