(Part 2) Best weight loss recipes books according to redditors

I’m going to look up the diet I did last year and let you know. It’s a 30 day diet and it’s very strict, but it sounds like you can easily do it. You basically cut out everything then slowly introduce things back in and see what you have a reaction to. After the 30 days you know what your body processes well and what it doesn’t. I did it and last 21 lbs, my mom who is 70 and NEVER loses weight on a diet no matter what she does lost 17 lbs. Again it’s strict and you have to prepare food ahead of time but it works really well.

The Plan

Historical Navel Fiction

Some Examples Below

 
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• Horatio Hornblower by C. S. Forester (Mr. Midshipman Hornblower,Hornblower and the Widow McCool,Lieutenant Hornblower,Hornblower and the Hotspur,Hornblower and the Atropos,The Happy Return,Ship of the Line,Hornblower During the Crisis,The Last Encounter,Flying Colours,Hornblower and His Majesty,Hornblower's Charitable Offering,Commodore Hornblower,Lord Hornblower,Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies)
  
  
• Bolitho by Alexander Kent (Midshipman,Midshipman Bolitho and the Avenger,Band of Brothers,Stand Into Danger,In Gallant Company,Sloop of War (Richard Bolitho Series),To Glory We Steer,Command a King's Ship,Passage to Mutiny,With All Despatch,Form Line of Battle!,Enemy in Sight!,The Flag Captain,Signal Close Action,The Inshore Squadron,A Tradition of Victory,Success to the Brave,Colours Aloft!,Honour This Day,The Only Victor,Beyond The Reef,The Darkening Sea,For My Country's Freedom,Cross of St. George,Sword Of Honour,Second to None,Relentless Pursuit,Man Of War,Heart of Oak,In The King's Name)
  
  
• Alan Lewrie Naval by Dewey Lambdin (The King's Coat,The French Admiral,The King's Commission,The Kings Privateer,The Gun Ketch,H. M. S. Cockerel,The King's Comander,Jester's Fortune,The King's Captain,Sea of Grey,Havoc's Sword,The Captain's Vengeance,A King's Trade,Troubled Waters,The Baltic Gambit,King, Ship, and Sword,The Invasion Year,Reefs and Shoals,Hostile Shores,The King's Marauder)
  
  
• Aubrey–Maturin by O'Brian (The Thirteen-Gun Salute,The Nutmeg of Consolation,The Truelove,Master and Commander,Post Captain,H.M.S. Surprise,Master and Commander,Desolation Island,The Fortune of War,The Surgeon's Mate,The Ionian Mission,Treason's Harbour,The Far Side of the World,The Reverse of the Medal,The Letter of Marque,The Wine-Dark Sea,The Commodore,The Yellow Admiral,The Hundred Days,Blue at the Mizzen)
  
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I went on the hunt for meal prep stuff, including the subreddit specifically for that stuff, and still found everything pretty intimidating.

What ended up working for me was low-stress breakfasts and lunches throughout the week (stuff that I can prepare quickly at work if I need to and don't seem to get tired of), and then Sunday prep of 3-4 servings of two different dinner dishes that will keep and reheat throughout the week. I don't store every single portion by itself to begin with--but I do weigh things out after prepping so I know how much I have, and can therefore reasonably calculate the weight of a serving. And that's what I use when I'm slopping things into a bowl or plate throughout the week... but yeah, in my case, eff storing everything all neat and tidy in all these different single meal packs. I'm a crock pot queen and dishing out an accurate serving doesn't exactly take me so much time that I need to portion things out in advance (also, my roommate probably wouldn't have it if I suddenly started taking up 3/4 of the fridge with meal packets).

On a typical work day, what my lazy weekend dinner preps lead to is:

Breakfast (~200 cals) [prep time approximately 2 mins]

• low-cal instant oatmeal with sliced banana
  
  Lunch (~450 cals) [prep time approximately 10 mins]
  
  
• "lite" creamed eggs (two eggs, as much ground pepper as I want, 1"x0.5"x0.25" lil' pat of butter, 1 tbsp sour cream stirred in after scrambling to keep the eggs from continuing to cook in the pot, 0.5 tsp sriracha stirred in)
  
  
• spinach salad (30g spinach, .25 oz sliced almonds, 3 chopped medium strawberries, tsp raisins, 2 tbsp lite sesame dressing)
  
  
• a chobani "simply 100" greek yogurt for dessert
  
  Dinner (~400 cals) [prepped on Sunday, so all I need to do is heat it up after I get home from work and work out]
  
  
• 2 servings (snort, snort) of Thai Chicken Curry Soup - although I don't even cut the chicken breast or handle it at all until it's cooked because I'm a wimp like that... just toss it in the crock pot and shred it after 4 hours (when I put the peas in)... involves fishing it out of the pot with some tongs, then letting it "rest" and cool a bit on a board so it can be cut/shredded, and then just chucking it right back in the pot. I also get lite coconut milk for this recipe to cut down on the calorie count of a serving.
  
  I get my remaining daily allotted calories in snack form -- usually pretty healthy stuff, although I've been on a pistachio kick lately (bad llama!). A banana here, handful of nuts there, some grapes (shocking how many grapes you can snack on... they are SO low-cal). I TRACK EVERYTHING THAT GOES IN MY MOUTH. Eventually, some fine day, I won't have to do this, because I will have taught myself what a reasonable day of eating is, but right now I don't know, so I have to rely on my scale friend.
  
  I typically treat myself Saturday night, but make sure that whatever I order is within that day's calorie goal.
  
  I hate cooking and I love eating, but I found the adjustment to lazy meal prep pretty easy. I'm not a novelty princess, though-- I don't need to eat a different thing every meal of the week to enjoy food. Over time, your mindset readjusts to the comfort and confidence of knowing what you're going to eat throughout the day over the way I used to eat, which was NO planning and just go with whatever I can dream up I want (usually by playing "What do YOU want? No, what do YOU want?" with my boyfriend every night for half an hour before caving and ordering something fast and greasy).
  
  Get a crock pot if you don't already have one. Google "healthy crock pot recipes" and "fast crock pot recipes." If you like fish, especially salmon, you're in luck -- you can glaze and broil filets of the stuff in like 10 minutes. There's a metric crap ton of delicious food that isn't horrible for you that is shockingly fast and easy to make. On Sundays, I usually go for a recipe that's a LITTLE more time consuming for one of the dinners, and something fast and dirty for the other (like those salmon filets).
  
  Also -- Food scale it up, girl, with those snacks. Do you know what a serving of your favorite snack actually looks like? Some of this stuff came as a huge shock to me when I first started. I still do what I want when it comes to a lot of food, but I know my limits as dictated by the scale.
  
  Best of luck!
  
  ETA: As if this isn't long enough, but I just found this book, Cook This, Not That. It has recipes comparable to a lot of stuff you can get at chain restaurants, at a fraction of the calories and cost. I'm going to make a curry from this book as my "challenging" dinner prep meal this week.

I really recommend this book (and also the 2:5 book by the same guy). He originally designed the diet for diabetics and then saw how successful people were at losing weight on it. Loads of the meals are 200-400 cal (the 2:5 recipes are 50-350 cal) and I can verify many are very tasty and satisfying.

For now, a bunch of the recipes are here.

The website lists other retailers under "MY BOOK", but here's an Amazon link: https://smile.amazon.com/Fit-Men-Cook-Women_Always-HealthyAF/dp/1501178725

Worth noting, to avoid confusion for others, there is also a very popular 5:2 diet:

>The 5:2 diet is a type of fasting where followers eat about 25% of their recommended calorie needs (about 500-600 calories) on two scheduled fasting days and then eat normally the other five days that week.

It is similar to what you're describing, but is a lower calorie on the 2 off days instead of a full water fast.

Here is the book:

https://www.amazon.com/Diet-Feast-Weight-Revitalize-Health/dp/1612432697

I have this book which has lots of good liquid recipes, using cocoa, peanut butter powder, pumpkin purée, decaf iced coffee, etc: https://www.amazon.com/Fresh-Start-Bariatric-Cookbook-Weight-Loss/dp/1623157730.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fast-800-combine-intermittent-long-term/dp/1780723628

You can join his website for an exorbitant fee but the books are cheaper.

I really like the 400 calorie fix cookbook and a cooking light cookbook I picked up at the library. I also have a cookbook called light and tasty I like.

Some of my favorites:

Betty Goes Vegan

Vegan Slow Cooker Recipes

Bake and Destroy

The Zone is a good place to start.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZknRTMX534

https://www.amazon.com/Zone-Diet-Beginners-Delicious-Cookbook-ebook/dp/B00TEBVUP0/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1498250143&sr=8-7&keywords=zone+diet

Right now I'm using Body Fortress powder... I haven't ventured into recipes yet... though I'm sure I will!! This book might help you though: http://www.amazon.com/Bariatric-Foodie-Perfect-Protein-Shakes/dp/1480101095/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=185FQEVXZ6D0B3BEXYF6 I know it's Bariatric but the recipes will be sound for anyone :)

There are Books on Amazon like this , there are also MANY plans online.

Tbh: it would be better if you just eat the foods you like in smaller portions or a bit healthier alternatives, whenever you feel the need to. Otherwise it would be hard to keep up long term to follow a plan that isn’t catered to you.

I picked up this cookbook at the dollarstore on impulse but honestly the recipes have been really good:

https://www.amazon.com/Betty-Crocker-Calorie-Comfort-Food-ebook/dp/B00E78IB20

I'm not sure if this is a book you can find outside of Canada but many many years ago (like the 90's) two 'diet' cookbooks came out that were insanely popular; Looney Spoons was the first, followed by Crazy Plates. The recipes are pretty good and have the nutritional information for each one. Also because they were so popular they are pretty easy to find at thrift stores.

OK found it on Amazon.com for under $20:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/096806311X/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_hdyACb8C87SR7

I hate the hype and fluff on his web page, but Brad Pilon's e-book "Eat Stop Eat" is worth a read: clicky

Krista Varaday, Ph.D., has a book that summarizes a lot of her research in fasting: clicky

Mike Matthews' The Shredded Chef. Pick it up on Amazon, 120 recipes. All of the macros broken out, very affordable meals.

Or you can download the free Kindle version w/15 recipes to see if you like it, called Muscle Meals

Roasted Carrots

For those looking for an EASY, HEALTHY and tasty substitute for potatoes at dinner!

Ebook Cookbook

Check out the Conscious Cleanse, Its a really healthy way to get your body in the right place. Ive done it every year, its not a crash diet or a way to lose weight, its just a guide to eating healthier for 2 weeks. Im currently on it again!

This book or this for portion control :D

A weight-lifting book I've heard good things about. This one is specifically for women, but they also have a general one, and one for abs.

Biggest Loser Cookbook

A pedometer (and maybe a strap for it, since that one seems to be on sale too?)

A food scale! I love mine.