sticking to calorie goal

LittleMama2015

I struggle with staying under or at my calorie goal. What do you guys do to stay within that goal? any tips or advice?

broox80

What is your current goal??

LittleMama2015

MFP has me set at 1320. I know I have to get my diet under control if I plan on losing any weight.

concordancia

We can give more specific advice if you open your diet.

The general advice is that proteins and fiber are more filling than sugar or starches.

LittleMama2015

I have a sedentary desk job and im on the road a lot. Right now I am struggling to break away from the convenience of fast food even though I know its sabotaging my efforts. Was fast food ever an issue for you guys? how did you break away from that?

bobkat80

Before I was on MFP I rarely cooked at home and ordered out a lot. Now I cook almost every day, and the more I cook my own food the worse the fast food tastes to me. When I travel I try to look up nutritional info before I eat out so I can plan my meals. I also try to carry snacks with me and I tend to fall back on Subway if I don't get a chance to cook before work because a sub is filling and it gets me through the night.

So I guess the key is to plan ahead. The more you do it the easier it will become.

daw0518

In the past I've failed because I wasn't ready or willing to give up my super high calorie habits. There's nothing wrong with eating anything, as long as it's in moderation, but everyone has those foods that trigger a binge - for me, those things were nutella, potato chips, & ice cream. I could sit down with any one of those things & eat the entire container. So now I try to avoid them altogether so I'm not tempted. Identify the things that are your downfall and try to address them. Try to cut out foods that you know you can't control yourself with, or find ways to eat them in moderation.

One of my biggest issues in the past has been friends asking me to go out for drinks or to eat - I just can't say no! I still struggle with that, but I do it less often now - maybe once every week or two, rather than several times a week. In terms of fast food, I'm not really sure how I broke away from it. Nowadays when I'm out shopping & think '*insert fast food place* sounds really good right now... I think I'll stop & get some on the way home', I just force myself to drive home. For me, once I'm home I'm not likely to leave again. So as long as I make it home, I'm safe.

I would strongly suggest taking food with you to work. I'm a grad student in class most of the day, so I feel you on the 'sedentary' lifestyle. If I don't take my own food with me I almost ALWAYS end up going to a fast food place on campus to eat, but when I have snacks or a sandwich from home, I am able to say no to getting food on campus 95% of the time.

Just keep trying new things until you find something that works for you. It took me forever to realize I'm a happily consistent & boring eater - I literally eat the same thing or some variation of the same things every single day. This has worked great for me because once I found foods/meals that I loved & that fit into my calorie goal, I knew I could succeed everyday because I eat the same things daily.

jayjay12345654321

I do the same thing with my calories that I do with my alarm clock. I set it wrong. My clock is 5 minutes ahead because I know I'm going to hit snooze when it goes off, and I don't want to get up late, so I set it fast.

I set my calories lower than they are supposed to be because I know I am going to go over when I try to hit my goal, so I reduce my goal and focus on meeting but not exceeding my macros. By the time I close out for the day, I've gone a little over on some things, like when I'm under on protein, so I eat something else, but now I'm over on carbs. It balances out to where my "overage" is actually right where I wanted it to be in the first place. I just know myself. I'll run over the goal no matter what it is, and I'll hit that snooze button no matter what time the clock is set at.

I trick myself. :laugh:

MelodyandBarbells

I had a problem with fast food that has actually mostly resolved itself in the past few months. The issue wasn't the one item I was craving, it was going there looking at the whole menu and getting two more items in addition. The calories add up on that pretty fast. Step one is to log it all. The gravy the dipping sauces, the fries, all of it. When I realized the chicken strips, for example, were really all I wanted, I started paying more attention to my allrecipes.com app. Found chicken strips and ate those for dinner every night till you couldn't pay me to eat them, fast food OR home made :laugh: I've made pizzas at home as well for dinner until it's just any other meal, and if I want it, I like my homemade version better. I found the recipes, or really, basic instructions, on a thread here. I found a mug coffee cake recipe on allrecipes.com that I've been making, and suddenly I'm not craving blizzards as much.

So for me, the key is making the stuff I want at home. I can control the serving size by making just the amount I want to eat and am comfortable logging, without having to deal with being tempted with additional items I don't really want. Some days will still be a splurge, but when you get that down to once a week or once every two weeks, the caloric damage done can be minimized

1320 calories per day may be a bit low, though. What are your stats?

kareit

Fast food used to be a big issue for me. When I was at my last job, I would pass a Jack In The Box everyday on my way home from work, and too often I couldn't resist (grrr, now I'm thinking about chicken strips, curly fries, buttermilk sauce & an Oreo shake!). Anyhow... I went in so often, multiple cashiers knew my order. And I was so embarrassed by how much I ate there that I started eating at Jacks, so my family wouldn't see no one would see me bringing Jack In the Box home for dinner 3-4 times/week.

Fast forward -- Planning ahead and eating home-cooked meals is definitely what has been working for me lately. I try to work up a meal plan once a week or so, which also helps with grocery shopping. Then I take 1-2 days/week where I prep & cook as much as I can in advance so that it's as easy as possible to get myself fed & food for work packed everyday. Once I have healthy (or at least healthier) food made & ready to go -- that I've spent time & money on -- giving into fast food or other temptations is a lot less likely.

(Oh, and I weigh the food and check it against MFP as I'm cooking & packing it, so I can get the portions right based on my daily calorie allowance.)

It also helps that: 1, I have been walking/riding the bus to & from work lately, so it's not as convenient for me to get to fast food. 2, Money has been tight recently, so splurging on eating out (even fast food) isn't always reasonable, especially if I've already spent money grocery shopping -- can't afford to let that go to waste.

kareit

Oh, one more tip for meal plan/prep. Enter the food you prep into MFP ahead of time. For instance, yesterday morning I prepped lunch, dinner & snacks for Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday -- and I entered everything into MFP for all 3 days all at once. So I knew right away where I stood for the next few days with calories & macros. Then I could see where I have some flexibility to change up breakfast & some snack options.

Sometimes it's a simple & silly as thinking to myself "well, it's already logged on MFP, so I have to stick to it!".

Also, have a few standby recipes/foods that you like, and foods/recipes you repeat often, and get to know their numbers. It makes it easy to look at your food log for the day and easily/quickly know what you can add/subtract to hit your daily calorie goal.

HTH!