# Whole family weight loss?



## Kris in MI (May 30, 2002)

Just about everyone in my house needs to lose weight (the only one who doesn't is the 16yo son who is 6' and weighs 145). Weight loss needs range from 30-60 pounds: male and female; two adults in their late 30's, a teen and a preteen. All of us are more active than your typical family--dh would be the most sedentary, but even his job involves walking regularly, and both the teen and preteen do sports nearly all year round. Myself, I work on a horse farm, so do manual labor 4+ hours each day.

Since we don't eat out (really, less than once a month, school & work lunches are all brown bagged too), don't eat processed foods, eat very little fried foods, no sodas or added sugar drink (it's milk, 100% juice or water here!), avoid high fructose corn syrup and other sweeteners, I've come to the conclusion that we have a healthy diet, but just eat *too much* good food!

I'm thinking I need to figure out what proper portion sizes and calorie contents/nutrient breakdowns are for what we eat. I can't just look on the box and see that 1 serving is 1/2 cup and contains 100 calories, since nothing comes out of a box! The majority of what we eat is home grown and/or cooked from scratch. The main red meat in our diet is venison and I have never seen any tables for protein content, fats, calories, etc for deer meat.

Does anyone know how I would go about figuring this sort of thing?? Not just for the venison, but also for homemade breads & other baked goods, casseroles not made with sauce mixes (all sauces made from scratch too) or canned soups, etc. I'd like to cut back what we eat but make sure we are still getting the right balance of nutrients. I do have a book that lists most fruits and vegetables, so my main concern is figuring the meats, baked goods & the multiple-ingredient dishes.


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## Wolf mom (Mar 8, 2005)

go to:

www.nal.usda.gov

go to the food pyramid guide. It'll tell you how many servings of fruits, vegetables, meat, etc to have daily.

It also states what constitutes one serving ie: 1/2 cup of vegetables equals one serving. 

If you are counting calories, you can find one of those little calorie counter books at check out stands or go online.

If you google dietary guidelines, you can find loads of information for what a person's average weight would be if they were a certain height, and other good things that I think would help answer many of your questions.. Also if you google diabetic diet, there's a lot of great info as diet is so important to diabetics. 

I think venison & deer meat would be considered lean meat. I think casseroles and other home made things, you'll have to guestimate to an extent. Hope you are good at math!

Good luck! Let us know how you're succeeding.


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## Pink_Carnation (Apr 21, 2006)

Find recipies in a Betty Crocker cookbook and compare what they say a serving is to what you serve. The recipies don't need to be identical to get serving size ideas just the same kind of thing as what you have.


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## maps1350 (Jun 29, 2009)

WE eat in smaller portions, but more frequently around here. MOstly for blood pressure/hypoglycemic issues. But in order to figure out what I did was just cut everything in half and eat it twice, two hours apart. (note....I was never a big eater anyways, and for me, it was hard to eat so many times a day....it was also a big harder to stop eating when I wasn't feeling stuffed at the dinner table.) What I"m now left with...give or take...for an active adult female is three meals a day that fit onto a salad plate, and 3-4 snacks a day that are either repeats of the meals, or more likely, produce and yogurt. I'll eat the eqivalent of about a cup. For example, I"m eating two kiwi fruit right now. And for breakfast in a bit (we've been sleeping in lately), I"ll make eggs with a bit of meat and veggies in it...and I"ll have about 1 cup of that tops. 

The good thing is that I odn't have any headaches, stomachaches etc associated with not eating. I also never have that stuffed feeling, which at first was odd, and now it's nice because I don't really like feeling that way.

HTH,
April


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## Kris in MI (May 30, 2002)

Wolf mom said:


> go to:
> 
> www.nal.usda.gov
> 
> ...


Thanks Wolf Mom, that was exactly the sort of thing I am looking for!



Pink_Carnation said:


> Find recipies in a Betty Crocker cookbook and compare what they say a serving is to what you serve. The recipies don't need to be identical to get serving size ideas just the same kind of thing as what you have.


:doh: My Betty Crocker cookbook is the one I use most; it's so dogeared and the pages with all my favorite recipes have torn loose. I should have remembered they do have info on their (my) recipes!



maps1350 said:


> WE eat in smaller portions, but more frequently around here. MOstly for blood pressure/hypoglycemic issues. But in order to figure out what I did was just cut everything in half and eat it twice, two hours apart. (note....I was never a big eater anyways, and for me, it was hard to eat so many times a day....it was also a big harder to stop eating when I wasn't feeling stuffed at the dinner table.) What I"m now left with...give or take...for an active adult female is three meals a day that fit onto a salad plate, and 3-4 snacks a day


I definitely think we need smaller portions, especially since I can't seem to convince anyone to give up their snacks (which are usually healthy things like nuts, fruits, veggies, cheese, etc). I've noticed that when I make a 'small' meal they grumble about only getting one serving, but don't usually eat a larger than normal snack afterward, so they can't really be all that deprived by not having seconds.


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## ronbre (Apr 26, 2009)

www.fitday.com


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## suzyhomemaker09 (Sep 24, 2004)

Ugh..the trials and tribulations of calorie counting...
there are calorie counting websites that have lots of information and recipes..one of my favorites is http://caloriecount.about.com/
I also love http://www.recipezaar.com/ for their nutritional information posted with each recipe. Get yourself a good kitchen scale and you're all set.
We also cook from scratch so the calorie counter sites are great for just getting numbers so you can do your own math for recipes.

Looking back at another of your posts I thought to add in....
Healthy does not = low calories which is what you need for weight loss...Nuts are all natural but they are very high in calories, they are not the best choice for a snack food...cheese falls right in there also though it is not quite as bad. One of the only cheeses that you can pretty much eat your fill of is something like Parmesan or Romano...and not many people eat them plain.


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## Momish (Aug 16, 2005)

I'm not sure if this was mentioned? if so sorry for repeating. 

Hope these sites are helpful to you!

http://www.annecollins.com/calories/calories-venison.htm

For homemade bread, I found this answer:
Assuming a loaf contains 3 1/2 c flour, one tbs oil, two tbs sugar, 1 1/4 tsp salt and 1 1/4 c water (no eggs or milk, (the recipe I've been using for 40 years), and you cut the loaf into 13 slices, the answer is about 152. 

I believe what they did was take the calories from each ingred, per serving and got their final ans. 

I did a search online, just type in "how many calories in homemade muffins" and up came many sites. I did the same thing for the meat and bread. 

Instead of eating 3 square meals, maybe break them up into 5 or 6 small meals. This way you get the feeling of always eating and won't consume so much at one sitting. 
Good luck


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## nancy237 (May 29, 2008)

Here is another thought... because watching a teen and preteens calories 
and serving sizes is going to be a challenge.

With a diet like weight watchers Core (now named momentun??)
you would basically just keep Core foods around and portions are 
not measured. 

My husband and I went on this diet and the whole family got healthier
because we only had healthy foods around.


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## nancy237 (May 29, 2008)

I just reread your post and something doesn't add up ...
if you have 4 overweight people in the family and 
are all active and eat very heathy foods...

If you post a normal days meals and snacks maybe we can find where 
the hidden calories are because there has to be some 
in the family's diet


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## nancy237 (May 29, 2008)

Kris....
keep us posted on how things are going....


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