How Much is Enough?

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I'm desperate to have my cholesterol down before it's re-tested in three months time. To that end, I'm making sure I eat my five serves of vegetables and two of fruit every day.

If you're not sure about that, a serve of vegetables is usually about a cup of raw vegetables or half a cup of cooked vegetables. (This doesn't include things like potato or sweet potato, which  contain so much carbohydrate that they're classed with grain food like rice, pasta or bread.) So I'm having two and a half cups of vegetables each at lunch and dinner. This is very filling.

A serve of fruit is generally just a piece of fruit like an apple or an orange or small banana, or a couple of smaller pieces of fruit like strawberries or kiwifruit. I'm making sure I eat some fruit each at breakfast and afternoon tea time. (This means I am back to eating afternoon tea, even though I can't have domperidone then - so my tummy does complain a bit. I just can't get down the sheer volume of food I need to eat in three meals a day.)

Of course, there are other food groups I must eat to get my day's nutrition: protein foods, carbohydrates, and dairy foods, as well as a small amount of healthy fats. I'm struggling to eat the bare minimum of these after the fruit and vegetables are accounted for.

That is causing me a problem.  Tracking my eating on calorieking.com.au, I'm finding that I'm just not eating my energy requirements for the day.  I'm eating so much food that's very low energy-density, I'm not able to eat much of anything else.  I just don't feel I can fit it in!

In theory, I ought to lose tons of weight.  So far, that's not showing up on the scale. But that has been an issue all along for me. My body seems very determined to hold on to its fat reserves in case Australia's struck with a sudden famine.

Reference:
National Dietary Guidelines for Australians