One reason why I continually fail

donna4378

is that the calories I need to lose weight is about 1400 - that's to lose a lb or so a week (a little less actually) 1400 calories comes up FAST. When I eat a healthy breakfast, lunch and dinner -- and being careful about what I eat - I can do it -- but if I add in a healthy snack or a small dessert (sweet tooth!) then I'm a few hundred over.

the witching hours for me are like between 2 - 5 and then again after dinner. Any suggestions to avoid cravings. I mean, I'm not HUNGRY usually. I get frustrated because I'll grab an apple at 4 if I'm hungry, for example - and then I'm over my calorie count for the day. To fix it I'd have to eat less for the dinner that I've planned, shopped for and am preparing. This annoys me and I'm like, "oh forget it" and I sabotage myself -- end up eating MORE than that dang apple - like binge eat.

I typically exercise a lot -- mostly so I can enjoy my food more - lol Pathetic, I know. But as I'm getting older I'm finding my metabolism is slowing down a lot and the exercise isn't having as great of an effect as it used to.

Looking for any suggestions about how to organize my day for food better, suggestions on not binge eating, any snacks or meals that are lower in calories but filling, etc. any suggestions basically.

Oh - and to make it more annoying - I'm gluten and lactose free -so a lot of the grab and go foods I can't grab. If you aren't GF or LF you might not realize that these foods tend to be higher in calories (like same size soy yogurt is 170 calories vs a milk based one - you can get these for 100 calories)

MelaniaTrump

I try to get a little protein and fiber in the mornings. A handful of almonds? Fiber cereal? Oatmeal?
How much protein are you getting per day? And are you spreading it out? Open your diary?

madhatter2013

So what you're saying is, you take in an extra 80 ish calories around 4 pm just before dinner and you let that sabotage your whole day? I can't even fathom that. I mean, I sabotage my day sometimes but it's with chocolate and cake so it's a major sabotage. An extra 80 calories on top of your well planned day is nothing compared to how bad you could binge. You're making a mountain out of a mole hill. Eat your apple, along with everything else you planned and prepared, and don't let the apple bring down the rest of your day.

kristen6350

Cold Hard Truth? You are still accepting excuses. Until you drop the excuses, you'll never make it. Meeting that 1400 calorie limit and not going over and getting in regular exercise HAS to become more important than it is.

For some people to make this work, you have to be planned and avoid pitfalls. Make it a habit to experiment and find items that do work in your dietary restrictions that you can grab. Plan your meals a few days out and stick to it.

Normally, I stink at being "precise" with my food and exercise. I'd rather just grab what I'm hungry for. But if I do that, by the end of the day I'm WAY over maintainance. So, when it's important to me to keep my weight down (within my 5lb maintainance range) I HAVE to plan and stick to the plan. The moment I say "oh, that donut (etc) won't matter", my day or week is done.

I agree with you that your dietary restrictions make it harder, but anything is possible when you want it bad enough.

Advice: Prelog. Find those things that make it easy to keep to a calorie defiecent. Take time to read labels when you go to the grocery store. Take notes on how that food affects your hunger (more protein and more fat will keep you satisifed longer).

No one is good at this when they first start. Really sit down and think about how to do this better for you. Take the time - you are worth it. Soon, I promise it will come easier.

middlehaitch

You could lower your goal to .5 lb a week that would give you more calories.

If you aren't using a food scale to weigh your food, try,you could be over or under your calorie goal.

If you are not eating back a portion,50-75%, of the calories burnt through exercise you are short changing yourself. MFP has accounted for your loss without exercise. There is a greater chance of failure if you aren't adequately nourishing your body.

Review your diary and see which foods are more filling for you. If you like volume adding a salad with lunch and dinner is a low cal way of filling you up.
If protein is more satisfying keep pre- cooked chicken on hand.

Each of us are so individual in out food choices it takes a while to find what keeps us satisfied.

Cheers, h.

kcn2bluesky

While I was losing my extra weight, I was around 1400 calories as well in order to lose .5 pound per week. I'm 5'8" and 52 years old. It's definitely doable! You just need to analyze what works and what doesn't, adjust your plan, then stick to it!

When I started on MFP I quickly discovered that having some protein at each meal really helped hold me over until the next meal. For snacks, I might have a quest bar or an apple with a cheddar cheese stick. Also, pre-log your day! By pre-logging, you see exactly what your day looks like and what you need to stick to. If you do go over, which WILL happen, log it and move on and don't let it ruin your entire day. It's also ok to be hungry sometimes. The new day brings a fresh set of calories for you to eat

Good luck to you!

GBrady43068

middlehaitch wrote: »

You could lower your goal to .5 lb a week that would give you more calories.

As Middlehaitch hints at, the goal is what you can stick to long-term. If you're always hungry and having a horrible time sticking to a pound/week loss, is it better long range to keep banging away at it, getting more and more disgusted at the restrictions until you decide it's "not worth it" or to say "You know what, I'll be happier on 1600 cals/day even if it takes an extra 6 months to lose the weight".

If you are not eating back a portion,50-75%, of the calories burnt through exercise you are short changing yourself. MFP has accounted for your loss without exercise. There is a greater chance of failure if you aren't adequately nourishing your body.

Yep you should be eating back some of the calories. I look at exercise as "deposits" in my calorie bank from which I can make "withdrawals" later when I eat. I go with a figure of 66.6% for what I eat back.

There's also a third option to try and achieve more calories to work with and perhaps keep the loss goal the same: A lot of the folks doing "heavy lifts" say they actually ADD calories to promote the muscle growth and they still lose weight...but that's not part of my personal program currently so I'll let someone actually doing that make that pitch.

allbandrelatednamesaretaken

For me eating comfortably, but minding my weight loss, i will log at the end of the day and come out at 1000 - 1200, leaving me some room if i get hungry later (always lmao) or want to indulge somewhere in the week. But for you, i think it's better to just log beforehand and allow yourself 1200 calories in meals, so you can have some space for a snack or dessert. But if you're always hungry or struggling, give it more time so you can adjust, or just adjust your caloric goal and lose slower.

Nachise

"If you are not eating back a portion,50-75%, of the calories burnt through exercise you are short changing yourself. MFP has accounted for your loss without exercise. There is a greater chance of failure if you aren't adequately nourishing your body."

This is total hooey. I sabotaged myself into a two year plateau thinking I was entitled to eat back my calories. My nutritionist and I had a long talk about this, and he challenged me by setting my daily allowance back 100 calories a day, without eating back any calories. Voila! the pounds started coming off again.

If you stick to the basics, you never have to go back to them.

1. Log everything.
2. Weigh and measure your portions.
3. Take it for granted that your elliptical, treadmill, or other exercise equipment that provides a calorie count is vastly overestimating the actual count. Trim it down to about 50 or 60% to be realistic.
4. Don't give up.

greaseswabber

All good advice above. Pre logging, higher fat and protein snacks (nuts, deli meat slices, peanut butter on celery are all things I eat), and being ok with going a little over your goal sometimes.

You are set to lose 1 lb a week. That means you have a 500 calorie per day deficit. Think of your "weight loss journey" as an actual journey. If you wanted to travel 35,000 miles, and could drive up to 500 miles per day, would you turn around and start again because you only made it 420 miles? Of course not, you're 420 miles closer to your goal than you were yesterday.

But every time you give up after going over your calorie goal, this is exactly what you are doing. Even if you go over by 80 calories because you had an apple, you are still at a 420 calorie deficit for the day. You are still 420 calories closer to you goal.

Nachise

I can understand being lactose intolerant. I am. Yogurt with live cultures is a great calcium and protein source for me. Unless you have celiac disease, or have been ordered by a doctor to go GF, reconsider that decision. You are depriving yourself of a valuable fiber and vitamin source by going GF, and sabotaging yourself with prepackaged foods that have a lot of added sugar and sodium. Unless you can go about this option in a well informed and intelligent manner, such as learning how to select and prepare a healthy GF diet, utilizing alternative grain choices, etc., don't. I have a brother who has celiac disease, and he hates his gluten free life. He feels very limited, and will not take advice on how to broaden his options. He would kill for a slice of bread, but it would probably kill him first.

try2again

I feel like I could have written this post, except for the gluten & lactose free part. I usually have excellent, healthy breakfast & lunch but the day can start to fall apart around 2 or 3. I have a sweet tooth too, and it's almost always sweets that undo me. It frustrates me that eating so much less than I used to (even if I'm over sometimes) and exercising regularly doesn't seem to be enough to get the job done these days. At any rate, every poster has had excellent suggestions, but I think for me it comes down to what kristen6350 said- we have to want the weight loss more than the immediate satisfaction of a treat or a binge. I've been at this a while now and have enjoyed so many good results, but when I started I felt so bad physically and things HAD to change. Now I feel better and have lost some urgency. I've started making some excuses. Whether we're new at this or have been at it a while, we can't do that. You have no idea how much better your life will be if you can just shed 20 lbs (assuming you have a fair amount to lose)! It is so worth it! I agree you can get some more specific suggestions if you are comfortable opening your diary. Whatever you do, don't give up

try2again

greaseswabber wrote: »

All good advice above. Pre logging, higher fat and protein snacks (nuts, deli meat slices, peanut butter on celery are all things I eat), and being ok with going a little over your goal sometimes.

You are set to lose 1 lb a week. That means you have a 500 calorie per day deficit. Think of your "weight loss journey" as an actual journey. If you wanted to travel 35,000 miles, and could drive up to 500 miles per day, would you turn around and start again because you only made it 420 miles? Of course not, you're 420 miles closer to your goal than you were yesterday.

But every time you give up after going over your calorie goal, this is exactly what you are doing. Even if you go over by 80 calories because you had an apple, you are still at a 420 calorie deficit for the day. You are still 420 calories closer to you goal.

Love this illustration!

sherbear702

"Healthy" doesn't always equal low calorie. Re-evaluate what you eat for breakfast and lunch.

Try to spread your calories out throughout the day. Light breakfast, mid morning snack, light lunch, mid afternoon snack, small portions for dinner.

Or, break your breakfast in half. For example today I'm having coffee with fat free half and half, a banana and a homemade egg mcmuffin. I'm having the banana and coffee at 7 and the egg muffin at 9. That usually holds me over until lunch time.

IDK, just some thoughts.

middlehaitch

@Nachise It may have been hooey for you personally, but it is the way MFP is set up to work.
Does not your .3 say the same as what I said but with different percentages to eat back.

If donna4378 is eating only 1400 cal a day and not eating back exercise calories there is a good chance she will burn out through lack of adequate nutrition to feed both daily activity and exercise.

Exercising on low calories can quite often lead one to be too tired to enjoy ones normal lifestyle. This leads to a lower NEAT expenditure and negates some of the calorie burn through exercise. It also compromises exercise performance, again leading to a lower calorie burn than expected.

Weighing and measuring ones food, taking note of exercise expenditure vs weight loss and extrapolating ones calorie burn through exercise is a simple way of checking where one needs to make adjustments.

It is well known that the calorie burn MFP gives is, for most people, high. That is why starting with a 50-75% feed back to start with, and adjusting as needed, is recommended.
Machines at the gym are not accurate, as you stated, and HRM/step counting devices take time to learn the owners expenditure. It is up to the individual to monitor their CICO.

That it took 2 years for you to figure out you needed to make personal adjustments does not negate MFP's methodology.

Cheers, h. .

kshama2001

@donna4378 would you please change your Diary Sharing settings to Public? http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

@try2again - try eating more protein in relationship to carbs and see if that fills you up better. I changed the MFP default macros to 40/30/30 and stay fuller longer eating that way. If I'm planning a new meal that does not revolve around animal protein, I prelog, check the macros, and tweak as needed.

Your breakfast from yesterday would make a great bedtime snack for me, but would not keep me full for long as a breakfast due to the low amount of protein. Your lunch was also low in protein in relationship to carbs.

kcn2bluesky

greaseswabber wrote: »

All good advice above. Pre logging, higher fat and protein snacks (nuts, deli meat slices, peanut butter on celery are all things I eat), and being ok with going a little over your goal sometimes.

You are set to lose 1 lb a week. That means you have a 500 calorie per day deficit. Think of your "weight loss journey" as an actual journey. If you wanted to travel 35,000 miles, and could drive up to 500 miles per day, would you turn around and start again because you only made it 420 miles? Of course not, you're 420 miles closer to your goal than you were yesterday.

But every time you give up after going over your calorie goal, this is exactly what you are doing. Even if you go over by 80 calories because you had an apple, you are still at a 420 calorie deficit for the day. You are still 420 calories closer to you goal.

Great illustration! Thank you for posting this!

cwolfman13

pre-log your days so your days are planned out...stick to the plan.

Lounmoun

If you have less than 20 lbs to lose (your profile says 10) then set your goal to .5 lb a week. Eat some of your calories earned from exercise.
Log as accurately as you can. If you have not been weighing and measuring what you consume you might try that.
Pre-logging my whole day helps me. I plan a snack or two in the afternoon or evening. I eat a smaller breakfast.
Try to get enough protein, fats and fiber to help you feel satisfied. Most vegetables are pretty low calorie. Add more of these kinds of foods to your day.
Look at your calories for the whole week instead of just one day.
Be patient.

robingmurphy

There's some great advice here. I agree that ultimately, you have to stop accepting excuses. (And trust me, I know whereof I speak - I am the queen of excuses). One additional tip that helps me - when you are having a craving, but it's not time to eat your planned meal, try chewing sugarless gum or drinking unsweetened tea.