Daily Menu – breakdown of food groups

[dvande01]

Hello Ossie

I posted once in the 2013 newbies thread but I had some follow-up questions so I thought I would re-post. First I am a female who weighs 219 lbs and is 5’8”. My goal is to balance my hormones, increase my energy and just feel good! I am hoping my weight will then stabilize as a result.

I am confused about the menus…. in a previous response you made to someone you said “the menus are basically 45% from carbs, 25% protein, and 30% fat”. If that is true could you break that down for me in terms of servings of each of the food groups I need to eat per day (# fruits, #vegetables, #breads/grains, #fats, #proteins).

Also, does it matter what food groups I eat together at each meal/snack or, as long as I get them all in for the day during the 3 meals and 3 snacks is that ok? If it does matter can you break down each meal for me in terms of what food groups I need to eat together?

To give a little context I am comfortable with and like a lot of the types and food and I am excited to get into some of the recipes but my biggest trouble is with portion sizes and how much to eat of each food group.

I really appreciate your help!

[Ossie-Sharon]

Hi, dvande01. Please see the pattern below. The units are essentially the same as those of the American Diabetes Association.
Breakfast: 2 starches, 2 proteins, 1-2 fats, 1 fruit
Morning Snack: 1 starch, 2 proteins, 1 fruit
Lunch: 2 starches, 3 proteins, 1 fat, 1-2 vegetables
Afternoon Snack: 1 starch, 2 proteins, 1 vegetable, 1 sweet
Dinner: 2 starches, 2 proteins, 1 fat, 1 vegetable
Evening Snack: 1 starch or sweet or fruit or fat, 1 protein

[Stankiewicz]

Both of these infos are from 4 years ago. Are they still the same? I need to now how many of each of these you can have in 1 day, to maintain the proper balance.

[Ossie-Sharon]

Hi, Stankiewicz. Yes, they are still relevant.

[gottadiet]

do I must eat all of the “snack” foods or can I save it for dinner, for ex: instead of 1 serving veg, to add it to the 1 serving veg at dinner to total it 2 servings.

[Ossie-Sharon]

Hi, gottadiet. If it’s just vegetables, that’s fine. It gets tricky if you start loading up more toward the evening (i.e., closer to bedtime) rather than when you’re most active.

[lbkwankam]

Hi, I have just started using TDC and am one week in. I like the program, but I’m wondering about how much control we can have over the automatically generated menus. I was wondering if there is a way to make suggestions for a given week and then have the Menu Planner plan these into the week. For example, if I make the muffin recipes, I will have a LOT of muffins to eat, but it is not necessarily included in the week’s plan. Then, too, last week we were allowed a glass of wine with dinner three days. We, happily, put these days on the weekend and felt like we were barely on a new eating plan, yet lost a modest amount of weight. YAY! However, this week there is no glass of wine dinner, so a dry weekend, unless we substitute days from last week. Again, suggestions would be welcome about how to balance our weekly menus so that they are both enjoyable and don’t waste food as we have too much to eat in a week’s time. Thanks! Lanita

[Ossie-Sharon]

Hi, lbkwankam. You can make food selections by clicking on “My Food Choices” in the toolbar above your current menu. If you use the personal version of the Menu Planner application (the right-most option here: http://www.trimdownclub.com/menu-planner), you will see some of our recipes in the “Recipes” subcategory of each major food group. For newer recipes that have not yet been added into the system, you can use them to substitute for the main ingredient in your meal. You can also match up the exchanges visible at the end of each recipe and when you click on “Exchange Mode” in the toolbar above your menu. I doesn’t have to be a perfect match.

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