Ideas for Protein based Break Fast & Dinner (Trying to be a veggie, occasional Non-Veg is fine)

Question

My diet for now is

• BreakFast: Oats (mostly), whole wheat bread with jam
• Dinner: Just fruits: apples, peaches, nectarine, oranges, blueberry, banana
• Lunch : I limit it to a Chipotle Bowl (a burrito in a bowl without a tortilla), a little amount of Chinese vegetables and rice, fish sub, etc. I try to make sure I eat less.

The questions is I need to reduce fat and be trim and flexible. I am 185 pounds now. I just wanted to bring it down as low as possible, basically to reduce my weight. It seems like I have been consuming carbohydrates and been advised to change it to protein-based meal. What kind of protein-based breakfasts and dinners can I have to reach my goal?

Answer 1

I would second the recommendation for www.myfitnesspal.com or similar, and I would also recommend picking up a basic nutrition book. I would also caution you against revamping your diet in such a drastic way until you understand your needs a little better.

The diet you have listed is one that I'm afraid will introduce deficiencies, and I don't think it would support the activities that you have in your other post. You have minimal protein and fats, and are VERY heavy on carbohydrates.

May I ask why you want to go vegetarian? Vegetarian is not a "recipe" for weight loss. I know plenty of overweight vegetarians, and if you truly do go that way, you really need to know food makeup, as there are only two vegetarian complete protein sources (quinoa and...the name escapes me), so you have to be careful about knowing what amino acids are in various foods to get complete proteins for your body.

Answer 2

My first piece of advice will be to avoid casein protein, as it has a high cancer risk associated with it. Going vegetarian isn't the best choice if protein is your goal.

Eggs are your best bet for breakfast, assuming you use half (or less) of the yolk. Omelets, eggs on toast, scrambled eggs, etc. - Omelets are great because you can mix in all kinds of vegetables.

Lunch - pack your lunch. Make a salad or a wrap.

Dinner - Salmon, tilapia, tuna, steak, chicken, broccoli, cauliflower, black beans

Right now your diet isn't very well-rounded. You may benefit from consulting with a nutritionist or tooling around with a diet building website like www.myfitnesspal.com.

Answer 3

Since you say non-vegetarian is fine. Whey Protein and Eggs will be your best source (technically that's still vegetarian in some books, but I won't dwell on the details of boundaries among various vegetarians).

Just get straight, simple whey protein that you can buy in a bulk package at your local grocery store, it's a lot cheaper than getting it in a tub from a supplement store. Make yourself some smoothies.

For eggs, they should be from free range, organically fed, unmedicated chickens. That doubles the price of a dozen eggs from just normal eggs, but if you have limited sources of protein, you want to make sure what you're getting is the best possible source. Eggs for breakfast is pretty standard.