How much exercising does it take to burn fat?

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HI Sparrowrose,

I'm not sure what the cost difference amounts to, but have you looked into preparing foods such as beans and lentils rather than ramen? It seems to me that an equal amount of lentil and barley soup would be far more nutritious than a bowl of ramen.

I have recently had to strictly control my diet and am finding I am suddenly spending a good deal less on food. Basically I switched from eating whatever looked good at the grocery store that day to a small range of foods based on Indian recipes. Barley and Lentil soup with some carrots and onion, chickpeas in curry, simple dhal soups etc.

I understand that these would probably cost more than 50 cents per serving but I don't think it would be that much more. Certainly the way I prepare them it is under a dollar per serving. The one issue is that you have to have the time and utensils to make the food and the refrigerator to store the leftovers.

Anyway, I find I am doing pretty well on a diet with considerably reduced portions from what I am accustomed to and I am still able to exercise quite a bit and lose weight.

I hope this is useful,

Lars

Barley has gluten so its just as damaging to my body as pasta.

I eat lentils sometimes, but I really have to choke them down. I find the flavor/texture combination really ick. The easiest beans for me to turn my thoughts off and eat are black beans and I've gone long stretches eating them, but I still run into the undernourished problem after a while and start needing two pounds of dried beans per day to stave off the ghrelin monster (hunger hormones.) (And that's around 2600 calories so the weight gain is slower on beans but still there. And it's highly unpleasant to eat a diet of beans. But thankfully I'm not allergic to them like a friend's husband is!)

The bottom line is that my body *needs* a diet high in produce in order to function well. I can eat cheap for a while, but my health eventually suffers from it. I understand that different people function differently, so others who aren't made this way might assume I'm exaggerating but this is how my body works. I have to regularly eat dark green leafy vegetables and meals that are heavy in other vegetables or else my health begins to break down, my weight begins to go up, and mental depression begins to set in with gradual loss of cognitive function, starting with short-term memory, and a creeping sense of apathy and the feeling that life isn't worth living.

I hate having to such a high percentage of my money on food, but the alternative is unlivable. I'm hoping that I can make it the rest of the way through school (fingers crossed) and get an acceptable job so that food costs won't be such a high percentage of my income any more. If I weren't living so far below the poverty line, it wouldn't even be an issue because I don't buy super-expensive health-food stuff or organics, just regular produce. I can't afford healthy food while living on SSI (government disability) but there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that's what I'm aiming my life toward.

reading your struggles is making me realise how well off i have been, i grew up with 4 sisters and 2 brothers and my mother had little money to spend on clothes, toys and any other luxury, we survived on a multitude of hand me downs. we were always fed though, even if the food was of poorer quality than our friends recieved, we were never hungry. i really hope your suffering is nearing its end, i cant even imagine having to live like that, and dont like to think that anybody goes without their nutritional needs.