Confused, do I count yesterday's calories at 3AM?
whisperwhitley
Posts: 61
Hello, I'm a new member but not new to weight loss/calorie maintenance. I would love some insight into a problem I'm having though. Yesterday I ate 1300 calories, went to work ( I work retail for 7 hours) and didn't have time for dinner. I am always moving for those 7 hours. Walking, stocking, bagging, lifting. I don't even get a chance to sit. By the time I got home I was so tired I fell asleep. BUT woke up two hours later at 3 am STARVING. I tried to ignore my hunger..but finally got up and ate a piece of wheat toast and a banana. My question is..do I add those calories to yesterday's since I only slept 2 hours? or did I burn enough calories yesterday that the banana and toast didn't effect me badly?
Also I decided not to worry so much and ate a lot of protein and veggies today so I don't wake up again starving. I ate my chicken and veggies at 5 pm and feel wonderfully full still. I guess I ate less today than usual, but only because I'm scared I should of added today's calories on to yesterday's calories. Do I make sense? please ease my worries! I'm going crazy
Also I decided not to worry so much and ate a lot of protein and veggies today so I don't wake up again starving. I ate my chicken and veggies at 5 pm and feel wonderfully full still. I guess I ate less today than usual, but only because I'm scared I should of added today's calories on to yesterday's calories. Do I make sense? please ease my worries! I'm going crazy
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I do this a lot because of my schedule. You can choose an hour to call the start of the day, which is probably what most people do. But for me it seems most helpful to split the calories between both days. That might sound crazy to some folks, but it does help me decide how to hit my calorie goal from day to day.0
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I don't worry about one day as long as my week looks good. Last Tuesday I under ate by 500 (late aqua aerobics class) and Wednesday I went over by about 300 because I was famished from the day before. I still had a 3500 calorie deficit for the week.0
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I would definitely log it, but whether it's under yesterday or today is up to you. Logging only works if you're relatively accurate.0
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Should I add today's calories onto yesterday's then? if yes then I have had 2264 calories..not good!0
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Either way. Yesterday or today - just log it. You're body doesn't keep a perfect 24 hour clock - so no need to stress.0
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Your body doesn't care which day you log it in, so why should you? Seriously, this is a total complete and utter non-issue. It's your long term average that matters. Unless you're doing a diet that relies on strategic nutrient timing you can eat and log whenever it suits you.
no worries.0 -
Doesn't matter if you log it for today or yesterday. Try to start thinking in terms of weekly averages.
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Personally I consider midnight the cut off... if I eat anything before midnight it goes on that day, if it is after midnight it goes on the next day.
Either way though whierd is right, doesn't really matter, think in terms of weekly averages.0 -
OP, you lost 130lbs?
awesome!
I usually consider bedtime the cutoff, but it's purely arbitrary...I have to log it somewhere. But you either eat the cals or you don't, your body cares not about what day it is logged under.0 -
If I was to eat at 3am then I'd call it the start of my new day but I am more focused on the weeks calories Friday to Thursday, weighing every Friday. Doing 5:2 keeps it simple though so I really don't sweat it. This past week my calories were 2377, 2099, 1674, 1673, 538, 1653 and 717. Didn't stick religiously to the 500 days, ate 10,731 calories over the week (average of 1,533 calories per day), burnt 1027 exercising (so average of 1386 calories after taking exercise into account). Normally I eat between 1600 - 1700 calories a day with 500-600 on fast days but I lost 2lb this week so it's all good.
Just do what works for you and don't sweat it. :flowerforyou:0 -
Thank you dbroerse, yes I lost 130 pounds in a little over 2 years, and have been at 125-130 pounds for over 3 years. I'm a bit obsessive about my health now!
I never thought of adding my week's calories, I just always added day by day. Normally I eat 1300-1500 calories a day, I haven't been trying to lose weight in awhile I'm just trying to maintain my weight. And to maintain fitnesspal says I need 1700 calories. So I have been counting right. Just last night really messed me up! I never ever eat in the middle of the night but it couldn't be helped, I was feeling sick. I am trying not to beat myself up though. If I have to count the last two days together and have had over 2000 calories..then I must live with it and move on. I'm not happy about it but I cant do anything about it now.0 -
Whisper my dear, I promise you:
IT DOES NOT MATTER.
Throw away any and all stress about this. What day the calories belong under doesn't matter. Really. There's nothing to be confused about, nothing you have to live with and move on from, there's nothing to feel bad about, there's nothing to regret.
Whether you a] came home and ate then slept or b] came home and slept then ate it makes NO DIFFERENCE.
If a] you might have equal calories both days
If b] you might be "under" yesterday and then "over" today. But the "over" is cancelled out by the "under". The net effect is the same as a].
The reality is that whenever we eat we are in a surplus (for the moment) and storing calories as fat/glycogen/maybe even muscle and whenever we burn we are in a deficit and using stored calories as fuel. Your body is switching back and forth ALL THE TIME. It's the long term average that matters. Are you storing MORE than you're burning ON AVERAGE? (Fat gain) or less? (Fat loss)
Like I said it's a non issue, not worth a single further minute of your attention.
really.
so congrats on maintaining your inspiring loss and carry on the great job you're doing.
:flowerforyou:0 -
Thank you dbroerse, yes I lost 130 pounds in a little over 2 years, and have been at 125-130 pounds for over 3 years. I'm a bit obsessive about my health now!
I never thought of adding my week's calories, I just always added day by day. Normally I eat 1300-1500 calories a day, I haven't been trying to lose weight in awhile I'm just trying to maintain my weight. And to maintain fitnesspal says I need 1700 calories. So I have been counting right. Just last night really messed me up! I never ever eat in the middle of the night but it couldn't be helped, I was feeling sick. I am trying not to beat myself up though. If I have to count the last two days together and have had over 2000 calories..then I must live with it and move on. I'm not happy about it but I cant do anything about it now.
Why are you talking about counting the last two days "together"? Put what you are today on today's log, then pick either today or yesterday and put the 3am snack on that. Heck, split it up and put the banana on yesterday and the toast on today if it makes you feel better. Your body doesn't care, it doesn't have some sort of magic reset switch. Your progress will not be affected differently if you log it under 10/17 or 10/18, I promise.0 -
Anything before midnight goes on today, anything after midnight goes on the next day.
Look at it this way, a piece of wheat bread is what, 70-100 calories, depending on the bread? A medium-sized banana is about 100 calories. If you used 1 tablespoon of butter/margarine on the toast, it's about 100 calories. 300 calories over every now and again will not make or break your weight loss goals.
If it's really that big of a deal, log it on the appropriate day (today, since it's after midnight) and work out until you burn it off.0 -
From the moment I wake up to the time I go to sleep, I log it all under the same day, even if it is 4 am when I go to sleep.0
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Doesn't sound like you're eating enough/the right stuff if you're waking up at 3am after a hard day's work unable to ignore any hunger you may have until breakfast-time. I have a large breakfast, medium lunch and light dinner. I stop eating at 7pm LATEST and don't usually get up to have breakfast until 9am at the earliest, due to my ailments.0
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I added an entry to my food diary called anytime foods. So if I eat something at 3 AM or 8 PM that's not on my meal it goes in that category0
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OK, here's what I do. I work overnight, so I found myself asking if my meal I ate (for example) when I got home at 8am "Dinner" or is it "Breakfast" or is it a "Snack" (since it was only a piece of fruit, right?) or maybe it's "Lunch" (since i'm staying up a few more hours anyway)? So, yeah, pretty confusing, huh? I got wise, though to avoid the confusion.
I have changed the settings of my diary to read 12am to 6am, 6am to 12pm, 12pm to 6pm and 6pm to 12am. That way, whatever "meal" it happened to be, I know where to put it. My day starts at midnight, just like the calander. It's been working. I'm slowly taking off the weight.
Here's to you and your journey!:drinker:0 -
Thank you everyone, for the words of inspiration. I was only confused about the two days calories being put together because I only slept two hours. I should have made that clear. I slept from 1 am to 3 am, then napped in the afternoon. I was worried because 2 hours doesn't seem like enough time to burn off the day before calories
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Now I'm confused, lol.
You don't just burn calories when you sleep, so the length of your nap makes no material difference. You burn calories every moment you're alive.0 -
Weight Loss Tips - Avoid eating too many carbohydrates later in the day. For example if you go to sleep at 11pm for you dinner eat lower carbohydrates, maybe a chicken salad.
FREE Ebook Download: How To Lose 5 pounds In A Week Easily!
http://k002.kiwi6.com/hotlink/inj9278794/lose5poundsinaweek.pdf
:noway: :grumble:0 -
Thank you everyone, for the words of inspiration. I was only confused about the two days calories being put together because I only slept two hours. I should have made that clear. I slept from 1 am to 3 am, then napped in the afternoon. I was worried because 2 hours doesn't seem like enough time to burn off the day before calories
You're burning calories 24/7 if you're alive....you're way over-thinking this.0 -
I'm sure I am over thinking this! (lol) I'm OCD..so I obsess very easily. I want to add though that eating protein at dinner kept me full all night! no 3 am wake up:happy:0
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Weight Loss Tips - Avoid eating too many carbohydrates later in the day. For example if you go to sleep at 11pm for you dinner eat lower carbohydrates, maybe a chicken salad.
FREE Ebook Download: How To Lose 5 pounds In A Week Easily!
http://k002.kiwi6.com/hotlink/inj9278794/lose5poundsinaweek.pdf
:noway: :grumble:
yeah, I know.
Bad enough posting spam.
But to post such drivel in a thread where OP is clearly having anxiety about meal timing is pretty low.0 -
I work nights. I stop my clock every day at 9pm. Anything after that goes on the next days calories under "work" on my days off.
If you log you snack under today you will not be as under as it appears. 0 -
As others have said, meal timing is irrelevant, but if which day to log meals is stressing you out, maybe try focusing on the weekly average rather than the daily intake?
(Edit to add, I see this has already been suggested, which I missed on my first read-through, but here's how to do it)
You can really only do this from a device, right now, as it's not an option on the website, but if you have the app, from the main newsfeed/home page, tap the slider bar in the upper left, go to "nutrition," then at the bottom tap "weekly," and then click on the picture of the histogram in the upper right. This lets you look at your average caloric intake for the past week.
It automatically sets to the past 7 days, but if you want to look at one week, say, Sat-Sun, just change the date range so that it ends on 10/20. I find focusing on the overall weekly average helps me keep things in perspective. I tend to have some low days and some high days depending on how busy I am, and I've realized that it doesn't matter as long as my weekly average is around where it should be.
ETA: Not eating carbs late at night/before bed is just ridiculous. I pretty much always eat cookies or some sort of treat either right before bed or in the middle of the night if I wake up and want something and it hasn't hindered my weightloss (although my recent couple months of eating family size bags of candy and not logging did Try reading http://www.biolayne.com/nutrition/carbs-at-night-fat-loss-killer-or-imaginary-boogeyman/0 -
I'm 5'5 and 114 pounds and I normally go to bed pretty early (like 3-4pm) and I always wake up between 9pm- midnight. And if I do not eat a very filling snack or another meal when I wake up I won't be able to go back to sleep. Most the time it's healthy snacks but I have times when it's unhealthy things like a slice of my boyfriends fattening pizza (lord knows I very rarely eat pizza) or a 450 calorie bowl of cereal with almond milk. Then I knock out as soon as I hit the pillow. I wake up again around 5am and I'm always so confused about that 10pm snack. I normally add it to the next days calories because the previous day I'm already normally at my calorie limit. I limit myself to 1800 calories a day but I'm actually supposed to have well over 2000 to maintain so I guess it doesn't really matter where I log it. By no means am I trying to lose just trying to maintain. I was 19 when I started using myfitnesspal at 220lbs and now I'm 21 at 114. People tell me I need to gain now and you would think with how much I eat everyday I would. But with 30-45 minutes of cardio and a bit of lifting weights 4-5 times a week and a thyroid pill I don't even need anymore(my doctor never bothered taking me off it) so whatever.. I maintain pretty well even if I eat 3,000 calories. But yeah that has always bugged me whether or not to log my late night munching under today or tomorrow, but after reading this I guess it doesn't really matter after all.0
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Doesn't sound like you're eating enough/the right stuff if you're waking up at 3am after a hard day's work unable to ignore any hunger you may have until breakfast-time. I have a large breakfast, medium lunch and light dinner. I stop eating at 7pm LATEST and don't usually get up to have breakfast until 9am at the earliest, due to my ailments.
Yeah, 1300 calories and being on your feet all day don't go together. You don't have to starve yourself to lose weight. Eat more!0 -
I have a newborn, so I'm often up at 12:30pm (although I go to bed sometime around 4 or 5am. Baby is up every three hours so I don't know which way is what anymore LOL
My rule is 11:59pm is the cutoff. I count calories for the current day if I eat after midnight.
The exception I've made is if I crashed out early (for example, I went to sleep at 7pm today and slept for 5 hours) and have a stockpile of calories - I'll log it for "yesterday".
From my understanding, it's week's net and not daily net that really matters.0 -
Log it but don't worry about it. You should log it simply because you ate it, but don't stress, because yes, you most definitely burned it off. You can choose whether you put it in yesterday or add to today, though I would put it with yesterday (since it essentially was your dinner).
Also, if that's what a general work day is like for you then I hope you have your activity level set appropriately... That's definitely highly active. If that's not a usual work day then log it as exercise. I believe there's a "moving" entry in there- if you're working retail, I'm guessing that was a lot of receiving/organizing inventory, so would track it with that.0
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