Thanks. I already started with salads at work today. Had an egg with veggies in it. Had my coffee. Drank mostly water and orange Mango drink. Probable not the best for dinner but I had a piece of fried chicken breast and water and nothing else
Here's the thing - I have no idea how much you actually ate yesterday from this description. You're younger than me so I'm guessing you get about 1600 calories but the app will give you a better estimate.
One egg is about 70 calories. Was it only one egg or did you have an omelette? If it's cooked in butter then that's not as good but probably only 50 calories. Some peppers might add like 20 or 30 calories to it max. Cheese would add more.
Coffee doesn't really have calories. Maybe 5 for flavored coffee. But you said you use half and half or creamer. How much? Is it one of those little single serve cups, or are you pouring it in from a carton/jug? My morning coffee is two tablespoons of creamer and two tablespoons of milk and I keep a measuring scoop near the coffee maker. Two large cups of coffee ends up at 171 calories - 140 from the creamer, 31 from the milk.
Salad is great. Very low calorie and some fiber. But lots of salads have cheese and meat and croutons that add to the calories plus some dressings can be hundreds of calories. Balsamic vinegar has practically no calories but balsamic vinaigrette can be hundreds. For a long time the salad at McDonald's had more calories than the burgers or fries. I prefer salads that are packaged and tell me how many calories are in them so I don't have to guess but if you can't do that then get the dressing on the side and try not to use it all. I dip my fork in the dressing it gets enough flavor per bite.
I don't know what is in your orange Mango drink. A bottle of Nantucket Nectars orange Mango is 260 calories. That's a lot. A can of coke is 150. But if you're getting orange Mango flavored water it might be zero calories. I just don't know from reading your description.
And the fried chicken for dinner... I don't know how big a piece it was or if it was a wing or breast or chicken fingers or how it was made or where you got it. If you go into myfitnesspal and enter fried chicken you'll find a bunch of options between 250 and 400 calories but if you enter fried chicken KFC it will tell you how much is in one KFC wing. Did you have any sides?
And you didn't mention the beer... did you have it yesterday? Or any other snacks?
It sounds like you did well but it's hard for me to tell over the internet
My issue is my junk food intake. To another extent the beer but definitely junk food and other non healthy food. I'm known to eat Half a bag of chips and dip within one sitting.
For the app do I just enter the food or do I need to know the calories and such?
This is the thing - the app will make this all much easier. There's a bar code scanner so you can enter packaged foods easily. There is a huge database of foods like international delights creamer and fried chicken from Applebee's and lots of smaller and mid sized restaurants or if you can't find an exact match then you can come close.
If your calorie goal is 1600 then you want to eat about 1600, maybe a little less but not like 1000.
Today I'm going to have my coffee for 171 calories, a bowl of skyr yogurt (130) with raspberries strawberries and blueberries (89) and granola (130) for a total of 530 calories for breakfast.
I'm going to have two slices of Papa Gino's cheese pizza which is smaller and not much cheese so it's only 230 calories per slice. That will put me at 990 for the day.
For dinner I will grill a boneless skinless chicken breast (230) and microwave a bag of carrots broccoli and cauliflower (105) with some sweet chili sauce (45) and a baked potato (161) with half a tablespoon of butter (50). That will put me at 591 for dinner and 1581 for the day.
I might even have a snack in there because I plan to go for a run today. And I'll drink plenty of water and maybe a can for coke zero or a bottle of gatorade (140).
But those are three very filling meals, and I don't feel like I'm dieting when I'm having pizza. I'm getting lots of protein and fiber and all kinds of goodness from the berries and vegetables. And it will lose weight.
It really helps to plan it out like that. Treat it like a game where your goal is to eat the best food without going over calories. It's kind of fun even.