eating calorie goals-dilemma

phanthiam

today I brought my pedometer/calorie count watch with me to work. My job entails mostly standing and walking. Today I worked a 5 hour shift. according to my pedometer, I burned 1000 calories. On top of that I walked an hour to work, and burned 366 calories. Ive been seeing a lot on here about the importance of eating your exercise calories...especially if you don't have a lot of weight to lose, making it harder to lose the weight. I only have about 25lbs to lose. Here's my dilemma...I eat breakfast, and then I go to work. When I work a 5 hour shift, i only get two 10-minute breaks. so i don't have time to eat a full lunch. just two small snacks. When i get off of work, its already almost dinnertime....and im supposed to eat almost 2,000 more calories. I just can't eat that by the end of the day, especially since it is almost the end of the day, and i should be eating less than earlier in the day. How do people here deal with this problem at work when meals aren't an option? Any suggestions as to how i can get those calories up throughout the day?

Hermit4Hire

If you entered your daily lifestyle as "active" this website calculates in those 1000 or so calories that you burn in your regular day when figuring out your goals, etc. (i.e., it's already running you at a deficit based on regular daily activity)

Therefore, you don't need to count those as "exercise" or "additional" calories and shouldn't eat them back.

melodyg

What are you usually eating during the day? Can you add some calorie dense snacks in like nuts or a peanut butter sandwich? If you eat before you leave, eat a small snack right when you get to work and some snacks during the day, and then a meal after you get home I would think you would be okay. I would also keep in mind that you are not burning 1350+ calories by working because you would have been burning some of those just sitting around. If you work every day, I would just set your baseline to "lightly active" or "moderately active", whichever seems to apply, and then not count the time at work as exercise calories. Whether or not you count the walk to and from work is up to you.

amymeenieminymo

Don't count your calories burned while your at work, work that into your activity level such as moderately or lightly active. If you have always walked to work, don't count that either, but if you just started that then I would count it.

phanthiam

Thanks everyone! perhaps I need to change my activity level. when i first started here, I was barely active. walking to work is a new addition, so i will have to count that. i wasn't sure about counting the work calories, but sometimes I have to work pretty quickly, and there is no sitting down. also, i noticed on my watch that when i stop walking it doesn't count calories. only when i am walking. thats why i counted them. Perhaps i should invest in some more dense snacks. usually i only have time to eat like an apple and a salad roll that we sell at work. my second break i only have time to eat a yogurt. other than the salad rolls, i try not to eat anything else from my work since its the food that got me here in the first place. maybe some steamed dumplings when i know that i need more calories, but no more than 3.