First Day: Anxiety over calorie counter

This helped me, I actually track my whole day of food in advance including snacks. It takes a little preplanning, but then you have time to adjust if you go over before you eat anything.

This helped me, I actually track my whole day of food in advance including snacks. It takes a little preplanning, but then you have time to adjust if you go over before you eat anything.

this is the best way, i find it a great help.

It is my first day and the number of available calories being subtracted as I imput my meals gives me anxiety. It is mid day and I am mid-way through my available units- I fear they may run out.

Did anyone else feel this way? How do you reframe it?

Friends are what matter here the support people on the site give can be extremely helpful. I'm 65 and had a whole lot of learning and unlearning to take onboard, check out other peoples food and exercise diaries.

Good luck and enjoy the journey I am.

:drinker:

I had to increase my exercise to increase my calorie count. doesn't necesarily mean gym just walking can help.

Check out the excercise section to see the number of calories by exercise

Works both ways, not starving yourself but body feels better all around

Best to you

Pre-plan and log EVERYTHING. When I first started here I weighed and logged everything and was really surprised at how awful my 'diet' was. A few months down the line and I have learnt so much about nutrition that I never knew about before and if you were to compare my food diary from 6 months ago to now you'd see such a change. I'm not only talking calorie wise, it's the quality of the calories I'm consuming that has radically changed and I feel so much better for it. I'm so glad I found MFP because I really do think it has saved me from going back down the ED route.

I used my entire first week as a learning experience and to figure out what things should and shouldn't be on my grocery list.

Week three, and I'm still using my food diary to learn more about myself, such as how much fiber and protein eaten at breakfast and lunch keeps me from eating the entire pantry when I get home from work.

Good luck on your journey...you can do it!

I am with the idea of kind of "pre planning" my day. I was the same was as you initially. I found i would skip meals at the fear of going over. So, I eat & record a healthy breakfast, then I figure an estimated calorie count for my dinner. So then as I go into lunch and snacking at work, I know about how many calories I need to have when I go home for dinner.

Don't worry. I gets easier. You find the foods you like to snack on, and what you like to have that is healthy for breakfast and lunch and find you know the calories on "regular items" without even thinking about the fact that you need to track them. Hang in there!!

I couldn't believe how much I ate during a regular day when I first started logging my food intake. I eat so much crap too, such as chocolate, crisps, sweets, junk food of all sorts. And I realised I was just eating out of boredom!

Learn from what it's telling you about yourself. Why do you eat certain things at certains times and could you get yourself into a routine? I really hope you begin to feel comfortable using MFP and that it works for you eventually, but I'm sure it will take time. Good luck! x

I didn't have anxiety but it did open my eyes as to how many calories I was consuming so quickly. Therefore I exercise so I can have even more calories to use if I need to go over my allowed calories. It also taught me to choose more lower calorie food items.

Welcome!!!!!:flowerforyou:

Great tips - thanks!

for the first week, just log what you eat and see how many calories you are eating and where/when. Once you have an idea then you can make adjustments.

There are lots of websites out there with healthy recipe ideas. I like the 'healthy' section of bbcgoodfood.com and skinnytaste.com is another good one. They will give you an idea of the stats (calories, protein, carbs, fat etc) for each recipe. You can put your recipes into the recipe calculator and that will work it out per portion for you.

You can't immediately be an expert on this - you need to learn it. Start bit by bit by first learning what you eat, and then making adjustments until you hit your goal. Lots of people have open diarys so have a look at what they are eating to stay within their goal.s

Plan ahead what you want to eat, so you can see where your calories are going, and adjust as you need to. Obviously you won't always stick to it, but constantly thinking and planning will help you to stick to your resolve. It also gets you motivated on how to get that yummy meal in that you really really want to cook for dinner, but not sure how. You plan for it.

My downfall is wanting a nice glass of red, so I allow myself to have that at the weekends, and I know I have to leave allowance in my calories for it.. or go for an extra long walk!! lol

i had a lot of anxiety about running out when i first started logging, too. it seemed like i reached the end of my days supply and i was still starving. it was like seeing that i had none left made me want to eat more. it took me about a week to full adjust, but it was worth it. it will get better in time!

the last few days i found what worksfor me. I used to eat 3 meals then eat another meals worth of snacks in one sitting, so i just made my meals into 4 smaller meals and it seems to work now, much more than it had been.if i have 2-3 small snacks a day, i dont feel like i am jippng myself on thing i enjoy, either.. if each meal is around 300 calories or so, i still feel full, especially if i eat many fresh veggies and balance things out. it seems like very few calories, but the fewer processed foods i eat, the longer my count lasts. try eating each mini meal off of small plates- i use like 7in diameter plates and i cut my food into kid-sized bites. if i eat one bite at a time and actually chew, and focus on being mindful about eating, and enjoying it, i dont crave tons of food later on. hope my suggestions help.

feel free to check out my food diary for the last couple of days. Last week was a very strange week because of some emotional anniversaries and such, but these might give you an idea of what i was talking about,.

If you have a big appetite you soon learn the value of exercise calories and how to get more food on your plate for fewer calories.


so very very true!!

When I first started, I just logged what I normally ate everyday without trying to change anything for about 2 weeks. This gave me a good idea about where I was going wrong to begin with. I was eating too few calories a day, but the calories I was eating was high in fat and carbs. I started trying to meet the macronutrients slowly...

Try just changing one thing at a time for now. You will get to know your eating habits and how to best change them to fit your goals. Gaining weight didn't happen over night, so losing it won't either... take it slow, be open to new ideas and challenge yourself every week to change one thing. Eventually, you will get where you are comfortable and where you want to be.

. I got a little nervous too halfway through my day my calories for almost used. Instead of using two hot dogs in two g buns I use 1 hot dog in two buns it saved calories and I got full. I think we just need to become creative