Over calorie limit. What do I eat?
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You basically need to try volumetrics. Since you are used to eating larger portions you need to start off by eating large portions of low calorie-high nutrient foods (veggies, fruit, whole grains) so you can fill up without adding pounds.
Try starting off your day with an apple and peanut/almond butter, cheese or almonds. A smoothie also works well to keep you full. Oatmeal packets have sugar but are portion controlled, quick and easy. Look for the high fiber variety to keep you full even longer. Also adding a piece of fruit, berries, or nut butter would help fill you up in the morning. I also like to use low carb tortillas, fat free refried beans and turkey bacon to pre make breakfast tacos to keep ready to go in the fridge.
For lunch or dinner try a large garden salad loaded with veggies, grilled salmon, chicken or shrimp. Don't skip the dressing because the fat in the oil will help your body absorb the nutrients in those veggies, just make sure to limit your portions by asking for dressing on the side. Also any lean protein with a side of veggies is always a great choice. I also like to have what I call snacks for dinner, I'll have some hummus and veggies, a few small slices of cheese, and olives. High protein greek yogurt is always a winner. Chobani and many other brands have dessert like flavors, my favorite is the chobani bite in the raspberry dark chocolate flavor.
I eat about 1500 calories a day and drink lots of water with chia seeds mixed in. The are great for keeping you full and hydrated. Please feel free to look at my diary.
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Im assuming your over your WEEKLY goal by a thousand? if so pull out the veggies and miracle noodles.....exercise more...cant see your diary...but I gave up refined sugar and most bad carbs 5-7 years ago....I do low carb substitutes now that don't ever cause me to binge...u never hear someone say im going to go binge on turnip fries or cauliflower pizza crust! LOL....find alternatives....also track in a journal when you have cravings and what happened prior to the craving....you can usually sense a pattern....then try to avoid that in the future..ie go for a walk, call a friend, drink water....etc...think of you food intake like a bank account...you have to deposit a certain amount, but spend it wisely....0
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your diary isnt open. but here are my suggestions. eat every three hours. eat proteins. when you eat protein it keeps you feeling full and should stop you from wanting to go crazy! i also agree you are probably restricting too much so you want to binge. i repeat.. eat every three hours. even if you aren't hungry. because your body thinks you are gonna starve it.. so if you keep feeding it your metabolism will be burning and your brain will stop with all the crazy mixed signals. good luck.0
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If you crave more food at night, eat less during the day and have your biggest meal at night.
That was easy.0 -
What do I eat? I am over my calorie iimit by 1058. That's based on a 1840 callorie goal. I think I need help cause I keep binging on sugar and carbs. The worst cravings are at late evening which I realize is the worst time to eat. keep getting on track then off track. I can't seem to stay consistent with my eating habits. Any advice? Please look at my food diary and make some suggestions. I really need to know what to eat and at what times. And also what I can do toinimize the sweet cravings.
Thank you
Amanda
What you are describing sounds like a carb addiction. Many people will claim there is no such thing, but there really is. The processed carbs turn quickly into sugar in your body, spiking your insulin levels, then you have the crash and need more sugar to stay on that sugar high. You have to find a way to break that cycle.
You can do it cold turkey, by simply cutting out all processed sugars, grains, and starches for a few days. You might have headaches and feel like crap for 2 days until it gets out of your system, but after 48 hrs, you should feel better and the cravings will mostly be gone. After a week, start adding back in 1-2 servings of fruit, and then slowly add in some whole grains if you like.
Some people prefer to wean off the sugar more slowly. If you can moderate yourself, this is the less painful way to do it,but it does take longer. Planning and logging is the key. If you normally have 400g of carbs per day, then try sticking to 300g for a week, then lower to 200g, etc.
Eating more protein and healthy fats WILL keep you fuller and feeling better.
If you don't mind artificial sweeteners, they can be great to get your sweet fix in without the actual sugar. Atkins makes some great bars that take care of my sweet tooth. The ones with the whole nuts in them are the best. Hazelnut, coconut almond crunch, peanut roll, caramel nut roll, are all really good.
I also use sugar free coffee syrups in my coffee, and a late night sugar craving can be fixed with a cup of decaf with a shot of pumpkin Pie spice and caramel Torani syrups. A tsp of light cool whip on top is only 5 cals.
But the first thing you MUST do, is get your mind in the game and commit fully to making a lifestyle change. You have to get past the mindset of restricting cals for a few days til you get hungry and tired of depriving yourself, saying screw it, then eating everything in the pantry.
We have ALL been there at some point in our life. It is a vicious cycle that will only lead to more weight gain.
When you commit to finding out what you can do consistently, and decide that whatever it takes, you will make it happen. THEN it will happen.
You can do this. There are too many people on here who have proven that it can be done. You just have to be consistent and patient.0 -
Well, since you have only logged ONE day of food but you signed up a while ago I am guessing you are just starting back to MFP. Great first step!
I will urge you not to get all freaked out about going over your calories for a while. The first while here should be just getting used to logging food again so that you can look back and see what you need to work on. From your diary for the one day I would suggest making small changes to start with - don't try to cut out everything all at once or you will just be miserable and binge.
From the one day I will give a couple of ideas for you.. If you eat like this regularly I will suggest to you to start adding more protein. Cravings for 'sweet' things many times points to a low protein intake - which is quite obvious from your diary of 2800 calories you got only 176 (1g = 4 calories) from protein. That's crazy low. I would suggest instead of banana bread etc for breakfast you have eggs or oatmeal (NOT packets, just plain) or Greek yogurt with fruit (I have all 3 LOL)
Also, your refined sugar is insanely high - most of it from drinks. If I were you I would honestly start there. Cut back on the Mt. Dew and Slurpees - that will save you 600 calories right off the top. If you can't live without it start small. Switch to 'diet' and have a small Slurpee instead of 32 oz one. Start drinking water, keep a bottle with you and keep sipping on it all day.
It's not easy to get back on track when you have been gone for a while but if you just start small and work up to it you will find that you can stick to it much better than if you just try to change everything all at once. Send me an invite if you are committed to making the changes you need to make and I'll do my best to help you out.
Welcome back
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Thank you for all the great advice. I realize now that I needed to open my diary. It is now open. Just to clarity, my calorie intake was 2840 for yesterday. I think someone was unclear on that.
I was walking every morning for a month. Ive been able to maintain my weight pretty good this summer because im verry active and into sports. Then I got sick and stopped excersizing for only 5 Days and gained over 5 pounds. I guess I need to do more workon the diet part. I always ate lots of sugar and carbs even as a kid. I was able to maintain a very thin figure up until I had my first child. That slowed me down a lot!
Also. I take Ritalin during the day for my ADHD which supresses my appetite during the day. I wonder if I should be eating more durring the day. I just don't know what to eat when I go to grab something. Maybe ill need to keep charting and play with my diet. See if I can get the evenings under control. This diary entry is me just eating on a normal day without paying attention to what foods I'm eating.0 -
Might want to consider having more protein. It keeps you full longer.0
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I went to your diary and it only had one day filled in. Perhaps this was day one of your diet?
Here are my suggestions to help reduce your calories:
For breakfast you had banana bread and cranberry walnut bread. You could have just had the banana bread and added some yogurt or fruit.
Lunch, well three packets of oatmeal seems like a lot. I usually have one packet of regular unsweetened oatmeal but I add fresh fruit to it. The oatmeal was already sweetened so there was no need to add 4 tsp of brown sugar to it. You really need to cut out the mountain dew and swap it for water. Even if you had a crystal light single to the water would be better. So try one packet of oatmeal with blueberries or strawberries, mini carrots or cucumber, any veggies you enjoy. Some almonds or laughing cow cheese...think healthy.
Dinner....oh where do I start about your dinner. A Slurpee?? I assume you're trying to lose weight? DON'T DRINK YOUR CALORIES! Water water water! Kentucky fried chicken is so high in sodium. They offer the skinless bbq chicken now. But if you are going to choose to eat a piece with the skin then you need to compensate by giving up something else. Instead of the mac and cheese you could have had a side salad. And say no to the brownie. And one biscuit would have been enough.
Losing weight doesn't mean giving up everything you love, but it does mean finding a balance in life. You can't eat everything you love in one day. You may have to adjust breakfast and lunch to make room to have KFC. You're trying to develop a lifestyle that you can follow for the rest of your life, so start looking for healthy alternatives to the things you enjoy. Take the time to look at other peoples food diaries to give you some food ideas.
And as for the carb and sugar cravings, I found when I reduced the processed foods and kept my carbs to one or two servings a day and only had sugar in the form of fruit that after a week I wanted them less and less.
I hope this was helpful.0 -
During September I only saw that you logged only one day. The suggestions that I have are don't drink you calories. On the day you logged you drank 641 calories. Try making your own oatmeal instead of packaged oatmeal. I cook mine in no sugar added apple juice with some type of fresh fruit or raisins. Make small changes and they will add up. But to know your real habits you MUST log everyday and then you can see where your problems might be, or why you are not losing, or why you might be gaining.0
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This diary entry is me just eating on a normal day without paying attention to what foods I'm eating.
This right here is the key to your future. If you wish to make changes to your body and your lifestyle, you will need to pay attention to what you eat. Yesterday was a good wakeup call for you. I took a peek at your day and agreed with previous poster about cutting out the sugary drinks. I too love my sodas, but I drink diet pepsi, so no calories. Granted it is still not healthy, but I'm not sabotaging my diet while trying to decrease my consumption of them.
If you can do it, I would just avoid convenience stores altogether for a while. Pay for your gas at the pump. You will avoid a potential pitfall by not setting foot in the store.
Also, if you eat fast food on a regular basis, try to do more cooking at home. You could have had a large grilled chicken breast, baked potato with butter, peas and a banana for a third of the calories of your dinner. You can still have dessert if you want, a homemade brownie has half the calories of your convenience store brownie.
I'd suggest looking at the diaries of people who have posted their success stories for ideas of what other people eat. Start with cooking at home: more chicken, fish, lean red meats (like steak, not hamburger). If you do eat out, ask for a nutrition guide before you order and look for something that fits within your calorie budget. If there is no guide, carefully watch your portions and remember that most of what you are eating will have been made in the most fattening way possible, because it generally tastes better (ie. real butter, whole milk, lots of oils, cheeses that are not made with reduced fat milk, etc.)
As for your cravings, can I suggest trying to eat a large bowl of a healthy cereal in the morning and get your carb craving taken care of then? I too craved lots of junk at night and found that eating a big bowl of Cheerios in the morning and eliminating most of my breads and crackers the rest of the day helped control my cravings at night.
Hoping that today is starting off better for you! Good luck and welcome to mfp!0 -
I just saw your one day of tracking and I can see why you overate. There's so many carbs in one day. I don't know where to begin. I can see how you ate all those calories. Like others said, don't drink your calories. A better breakfast would have been a piece of toast, an egg, and a fruit. Even better veggies mixed into the egg. That would have kept you feeling more full longer than the two pieces of bread. Instead of 3 packets of oatmeal, how about a real lunch? A salad, or soup, or something with a protein and veggies. As for KFC, that's not exactly the place you want to go for a healthy dinner. I can't stomach that anymore. It makes me feel so physically bad now.
Like others said, it's a lifestyle choice that you need to make. Even when I'm not tracking I still prefer to eat the same way as I do while tracking.
How did you feel after eating it all? I can't imagine you feeling full of energy. I know that I would feel bloated, tired and anxious (Mountain Dew).
Your body is the only body that you have. If you fed it the best foods available you would feel so much better. I know because I've been there. I used to eat a lot of carbs and wonder why I felt hungry all the time and tired.
My favorite thing to do is to go to like skinnytaste.com or cookinglight.com and find recipes that look yummy, pin them to my pinterest board and try them. It's amazing how many new dishes you can try and find out you love that's good for you.0 -
Thank you for all the great advice. I realize now that I needed to open my diary. It is now open. Just to clarity, my calorie intake was 2840 for yesterday. I think someone was unclear on that.
I was walking every morning for a month. Ive been able to maintain my weight pretty good this summer because im verry active and into sports. Then I got sick and stopped excersizing for only 5 Days and gained over 5 pounds. I guess I need to do more workon the diet part. I always ate lots of sugar and carbs even as a kid. I was able to maintain a very thin figure up until I had my first child. That slowed me down a lot!
Also. I take Ritalin during the day for my ADHD which supresses my appetite during the day. I wonder if I should be eating more durring the day. I just don't know what to eat when I go to grab something. Maybe ill need to keep charting and play with my diet. See if I can get the evenings under control. This diary entry is me just eating on a normal day without paying attention to what foods I'm eating.
You're already eating too much. Why would you eat more when you don't even feel hungry?
If you're not hungry during the day, don't eat during the day. Have a small breakfast than a huge dinner.0 -
I went to your diary and it only had one day filled in. Perhaps this was day one of your diet?
Here are my suggestions to help reduce your calories:
For breakfast you had banana bread and cranberry walnut bread. You could have just had the banana bread and added some yogurt or fruit.
Lunch, well three packets of oatmeal seems like a lot. I usually have one packet of regular unsweetened oatmeal but I add fresh fruit to it. The oatmeal was already sweetened so there was no need to add 4 tsp of brown sugar to it. You really need to cut out the mountain dew and swap it for water. Even if you had a crystal light single to the water would be better. So try one packet of oatmeal with blueberries or strawberries, mini carrots or cucumber, any veggies you enjoy. Some almonds or laughing cow cheese...think healthy.
Dinner....oh where do I start about your dinner. A Slurpee?? I assume you're trying to lose weight? DON'T DRINK YOUR CALORIES! Water water water! Kentucky fried chicken is so high in sodium. They offer the skinless bbq chicken now. But if you are going to choose to eat a piece with the skin then you need to compensate by giving up something else. Instead of the mac and cheese you could have had a side salad. And say no to the brownie. And one biscuit would have been enough.
Losing weight doesn't mean giving up everything you love, but it does mean finding a balance in life. You can't eat everything you love in one day. You may have to adjust breakfast and lunch to make room to have KFC. You're trying to develop a lifestyle that you can follow for the rest of your life, so start looking for healthy alternatives to the things you enjoy. Take the time to look at other peoples food diaries to give you some food ideas.
And as for the carb and sugar cravings, I found when I reduced the processed foods and kept my carbs to one or two servings a day and only had sugar in the form of fruit that after a week I wanted them less and less.
I hope this was helpful.
THIS!
As several others have said, don't drink calories. They don't fill you up and the sugar crash is going to make you want to eat too soon later. The slurpies have to go unless you are treating them as a treat...and then realize one drink is an entire meal of calories. I also saw you drank juice this morning. Skip juice....eat the fruit instead and drink water. Too many juices have sugar added that again just eats into your allowance for the day.
If you must eat out, then you need to start only getting grilled and watch the carbs in the buns. Avoid if you can or only use half the bun. Any kind of bread will need to be in moderation. Those biscuits you had were 180 calories each. Two of them were 20% of your calories for the day. I have to be very careful with any kind of biscuits/muffins. Better off eating the veggies instead.
NOT potatoes, unless in moderation. The starch/carbs eat up too much of your allowance for the day.
Plan your meals in advance to the extent you can. While you don't have to eliminate carbs, you need to make conscious decisions on what you are going to eat. Log in before you eat it so you see what it does for the rest of the day. Also weigh your food whenever possible so you see how much you are eating.
One of the posters mentioned something about how you felt after eating all that. I agree as I've been there and I know the awful bloated feeling and all it did was make me tired and not want to move. Speaking from my own experience, I ate like this because I ate FAST. If this is you, slow down and take your time. When I first started, I found if I worked out a bit before I ate (elliptical or walking were my primary exercises) I wasn't as hungry when done. I set out what I would eat on my plate in advance, logged it and stopped when it was gone. Until I got myself under control, my kids said I was the family garbage disposal so we didn't have to worry about leftovers.
One meal at a time. A day at a time. As mentioned before, this is a lifestyle change. I can eat anything I want....but I have to stay close to my calories for the day. Once I realized that the carbs didn't go far enough, it made it a lot easier to focus on the protein and veggies. For me the battle wasn't with my stomach.....it was with my brain.0 -
You remind me so much of myself. I would eat terrible and wonder why I'm not loosing weight . U know fried chicken and slurpees are not good for u. U descide!!!0
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Thank you all for the advise. I think that looking at some other journals is a good idea. I'm defiantly going to do that. Again tonight my cravings are so bad. I don't understand how I'm good all day and then have these crazy cravings in the evening. I'm like grinding my teeth trying not to give into my rumbling tummy. Whats going to help this? Doing good with the journaling today. I'm trying to decide what to grab now. Craving chocolaye. Like Krave cerial, brownies, cookies, yummmm! I did outmeal for supper so I totally have a lot of carbs alredy. Maybe ill try some like raman noodles or rice. I'm definatly not turned on to the thought of any fruits orveggies right now. Plus I got some ectra cals in the bank. Woohoo!0
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pudding cups make me happy. whether it's a 60-70 calorie sugar free one or 100-110 not sugar free one. YUMMY!!!0
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Frozen yogurt in a tube. (GoGurt is the go to at my house because my 7 year old likes it.) I put the whole box in the freezer when I bring it home. He puts it in the lunch box and it's thawed but still cold at lunch. I eat it at night when I just need something sweet. It's only 90 calories, but it's very satisfying.
during the day, just cut back on the things you like. 1 biscuit instead of two. skinless grilled chicken instead of fried. (Easier said than done, I know. There is a KFC near my house and sometimes just the smell is enough to make me feel like I'm starving.)
Someone mentioned eating Kind bars - those and Luna bars are my go - to "sweets" during the day. skip the soda altogether - replace it with flavored water. My diary is open, take a look. Today was a fairly typical day for me. So was yesterday. I eat lots of salad and lots of fruit with peanut or sun butter. I eat 1/2 servings of the butters, though, they pack a high calorie punch for the whole thing.0 -
OP.. protein and fats are your friend. Love them, eat more of them and you won't have to worry so much about satiety.0
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Thank you all for the advise. I think that looking at some other journals is a good idea. I'm defiantly going to do that. Again tonight my cravings are so bad. I don't understand how I'm good all day and then have these crazy cravings in the evening. I'm like grinding my teeth trying not to give into my rumbling tummy. Whats going to help this? Doing good with the journaling today. I'm trying to decide what to grab now. Craving chocolaye. Like Krave cerial, brownies, cookies, yummmm! I did outmeal for supper so I totally have a lot of carbs alredy. Maybe ill try some like raman noodles or rice. I'm definatly not turned on to the thought of any fruits orveggies right now. Plus I got some ectra cals in the bank. Woohoo!
It's not easy at first and yes there's gonna be cravings for the first week or so. There's no trick, it's just about will power. You know fried chicken, a slurpie and brownie aren't good for so why are surprised you went over your a calories?0
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