Getting started with diet plan - looking for input

[CaptainNapalm]

My girlfriend is interested in losing 20-30lbs of weight. She has tried "quick-fix" diet plans before but they haven't given her the permanent results she's looking for. She's now looking to put together a sensible, realistic, long-term, diet plan that can help her achieve her goals in the next 6 months and beyond.

She will be engaging in light to moderate exercise program to help her get into shape but obviously the vast majority of her success will come from nutrition choices.

Here is some statistics on her:
33 years old, 5' 7", 180lbs
Healthy but is taking medication for hyperthyrodism
Seditary to slightly-active lifestyle (willing to get more into exercise along with diet)

Because she's currently eating anything and everything we're trying to focus on the following three factors to start things off: 1) calorie restriction, 2) calories coming from good food choices, and 3) high protein + fibre daily to stimulate weight loss. Also, she will try to focus on eating more frequently throughout the day with smaller portions per meal. Obviously, best results would come from her cutting out "bad" food completely but because she loves her sweets and salty snacks and since we're trying to make this a long-term, REALISTIC, positive change I guess it would be okay for her to munch on 200 cal worth of junk/day provided the rest of her diet is in check. I don't want her to feel like just because she cheats on her food choices (and she will cheat) that she has failed miserably and wants to throw her diet out the window right away. The idea is portion control: 90% healthy + 10% unhealthy vs. 50% healthy vs. 50% unhealthy choices where she's pretty much at now.

Basically I'm thinking this:
6 meals/day (3 main + 3 snacks)
Each meal will contain good ratio of protein/fiber/carbs (higher protein + fibre content with carbs being there but at minimum)
Snacks would consist of fruits/veggies/yogurt/cheese
Protein would come from: Tuna/chicken/beef sources
Carbohydrate from: bread/cereal/fruits/veggies
Fibre would come from cereal that she enjoys eating and other foods

It's been a while since I've had to recommend a long-term diet plan to anyone and never for a woman so I'm hoping some of you can comment on what I wrote, maybe throw some constructive suggestions my way and I'm also looking if someone can list some good food choices ex. fruits/veggies/etc that they feel are good choices to promote weight loss. Any good supplements out there these days? Anything that could help would be great! Thanks guys.

 

[Hunteron]

The diet plan you have suggested sounds pretty good, like you I don't really have any experience in recomending nutrition for women.

Smaller portions more often is a must. maybe if she could start taking some kind of supplement such as Slim Fast or something like that, then she wouldn't feel the urge to snack during the day. I think for better results she would be better off saving her 200 calories of snacks for one day (i suggest Sunday, but that's only because it works for me) and then stick to a fairly strict diet for the other six days. Having fruit and veg and a supplement during those times of snack craving should curb the habit.

Green Tea is also a good thing to start including as that has many fat burning benefits. Shoe could also look into some sort of Acia Berry juice or supplement as I hear that can be very effective.

Best of luck

 

[taiyed7210]

any fat other than cheese?

 

[DIVINITUS]

My wife and I count calories and enter them into our phones. We both use MyFitPal app and it works great. If she has a smart phone, make sure she gets an app like this (free) and track everything. I would also get a kitchen scale, it helps us out immensly. And make sure even the cheat snacks/meals are entered into the app/website in order to track. It might help her to stay away from certain foods if she gets to see first hand how many cals they are. My wife and I were cracking up the day we entered in our lunch at Red Robin into the app!

The best advice (besides counting cals) my wife and I use is to find some healthy, clean "superfoods" that when eaten, FEEL like cheating. This seems to help feed that psychological craving for junk. For me personally, salmon and a few pieces of grilled shrimp fill me up andtake care of my sweet tooth.

 

[Phineas]

This is right up Built's alley. Wait for her response.