New and confused!

Hi, to all. No, bananas are definitely not bad for you! They are nutritionally quite dense, and so each is considered two fruit exchanges, though with a surprisingly moderate effect on blood sugar and therefore belly fat. You can read more about this superfood in our article here: https://www.trimdownclub.com/superfood-banana-2/.

I too am new and the only reason I stumbled upon this site was because of a banana! I was downloading some soup recipes and saw a line about bananas adding fat to your middle! Is that true??? I usually eat a banana every day!! Is that one of the reasons I can’t shed all my belly fat?? Seriously!

Hi, mayrajaime83. Are you using the Menu Planner application or the “Feeling Lucky” feature?
The Feeling Lucky feature is fairly random (though it does follow some rules), but the Menu Planner uses the foods you select from the lists to generate a menu based on your nutritional needs and limitations, such as no chocolate sauce on your vegetables, no meatballs for breakfast, etc. It does have to suit the preferences of a wide range of users, and sometimes tastes do not match up. For that reason, we offer a couple of options through which you can make the menu more your own:
1. Swap individual foods my clicking on the small circular arrow icon at the right upperhand corner of any item in your finished menu.
or
2. Build your own menu by clicking on the larger circular arrow icon to the right of the day of the week in your finished menu, and follow the directions there.
Because in the application you can choose what foods you want, you can control the costs.

Also new. The meal plan seems to be all out of whack. It seems to randomly list food items, sometimes up to 4 and none of which would go together. It also seems like it will be VERY expensive to keep up the meal plan. Can someone shed some light on how the meal plan works?

Hi, jennio4, and welcome. Don’t worry about the actual foods before you have a chance to shop. Other benefits of the Menu Planner application include portion sizing, food combining, and meal scheduling, and beyond that, you can benefit from the food preparation techniques recommended in the program overview (https://www.trimdownclub.com/product/trimdownclub-program, chapter 3).
Try new foods a little at a time, see what you like, perhaps just upgrade your regular foods (i.e. whole grain instead of white).
The food amounts seem large because the program is not a diet in the sense that most people are used to (associated with deprivation) – they are actually the normal amounts people should be eating to get your metabolism up and keep it there for maintenance of your loss. If you have been on deprivation diets before, it may take your body a while to get used to it, but hang in there – it is an investment in long-term results that will take less time than it took to gain the weight.
If you encounter difficulties, repost here, and we can work through it.