What kills your daily calorie allowance and how did you overcome it??

Jilliankosto
Jilliankosto Posts: 216 Member
edited November 2015 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all,

I have found that the culprit for going over my daily calorie allotment is chocolate and deserts. I can eat healthy low calorie meals (and I enjoy it too) but I always seem to finish the day with some sort of chocolate or dessert and I just cannot seem to kick the habit!! I have about 15 pounds left to lose but I am stalled out and when I look back through my diary I see that I have a lot of chocolate and sweets in there and that is what pushes me over the edge 99% of the time. I have found that if I completely restrict myself I end up overindulging and I wanted to avoid doing that. I have allowed myself to have some but I am doing it everyday and that is hurting my progress. I can't seem to find a happy medium? Do you struggle with a particular food item or category and what did you do to control it? Thanks for sharing!
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Replies

  • Tedebearduff
    Tedebearduff Posts: 1,155 Member
    Stop eating them then ... boom problem solved... you can also stop buying them, helps with the not eating them thing.
  • Jilliankosto
    Jilliankosto Posts: 216 Member
    edited November 2015
    Tedebearduff wrote: »
    Stop eating them then ... boom problem solved...

    If it were that easy then why would anyone struggle with weight loss?
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    I do the same with the except of it making me go over my limit.

    I typically prelog my week which includes a full chocolate bar every night while still hitting my macros and staying in a deficit...

    If you find they are putting you over perhaps your deficit is too large or you can earn calories with exercise.

    But my last choice would be to stop eating them...esp since I love my chocolate at night with a diet coke...wind down time for me.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    Alternative to cutting it out: try pre-logging. Log your dessert or chocolate first and then enter the rest of your food for the day. I log the night before and always put in my highest calorie items first so I know what I have to work with for the rest of my food.
  • Sarajvz
    Sarajvz Posts: 30 Member
    One of the things I had to deal with was night time snacking. As I went through my weight loss phase I started pushing back my cut off time for eating-started at 10pm and ended up at 7pm over the course of several months. This made a huge difference in controlling my calorie intake.

    Now I'm in maintenance and I still follow this most days, it's one of my maintenance tools :)
  • Ladiebug710
    Ladiebug710 Posts: 133 Member
    Portion control is key. Individually wrapped chocolates let me have a bit without going crazy. My favorite are the Dove promises dark
  • prettysoul1908
    prettysoul1908 Posts: 200 Member
    Fit them into your calorie allotment. You may not have enough room for a king sized chocolate bar but perhaps a smaller one. Or maybe you can find a lower cal treat you like just as much. Or maybe you cut calories somewhere else to fit in the exact treat you want

    I can't have treats every day but I was thrilled that I didn't have to completely cut out anything to lose weight

    I hate restrictions which is probably why I'm just adopting counting calories. I thought t went hand in hand with no cake or fried foods. Nope. If anything... I can have those things without feeling doomed or Ive totally screwed my diet
  • macgurlnet
    macgurlnet Posts: 1,946 Member
    edited November 2015
    I eat sweets every day because I know I'll just crave them and overindulge otherwise.

    What works for me is to set times for treats - that is, something small with dinner and/or lunch, depending on the day - and that's it. I make sure I have 2 lower cal options, as well as some higher cal ones, because I like having choices :)

    If I'm hungry between meals, I have to go for a nutritious option, like fruit, nuts or cottage cheese.

    What kinds of sweets/chocolates do you have? Are you eating full servings of them?

    I've found that I can be satisfied with a half serving of gelato (~120-150 cal) + toppings. Or a square of good dark chocolate. The higher the quality of my treat, the less I need to eat (usually).

    I've recently started buying the Fiber One 90 calorie brownies. I get 5 grams of fiber and a sweet treat with lunch for 90 calories. A worthwhile choice, imo. ;)

    ~Lyssa
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    For me it was olive oil and wine. I solved the problem by eating less of them.
  • retailwizard1
    retailwizard1 Posts: 84 Member
    Sugar sugar and more sugar.... any sweet or any chips... I have some everyday but so hard to limit
  • madhatter2013
    madhatter2013 Posts: 1,547 Member
    The weekend does it for me. I do great all week while at work and then BOOM the weekend comes and I need a hobby... :disappointed:
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    When I was logging carefully my biggest issue was restaurant meals, since a portion of my social life tends to involve trying out various restaurants (foodie friends). This could be fit in, and monitoring portion size and choices is key, but it was a pain. As I've been maintaining I've been less rigorous about planning for this and if I want to start losing again it's the main thing I need to work on.

    For the sweets, what worked for me was planning ahead and not really having any unplanned snacks, but allowing myself a reasonable number of calories for an after dinner dessert (usually about 200 calories of ice cream). So long as I was exercising it wasn't hard to fit in. Knowing I had that planned for later made it easier to pass up things that just appeared in my office, or if it was something special I'd choose between that and my dessert later. I had a pretty hard rule that I wouldn't go over calories unless it was a day I'd decided I could.
  • zdyb23456
    zdyb23456 Posts: 1,706 Member
    All my snacks in the evenings do me in. I usually get to the evening under 1500 calories. Then all heck breaks loose and I'm lucky if I come around 2k. Thankfully I seem to maintain around 2k, but if I could control my snacking I'd be so much skinnier!

    Last night it was a bowl of rice, kettle chips, and gummi bears.
  • Jilliankosto
    Jilliankosto Posts: 216 Member
    macgurlnet wrote: »
    I eat sweets every day because I know I'll just crave them and overindulge otherwise.

    What works for me is to set times for treats - that is, something small with dinner and/or lunch, depending on the day - and that's it. I make sure I have 2 lower cal options, as well as some higher cal ones, because I like having choices :)

    If I'm hungry between meals, I have to go for a nutritious option, like fruit, nuts or cottage cheese.

    What kinds of sweets/chocolates do you have? Are you eating full servings of them?

    I've found that I can be satisfied with a half serving of gelato (~120-150 cal) + toppings. Or a square of good dark chocolate. The higher the quality of my treat, the less I need to eat (usually).

    I've recently started buying the Fiber One 90 calorie brownies. I get 5 grams of fiber and a sweet treat with lunch for 90 calories. A worthwhile choice, imo. ;)

    ~Lyssa


    I usually have like chocolate covered nuts or somethings along that line. Or last night I had four mini Reese's cups but that was 200 cal! I also like a 1/2 c ice cream. My cals are at 1460 so it's not extremely hard to go over. I like the idea of the fiber one bar so thanks for that!
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    Sweets. But I don't really overdo it, and if I do, I just eat less the rest of the time. Hasn't been a problem, honestly... just got to practice moderation.
  • Jilliankosto
    Jilliankosto Posts: 216 Member
    SezxyStef wrote: »
    I do the same with the except of it making me go over my limit.

    I typically prelog my week which includes a full chocolate bar every night while still hitting my macros and staying in a deficit...

    If you find they are putting you over perhaps your deficit is too large or you can earn calories with exercise.

    But my last choice would be to stop eating them...esp since I love my chocolate at night with a diet coke...wind down time for me.



    Thank you! Yes I should just plan on the fact that I will eat it and log it. I pre-log everything else but not the sweets. I think I have it in my mind that "maybe today I won't have any" but nonetheless I end up eating it at night and then it pushes me over. But if I plan ahead then I can accommodate for it which would be so much better.
  • tulips_and_tea
    tulips_and_tea Posts: 5,741 Member
    Jilliankosto wrote: »
    Tedebearduff wrote: »
    Stop eating them then ... boom problem solved...

    If it were that easy then why would anyone struggle with weight loss?

    You are right - it's not that simple. Plus, you said in your OP you've tried cutting them out completely and that didn't work. So, good for you for trying a few options already.

    What kind of chocolates and dessert are you eating? I ask because I would say just start to taper down slowly. Example: if you're eating a full size candy bar, break off 1/3, eat 2/3 and put the other portion away. Same with say a slice of cake: cut down your portion slightly. Then in a few days or a week cut down again. You can still eat those foods, but you'll notice that you won't need as much at one time. I've learned that a lot of the time the portion we serve ourselves is out of habit and not necessarily how much we need (generally it is too much).
  • MyCoachBeth
    MyCoachBeth Posts: 2 Member
    I learned that I must delete completely. The saying "can't eat just one", so me!! If I get my mind set that I'm not eating just one (bc I won't eat just one) that I eventually stopped craving .....2.5 years without choc, pizza, cookies, fast food, ice cream, junk period....My indulge now is a Cliff KIT bar, RXbar or a Lara bar. Doing the Whole30 also will help you stop the sugar dragon.
  • juggernaut1974
    juggernaut1974 Posts: 6,212 Member
    BethBalcezakDaugherty wrote: »
    I learned that I must delete completely. The saying "can't eat just one", so me!! If I get my mind set that I'm not eating just one (bc I won't eat just one) that I eventually stopped craving .....2.5 years without choc, pizza, cookies, fast food, ice cream, junk period....My indulge now is a Cliff KIT bar, RXbar or a Lara bar. Doing the Whole30 also will help you stop the sugar dragon.

    I'm glad you found something that works for you.

    For me, a life with ZERO chocolate, pizza, cookies, fast food, ice cream or junk...a life where a Clif bar is seen as an indulgence....I guess that's not a life I would ever want to live.
  • Ashtoretet
    Ashtoretet Posts: 378 Member
    Mostly just life getting in the way and mistakes. Some days I'll plan on going to the gym and then something comes up to prevent it. Or like yesterday I'll stupidly transpose the numbers in what I ate and go over 90 calories thinking it was 450 when it was 540 :|
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    juggernaut1974 wrote: »
    BethBalcezakDaugherty wrote: »
    I learned that I must delete completely. The saying "can't eat just one", so me!! If I get my mind set that I'm not eating just one (bc I won't eat just one) that I eventually stopped craving .....2.5 years without choc, pizza, cookies, fast food, ice cream, junk period....My indulge now is a Cliff KIT bar, RXbar or a Lara bar. Doing the Whole30 also will help you stop the sugar dragon.

    I'm glad you found something that works for you.

    For me, a life with ZERO chocolate, pizza, cookies, fast food, ice cream or junk...a life where a Clif bar is seen as an indulgence....I guess that's not a life I would ever want to live.

    x2 why give up what you love just because you hear "it's bad"....if that were the case I would never fly south...might crash, might get sick, might get ...
  • lilyrunner
    lilyrunner Posts: 36 Member
    Yep. I love, love, love red cokes loaded with all the sugar. They are just empty calories no matter how good they taste! I had to give them up completely. I can't drink even one because if I do I want another, and another and so on. Instead I drink coffee, tea, lots and lots of H20! Just start out reducing your intake of sweets, you may not be as addicted to sweets as I was to red cokes. Good Luck
  • ejcanavan
    ejcanavan Posts: 52 Member
    Beer ... problem not solved yet :)
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    lilyrunner wrote: »
    Yep. I love, love, love red cokes loaded with all the sugar. They are just empty calories no matter how good they taste! I had to give them up completely. I can't drink even one because if I do I want another, and another and so on. Instead I drink coffee, tea, lots and lots of H20! Just start out reducing your intake of sweets, you may not be as addicted to sweets as I was to red cokes. Good Luck

    please don't go there...aka addicted to sugar. Lessens what an addiction is and what they actually mean and how hard they are to kick.

    Thx.
  • joshuakcaron
    joshuakcaron Posts: 343 Member
    Jilliankosto wrote: »
    Hi all,

    I have found that the culprit for going over my daily calorie allotment is chocolate and deserts. I can eat healthy low calorie meals (and I enjoy it too) but I always seem to finish the day with some sort of chocolate or dessert and I just cannot seem to kick the habit!! I have about 15 pounds left to lose but I am stalled out and when I look back through my diary I see that I have a lot of chocolate and sweets in there and that is what pushes me over the edge 99% of the time. I have found that if I completely restrict myself I end up overindulging and I wanted to avoid doing that. I have allowed myself to have some but I am doing it everyday and that is hurting my progress. I can't seem to find a happy medium? Do you struggle with a particular food item or category and what did you do to control it? Thanks for sharing!

    I don't know, I don't restrict myself and manage to stay under my calories everyday. Maybe you can still have your chocolates and desserts just cut back on portions? Eat a little less dessert or a little less at each of your meals to make up for the extra calories.

    Another solution is to burn off the extra calories if you really want to have it. 20 minutes of hard cardio would do the trick.
  • esnider211
    esnider211 Posts: 30 Member
    beer and wine. Prelogging everything in the morning helps me decide if I can have a glass or 2, or if it won't fit in my day.
  • joshuakcaron
    joshuakcaron Posts: 343 Member
    Also, maybe find some low calorie deserts with stevia instead of sugar. I can't tell the difference and it's a natural sugar supplement.
  • juggernaut1974
    juggernaut1974 Posts: 6,212 Member
    ejcanavan wrote: »
    Beer ... problem not solved yet :)

    beer_solution_to_all_of_life_problem_tshirt.jpg?height=250&width=250&padToSquare=true
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    joshuakcaron wrote: »
    Also, maybe find some low calorie deserts with stevia instead of sugar. I can't tell the difference and it's a natural sugar supplement.

    It's a substitute for sugar, but I wouldn't call it a "supplement."
  • MsMaeFlowers
    MsMaeFlowers Posts: 261 Member
    Cheese does it for me. I didn't realize how many calories were in the amount I was eating almost every day. I just cut back on the portion size for it and now I can still have my cheese and it doesn't kill a huge portion of my meal calories at lunch time.

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