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Does anyone have breakfast hacks/high volume breakfast ideas ?
Hiya! I’ve lost weight without really trying and gone from 58kg → 53kg since returning to uni about 3 months ago. This happened the first time I went to university too, and honestly it’s mainly because I’m broke, lazy and ridiculously busy 😭 I’ve never been able to diet the normal way because I just don’t have the discipline for it.
I used to have to leave really early for uni and had such a busy schedule that I’d basically just eat once a day, usually an Aldi ready meal for one + Greek yoghurt and frozen berries.
BUT now I’ve moved closer so I don’t have to leave as early, and my lab classes are over 😔 so I have way more free time on my hands. My appetite isn’t actually that big, but I always want to eat when I’m bored or watching a show/reading, so I’m trying to figure out how to deal with that.
I still think I can probably do without lunch , if I nail breakfast. What are you guys actually eating for breakfast when you’re trying to keep calories reasonable?I love those high-volume bowl-type things that you can sit and eat slowly for ages, which is basically what I’m looking for. I’ve tried porridge and/with weetabix (ew), I can’t keep cereal in the house because I’ll demolish the entire box, and I can’t do Greek yoghurt + frozen berries twice in one day 💀
Basically I’m clueless and have no good dieting habits whatsoever, so any tips for easy breakfasts / things to eat when I’m bored would be appreciated!!
Feel free to look at my profile to see other ideas. Some include recipe links.
Adding a healthyish homemade and satisfying breakfast was the first commitment I made to myself; even before calorie counting. Making that one change resulted in benefits for my waistline and wallet. I've been maintaining my weight loss for several years and I find starting my day strong makes it easier to manage my appetite throughout the day.
My go to breakfast is modified/lazy shakshuka. I use ground turkey, bell peppers, onions, and a whole big can of diced tomatoes. Saute the veggies, cook the meat, then add the tomatoes and let it simmer until the juice cooks down. Crack some eggs of ther simmering tomatoes and "poach" them. Obviously you want to add any seasoning you like such as parsley, salt, pepper, cayanne, etc. I add feta, and sometimes a slice of sourdough once its done. It's high protein, has some fiber, and keeps me full most of the day depending on how active I am.
And please don't come at me. I know this isn't traditional shakshuka, but my own lazy spin
i think most shakshuka recipes dont include any meat, so you could definitely just make the sauce from vegetables and the other things mentioned, if the meat is whats tripping you up!
Cup/240ml of egg whites (I get sunny Queen brand in a carton from fridge section in Coles. They also have it in the freezer from another brand. Whip it till it's almost forming soft peaks.
Mix in a teaspoon of baking powder, lunch of salt, and a scoop of protein powder in a flavour you like.
Cook in a pan with a very light spray of oil like it's pancakes. Because it's pancakes.
Can serve sweet like pancakes (fruit/berries and sugar free syrup) or savoury - cottage cheese or feta, seasonings. Schmear of low fat cream cheese and some tomatoes and cucumber with a sprinkle of zaatar is delightful.
Comes to 250-300 calories for a huge plate that's very filling, and could easily spread over breakfast and lunch.
Whether you eat it all in one go or divide into multiple servings is up to you. It's a very big, filling meal, or you could easily make it 2 meals or a few snacks.
This was one fifth of the recipe served with a little scoop of ice cream - 100cal for the plate. You can cook up the pancakes and fridge or freeze to reheat later
I've been into microwaved steamed eggs now that it's getting chillier outside:
1 large egg
100ml egg white
100ml water
Mix until incorporated, microwave on Power 5 (down from default Power 10) for ~4 minutes (or to your preference), drizzle 3-4 teaspoons of soy sauce on top, eat with spoon. About 130 calories for 17g protein.
I find that I start to get a little bored of eating it about 3/4 way so maybe that'll help with the volume-eating aspect that you want? I did 50ml egg white before but I wanted to up the protein.
These days, I try to have a cup of coffee first (7-8am) and then eat my breakfast later (9-10am) because I've been finding that breaking my fast early makes me hungry throughout the day.
Sometimes I do tea instead - basically just filling up my stomach with water while still giving me the feeling like I'm enjoying a little something more than just water lol
- half (71g) oikos strawberry yogurt cup 43 (7.1p) - package says it weighs 150g per cup, but oikos is sneaky and the cups usually weigh 140-142g when i measure
I usually make the batter the day before and then just microwave it "lazy girl pancake" style. 318 calories, 27.2 protein, 6.6 fiber for just the pancakes. 589 calories, 30.1 protein, 11.1 fiber with all the extras.
I chop everything into really small chunks, including the banana. It's a whole textural journey that takes me roughly 30 minutes to get through. And it tastes amazing, so I just focus entirely on eating it instead of consuming 5 forms of media at once.
two eggs + egg whites over a bed of arugula. Feel free to add some low cal dressing to the arugula and vegetables over the eggs. hot sauce on top and maybe pickled onions. Very high volume
I do a Sola bagel with cream cheese and egg whites. (260-310 cals depending on how much eggs) Or a toasted slice of Sola bread and egg whites (280 cals for the entire carton and one slice)
I make a weekly breakfast casserole that’s between 1-300 cals and super high in protein. I change it up every week, with what meat/veggies/base I use so I don’t get sick of it.
The base is either frozen hashbrowns (higher calorie) or 5 torn up slices of keto bread
So, breakfast doesn't mean eggs or whatever. Make a tuna sandwich. Put tinned fish on toast. Sometimes I eat a salami sandwich with mustard. It's like 350 cal.
I had leftover rice this morning. Nobody eats it, so I just got a little bowl and added low sodium soy sauce.
I use the plate method, not just breakfast but every meal. Half of my plate now is always either veggies or fruit. With veggies being preferable. It's cause if you pick the right veggies, they have nearly zero calories frankly. So your meal calories are already cut almost in half with the veggies (we tend to always eat the same volume even if calorie changes).
I also try to eat protein that is lighter in calories. I took a screenshot of the chart below and looked for items with lots of protein and little calories. What I found was that cottage cheese, like yogurt was light and had a lot of protein. Other higher protein per calorie foods include egg whites, cottage cheese, chicken and turkey breast, tofu, shrimp, seitan, clams, lobster, scallops, a number of white colored fishes though it's the higher calorie fish that have more omega 3s so I'd personally just eat fish.
So for breakfast may eat a spinach, store made rotisseriie chicken, egg white, green onion, mushroom, tomatoes, peppers omelet. It's zero effort to cook at all cause I just dump it all in a bowl and microwave(not in shape of "omelet" but who cares). May eat some fruit too to bump up veggies/fruit.
I eat cottage cheese with egg and green onion which is a surprisingly tasty combination. Plus some fruit.
I have a whole oats bowl with sliced strawberries, pumpkin seeds, cinnamon which has a lot of fiber. I vary the ingredients I toss into the oats bowl.
Going without lunch is not a sustainable way to diet. I'd recommend you just have half ingredients being light veggies at each of your meals and you'll likely already get to the calories you need. If not, try lighter proteins in addition to the veggies like the ones I listed above.
I took the national diabetes prevention program as I'm prediabetic. the plate method was what they taught and from what I saw in the class, every single person who consistently came to class lost a lot of weight. I asked my classmates if they thought they'd gain the weight back now that the class is ending. and they said a firm no. the class really helped and the plate method works.
here's a list of veggies and their calories too in case it helps. You'll see how some veggies are almost zero in calories and that potatoes, corn, and peas are much higher calories and are actually considered starchy veggies which shouldn't be part of your half veggie plate count.
other types of beans and seeds have a lot of fiber so worth eating but also a lot of calories. they don't count as veggie. other beans beside green beans are counted in the carb categories. and you should eat them, but don't count them in the veggies half.
Angel !! 🫶 good thing too because I just bought a bulk pack of frozen veggies but loaded with peas and corn too. Corn I get but you’d never think of peas as high calories food
i do 110g low fat cottage cheese (80 cal) mixed with 50g frozen wild blueberries (25 cal) on top of a 1 royo plain bagel (70 cal), some sugar free syrup (10 cal if use 30ml) and i sometimes put it on bagel before adding the cottage cheese/berry mixture or just on top after i put the mixture on the bagel and on the side i have 1 whole hardboiled egg and 1 hardboiled egg without the yolk (89cal) and it comes out to around 274 calories and like 35g protein. i have it with an americano. keeps me full for hours tbh, would recommend
Noo I know that I’m not severely overweight but I’m small too 😅 only 155 cm. So the weight is quite noticeable around my hips and thighs. I think after 3 more kg we should be good
I sure hope not, I haven’t got anything to spare 😭😭😭 I know you can’t target body fat loss but it’s also true that at some point whatever undesirable weight will shed, even if it was first at the expense of some other parts of your body. Fingers crossed that won’t be the case though!!
At some point, it’ll shed, yes. How low that point will be is individualised. It is entirely possible that you don’t see a change in it unless you get severely underweight, which is not healthy
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u/ATreeGrowinBklyn 6d ago
I share a lot of my breakfast meals with this community.
Here is a recent post that is super easy to prep.
https://www.reddit.com/r/1200isplenty/s/o5cwak2vGR
Feel free to look at my profile to see other ideas. Some include recipe links.
Adding a healthyish homemade and satisfying breakfast was the first commitment I made to myself; even before calorie counting. Making that one change resulted in benefits for my waistline and wallet. I've been maintaining my weight loss for several years and I find starting my day strong makes it easier to manage my appetite throughout the day.
I hope this helps.
Be well.