Calorie counting...

dreamer12151

I'm a big girl. Not as big as some, bigger than others. I'm a "veteran" with the weight loss thing. The time that I was losing, shaping up, looking good was when I was following the Body for Life plan, but it was waaaaay too restrictive for those of us in the real world. A few years ago, I went to Weight Watchers, & again, started losing & looking good. So I thought...Hmm, I can fuse them together, & made my own "plan" - "points" based, not counting calories, per se. Was working for a while. Then they changed the rules at work. I work rotating 12 hour shifts, and we are not allowed to eat at our consoles, only small, non messy snacks - & I don't like carrot sticks and celery! (I'm a picky eater on top of it all...)

So I decided to dust this app off on my phone last week. It tells me I can eat only 1200 calories per day. I'm trying to stick by that...but damn - I'M HUNGRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seems I can do pretty ok during the day with water to help, then at night it creeps up & I end up eating A LOT to shut up the monster inside saying "feed me! we are starving!" and I go over my allotted calories for the day. (by on average 400 - 450) and then feeling guilty. I did a little researching on-line tonight, and I see I should be eating about 1393 calories a day.

So my question is...where should I be?? I need to lose 37 lbs by the end of July - for insurance purposes, I don't have a set date to lose.

and p/s I was going to start running again today, but a massive thunderstorm with tornado watch ripped through our area this afternoon. Tomorrow is another day...tonight it's Pandora, some awesome 80's and dancing in the living room!

Mokey41

You need to be eating over your BMR which I would be surprised if it's really less than 1400. You're hungry because you really are hungry!

ndj1979

I'm a big girl. Not as big as some, bigger than others. I'm a "veteran" with the weight loss thing. The time that I was losing, shaping up, looking good was when I was following the Body for Life plan, but it was waaaaay too restrictive for those of us in the real world. A few years ago, I went to Weight Watchers, & again, started losing & looking good. So I thought...Hmm, I can fuse them together, & made my own "plan" - "points" based, not counting calories, per se. Was working for a while. Then they changed the rules at work. I work rotating 12 hour shifts, and we are not allowed to eat at our consoles, only small, non messy snacks - & I don't like carrot sticks and celery! (I'm a picky eater on top of it all...)

So I decided to dust this app off on my phone last week. It tells me I can eat only 1200 calories per day. I'm trying to stick by that...but damn - I'M HUNGRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seems I can do pretty ok during the day with water to help, then at night it creeps up & I end up eating A LOT to shut up the monster inside saying "feed me! we are starving!" and I go over my allotted calories for the day. (by on average 400 - 450) and then feeling guilty. I did a little researching on-line tonight, and I see I should be eating about 1393 calories a day.

So my question is...where should I be?? I need to lose 37 lbs by the end of July - for insurance purposes, I don't have a set date to lose.

and p/s I was going to start running again today, but a massive thunderstorm with tornado watch ripped through our area this afternoon. Tomorrow is another day...tonight it's Pandora, some awesome 80's and dancing in the living room!

if you are starving then you are probably not eating enough. Bump your calories up to 1300 and see if you feel more satiated. some people do well on 1200 and some people do not. It really depends on your body, and what works best for you. You might want to eat more protein rich foods...

is joining a gym an option?

I would recommend learning compound lifts - bench press, deadlift, over head press, squat, chin up/pull up, etc - and then build a program around those moves where you are hitting arms/legs/back/shoulders about three times a week and then doing cardio two times a week ...

good luck...

dreamer12151

ndj1979, I have thought about joining a gym & would like to, there is one chain that is equal distances from my home in 3 directions and also my parent's house for inclement weather, but my 17 year old son just got his real driver's license last week, so my car insurance went from just over $200/month to almost $700, so extras like a gym will have to wait, I'm afraid!

I just tweaked a few things in my profile & my "goals", it bumped my daily cals up to 1360. Of course, by this time I've already emotionally eaten more, but I'm getting lots of good ideas from other threads here. Here's to hoping tomorrow is a better day!