ExRx.net

I was reading this section of the board the other day and it made me start worrying about the quantity of carbs i consume!

1) I eat cereal (Bran Flakes) for breakfast every work day
2) Sandwich, yogurt, celery + Thai Chili sauce, potato chips/crisps for lunch
3) Varied Dinner - usually pasta twice a week, stir fry with noodles once, etc

I currently weigh 200 lb and stand 6.1(ish)

Obviously, if i could address the Breakfast and Lunch carbs i'd be on the right track. I'm gonna aim to eat eggs for breakfast as soon as i start my new job (more time in the morning) Any advice for lunch? It's got to be easily prepared and cheap. I cant stand tuna!

My goals are building muscle but cutting a little stomach fat

Just use any meat i.e chicken breast, ham, left over meat from dinner etc. and add it to some salad with cheese, olives, olive oil, cotttage cheese, coleslaw etc. Takes about 10 mins to make the night before, pre packed lettuce is handy. I cook a load of meat at once like sausages and bacon and just keep it in the fridge.

The easiest thing to change is a simple substitution of your starch for a second vegetable serving. For example, instead of stir fry and noodles, double the stir fry and skip the noodles. You'll get the same volume of food and the same feeling of fullness but less calories and carbs.

Make sure you get adequate protein. The official guidelines are for inactive people in order to avoid immediate disease. Most poeple reading this probably need 2-3 times that much. Eggs for breakfast are an obvious fix.

Make sure you get adequate fats for energy. This should be the main energy source. Any animal source is good especially egg yolks. Avoid seed oils. Olive oil and coconut oil are good plant sources.

I always associate eggs with toast/bread - thats gonna be the most difficult thing for me to tackle! Any ideas to offset this other than an increase in volume? Like, is any form of bread acceptible in a low/lower carb diet?

You don't have to go from your present level to zero carbs overnight. Less bread is better than however much you're eating now! I love toast with my breakfast, and that is probably one of the last things I'll cut. However, when I went from 4 slices of toast for breakfast (that was all I had for breakfast in those days) and 2 sandwiches for lunch and probably at least one slice of bread with supper, to 2 slices of toast with my eggs and little or no bread for the rest of the day it was a big step in the right direction.

Chop up some tomatoes, onions, peppers, or whatever else appeals to you, keep them in the fridge, and scramble them with your eggs. Zucchini increases the volume and hardly affects the flavor one way or the other. Have some bacon or ham or sausage handy to add for flavor and protein. Then have 1 slice of toast on the side.

Any step will help, as long as it's in the right direction. Good luck, and keep it up!