What should I eat if I'm on a diet?

You can’t be, “On a diet,” unless you know what you’re eating.

Diet:
a : food and drink regularly provided or consumed
b : habitual nourishment
c : the kind and amount of food prescribed for a person or animal for a special reason

Middle English diete, from Anglo-French, from Latin diaeta, from Greek diaita, literally, manner of living, from diaitasthai to lead one’s life.

Everyone in the world who eats food, is always “on a diet.”

Why are you changing your diet? To be healthy? To lose weight? To gain muscle?

A “diet” is simply the food that you eat. If you’re trying to change something about your body, then we would need answers to the questions that @marinelife has asked.

There is no simple answer. What is the context?

@mattbrowne the only context she’s given before, I don’t know if it helps much. She has yet to write a single response.

@everephebe – Good catch. I didn’t realize this was the same person.

A healthy, balanced diet. And if you want to lose weight, take in less calories than you burn during the same period of time. There’s no magic food that makes you lose weight.

‘Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants’ works for normal circumstances, where there is no illness or other unusual factor.

Lots and lots of vegetables.

Less.

@xxii LOL! You beat me to it! : P

Don’t eat junk food, for starters. My tenth grade biology teacher challenged her students to go a week without any excess sugar (like sweets). I did it, and noticed a flatter belly by the end of that week. But I was also 15, not sure if that would work now.

Thinking of regular foods and snacks (not junk ones), my grandpa always said, “cut the plate in half”. Eat what you like and eat often but half of what you’d like to serve yourself on first thought or first sight. You can also try putting as much as you’d normally like on your plate and then purposely eat only half of it. This method works well because you get the mental treat of seeing with your own eyes you’ve not eaten all the food and are practicing discipline.

Little or no meat, little or no sugar, little to no eggs or butter and lots of veggies and fruits. the question seems fine to me.

Most people eat way too much junk food that is loaded with sodium, sugar and chemicals. Most people eat way too much protein and fat and not enough fruits, vegetables and whole grains and fiber. You need to find foods that you like that are nutrient dense and avoid eating foods that are low on nutrition (but high on empty calories and chemical additives) Whole foods are your best bets.

To maintain good health, you should probably do the following:

Eat 5 or 6 smaller meals, instead of 3 giant meals. This helps to maintain your blood sugar levels and not add spikes and drops.

Make sure to add lots of vegetables in multi colors (to get more nutrients). If you don’t already eat these veggies, here’s some that are power-packed with nutrition: mushrooms, kale, spinach, swiss chard, mustard greens and other leafy greens, lettuces such as romaine, red and green leaf, and mixed baby greens (but not iceberg because it has almost no nutrients), cruciferous veggies like cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cabbage, root veggies like carrots, radishes, rutabagas, and turnips, beans and legumes of all kinds such as peas, lentils, navy beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, black eyed peas and garbanzo beans.

Eat plenty of non-fat or low fat dairy products (make sure they don’t have too much sugar, and no artificial sweetners) to make sure that you get plenty of calcium. Someone posted on another thread that one of the best and easiest ways to get your calcium is to buy non-fat, unsweetened plain yogurt and then add your own fruits. You can also make great smoothies with this kind of yogurt. Leafy green vegetables are also full of calcium.

Some good bets for fruit are the red ones and dark purple ones such as cherries, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, but most fruits are very good choices (including dried fruits) Don’t fall into a rut with your fruit, mix them up every couple of weeks and try some that you wouldn’t normally eat. Go down the apple aisle and pick several different varieties such as gala, granny smith, pink lady, Braeburn etc.

Make sure that you get plenty of whole grains (avoid eating too much processed foods of any kind, because most of the nutrition has been removed and replaced with chemicals). Good whole grain options are: brown rice, whole grain (or part whole grain) pasta, quinoa, wheat berries, bulgur wheat (like in tabouli) whole grain breads, tortillas, English muffins, and pitas, oatmeal (not the quick cooking type or the instant kinds because they have too much sugar and sodium added) popcorn (without salt, or only lightly salted and without butter) either air popped or cooked with canola or olive oil instead (avoid tropical oils or partially hydrogenated oils).

Make sure to get plenty of fiber-rich foods to keep your digestive system working properly and to keep your cholesterol levels where they need to be. Most vegetables, beans and fruit and whole grains are loaded with fiber. Make sure to drink plenty of water with your fiber to help move it along.

You need some protein (but not as much as most Americans eat on a daily basis) Your best sources for protein is beans and rice (combined) tofu, whole grains, nuts, lean chicken and turkey, fish (but avoid fishes that have a high mercury content, other contaminants and fish that have been over-fished and could be wiped out) Here’s a Link to a site that discusses fish consumption. Here’s another Link to a site that tell you how much protein you need per day for your age and sex.

One thing that is useful is to talk to a nutritionist through your health care provider and then, if you don’t already know how learn to cook and maybe take a class or two on healthy recipes. Healthy cooking classes can teach you how to make all of the foods above, in better ways. When cooking and eating avoid: frying, putting breading or batter on your food, adding salt, using processed foods, eating processed grain products (like white bread, white rice, regular pasta) adding gravy, cooking with butter or lard, eating too much fatty meat (hamburgers, sausage, bacon, red meat and pork) and too many eggs (except for the whites, which are a good cholesterol free source of protein). And avoid soda (even the sugar free kind) like the plague. The phosphorus will leech calcium from your bones and the sweetness will make you crave more sweets.

Instead, try: sauteeing food in a nonstick pan with a little bit of cooking spray, or use a little bit of olive oil or canola oil, use herbs and spices and peppers and citrus juices to flavor your foods (choose no salt varieties of spice seasoning mixes) braise and roast (instead of frying) switch from butter and partially hydrogenated margarines to non-hydrogenated margarines such as Benecol and Smart Balance and Earth Balance and use olive oil and canola oil instead of corn oil and products simply labeled “vegetable oil.” Switch from cream/cheese/mayonaise based salad dressings to oil and vinegar dressings, or just add a splash of lemon or lime juice with some chopped fresh herbs. Roast, lightly stir fry and steam your vegetables instead of boiling them (this will maintain a lot more nutrients). Learn to embrace your soup stock pot, but make sure to use low fat, low sodium chicken or vegetable broths as the base instead of cream. If you like a creamier, thicker texture in your soup, add pureed beans. Then you can add all sorts of beans, veggies, fresh herbs and pieces of tofu, chicken or turkey.

Let me know if you want any recipes : )

130 lbs at 5’5” is a nice weight. You need to be eating a balanced meal and pay attention to portion size on packages. Keep a food diary and count the servings that you eat.

Avoid fried foods, fast food, processed snacks and soft drinks, even diet ones. If you don’t play a sport or get out too much, walk or ride your bike for 30 minutes each day.

One thing that will make you grumpy for a few months but then so happy when you see bloat and a few pounds go away is cutting out soda, juice and flavored water drinks. I did this in ‘07 and dropped 12 lbs in less than two months. That little bump spurred me on to adjust the rest of my food intake and within 6 months I had my regular weight back and good blood work again.

Eat food containing fiber.