Problems with logging and maintaining calorie intake

aliciaxcore1

I love food and i want to lose weight so badly. But im having a diffcult time staying in my calorie intake. Does any have anytips for staying in calorie intake and dealing with hunger pains/cravings

Panini911

the first step is to set a reasonable rate of loss goal. many people start with too low a calorie goal (wanting to lose too fast) making it hard to stick to.

select food that keeps you full. this will vary by person, we can't tell you what this will be. some find fat more filling, most find a solid about of protein important. I like volume so i eat lots of raw veggies with meals to "fill me up".

what are your stats? height, curent weight, goal weight? what calorie goal are you trying to hit now and how did you come to that number?

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

sefajane1

An easy way to eat more is to exercise. You'll "earn" extra calories. Are you doing any exercise at the moment? If so, are you eating back the calories?
I've just increased my daily calorie allowance to 1300 but I try to do some form of exercise on the days when those calories are just not enough.

meganreid163

I agree with not trying to lose too quickly and adding exercise, but just to warn you sometimes exercise will make you super hungry so just something to keep a eye on!
I struggle with this too but I find it helpful to eat lots of vegetables and lots of protein!!

AnnPT77

Pay attention to what you eat, when you eat, why you eat, and learn from that about how best to keep yourself full and happy.

What you eat: Everyone is satiated by different things. For some it's relatively more protein, for others it's fats, for yet others it's volume (often large amounts of high-fiber veggies), and for some it's carbs (especially complex carbs like baked potatoes or whole grains). It can even be specific foods. Even specific food sensations are important for some people (crunchiness or saltiness or lots of chewing, for example). It's common (though not universal) to find diets with mostly calorie-dense but not nutrient-dense foods to be not very satiating.

When you eat: Timing of eating for best satiation is also very individual. Different people find different timings of meals/snacks, or the timing of the caloric size of them, or timing of the nutrient composition, to be very important. Anything from grazing all day in small servings, to one giant meal daily, and everything in between, is someone's perfect schedule. To find yours, experiment. (Timing of eating with respect to exercise/exertion can also be important, for some.)

Why you eat: Many of us feel appetite/cravings for reasons not directly related to food. Some common things are habit, boredom, stress, lack of sleep, fatigue for other reasons, emotions, social situations, seeing other people eating, and more. If the root problem isn't really food, then the best solution isn't eating. We have to address the underlying triggers.

Your food diary can be a huge help in this. When you have an especially crave-y day, or an unusually satisfied one, look at your diary, and try to find patterns. What circumstances contributed to how you felt? If something(s) makes you crave-y, figure out how to avoid that. If something(s) kept you satisfied, try to do those things more often. Experiment with changes, and evaluate the results. Keep what works, reject what doesn't.

A couple of other things:

1. It's super common to feel hungry if you are too aggressive in picking a weight loss rate or calorie target. It can be easier for some to start by targeting 0.5 pounds/week for a bit, even with quite a bit to lose, just to phase into the process. In any case, unless under close medical supervision, it's potentially risky to lose more than about 1% of your current body weight weekly, and slower than that can be better if more sustainable, and that's especially true if within about 50 pounds of goal weight. Furthermore, over-restricting can backfire, either by binges, or via fatigue (that makes you move less so burn fewer calories in daily life).

2. If you're just starting, it's common to have a couple of weeks adaptation period where you feel more hungry. If you're not over-restricting, you may see this effect. It's still a good plan to look at the what/when/why of satiation, but you may also see improvement just by sticking with it through the difficulty for a couple of weeks, until new habits start to groove in.

Best wishes in finding a solution!

1BlueAurora

Get a $20 food scale, weigh your portions, and log in those calories more accurately. I discovered I was eating way more cheese and nuts than I thought before weighing my portions, so of course I wasn't losing weight! Good luck!

Psychgrrl

I’ll chime in with asking if you changed what you eat. A lot of folks switch to “diet food” thinking they have eat things they don’t like (punishment) to lose weight. The beauty of MFP is that you can eat whatever you want as long as you stay within your calorie goal. Now you may want to change it up to help improve satiety, but you definitely don’t have to subsist on kale and plain chicken greats. Though if that’s your thing, you do you, boo. One of the fun parts can be finding new ways to make old favorites. There’s tons of stuff in Pinterest and Insta.

Cahgetsfit

what @AnnPT77 and @Psychgrrl both said above.

Plus, my 2c (which is pretty much what everyone else up here has said) - set a lower deficit, make sure you are logging everything correctly and using a food scale, and also start to pay attention to what foods keep you fuller than others.

I also agree that you do not need to eat "diet food", but in some cases "diet food" will keep you fuller longer and will allow you more volume. I am a volume eater I need to have a massive plate full of food so that my brain thinks i'm not starving. So I make sure I get lots of vegetables in there because good bang for calorie buck. Potatoes - wonderful!

I personally don't use the MFP "eat back your exercise calories" method, but do eat the calories yes. I use TDEE method which takes exercise into consideration as well. I find it easier for my brain to know that I have x number of calories to eat instead of a fluctuating number that will change daily based on what I did or didn't do.

dippy_duck

I agree with what everyone has said about setting a steady loss rate and setting a reasonable calorie goal that isn’t too low. I also wanted to say that the first week or so is always the hardest as you’re changing your mindset from mindlessly eating what you want to having to set limits. Once you get into the swing of it and find foods that keep you fuller for longer it will become much easier! Personally I like to have a huge dinner so I save loads of calories for that meal and have small lunches and breakfasts. I also exercise to earn more for an after dinner treat. This works for me, but you have to find what works for you :-)
Good luck!