Any tips on losing weight with a jam packed busy schedule with out starving?

Asuperstar12

I've been super busy with full time work and going to school for nursing and having a hard time with losing weight. What is the secret to losing weight (making your stomach smaller) eating less without starving yourself? Is it just snacking on healthy things throughout the day?

JaydedMiss

I just eat more at night when i work alot. Maybe try cooking on weekends so you have freezer meals? Or simplify it like me i eat alot of tofu burgers and frozen veggies. Easy and fast to make some things if you ever get a few minutes. The "secret" is eat at your calories. Could eat all fast food and if it fit in your calories your fine.

cmriverside

Whatever works for you and allows you to (or facilitates) staying under your calorie goal for weight loss.


Snacking drives me nuts. I have to feel full when I eat. I eat two largish meals a day. Sometimes I'll have dessert if I have the calories to spare. I spend maybe an hour total on those two meals.

jayjsee

Eating right (not less) is the biggest key to losing weight the right way. You have to make sure you're getting all the key nutrients throughout the day, including good fats (like nuts, avocado for example)...

kbmnurse

Smaller meals. Preparation is key. Cut up veggies and make some meals when time allows. Skinny taste.com great recipes.

_Justinian_

I think the word "starving" should be banned from being used in any first world country. Anyhoo...

You need to burn more calories than you consume. That's it. There's no secret. How you want to achieve that is up to you.

cchhiipp22

Do you mean you're concerned that your busy schedule doesn't allow you the time to go to the gym? Because with MFP you don't have to do anything but log your meals and stick to the allotted calories to lose weight. Doesn't really take "extra" time out of your day, except the few minutes it takes to log your meals.

livingleanlivingclean

If you're busy, pre planning and prepping meals to fit your goals helps - I eat less meals for a few reasons:

-bigger meals keeps me feeling more satisfied than lots of little meals.
-I try to eat without being in a rush to get food in. I don't have a lot of opportunity during the day to do this so eating less frequently is easier.
-less to prep and carry around.

Having meals prepped makes me less likely to be in a position of being hungry with nothing to eat and limited options (limited usually equals high calorie foods that would take up too much of my allowance and not worth it!)

I happily eat the same thing every day during the week just to make life easier. Weekends are more flexible because I have more time to plan and cook!

rosebarnalice

My strategy is shopping strategically and packing on-the-go meals and snacks. I keep all sorts of crudite veggies and salad makings on hand; stock up on tuna, single serving cheese and nuts, and spend some weekend time hard boiling eggs and making stews or casseroles that microwave well.

A nice insulated lunch bag, and I'm good to go!

yayamom3

One of the most important strategies for me is Sunday meal prep. Preparing large quantities of healthy foods I like and then packing them in individual servings sets me up for success all week. I can just grab and go all week and not have to worry about those moments where I'm so ravenously hungry that I stuff anything and everything in my mouth. The time I spend meal prepping on Sundays is 100% worth it.

tlflag1620

Intermittent fasting works for me. I eat my food (two largish meals and one moderate sized snack) in a window (for me it's noon til 8 pm, but you can do whatever 8 or even 10 hour window works for you). I'm not much of a breakfast person to begin with, and I don't know what sadist came up with the whole 6 small meals a day thing, but I'm the type of person that needs to feel full when I do eat, otherwise I'm constantly wanting to graze. So IF works perfectly for me. I thnk it's really great when you're busy too - not having to worry about planning and prepping endless small meals and snacks frees up a lot of time.

I couple this approach with a LCHF diet to control my blood sugar (no carb rush means no crash either), keep me feeling full (fat and protein keep me sated much better than fiber ever did), and keep me focused on nutrient dense foods. My hunger is well controlled, I don't have to constantly think about food, and it's no longer an emergency when I do feel hungry (I suffer reactive hypoglycemia when I eat higher carb foods, so getting off the rollercoaster was especially helpful for me).

jaxonzhole

I eat a big filling breakfast and Always have a large snack selection with me. In my car, purse, gym bag. I keep nuts, protein powder packs, tuna packs, power bars, fruit, popcorn snacks etc. The variety helps me w my macros too. I'm very busy and always on the go. This just helps me stay satisfied so I can make a good choice on my larger meals.

Asuperstar12

cchhiipp22 wrote: »

Do you mean you're concerned that your busy schedule doesn't allow you the time to go to the gym? Because with MFP you don't have to do anything but log your meals and stick to the allotted calories to lose weight. Doesn't really take "extra" time out of your day, except the few minutes it takes to log your meals.

its also the problem of not having time to prep meals. (or eat sometimes)

__TMac__

I know it feels overwhelming to start, but it can be pretty simple.

1. Log what you eat into the MFP food diary. It takes just a few minutes a day.
2. When you hit your total allowed calories, stop eating.
3. In the evening, re-evaluate the choices you made all day if you were hungry or otherwise unsatisfied. Consider finding a way to exercise if you want to earn more calories.
4. Do it again the next day.

Good luck!

Asuperstar12

rosebarnalice wrote: »

My strategy is shopping strategically and packing on-the-go meals and snacks. I keep all sorts of crudite veggies and salad makings on hand; stock up on tuna, single serving cheese and nuts, and spend some weekend time hard boiling eggs and making stews or casseroles that microwave well.

A nice insulated lunch bag, and I'm good to go!

my mom used to do this too.

Asuperstar12

so far snacking and using nutrisystem and slim fast i've been eating less and getting full more often and trying to stay within my calories.

Debmal77

Get a food scale. Weigh everything you eat. Stay in a calorie deficit.

Abby2205

I have a long commute, don't allow myself any extra time to prep and convenience foods are my staples for breakfast and lunch:
Instant oatmeal and whole grain Cream of Wheat-just boil water. I eat unsweetened without sugar or milk. High fiber, Cream of wheat is high in iron
Cheese portions-21 grams a piece, 80-90 calories.
Presliced deli meats.
85 g tins of tuna, packed in oil is tasty.
Fruit-comes ready to eat in convenient hand held servings.
Bags of washed baby spinach. I eat it over 3 days. Dump some in a bowl, put the tuna on top, sometimes I buy a bag of pumpkin seeds and throw a tablespoon in there.
Leftovers-if I'm making the effort of cooking dinner, it doesn't take longer to make a bigger batch and eat the rest for lunch the next couple of days.

cebreisch

It's all about finding a schedule that works for you. When I was working - and taking the kids to the sitter next door - I'd get up around 6am, take the kids over to the sitter, head off to work (and run an errand or two if there was time). When I got to work, I'd have yogurt, and a couple pieces of string cheese. At 10am, I'd have a protein/fiber bar. I'd have lunch around noon or so. Around 2-3, I'd have another protein bar, and possibly some protein/fiber water. Then dinner around 5 and a snack in the evening.

Every snack/meal had to have protein in it because it takes longest for the body to process. The protein/fiber bars helped get in the 25 g of fiber/day and both of those would help stave off the hunger.

WallyAmadeus

Eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, no sooner than every 4 hours no later than every 5 hours. Eat protein at eat meal. Have a mid-afternoon snack if there is a long wait between lunch and dinner of protein/fiber. I"m for "real" food: string cheese/apple, e.g., for a snack.

Weekend meal prep is key. A simple crockpot and some research on google and you get find a lot of healthy recipes you can make on the weekend and then refrigerate for 2 to 3 days. Do a mid-week crock pot session again, and you have enough meals to last the rest of the week.

Invest in some Pyrex bowls. You can cook, freeze and microwave in them (the glass ones....not anything plastic.)

For me, a big lesson is: Keep it simple, do it yourself, plan ahead.

WallyAmadeus

Also, I used to think I was time starved, then I install a google chrome app called Time on Facebook. I was easily spending 90 minutes a day on Facebook. Toss in an hour or two of nightly Netflix with Dh, and I'm spending 3 hours a day easily on screen driven entertainment. This is just me, your numbers may differ, but now that I limit my screen time to one hour a day, I find myself with far more time, I'm far less frazzled, and life just seems easier.

trigden1991

Consume less calories than you burn in a day.

Machka9

I work full-time and attend university part-time, working toward my Master's degree. Plus I'm an active member of a cycling club (currently planning and organising 10 events) as well as training to ride the events.

Happily, eating and food can become background noise. I know what to eat and when, and I know it will come in under the required calories. So I don't have to worry about it! It's like a weight has been lifted. I can focus my attention on all the other things I do and don't have to think about the food aspect of my day at all ... except on grocery shopping day. I do have to make sure I'm stocked up on my food, but that's about an hour out of my week.

Machka9

_Justinian_ wrote: »

I think the word "starving" should be banned from being used in any first world country. Anyhoo...

You need to burn more calories than you consume. That's it. There's no secret. How you want to achieve that is up to you.

+1

I might feel hungry sometimes, and "I'm starving!" enters my head ... but I just tell myself, "No you're not! You're getting enough calories just like you have been every day for the last couple years. You're nowhere near starving."

slefko

You could always look and see if there are any healthy meal prep companies in your area. I work two jobs, and at the end of summer I had some pretty bad personal issues going on, and between stress and work I just couldn't find time to take care of myself. Its more expensive than just meal prepping myself, but it was such a huge weight off my shoulders, not having to worry about what I was going to eat or when I was going to find time to prep.

ritzvin

batch cooking/food prep. I always have single portion containers of meals in the freezer, containers in the fridge with wax-paper-wrapped portions of egg salad/tuna salad/chicken salad/salmon salad, another container of cooked arepas, a carton of hard boiled eggs, a bagged supply of Clif bars, a pile of single portion containers of yogurt along with a pile of small containers of jam to go with the yogurt. On any given morning/after a run/before dancing, all I have to do is grab some combination of ready-portioned items. On most days, I leave in the morning and go from work to a run to dancing, getting back home around 11pm at night.

ahoy_m8

2 words: slow cooker. Batch cooking while you sleep (or work).