Nutrition question, whats really bad?

This question is mostly for Diesel, but to anyone else who can answer as well.

Im trying to eat lighter, healther meals with the goal of cutting down portions and having more nutritious meals. The other day i went to WaWa (a very popular minimart/deli in the north east).

I got a roasted chicken salad, orange juice, and a package of pumpkin seeds. Usually id have gotten a 6 or 10 inch hoagie, a bag of kettle cooked chips, and probably a limpton iced tea. While the hoagie cant be all bad, the chips are about the worst a bag a chips can be and the drink would have high fructose corn syrup in it...not to mention the whole meal would stuff me.

I thought i was doing good with my selection, but then i noticed something. The fat, and saturated fat content of my new "healthy" meal was through the roof. The salad came with peices of chicken, bacon, and chese...the fat for the salad without dressing was like 20% rda, the dressing was another 20-30%, and to my surprise the pumpkin seeds where like 30-40%.

So my question is, for someone trying to eat healthier, that doesnt workout yet, whats more important to keep an eye on...calories or fat...or both?

I lost a good bit of weight eating healthy. I became a pesce-pollotarian. It's basically your a vegetarian who eats chicken and fish (and other lean meats, but they aren't as common as the pesce and pollo in restaurants), but no red meat. It basically stems from the fact that humans aren't really made to be eating so much meat and lots of red meat is unhealthy. I also stopped eating fried foods and carbonation. Eating that way let me lose like 60 pounds without working out. Then when I worked out, i lost an additional 20ish.

Hey Ka, after I got back from my tour in Iraq I hired a nutritionist for about six months. Her perspective was largely on calories, but she would caution against fat too. What I took away, and Diesel can probably verify, is that you can't really go all one way or the other. She had me eating about 2,600 calories a day (I was doing a lot of road races back then), split into six different meals. I'll try to dig up a daily meal plan the next time I'm home, but contrast this against the WaWa sandwich: for "lunch" I would eat a small bag of carrots and a sandwich with 3-5 grams of fiber per slice of bread (very hard to find), 4 oz lean turkey, 1 oz low fat cheese, 1 oz spinach (note, and pardon my language for emphasis: that is a shitload of spinach), and 1-2 tbsp dijon mustard. The sandwich was huge and filling, very low fat, and about 300-400 calories, if I remember correctly.

[EDIT: I bought a food scale from one of those overpriced home stores. It was only about $20, digital, and I could build the sandwich right on top of it by just zeroing it after each ingredient. Super easy.]

WaWa will kill you man! I have to confine my purchases there to cigarettes and coffee. At least then when I die of WaWa poisoning I'll do so relatively slim, albeit with ulcers and tumors.

Again, I'll look for that meal sheet. I'd like to get Diesel's opinion on it too if I can find it.

Awsome guys thanks.

I think i saw my answer by accident on tv the other day. I think simply put my calorie input is way too high. First and foremost i have to balance out my calorie intake to match how active i am.

Once i have cut my consumption then i can focus on the nutritional aspects of my food.

Hobbit wrote:

I lost a good bit of weight eating healthy. I became a pesce-pollotarian. It's basically your a vegetarian who eats chicken and fish (and other lean meats, but they aren't as common as the pesce and pollo in restaurants), but no red meat. It basically stems from the fact that humans aren't really made to be eating so much meat and lots of red meat is unhealthy. I also stopped eating fried foods and carbonation. Eating that way let me lose like 60 pounds without working out. Then when I worked out, i lost an additional 20ish.

I follow that as well. Definitely helps.

I understand the red meat argument and the fried food point is obvious, but what is the reasoning behind avoiding carbonation? I imagine if you meant soda you would have said so, but do you include club soda in this as well? I'm curious...