Sticking to your calorie goals

sterlingidesigns773

I do great for about idk 9 days out of ten then my tenth day throws me off

I could be losing weight fairly quickly I’m very active but I get the cravings and sometimes the fall down nights lead to me calling off the whole thing this has been going on for years

Any tips I’d love to lose this ten to twenty pounds for good

AnnPT77

I can think of a couple of possibilities that could be in play, based on what you said.

If you're trying to lose weight fast, and the tenth day is basically triggered by hunger or a sense of deprivation, have you tried choosing a slower but more achievable loss rate so you're eating more every day? Sometimes a slow loss rate can get a person to a healthy weight in less calendar time than a more extreme plan that causes bouts of deprivation-triggered over-eating, breaks in the action, or even giving up altogether.

The same thing could happen if calories are OK-ish, not tooooo aggressive, but you're putting foods off limits that you're capable of eating in moderation, so that cravings for those build up and eventually cause a bout of over-consuming them. Many of us have some foods we do need to put off limits for a while, because we can't quite manage to eat them in moderation. However, there may be other foods we can eat in smaller portions or less frequently to better manage our average daily calories, while staving off that sense of deprivation.

I'm also wondering if you might be someone who might benefit from thinking less about daily calories, and more about average calories over a week or two. If that 10th day kind of effect is triggered by social events like restaurant meals or social events, some people find it helpful to eat a small amount under a sensibly moderate weight loss calorie goal most days - not so far under as to trigger a binge - and "bank" those calories for an occasional higher day. (I do that in maintenance.)

There are also people who choose to eat at a deficit on weekdays, then at maintenance calories on the weekend. Obviously, their weight loss will be slower than if they had the same deficit all 7 days, but if the result is steady weight loss that's just a little slower, that can be worth the tradeoff.

Another option some people like but that I describe with some trepidation (because it would be truly terrible for me personally, basically) is 5:2 intermittent fasting. The concept is maintenance calories 5 days a week, and very low calories - like only 500 calories - two days a week, ideally non-consecutive days.

All of those things in the preceding 3 paragraphs are variations on the "follow average calories rather than individual daily calories" ideas. It's our average calories over relatively short time periods - like a week or two - that are going to determine our overall bodyweight trend. Yes, varying intake will create more of a roller-coaster day to day on the scale, but if the multi-week trend is downward, that's still OK. The MFP phone/tablet app has a page where you can see your average daily calories for 7 days.

As a slight tangent from any of that, when you describe a 9 good days, one bad day pattern, then feeling like you've blown it in one day, I wonder if you're over-reacting to what the scale says on the 11th day. When we eat more, scale weight will go up for reasons other than body fat increase. More food intake means more waste in the digestive tract, and that waste has weight that shows up on the scale until it hits the exit. More food intake usually means more carbs and more sodium/salt. Both of those things require extra water retention until they're fully digested/metabolized, and that extra water also has weight that shows up on the scale.

Some people assume that Monday's scale weight is all about fat gain from what they ate on Sunday, or even Saturday plus Sunday. It takes eating roughly 3500 calories over maintenance calories (not just over weight-loss calorie goal) to gain a pound of body fat, or 7700 calories for a kilo of body fat. If you had a 500 calorie deficit on 9 days, you'd need to have eaten 4500 calories over maintenance calories on day 10 in order to wipe out all progress from the 9 days, in fat loss terms. That's not impossible to do, but that's a lot of calories. You'd know. If you didn't eat enough calories to account for that, you didn't wipe out all the progress.

Just a few thoughts.

Best wishes!

Corina1143

Just a thought—those forbidden foods that you just have to have—Why not figure a way to include them?

Just a for instance. Prelog that ice cream, cookie, candy bar, drink, etc. for one day next week. Just one helping. Make a special effort to enjoy Just one serving, slooowwwly. Remember how things are really hard the first time, but get easier as they become habits? Make it a habit.

sterlingidesigns773

thanks for the input I appreciate the long view for calories the not overreacting to the scale and the treat allowance advice !