A bit of a mess right now...

lilMimi24

Hi, i have been at this MFP thing for around 20 days now and suffering some serious issues at the moment. Was hoping for some pointers in the right direction. Over the past year i gained about 30 lbs which i have been trying to loose for about 6 months to no avail. When i started this in ernest it seemed my weight would only go down if i ate beneath the 1200 mark not eating back exercise calories, otherwise i got stuck at 148. However this seemed unsustainable and i "broke" about 3 nights ago succumbing to serious night time eating which has been causing me a great deal of anxiety and has left me bloated and in pain. Over the past 5 days i have gained 5 lbs which i hope is water as even though i have had days of 1800, 2300 and 200 there have been a couple of days in-between where i have done some good exercise and not overdone it on the eating. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions on what i should be eating to loose, especially with regards to stopping waking up and eating at night? I know the general idea is keep in deficit get results but i just get the feeling i am going about this all wrong. My diary is open, please feel free to have a look. Many thanks in advance!

itsbasschick

first, don't worry - unless you ate 17,500 EXTRA calories in 5 days, the extra weight is mostly water plus the extra food you ate has probably not all been excreted yet.

i definitely suggest you eat more protein - i always eat more than MFP's suggestion, as i don't want to lose lean muscle while losing weight. i see you underate on last sunday, which is probably part of why you binged.

you SHOULD be eating back at least part of your exercise calories. the number of calories MFP allocates includes weight loss, so if you don't eat some of your exercise calories, you're going to be very hungry, you're going to burn muscle and chances are good you'll binge.

i eat a bowl of unsweetened cereal (i budget the calories for it) with half to three quarters of a cup of milk and some xylitol right before bed plus a third of a scoop of protein powder. i love cereal and milk, and having it keeps me from getting hungry. i suggest you "save" around 200 calories per day and have something yummy with some protein just before bed. that way you won't wake up starving as your body will have fuel and emotionally you'll have treated yourself so you won't feel deprived.

btw, are you eating foods you REALLY enjoy? i try only to eat my favorites so i'll feel more satisfied.

best of luck to you

lilMimi24

Many thanks, I have stopped panicking a little bit now. Great suggestions, i shall definitely try to incorporate a high protein evening snack which works well with eating what i really like because i LOVE greek yoghurt! Also have some protein powder in my cupboard that i have been a bit scared to try so i will get on it. I do realise what you say about exercise calories, after under eating for several days about a week ago i started to feel weak and noticed the cold a lot more when i was sea swimming but was kind of blindsided because i thought "great I'm loosing weight so it doesn't matter". I love biking, sea swimming, tennis and have recently taken up short 20 minute jogs with the aim to gradually increase the distance so guess i am pretty active. Definitely don't have much muscle there to loose but feel like i could really do with building some more. I just really want to be fit and healthy

taachfitness

I agree with the suggestion above to increase your protein. Reducing your carbs intake would also help with the binging. Carbs give your body fast energy so the more you eat it the more you will crave it. Try cutting back as much as you can and allow your body to learn to use your fat as the primary source of energy and your body will stop asking you for carbs. You will hardly feel hungry.

itsbasschick

that's true for simple carbs aka sugars. it's not generally true of complex carbs, which can actually help you feel sated.

I agree with the suggestion above to increase your protein. Reducing your carbs intake would also help with the binging. Carbs give your body fast energy so the more you eat it the more you will crave it. Try cutting back as much as you can and allow your body to learn to use your fat as the primary source of energy and your body will stop asking you for carbs. You will hardly feel hungry.

pensierobello

Don't panic! Everything will be okay

hearthwood

Keep in mind also that only the super obese can lose weight quickly, or those that are accustomed to eating 4 to 7 thousand calories a day, that are cut back to less than 1500 calories a day. But even they will slow down with the more weight they lose.

At 30 pounds to lose, you're not in that category, meaning it's going to come off slowly. It's taken me about 2 years to take off 25 pounds. I had to be happy with a 1/2 pound loss then a 1/4 pound loss per week. It's been a long haul but now I am just 2 pounds from goal.

So don't get discouraged, just hang in there and you'll be just fine.

Mr_Knight

Open your diary.