Zandola's Diary

Z

Zandola

New member
Dear Forum Diary:

I'm fat and i hate it!!!!!! i am getting married in a few months (Sep) so i have around 3 to 4 months to lose enough weight to look HOT for my wedding.
i'm 5"3' and i weigh 85 KG.. I have been on a diet for a month now and i lost 1 KG (impressive, right?) but my inches r less. like i lost 2 inches on my arm and 2 inches thighs and 1 inch in my abdominal and 1 in bust line.
so thats good but still i was aiming for 4-5KG :(
so i had a chat with my trainer and she asked me to consider going on a fruit diet for a couple of weeks, a month if possible..
what do u think? i was thinking abt trying it out for 2weeks ..
 
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Hi Zandola and welcome

I am so glad you've asked us for our opinion because almost all of us here would strongly advise against going on a fruit diet. Sure you might drop some kilos really quickly but you will also put it back on really quickly and you might also go through the whole cycle well before the wedding which will only add more confusion to your body. So don't do it. This sort of diet mucks about with your metabolism and its really not a good idea to lose weight that fast anyway. Usually there's a reaction against such rapid loss and your body give you a big appetite when you come off it. So don't do it.

The good news is 4-5 kilos is easily lost in the time you've allowed by following a healthy calorie controlled diet. In fact, you could easily lose more and because only getting down to 80kg is still very high weight for your height, i would suggest you keep going until you are in the healthy weight range. You could aim to lose between half a kilo and one kilo a week.

For your height, a healthy weight for you is between 51 and 64 kilos.

It's great that you've lost 1kilo in the month and the inches are not nothing by any means. That's a pretty significant change in size for your height. So be proud.

What i suggest you do is a few things as follows.
1. As you are on the forum, read around other people's diaries and learn stuff that helps with healthy weight loss. Keep your own food and exercise log.
2. Dig up a BMR (basal metabolic rate) calculator on the net and figure out yours and what your maintenance calories are including your exercise/activities. Its pretty easy. No brain work required.
3. To lose weight at the rate of about 1 kilogram per week, they say you need to eat 500 calories less than your maintenance calories. (Don't forget as you lose weight, these numbers will change so you will have to recalculate from time to time).
4. If you are not familiar with how many calories are in different types of food, start learning about and use a calorie counting program - can be found on line. This is quite a time consuming business but well worth doing it for a while. YOu need to know how much food you can afford to eat whilst losing and whilst not adding to your weight. Note that fat contains twice as many calories per gram of food than either proteins or carbohydrates.
5. Do this for the long term, not just until your wedding. When you reach your goal weight, then you only have to go back to maintenance calories and you won't add any more weight.
6. Don't go on a starvation diet, rather cut back on the high fat and high sugar and processed foods you are eating and replace with healthy foods including proteins, complex carbohydrates, healthy (unsaturated or mono vegetable fats and fish fats), dairy for your bones and teeth health, fruit and vegetables for vitamins and minerals. Learn about good nutrition.
7. Try to continue to enjoy your food by making good healthy satisfying meals.

As you are from Oman, I'm wondering what nationality you are. You don't sound like an Omani/middle eastern woman. Are you british?

Will cultural matters interfere with your weight loss program in any way?

If i have interpreted it all correctly and you are omani and getting married, how much sun exposure do you get? I ask this because its relevant for bone health which apparently is an issue for a lot of middle eastern women who have to keep well covered up.

Finally, can i ask a favour. If you log interesting middle eastern food, could you please share the recipes with us. I am particularly interested in food from all over the world and i like middle eastern food very much.
 
hey, thanks for replying. i will continue this diet (im considering it a lifestyle)
i agree that losing weight slowly is way better then strict diet but the thing is i was kind of disappointed, after i found out that i lost 1kg in one month which i suffered in.
my diet consisted of boiled stuff(meat n chicken) and vegs and no oil, and skimmed milk and special K. :( but im proud of myself.

for now my aim is to lose 15 to 20 kg then ill def continue..

yes i am omani lol british??? wow that IS a first. Will cultural matters interfere with your weight loss program in any way????? (what do u mean)
and yes we r exposed to the sun ALOT even if we r fully covered. its pretty hot here :(
aww what sort of food do u like?
my mother is from zanzibar so we have totally different sort of food. yummz
i wonder what sort of recipes u would like?

where r u from btw? tell me ur story x
 
a super restrictive diet like fruit only is not a good idea as it won't provide the nutrition you need. Balance is the key.

if you start posting your food and exercise each day we will have more information to base advice on.
 
You are omani - brilliant - yum! not you, the food i'm imagining. I thought you might be british or something because you sound quite western in your manner of speech.

Zanzibar, - i think that must also be brilliant though i've no idea what they eat in zanzibar. My sister had a holiday to Z a few years ago. I can't remember what she said about the food though.

PLease please share recipes for everything. I do on my diary. My diary is called "I'm aiming for 59kg"

Well at least say the name of the dish or describe it and if it sounds interesting to me, i can ask for the recipe after.

Your food and even your ingredients will be so different from what's typical here though we can get a good variety of foods and spices in Australia. Yes I am an Aussie. I live in a hot climate too in the tropical north, by the sea. My sister is a university English teacher over in UAE actually! In Al Ain. Do you know that city? My sister has visited Oman. It's quite popular with the expats. I've only been to UAE. OMan is probably a bit more culturally rich than UAE which seems to have sold out to Western materialism if you know what i mean. But that's a different topic.

Ah by exposure to sun, i did not mean "what is your weather like". I meant do you get enough sun on your skin directly on your skin? When you are at home, can you take off your coverings and expose your arms to the sun a bit? They are worried here in Australia that if there is a ban on face coverings in public that the women will even wear them even in their back gardens so that no one may see them and then they'd never get any sunshine on their skins. It is apparently very common for muslim women to have lack of vitamin D (which comes from the sun. Its important for several reasons. One is is that Vitamin D helps calcium absorption and this is very important for strong bones. If you see little old bent people, they have the bone disease, osteoporosis - calcium and vitamin D and another mineral (phosphorous or potassium i can't remember which but its fairly easy to get in your diet) are essential for strong healthy bones into old age. You only have until middle age to build bone strength though. You need to eat something like 1000mg of calcium per day for maximum benefit. Dairy is the easiest way to get enough calcium through your diet. For enough Vitamin D we need about 10 minutes per day minimum. Its not much but if you are covered up too much as well as use sunblock on your face, you will not get your vitamin D. My grandmother had osteoporosis. She didn't know she had it until she broke her hip when she was about 85. And then it became obvious. By the end, she was bending over, had lost a lot of height and her spine was pushing on her oesophagus. You don't have to be this old before it becomes a problem either.

If you only lost 1kg in a month and you eat good healthy food, perhaps its just the portion size you need to take more care with. You will need to eat less than what you usually eat to lose weight. We can help you with that if you post the quantity that you are eating. I use measuring cups and spoons to help me be objective. Some people use kitchen scales and list everything in grams though i have to admit, i can't picture food in grams for the most part so cups and spoons are easier for everyone.

Do you use metric in Oman. yes i think you do. So a cup is 250ml and a tablespoon is about 20ml so we are all on the same page. As you will see a lot of people here don't use metric but they all understand cups and tablespoons.

Well in terms of middle eastern food i like, I don't eat a lot of meat (but i like it so i am still interested and i am sure others will be too) but i eat fish and vegetables, beans and lentils. I like felafal. We made them in our vegetable club recently. I like interesting spice combinations but i don't like too much chilli. I like foreign foods full stop. I don't care where it comes from but i do love middle eastern foods. I spent some time there many years ago. One of my uncles used to live in Abu dhabi and he learnt to make fantastic curries. I especially loved his fish curry. My god it was one of the most delicious dishes i ever had and i am talking about well over 20 years ago now. I like biriyani and although i eat eat chicken very much at all i am going to make that again. I love it, especially when i make it and can leave out the chilli.

I love the way you probably make green beans.

You understand that most anglo- westerners aren't very good briliant with vegetables. In the old days they only knew how to boil vegetables. Nowadays we know how to steam them but for delicious recipes we have to look further afield to other cultures who were more creative. So anything you can give me with fish, dry beans, lentils, vegetables I am going to love you for. Oh and rice dishes.

I've gone on for a long time already so i will address the cultural question another time. I guess i was thinking of whether there was a thing against being slim or not eating what everyone else is eating and so on.

I think i have covered almost everything. :D:waving:
 
aww, thank you!

i will DEFINATELY share recipes. names of dishes:
1. boko boko - it is made of beans i think lol
2. mandazi - its like a sweet bread.
3. ndizi- its cooked green banana with coconut
and more......

my sister lived in Melbourne for 6 years. i have never been but wish too.
of course i know al ain, its 4 hour drive from Oman. We always go there. i totally agree about
Dubai, that is why i cant stay there for more then a week. it has been taken over :( but it is still a fun city

it seems u dont really understand how it is with the covering lol, that was a funy remark
yes we do get exposed to the sun. i go to the beach every week for a swim and so on
and it is not as strict as u think.. i am sorry about ur grandmother. it is quite dangerous

My trainer told me the same about my portion of food, but im a lil disappointed :( one thing i hate it measuring what i eat
its like being in a math class

DO U USE METRIC IN OMAN? another silly remark lol do i really have to measure? i could just reduce the portion i was eating in the
first month. ya?

with our foods we like to add alot of flavour and spices. thats y my diet food isnt so boring to me.
i like falafel too but isnt it cooked in oil?
chilli is My favorite, i use it for everything!
i heard it increases ur metobalism. true?


when u come down to c ur sister, dont try the local food?

which dish did u mean "green beans"?

i can c u lost 7kg? in how long? and wht sort of diet r u on?




thank u for the lovely post
 
Measuring needn't be hard, and it is the best way to lose weight. Studies have shown that people are notoriously bad at guessing how much they eat/ drink, and they almost always guess that they're eating much less than they are. (For example, I used to think I had 20ml of milk in my tea- now I measure it, I know I have closer to 70). I'd recommend a set of digital scales (I don't know about there, but in the UK where I am they're not expensive)- what I do is I put a plate on the scales, make the scale read "0", put what I have on the scales, and then write down the number. If it's too high calories or I find I'm not losing weight, I reduce how much I have- by using the scales to measure (otherwise you may not actually be reducing). All you have to do is read and write down that number, you don't have to do any maths at all. There are even recipe calculators where you write down how much you have in a recipe (this still requires measuring/ weighing), how many serves it is, and it'll break down how many calories are in the meal for you.
 
hmm, so i measure what i eat.. i will definately check it out
thank u

how did u lose 4 kgs? and how long?
btw how do u put the weightloss ticker?
 
I've lost 4.5kg in 5 weeks- calorie counting (I calculated my maintenance calorie allowance using my BMR and the Harris Benedict formula, and I aim to eat 500-1000 under that every day) and exercise (the exercise is counted into my maintenance allowance though). I've got my own diary (linked in my signature) so you're welcome to read how I've gone about it. (Don't be frightened by the breakdown of food, I have a computer program that does that for me, I'm not a massive fan of maths myself)

If you click my weight loss ticker, you'll be taken to a website where you can set up your own. You're then given a code to put in your signature (which you can edit by finding the link in your user control panel- but you can't do that until you have 10 posts so yours, although you have more than 10 posts, may not have shown up yet).
 
I seriously dont like calorie counting, unless someone does it for me.. how do u know how much calories does a dish have?

Today:
breakfast: cup of tea with special K
Snack: coffee with milk
lunch: Boiled chicken and vegs
Snack: low fat yogurt
Dinner: soup or tuna sandwich (brownbread)/ oatmeal

havent decided yet since its still early for dinner here
 
If you use a calorie counting program and tell it what you've had and the weight, then it'll tell you how much it is. (I do most of my cooking either with my scales underneath where I'm preparing my dish, or I weigh all my ingredients before I start. It takes from between seconds for a simple dish to 5 minutes for a complicated dish. Unfortunately measurements/ weigh is critical, as you could have had 50g of tuna or you could have had 500) You may need to enter some information on the side of the packet (which looks like this: - that's what American nutritional labels look like, but the information will be the same on all of them) so it knows what you're having to start with (for example, a calorie counting program may not know "Special K", so you might need to enter it. But a good calorie counting program will then remember it, so you only have to type it in once). You can also find information on raw ingredients on Google (for example, the first example when I googled "nutrition chicken breast": - notice that they do this in grams or cups. This is the only way you can accurately track).

I promise you, if you have the right equipment, it's not as hard as you think it is, and you get to eat more things that you like because you can keep track of them. (Boiled chicken? :ack2: There's no need to deprive yourself like that!) I have chocolate on my diet, because I know I can afford it. I can't magically make the information appear on your lap, but I can give you the information and assure you that a) it's worth it to do a little bit of leg work, and b) it's better than what you're trying to do now, which sounds like what I've tried and failed at so many times before.

As to your list, I'd need a lot more detailed information to tell you how many calories are in things. I really have no idea without weights or at least measurements (and more specific things- what kind of vegetables, for example? What kind of tea, what kind of milk?). I find cereal serving sizes to be deceptively small, in particular.
 
This is what my calorie counter looks like (it's nearly 3pm here). The things in green are the things I've entered myself (from the sides of packages, from adding the calories of ingredients together where I've made it myself, or from nutritional information on Google)- but I entered them once and my computer remembers them. The things in black were already on the program and I'm using the default. I've altered the program to make it simple for me- it shows calories, protein, carbs, sugar, fat, saturated fat, water, and sodium (salt). It has a lot of other options but I've just disabled them. I also haven't added calorie free things, like black tea and water.

Right now, I feel like a peach. I went, I got one from the fridge, but rather than just washing and eating, I turned on my scale, put it on the scale, and read the number (75g). This took me less than 5 seconds. I'll put "peach" in my calorie calculator (second picture), write in the weight (third picture- note also the details it's telling you about the peach), and hit add. Notice (picture 4, where I've drawn the red arrow) that the information has been added to my list and the statistics have changed.

This normally takes me less than 3 minutes. The only reason it's taken me longer this time is because I've written out what I've done and taken screen captures to prove it.
 
hm i am not fussed on green banana but i will try anything once. Coconut is pretty high fat and saturated fat a that so I probably wouldn't eat much of that dish and wouldn't think it was a particularly good diet food, unless it was a small serving of dessert after your main dishes if you know what i mean.

I don't believe that chillis speed up your metabolism but i don't know for certain. it seems very unlikely. I don't think any food can speed up your metabolism. Its how much you eat that counts. Not eating enough slows it down. Exercise speeds it up.

There are a lot of claims made about chillis. The only thing i am certain about is that they are high in vitamin c and they hurt when you eat them. I especially don't like the green chillis but i can make any chilli recipe and leave them out and its no sweat off my back. Otherwise i just suffer tremendously and i don't enjoy it at all. I will never be one of those people who likes the pain. I think indians at least have damaged their taste or sensation buds with the amount of chilli they can eat. I would like to know the truth of that though. (I"ve spent a lot of time in india suffering with chilli).

I lost my weight since, um let me go look, 28 February was the day i weighed myself and started a new diet. I got shocked by the numbers. So i guess it has taken me 2 months and 1 week to lose 7kg. If you read my diary you will see how it happened. I note down my weight and all my food (and recipes) and exercise every day.

I don't count calories now because i have an idea about howto balance it out and keep the calories down. I've done calories before. But i do keep an eye on the calories in new foods and i do use measuring cups so that i know exactly how much i am eating. That way if i need to cut down in the future, i will know how much i have to cut down.

I think i started doing my diet this way after trying the CSRIO Total well being diet which was a moderately high protein diet but it had a 12 week meal plan with balanced meals and they were targeted for weight loss in terms of calories. I used the book. It was hard for me because most of hte meals used meat and so i couldn't follow the plan too well and i had to make up my own alternative. I think what i am doing is my own version of the CSIRO diet now and that is what they meant us to do when they wrote the book - adapt it to our own way of healthy eating. My meals are certainly healthy and well balanced. YOu can see what i eat on my diary as i list everything i eat. I only eat three meals a day, avoid snacking, quit all sugary foods, give up cheese for my diet and all high fat foods. I will bring back cheese later. I eat a lot of vegies, good carbs, bit of protein, low fat and plenty of dairy. I can't stop eating sugary foods once i start. That's why i quit. Cheese has a similar affect but i don't usually crave cheese the way i do with things like icecream.

Green beans are long beans. They grow in the garden. FResh and Green as opposed to dried beans.

I ate some local food at my sisters in Al Ain but there is not so much local food to be had. You don't see much traditional middle eastern food in the restaurants because they seem to want to eat something different when they go out. That's what i noticed anyway. I had a good pakistani meal but it gave me diarrhoea after lol. I enjoyed going to the Carrefour with my sister.

"it seems u dont really understand how it is with the covering lol, that was a funy remark
yes we do get exposed to the sun. i go to the beach every week for a swim and so on
and it is not as strict as u think.. "
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Yes i wasn't sure how it was for you there. In UAE, all the women wear their black cloaks in public. I can't imagine any of them going to the beach! It must be different in Oman. In Australia so many muslim women, especially the younger ones born and brought up in Australia are all adopting the practice of covering up as much as possible. Not because they need to fight off the out of control men ( as i believe was the original reason) but because they like to publicly identify themselves as muslim. It seems to be an essentially identity thing here. At least that's how it seems to me when i hear discussion about the veil in the media. There are of course also plenty of muslim women who don't wear the veil as well.

"DO U USE METRIC IN OMAN? another silly remark lol"
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Yes i guess it is silly since you mentioned kilograms already but i couldn't remember at the time. Here on this site most people don't use metric. I wonder when they are ever going to catch up! The old emperial system of measurements is so clunky. Australians made the switch when i was a kid.

You should measure your food until your ability to manage portion sizes is second nature. If you had been measuring your portions in your first month, you would probably have lost more weight. So it is really important. You know cows can get fat on merely grass. But that's when they eat it all day long. There's probably about 1 calorie in a blade of grass. So its possible to get fat on anything and it depends on how much you eat of it.

Yep felafal is cooked in oil but oil is not totally bad. You just have to not eat too much of it and eat the right sorts too. I realise that cooking felafals probably soaks up more oil than i usually eat too but i only ate 2 at a time and ate them with a good low cal salad in a good wholesome type of bread so all up it wasn't too many calories but it was filing and tasty.

with our foods we like to add alot of flavour and spices.
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That's why i am interested in your food. I like interesting spice (but not chilli)

i love hummus but its to high fat for a diet. If i ate it on my diet, i would have to eat so little i would not be satisfied.

I am looking forward to your diary.
 
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Where can i get this calorie counter program?
it sounds fun actually, but the thing is im at work full time and i dnt have much time
to do so! and these days i dont even cook for myself anymore.. i really wouldl like to do all this
but i dnt really have the time.. i just want to eat right and work out and done.
i dont want to count every detail. just wat to hv and wht NOT to have
thats the thing!! i dont have any equipment!!! i dont even know where they sell them.
i actually like boil chicken :$ lol im definately not depriving myself. i have been doing it for a month
and im still not depressed haha. but i might start measuring stuff.

thats the thing i dnt knw the measurment of wht i eat too? its not much, i reduced it since i got less results in the first month.

vegetables: string beans, mushrooms, tomatos, beets ( i used to have carrots, but my trainer told me to stop)
lipton tea with evaporated milk
 
hello 44,
yes i agree on the coconut.. it's my mom's fav.

as for the chilli, that means am HIGH on vitamin C, i enjoy the suffering that i feel when i have chilli (amazing!)
i will definately check out ur diary, well done of the weight loss (7KG) is a big number. the thing with measuring cup, does it mean i put my chicken in it? LOL

Thats probably why i dnt measure, bcuz i know wht im eating, so i can simply reduce the serving. i just want a simple diet!!! i am so tired to diet and work out..

that is the problem, no local food only at home, aww u r welcome to come and try everything at our house :D
i luv pakistani food... lol it was probably cuz u werent used to the food, thats why u got diarrhea :( We got two carrefous in MCT XD

I wish i had the time to measure my foods :( and the most thing i hate is when going out!
what can i eat? when everyone is eating freely and the fat kid is jst staring, i usually jst have fruit juices or grilled stuff, but as AMY says it depends on
what i ate all day.. if i still had calories to spare then i can eat what i wanted :p


this sucks! i have to modify my diet :(
 
If you haven't got so much free time Zandola, then maybe calorie counting is simply too much work for you. But if you want the program, amy can tell you where, cause i forget.

Also since you haven't got so much time, just do the portion reduction as you mentioned you want to but do list everything you eat in your diary (you should start one in the diary section anyway). And then if i see what you are eating looks like too much or too fatty, i'm happy to let you know. Here's what i eat in a typical day... I know its different type of food but you think about it in terms of the basics and what goes into each thing and how much...

Carrots are fine. The reason why you trainer told you not to eat carrots is because they have a High GI but really when you eat carrots as part of a meal, there is no issue with them. Carrots have important vitamins so its silly not to eat them.

This is from a couple of weeks ago i think.
Weight: 63.8kg
up 1 kg. It can only be water and probably from the salty food yesterday.

8am: Breakfast
1/2 cup oats
1 cup full cream milk
1 pear

about 10am Coffee w 1/2 cup milk

12.30: Lunch
Salad sandwich on a white poppy seed roll (but mostly i recommend bread that uses wholegrain or strong flour)

2 tsp avocardo, lettuce, 1 small tomato, cucumber slices, slice of canned beetroot
10 longans - a small tropical fruit. Alternatives would a piece of fruit.

3.30pm walk

6.15 1/2 Glass of white wine (since you probably don't drink wine substitute this with something else, preferably a carbohydrate type of food. There's quite a lot of calories in 1 cup of wine - about 166.

6.30: Dinner
Split pea dal with rice and vegetables - excellent

1 cup dal (recipe elsewhere on my diary) (this is my protein and also a vegetable)
1/2 cup basmati rice
1/2 cup steamed cabbage
1/2 cup steamed cauliflower
1/2 lemon
1 tbsp chopped parsley.
1/2 cup natural yoghurt

Exercise: Walk 8km
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Or you could aim to do something like this

2 serves of dairy per day - 1 serve = 1 cup milk, 1 cup yoghurt, 2 slices hard yellow cheese
2 cups or more of cooked or salad vegetables
1/2 cup salad greens
2 pieces fruit
2 serves protein foods - piece meat, chicken, fish, 2 small eggs, 1/2 cup lentils or beans
complex carbohydrates - if you eat meat - 1 serve at breakfast either bread or a good whole cereal like rolled oats, 1 serve at lunch (eg bread, 2 slices), 1 serve at dinner (eg rice 1/2-1 cup or pasta 1 cup
Fats (vegetable oils for cooking - keep these low as possible. You only need not more than 1 tbsp of oils a day.

Things like nuts are high in fat so don't eat them too much especially if you are eating meat because you already have enough protein probably.
If you are used to eating dried fruits in your dishes, consider it one serve of fruit, if you eat a meal containing dried fruit. Its not too terrible if you eat more fresh fruit.
Dates - i would not eat more than 2 a day - delicious though they are and i'd consider them one serve of fruit.
Try to stay away from dessert while you are losing weight. If you must have it once in a while, keep it a small serving and don't do it often.

If your food is being cooked for you, it possible that there is more oil in it that i would recommend. This means you are just need to be extra careful to avoid eating too much of anything that has oil in it.

Avoid things in rich sauces because these have a lot of fat in them. CHoose the low fat options every time. Or keep the serving size of the rich saucy foods very small.

I am just making these suggestions without knowing for sure what you eat in a typical day. When we see what you eat, we can offer more feedback.

Given that you are about 85kg and you height, you can eat a bit more than i have eaten above and still lose weight but as you lose weight you will need to reduce the amount you eat. I make a wild guess that my calories above are about 1500. My breakfast is 414 calories. I worked that out. I think its good to have evenly sized meals. It helps me get through the day pretty well without getting hungry.

Don't forget water if you get a peckish and its not too long before dinner. Water really helps stave off hunger.

I hope this helps but if you want to be more free form, just do what your first thought to do, reduce portions and keep a good food log. That way if you are not losing enough weight it will be easy to see what you must reduce. At least try to measure your portions by cup and spoon. Are you not able to serve yourself?

See how you go anyhow. Don't lose heart. Its possible to lose weight without being anal about it. But you do need to exercise restraint.
 
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Zandola said:
hello 44,
yes i agree on the coconut.. it's my mom's fav....
(
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Ah i missed this post so I will respond here.

I probably wouldn't measure chicken if it was a whole piece but if it was in curry/gravy thing/ casserole i would. It makes it harder to cheat.

I eat out whenever i am in town and i don't have any trouble finding healthy things to eat. Salad sandwiches, sushi, some asian noodles soup because they are usually light, even the pakistani meal i had that time wasn't full of fat.

It might be difficult eating out if you all share the dishes but if you can order one for yourself, it should be ok. Grilled meats or fish and vegetables. Gosh i feel hungry thinking about your food. A modest size piece of bread on the side or rice (don't have both rice and bread), if the rice is got a lot of butter or oil in, either try not to eat too much or eat something else. Choose plain rice. Don't eat indian naan. Its big and got a lot of butter or oil in it though i know its truly delicious.

I think its all a lot harder when you are not in control of food preparation but it can be done.

Also skip the fruitjuices. Maybe not more than one per week. These are high in sugar and low in satisfying substance and no fibre. EAt fruit instead.
 
Here's where I downloaded my program: I'll stress that while it's a little bit of time investment when you first get started (entering the food you eat), most of the time this sort of thing adds a couple of minutes to each meal at most. (This is also a quick way of working out how many calories are in a meal, particularly if you're cooking for more than one: )

Do you have stores where they sell cooking equipment? (I tried to use Google to find out something for you, but I didn't find anything useful) Ideally what you should find is either a digital scale (some well known brands are Salter (this name to me is really associated with scales, not just "a good brand"), Hanson, James Martin, and Russell Hobbs), or some measuring equipment like they use in baking (that measures cups, teaspoons, and tablespoons). In the UK you can get the scales in department stores, on Amazon, in kitchen stores, in catalogue stores/ departments, and from bigger supermarkets (they're not so keen on cups here as they are in Australia, you can get them from kitchen stores). Cups can then be used to estimate weight (which is what you need for my calorie counting program, at least). These things shouldn't be expensive.

Do you have time on weekends to cook things in bulk? I live alone, but I cook my meals for 4-6 people, so they last me 4-6 days. I've heard of people who work full time (I'm a student) cooking several meals during the weekend and freezing them so they can take them to work as leftovers or heat them up after a hard day at work. Is that an option?

There are better choices to be made eating out (grilled not fried, not choosing creamy sauces, that sort of thing), but it can be so much of an unknown as you don't know how they're cooking it (unless they list nutritional value, like they have to in some countries now).

You've outlined the problem with not measuring/ knowing your calories quite clearly. "I wasn't getting the results I wanted, so I just reduced what I was eating". I used to do that. I'd end up hungry, crabby, getting sick, and binging on my diet. Once I was aware what was causing me to keep gaining weight (and I wasn't eating badly most of the time- for me it was actually mostly bread), I cut it from my diet and I was actually able to eat more of most other things, enjoy my food more, and be less hungry.
 
i found a calorie counter online and im excited to be honest :D i think i have been eating less calories then i shoulld, i should eat 1200 calories a day.

hmm interesting. and i will get the scale too :D if only i knew where its sold..
 
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