Can't eat the right amount of calories

iWaffle

And if she is hypoglycemic, IF is probably the worst way she should eat.

That's probably true but I was just assuming since there were no stated physical issues that it was just a normal insulin crash response or a mental state of using food to kill boredom. If you get cranky and really shaky after the first few days then you could have a bigger underlying issue which is why I said to just try it out for a week or two. If it doesn't work then by all means don't stick with it. I just found that IF really makes it difficult to overeat if you're limiting yourself to healthy foods. Thought that it might help.

funkycamper

And if she is hypoglycemic, IF is probably the worst way she should eat.

That's probably true but I was just assuming since there were no stated physical issues that it was just a normal insulin crash response or a mental state of using food to kill boredom. If you get cranky and really shaky after the first few days then you could have a bigger underlying issue which is why I said to just try it out for a week or two. If it doesn't work then by all means don't stick with it. I just found that IF really makes it difficult to overeat if you're limiting yourself to healthy foods. Thought that it might help.

Of course! And she might not be hypoglycemic. But, gosh, her eating behavior sounds so much like mine prior to diagnosis and learning to eat right for it that I hope she is still reading this thread and at least gets checked out.

rileysowner

Without seeing your food diary it is pretty much impossible to give advice. Also what is your weight loss goal per week. Anything more than 1 pound per week is likely too much. Search for "in place of a road map 2"

valorieflowers

I would recommend to adjust your macros for more protein. I also have a very hearty appetite and when I switched to doing 40-30-30 which made me eat a lot more protein, (I never used to eat close to 30 percent protein) I found my appetite was very suppressed/satisfied. I Now am eating 35% protein and I can easily keep between like 1500-1700 calories a day without feeling hungry. And I am 5'10", not a light eater.

geekyjock76

Like someone else said - you are living on the extremes of eating too much on some days but, on others, eating way too little while doing way too much exercise which increases the size of the deficit. That's why you are having issues with portion control. You simply do not have much weight to lose so you should not be engaging in a huge deficit.

This is what you say:
-you do an hour on the elliptical or jog for 90 minutes; some days you work out for 2 hours.
-you do light weights.
-some days you eat 1200 calories in a row, followed by 1 if not 2 days at 3000 calories.

Find out what your actual maintenance calorie range is where you do not gain nor lose weight aside from daily, normal fluctuations due to water, glycogen and TOM. With less than 20 lbs to lose, you should be looking at no more than a 1 lb a week of weight loss - when you get below 15 lbs to lose, you should drop it to 0.5 lbs per week since you lose less true fat the leaner you get.

Take your maintenance calories and deduct 20% from that to establish your total deficit. Your deficit should primarily come from eating less, for instance 350 calories below maintenance range. You can then burn another 150 calories from exercise, preferably moderately heavy weight training, not light. The more cardio you do on that elliptical, the more lean body mass you'll lose. The heavy weight training, along with adequate protein intake, will help preserve lean body mass while on a deficit. If your maintenance is 2000, then you can eat 1650 calories and lift weights to burn 150 calories to satisfy the 500 calorie deficit.