Everyone is giving you either ******** advice (like "stop eating dairy") or suggesting a menu that only includes 3 meals a day (which is NOT ideal at all), or just throwing out blanket statements like (eat less, exercise more.)
I'm on a hardcore workout regimen, and have a retardedly strict diet. I know the science behind what makes all this work.
The only way lose weight is to eat less calories than your body burns. If you know your BMR (base metabolic rate), work out a diet that includes the things I tell you, and adds up to 300-500 less calories per day than what you are burning. If your BMR is 2000, and you do exercises that day that add up to 400 calories burned (shouldn't take more than an hour), then you should be eating between 1900-2100 calories in that day. If you do so, (THIS IS SCIENCE) you WILL LOSE WEIGHT.
One of your goals needs to be to increase your base metabolic rate. If you could make your body naturally burn an extra 1000 calories a day while you are just sitting around, that means you could eat even more nutritious food and STILL LOSE WEIGHT. Cool, huh?
How do you do that? By building muscle, eating more meals per day, and making each meal smaller than what you would usually eat in a 3-meal-per-day system.
1. Building Muscle: Your muscles naturally consume so many calories per pound of muscle per hour, just while you are sitting around doing nothing. I'm sitting here typing on my laptop, burning calories like crazy. My BMR is near 3000 calories right now, and I'm only 187.2 pounds (weighed myself like 8 minutes ago). The reason I'm burning so many calories per hour (like 120-140 per hour just sitting around) is because I stopped trying to LOSE WEIGHT, and started trying to LOOK HEALTHIER. I've lost pounds in fat, and I've gained pounds in MUSCLE. I look WAY BETTER than I did 6 months ago, even though I've gained 3 pounds since then. My waist has dropped 3-4 inches, and yet I weigh more. Muscle is heavier than fat.
The point is if you build muscle, your body will burn calories quicker, meaning you can burn fat quicker. One pound of fat is about 3000 calories worth of energy. When you are eating 300 less calories per day than you are burning, you will burn 1 pound of fat every 10 days. 3 pounds of fat a month. 18 pounds of fat in 6 months. 36 pounds of fat in one year. (assuming a person had that much fat to lose. You probably don't.)
2. Eat more meals per day: For some reason, we have accepted a standard that says we should eat 3 square meals per day, and call it a healthy diet. You need to know that this is not true at all. When we eat all of our calories in 3 meals, that divides up (for you) to be about 700 calories in one sitting, 3 times a day. If you aren't burning 700 calories between breakfast and lunch (you aren't), then those calories don't just chillax in your stomach until you need them. They get stored or wasted. If the calories were from fat (1/3 or more are/should be) then they get stored as fat. That's fat you have to burn off later. This is not good.
If you eat 6 meals a day instead of 3, you will only be consuming 300-400 calories per meal. Your body can much more easily process that many calories at a time.
What's great about 6 meals per day is that you will get used to eating smaller portions. You will stop overeating because you will never quite let your stomach get empty. You will stop overeating, because you know you have another meal coming in 2-3 hours. You will not be used to having huge portions, and your stomach will feel full earlier. This is good.
Your body will be used to a constant stream of healthy calories pouring in all day, and in response, your BMR increases. (it's much more complicated than that, but the results are all that matters for you.)
Menu:
Breakfast: Protein Shake
1 banana
1 small handful of mixed berries (frozen is convenient)
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup OJ
1 scoop whey protein (buy it at walmart. it's not that expensive and REALLY HELPS!)
1/2 tray of ice cubes
4 tablespoons of yogurt (ANY Yogurt you want, just pick lowfat/nonfat to reduce calories if you need to. I like lowfat strawberry yogurt here.)
Blend it all in a blender.
You will not believe how much energy you have after a breakfast like this. You will feel so energized (especially if you are exercising 4-5 days a week.)
Brunch: Pasta and Chicken
You can prepare this ahead of time, and keep it refrigerated and then just serve out whatever portion you want.
Boil whole grain pasta noodles. Drain the water, and put them in a sealable container. Mix in a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Add black pepper and whatever seasoning you like. I use italian seasoning. Just don't use salt if you can avoid it, since it will make you retain more water, and you'll end up feeling bloated, which will make you not want to work out.
Then grill some chicken, seasoned however you like. I grill mine on a flat pan, but you can use a grill outside, or bake it or whatever you want really.
Chop up the chicken, and mix it with the pasta noodles.
Then eat it.
You will get used to not having sauce slopped all over it after like 2 days, and you will find out that food actually tastes good, and you will wonder why you always added so much salt and sauce and gravy to everything before.
Lunch: SALAD
Seriously, make the biggest salad you can eat. Add anything green to it that you like. I like to buy "spring mix" salad pre-bagged at walmart, and add chopped walnut, dried cranberries, and feta cheese to it, then use light raspberry vinaigrette to it. It is the tastiest salad ever, and it's healthy.
If that doesn't turn out to be your favorite, make a big iceberg lettuce salad, chop cucumber, onion, green pepper, carrots,.....whatever veggies you want on it. I even add grapes (chopped in half) sometimes.
Check your dressings and make sure that the sodium isn't out of control. Don't fret about fat too much. Usually the fat isn't trans fat, which is what you SHOULD AVOID. If you are trying to cut weight, it might be best to avoid ranch dressing and go with a light italian instead. I don't have to be picky, since I'm actually trying to add about 10 pounds.
Dinner: Go with whatever fits your family/routine/lifestyle. Just avoid prepackaged food (junk food is obvious, but also TV dinners are BAD. skip the hotpockets...in fact, if you are microwaving it, you should come up with something better.)
Supper: Yeah, that's right. You get both. I like to make this meal something rather small. Sometimes I do oatmeal. Sometimes I do a bowl of cereal (Honey bunches of Oats is EXCELLENT. Tasty, and nutritious. Multi-grain cheerios are also great.) Either way, get some fiber in this meal, and maybe some more fruit. I often end up having another salad, or a tuna sandwich in this meal.
The point for dinner and supper is just to make sure you are choosing generally healthy foods, keep your sodium intake down (hard to do with prepackaged american food), and make sure you are aware of your calories, so you can count them and lose weight.
If you have to cut one of your meals, make it one of these 2.
Post workout: PWO Shake or Eggs
Most people get in their best workout in the evening, so you need to make sure to eat after you exercise. The single most important thing to do in this meal is to make sure you have plenty of protein. You should be shooting for like 50 grams of protein in just this meal.
I recommend another whey protein shake, but this one can be more simple.
1-2 scoops whey protein
3 tablespoons yogurt
1 cup milk
Don't bother blending it. Next to the whey protein at walmart, you'll find a mixer/container that you can mix your drink in by shaking it for 30-40 seconds, and drink straight from that.
If whey doesn't sound appetizing after you workout, you should try frying some eggs. I usually will have 2-3 large eggs, and I'll just scramble them in a pan. you don't need to add milk. I keep diced onion and diced green pepper frozen in a baggie for my eggs. When the eggs are almost done, add a handful of each to the eggs, and sprinkle some black pepper on it as well. Then, right before you take the eggs off the heat, add some shredded cheese(optional, if you are needing to cut calories, cut them here.)
eat. if you have room for some more calories, throw your eggs on top of some of that pasta and chicken.
A few thoughts:
Drink at least 60 ounces of water per day. AT LEAST. I actually drink close to 100 ounces of water per day. I always feel close to full, which means I never get hungry, which means I never eat junk cause i'm so hungry.
Remove ALL soda/pop from your diet. You don't need it. It's REALLY bad for you. It wrecks your immune system and CLOGS up your body with high fructose corn syrup, which does not break down well at all in your body. It's like adding molasses to a swimming pool and asking michael phelps to swim in it. It slows everything down, and makes your body less efficient.
Speaking of high fructose corn syrup, scan your labels of all your favorite foods and cut as much of it as possible if it has this sweetener in it. Don't be afraid of aspartame. it's not as bad for you as you've heard. But don't take that as a license to drink diet soda. it's BAD for you too.
If you must snack (which usually means you are missing a meal) snack on trail mix, sunflower seeds, or granola bars.
With a caloric deficient diet of 300-500 calories per day, with a healthy balance of fat, carbs, and protein (1/4 calories from fat, 1/4 from carbs, 1/2 from protein works really well), and regular exercise of any kind, you will have good results.
Epic long post, but I hope this helps. Fitness is a passion of mine. I love sharing the knowledge.
