Please suggest foods to increase my Fiber intake?

My "normal" diet consists of the following - I am pretty picky.

Breakfast - Special K Cereal or Waffles with Fat Free Milk

Mid AM Snack - WW Yogurt or Oatmeal with Fruit

Lunch - Salad with Chicken & Raw Baby Carrotts or Turkey Sandwich

PM Snack - Pretzels or Rice Cakes

Dinner - Meat, String Beans and Salad

Snack - Fruit Popsicle or Piece of Fruit

** Fruit - Strawberries, Grapes, Apple or Orange

The RDA for women is a minimum of 25g a day. You need to make sure you're getting enough soluble and insoluble fibre - Insoluble (the fibre that forms bulk and regulates acidity and PH in the gut) and soluble (the fibre that helps regulate blood sugar and cholesterol).

Insoluble fibre examples:
 -- Whole-wheat pastas, breads, etc
 -- Quinoa
 -- Brown rice
 -- Bran products
 -- Fruit and vegetable skins, such as potato skins, tomato skins, plum/prune skins, apple skins, pear skins
 -- Nuts and seeds, particularly flax, almonds, brazil nuts and walnuts

Soluble fibre examples:
 -- Oats
 -- Rye
 -- Barley
 -- Potatoes of all varieties
 -- Psyillium husks
 -- Legumes and pulses, especially lentils, garbanzo beans (chickpeas), kidney beans, pinto beans and soybeans

And pretty much all fruits and vegetables. Particularly raspberries, plums, bananas, sweetcorn, prunes, apples, pears, blackberries, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels, asparagus, artichokes and dried fruit. Again, never introduce lots more fibre without drinking enough water to compensate. There is a more detailed list of fibre sources here for future reference.

Can I ask, what's your age, height and weight? That looks like an EXTREMELY minimal menu. The minimum intake for a sedentary female over 21 is 1200 calories per day and for a sedentary female under 21 it is 1500 per day. And believe it or not, that’s only the sedentary minimum. Unless you are very, very short and small, and/or if you are working out it is very likely you will need even more calories than those minimum guidelines.

Thank you for the reply.   I am 27 yrs old and current weight is 191 height 5'2" and minimal exercise at this point, trying to fiqure out the food 1st.   My target per cc is 1300 cals which I pretty much hit every day.   I started 2 weeks ago and lost 3 lbs the 1st week and 4lbs the 2nd week.    I agree my diet is "blah".   I dont like much and dont cook!   But there are foods on your list that I can incorporate into my diet more.   I am just learning and doing a lot of reading and research - kind of scary!   Thank you for your help!! 

As I learnt this weekend while making Guacamole for the first time...that Avocados are pretty high in fiber.

fiber one products are AMAZING. they are all delicious and very high in fiber. i recommend their raisin bran crunch cereal, chocolate chip chewy granola bars (tastes like a candy bar with only 140 cals), their peach and key lime pie flavored yogurts are DELICIOUS and low in calories as well. i think they do well to be staples in everyone's diet -- weight loss or not.

CUT THE SPECIAL K!!!! best advice......throw all bran buds into your breakfast...maybe with some yogurt and fruit 1/3 cup all bran buds = 44% of your daily fibre intake...

btw....granola bars are full of fat and sugar and low in fibre/yogurt is also very low in fibre  

also V8 plus - low sodium high fibre....60 cal and it's really high in evvverrrytthinng (make sure it's low sodium though) i drink it after i go running great for electrolites too....

i also add a lot of flax seed to my breakfast cereal....it also has the added perk of being high in omega 3.  you can buy it preground if you want to add it to breakfast/protein shakes. 

make sure you are eating all the skin on your fruits......

by the way you should try eating more protein at breakfast with high fibre...it will keep you full for longer.

i personally think special k is a huge gimic...it's low in calories but also low in everything else....it won't keep you full....waffles are also kind of a crappy choice....

milk is a good source of protein...but so are eggwhites (16 cal/white) and low fat yogurt

good sources of fibre all bran buds/fibre 1 cereal (a bit higher in cal but worth it)/ also steal cut oats (don't bother with instant oatmeal it's not that great for you)/

try to get some fruit at breakfast too.....bananas are good b/c they are a complex carb that isn't broken down very quickly so they give you energy

try switching your mid morning snack with protein + carb like maybe 12 almonts and an apple

are you getting a lot of good fats in your diet? olive oil/avacado/nuts etc....my personal favorite thing on my sald is a pinch of olive oil with lemon juice or balsalmic to cut calories....

Light flatout bread. 9g of fiber in one wrap! They're AWESOME!

Well, try cutting your meat portions in half and replacing the rest with beans (instead of having 4oz meat - have 2oz and half a cup of beans/chickpeas/lentils instead)

Also, for a snack - instead of rice cakes or pretzels, perhaps try a handful of dried fruit, particularly figs and dates. Adding some nuts with it would be excellent.  Maybe add a tablespoon or two of ground flax or oatbran into your yogurt or oatmeal.

It looks to me like you have a virtually fat-free diet. You really might want to consider adding more fats into your diet as well as fiber, both for regularity and satiety purposes. Even if you are trying to lose weight, it is still important to get enough dietary fat to prevent vitamin deficiencies, hair loss, etc.

This diet doesn't look like it gets anywhere near the 25g RDA, which is hard to hit.

Lots of good ideas already.  I'll add a couple.

-Make snacks with toast and jam using high fiber bread.  This should get 3-4 grams of fiber for each 75 calorie slice.

-If you make your waffles from scratch, add 1/2 cup bran and 1/2 cup pumpkin for every cup of dry mix.  This should get you 3-5 g fiber per waffle, depending on how big a waffle you make.

-Eat cabbage instead of lettuce.  This is good for another 2 grams.

I usually hit the 25-30 required of fiber a day without trying too hard.  I eat instant high fiber oatmeal from Quaker, which ranks an "a" on here and is 160 calories, for breakfast.

For lunch, I eat some whole grain pasta or a sandwich on La Tortilla Factory wraps which have 12g of fiber each and are only 100 calories each, and they are huge!   Add 1/2 cup raw spinach instead of lettuce, great iron.

I snack a lot on fruit..apples and celery and carrots, cucumber slices ect...

I sometimes make a smoothie in the am with nonfat yogurt, frozen  fruit and a banana with 2 packs of Splenda with fiber..I don't even count that fiber...

Agree with the other post on Fiber One bars, they are awesome..I am allergic to chocolate and nuts, so I have only had the other 2...but they r good

I do eat some brown rice with steamed veggies and soy sauce or couscous or whole grain mix sometimes, but higher in calories..so I watch it a little closer

I love black beans and corn with turkey chili( I don't eat red meat) or a cabbage soup  which I had today.

I feel your pain..I am super super picky..and have a lot of allergies, but the more I do this, I am opening up to new foods or being creative with the same ones...like turkey burgers, now I like.  Just keep your options open and it will all fall in to place, good luck!

definitely more fruits, prunes, dried fruits, vegetables

oat bran is a really good source of fiber and good alternative to oats. 

fiber one yogurts and cottage cheese/ granola bars are really good and healthy 

metamucil and flaxseed are also good to add throughout the day. 

fiberous breads like oat breads, whole grain english muffins, certain bagels can contain a good amount of fiber but make sure like rebel said to add some fats in too so you don't make yourself sick if you add too much at once.

here's a link that has a shopping list option!

http://www.prevention.com/fiberup/?cm_mmc=Spo tlight-_-10292008-_-Nutrition%20and%20Recipes -_-Fiber%20Up

interesting ... just noticed that the posted list marked "here" states that raw spinach has 3.5 grams & cc says 3 cups is 2 grams?  Is cc way off on their fiber counts?

Veggies, veggies, veggies

Special k is one of the better cerials, but it's still processed. I assume that you being picky, you probably don't like oatmeal (neither do I), but if you add blueberries and changes things and it's an excellent source of fiber.

Fiber one brand foods are really good and full of fiber. I love their yogurt and bars.

Switch up your Special K breakfast cereal with a higher fiber cereal.  Many cereals available have 30+% of your fiber intake in one serving.  Special K has a low amount of fiber.

High Fiber Fruits:

- Pear + Skin

- Raspberries

- Strawberries

- Blueberries

- Black Berries

- Apples + Skin

- Avocado 

High Fiber Vegetables:

- Kale 

- Artichokes

- Cabbage

- Swiss Chard

- Broccoli 

- Bell Peppers

- Asparagus

- Leeks

- Spaghetti Squash

High Fiber Legumes/Nuts/Seeds

- Lentils

- Kidney Beans

- Lima Beans 

- Hemp Seeds

- Flax Seeds

- Black Beans

- Garbonzo Beans