Extremely tight schedule, HELP!

GreenIceFloes

Okay, let me start by saying this is not an excuse... I work my a** off everyday. I am too tired to do anything but have dinner and fall asleep at the end of the day.

I work a 54-hour week (9 hours x 6 days), and spend 5 hours commuting everyday - not driving, but getting pushed around in the subway (and I live in a country where the subway is so packed that there is literally no room for you to breathe properly, takes some effort lol).

This is my typical day:

6:30 am - wake up, morning rituals, get dressed
7:15 am - leave for work
9:45 am - reach work; have unsweetened coffee, some fruit, brown bread etc. for breakfast (approx 200-300 cals)
1 pm - have lunch (approx 500-600 cals)
5 pm - have unsweetened coffee and a snack (usually an apple or a banana, or leftovers from lunch - approx 100-150 cals)
7 pm - leave the office
9:30 pm - reach home; heat dinner
10 pm - have dinner (approx 500-600 cals)
11 pm - wash dishes, cook for the next day, do laundry, shower etc.
12:30 am - pass out from exhaustion

My diet is fine - I seldom exceed 1600 calories a day, and never go below 1200, and eat healthy food. I never feel hungry or overly full, and my energy levels are high during the day. I don't indulge in fried and fatty foods except lunch on Sundays, and even then i don't exceed 2000 calories for the whole day.

I have a desk job for the most part, but I do need to walk around a lot, coordinating between departments and so forth - overall, I'd say it is somewhere between sedentary and lightly active.

I cannot afford a gym membership, so I used to work out at home before I started this job (3 months ago) and the results were pretty good. But ever since I stopped exercising, my weight-loss stopped, and I gained a couple of kilos, as expected.

I only get time to exercise on Sundays, but my waistline says that's not good enough. I get 6-6.5 hours of sleep each night, so I doubt getting up early to exercise is going to do my body much good since I'm going to be sleep-deprived, and that's never a good thing.

I'm sorry for the long post, but please, please, any suggestions would be appreciated. I'm all out of ideas, and I need to get to a healthy weight, which is still 15 kgs (33 lbs) away.

Help

candiceh3

Wow, that's a tough one. Any chance you can get a job closer to home, or move closer to work?

It seems your lifestyle is not too friendly for health

MichelleLaree13

Look for a different job closer to home
Buy ankle weights and just wear them at work
Exercise on your lunch break (do squats while you eat your sandwich)
Take a nap on the subway

gigglesinthesun

since you can't burn the extra calories, due to time restraints, that you are taking in above your maintenance (otherwise you wouldn't gain weight), in order to lose weight you need to cut them. Log accurately every day and eat a little less then you are now.

annekka

Is it possible to go for a walk during your lunch break or other breaks? You day sounds awful, I just couldn't deal with it if I were you.

Diet_Soda

Get a treadmill desk? Your schedule looks exhausting!

Vex3521

I'm in your boat, with 4ish hours of sleep 5 nights a week due to schedule. I also work graveyard so that "backwards" day to night cycle can throw me into a loop. Basically, I'm forcing myself to do my exercise dvds at home. I like the workouts and find them fun (albeit hard) so I just have to start them and push through to the end. Admittedly I WILL pause to go rotate wash and resume as soon as I'm back in the house, but, have to multi-task so there we have it.

At work... I jog in place at my desk or do some form of exercise at least once and hour. I have a pull up bar in my office door also. We don't have a great many stairs here but I use them as much as I can. Walking on my breaks is hard due to the fact it's pitch black out!!! So I'm just doing what jog/walk intervals I can at the desk. Hope some of this helps!

It's not easy being low on time. I "catch up" sleep on weekends and have tried to shift major chores to then to compensate but it's a tough go with a packed schedule.. I totally sympathize and wish you luck!

tokyoshorty

I also work 6 days a week, but don't have as long of a commute as you. My personal suggestion is to see if it might be possible for you to walk the distance of one extra station on your train route. I live in Japan, so the subway stations are about 4-5 minutes apart. If you walk even that extra ten minutes both ways, you're not overly taxing yourself, but you are burning a few extra calories. If that is easy, you could increase it to two stations, etc. (Either close to your home or getting off a couple stations before work).

I also second the ankle weights idea, and cutting calories down to at least 1500 max. I work as a kindergarten teacher, but even being that active, if I eat over 1200 calories a day without exercising, I won't lose weight. Also make sure you are drinking enough water!

I wish the best of luck to you!

pinkraynedropjacki

Have you thought about doing 5:2 or even 4:3? Do a fast Monday & Thursday only having 500 cals. Then eat at maintain level for the other 5 days. Seems like it would be perfect for you.

miss_glamorous

Maybe on your way home, you could run from the underground station to your house, or get off a stop early and walk?

GreenIceFloes

Thanks a lot for your help, guys.

I could try the ankle weights, seems like a good idea. I could also take out 15 minutes for exercise during the lunch break, or doing leg exercises under my desk for that matter. Walking home from the station is also something I could do, should take a good 45-50 minutes; I'd need a big dose of will power for that though.

I can't change jobs because the condition of employment is very bad, I feel privileged just to have a job haha. And sleeping on the subway is out of the question because there is never any room to sit. Also there is no concept of treadmill desks here, just tiny cubicles crammed with more people they can handle.

Fasting sounds like a great idea - I'll try going down to 1000-1200 cals/day for Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and consuming no more than 500 on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. I just hope it does not sap too much energy out of me. Sundays I would like to keep the same as now

My BMR is around 1600, so I think I will lose around 0.5 to 1 kg per week if I do all this. Hopefully I'll see some results.

pinkraynedropjacki

Thanks a lot for your help, guys.

I could try the ankle weights, seems like a good idea. I could also take out 15 minutes for exercise during the lunch break, or doing leg exercises under my desk for that matter. Walking home from the station is also something I could do, should take a good 45-50 minutes; I'd need a big dose of will power for that though.

I can't change jobs because the condition of employment is very bad, I feel privileged just to have a job haha. And sleeping on the subway is out of the question because there is never any room to sit. Also there is no concept of treadmill desks here, just tiny cubicles crammed with more people they can handle.

Fasting sounds like a great idea - I'll try going down to 1000-1200 cals/day for Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and consuming no more than 500 on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. I just hope it does not sap too much energy out of me. Sundays I would like to keep the same as now

My BMR is around 1600, so I think I will lose around 0.5 to 1 kg per week if I do all this. Hopefully I'll see some results.

Fasting eat at maintain calories not reduced calories. Fasting wont sap any energy out of you, in fact you will be more than surprised at how much more energy you end up with. I run 10km easier on a fasting day than a normal day & I eat nothing on my fasting days. I set my normal days at 2000 cals.

AmyZ46

My goodness that's a very terrible tight schedule . do you liva alone? can someone else cook dinner and clean up ?
exercising at work is pretty much your only option at this point . You have some pretty good suggestions here. Ilike the idea of leaving the train early but that too staels precious time from you .

I hope you can figure this out . Good luck .

ksmithnh

Sounds like you have some great ideas already - trying to fit in some activity during the day or getting of the subway a stop earlier, but the one thing I would add is not to discount the importance of sleep when you're trying to lose weight. Even one night a week under 6-7 hours can really mess with your metabolism and blood sugar. Good luck!!

mfleeg

are you able to take two fifteen minute breaks a day? most companies allow that.... and then take the time to go take a brisk walk?

Vex3521

hope you're doing well. we just had some major schedule changes dropped on us that I'm having difficulty handling. hope 21 days makes a habit and I can survive

BenjaminMFP88

That's a tough one. I could suggest two things. Most weightloss comes from caloric intake, so evaluate your diet, and ensure your counting your calories accurately. To add to that, ensure your eating the appropriate calorie value. To double check this, when you have time, enter your stats on a IIFYM calculator and it will tell you what your BMR/TDEE is. This will guide you into how much you should be eating (FYI, this will need to be adjusted for every few lbs you lose). If you are gaining a few lbs of body fat, then it means you are eating at a caloric surpluss.

Apart from that, you could do little things, like a few squats/push-ups/crunches here and there etc. Maybe take the stairs a few times or something. Don't lose sleep just to exercise, this never ends well and isn't worth the few calories lost.

TavistockToad

Fasting sounds like a great idea - I'll try going down to 1000-1200 cals/day for Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and consuming no more than 500 on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. I just hope it does not sap too much energy out of me. Sundays I would like to keep the same as now

you are misunderstanding... if you do 5:2 then you eat maintenance 5 days and 500 cals the other 2... dont cut your cals to 1000 and then have lower days as well that wont help you in the long run at all.

GreenIceFloes

My bad! I'll keep that in mind, thanks.

GreenIceFloes

My bad! I'll keep that in mind, thanks.

Mr_Knight

If I understand this correctly, you are not currently eating at a caloric deficit, and are looking for ways to add exercise to create that deficit? Is that about right?

GreenIceFloes

If I understand this correctly, you are not currently eating at a caloric deficit, and are looking for ways to add exercise to create that deficit? Is that about right?

Kinda, yes. I eat at something like an average of a 200-300 calorie deficit a day. I'd like to get the rest from exercise. But I don't see that happening, so I'm going to try out the fasting technique from Monday. I've increased my exercise too, but I know that alone isn't going to make much of a difference.

Skarlet13

Is it possible for you to move to be closer to work?

neandermagnon

I work 3 part time jobs (which require driving here there n everywhere) + I have kids and I'm the only one in the family currently able to drive so i have to do all the household errands, I'm probably not quite as busy as you, but it does make it harder when you have to do so much other stuff!!

Don't be afraid to break your workouts down into smaller chunks, e.g. instead of a 30 min workout, you can do 10 mins 3x a day. I do lifting so my current plan is squats in the am, then deads/OHP or bench/rows in the afternoon or evening (broken into 3 if necessary). And my cardio is stair running, not planned, just I live in a 1st floor (USA 2nd floor) apartment with no lift, and one of my jobs I work on the 2nd and 3rd floor (USA 3rd and 4th floor) in a building with no lift so I'm forever running up and down stairs. You said you travel by public transport so maybe get off a stop earlier and walk or run the rest of the way to work/home (if that's possible) or if you work in a building with stairs, take the stairs instead of the lift. Or always use the bathroom on the floor above or something.

regarding food, you have to be really ultra mega organised, which I'm not a lot of the time, but days when I organise my food better are days when I eat better. Having high protein low carb low snacks on hand helps (I eat balanced macros, but protein is the hardest one to get enough of, hence high protein snacks). Also, high protein meals that are quick and easy to prepare. Protein powder, frozen fruit and a blender are useful (protein powder + fruit smoothie = protein, carbs, micronutrients meal in a couple of minutes). Stuff like that.