Portion calculation help

[Illuminatus]

Hey all,

I recently lost a large amount of weight, however, due to lacking a gym membership and the nice winter weather, I have gained a few back. I am a college student, and find myself only able to eat certain things, generally ranging from the following; flax/whole wheat toast, cereal w/ soy milk, flax/whole wheat pasta, and such foods. Due to the cheapness of these foods and their easiness to find, I often find myself eating a whole box (like 8 servings :-|) of whole wheat pasta for dinner :-| I was wondering if perhaps you all could be able to tell me what an appropriate amount of these foods for a meal would be. Naturally, I didn't think that the suggested serving would be adequate, because many a time my breakfast, for example, consumes primarily of toast, as with the pasta for dinner. Just wondering what would be an adequate amount for my situation, roughly.

I am an 18 year old male, by the way/

[Animosity]

Hey all,

I recently lost a large amount of weight, however, due to lacking a gym membership and the nice winter weather, I have gained a few back. I am a college student, and find myself only able to eat certain things, generally ranging from the following; flax/whole wheat toast, cereal w/ soy milk, flax/whole wheat pasta, and such foods. Due to the cheapness of these foods and their easiness to find, I often find myself eating a whole box (like 8 servings :-|) of whole wheat pasta for dinner :-| I was wondering if perhaps you all could be able to tell me what an appropriate amount of these foods for a meal would be. Naturally, I didn't think that the suggested serving would be adequate, because many a time my breakfast, for example, consumes primarily of toast, as with the pasta for dinner. Just wondering what would be an adequate amount for my situation, roughly.

I am an 18 year old male, by the way/

8 servings of pasta would be around 1,800 calories. If you're eating 2 slices of toast thats about 200 calories, If you're eating a serving of cereal with soy milk thats about 300 calories. An average male needs at least 2,500 calories a day. You're probably eating so much pasta because the rest of your day seems low in calories. Could you post a more detailed discription of servings of what you eat for breakfast/lunch? You also seem to be lacking vegetables, Fruits and legumes.

[Dirty Martini]

A serving size of pasta is about 1/2 cup, or the size of a tennis ball.

what about beans? vegetables? fruit? can you not get these? WinCo or Cub Foods or other discount grocers often sell these things dirt cheap.

[Illuminatus]

Well, I generally get enough veggies and fruit, just kind of hard at the moment due to classes and I have been moving every fews months. Anyways, for breakfast I generally eat a bowl of cereal (or two :P) with soy milk and a piece of fruit and often a glass of orange juice. I don't eat lunch usually, because I value the extra 30 minutes of laying around before I have to start my day :stinkeye: Then when I get home after classes (most of the time a 10-ish hour gap from when I ate breakfast) I eat a PB&J and some more fruit. Then my awesome, random, vegan dinner usually consisting of an abundance of pasta (or other high carb foods, brown rice w/ veggies, more pb&j, toast, etc.). I think a lot of it has to do with eating such foods really late. I am by definition a midnight pantry raider :P So hard to stop eating at 7 P.M. -.-

I was just really unsure as to how I would calculate these random foods that are generally sides to people's meals into an actual meal itself. :idea:

Thanks a bunch to everyone who replied already, as well :)

[Dirty Martini]

Have you tried using something like fitday.com or calorieking.com or calorie-counter.com or sparkpeople.com (etc)?

[Libellula]

If you want to lay around before starting your day, fix lunch in the evening. make a peanut butter sandwich, box up what you want to eat, then you have five minutes while you're eating cereal to pack your lunch, instead of thirty. i do it, it's not that hard.

[lobsteriffic]

I do that too. I am horrible at making lunches in the morning, so I just make my sandwich or whatever the night before.

[Dirty Martini]

Yep. We get everything ready a couple of times a week - Sunday is big "veggie chopping" day (chop everything up, put into containers) and we usually do some maintenance around Wednesday or so, if we're not being lazy. That way, we can just grab an empty container and put handfuls of stuff in them - voila, lunch. Takes like 2 minutes in the morning.

[CountessKerouac]

Ok...a man cannot live on pasta alone.

Invest in a 2 dollar box of tofu!