long waking hours

i have a job that seasonally switches to nights for four months or so and i had a hard time this year. i liked these:
http://www.3fatchicks.com/12-meals-under-200-calories/

wish i could help. the fact that your obviously not getting enough sleep is also going to hinder your weight loss. Good luck and God Bless.

I'm the same as you. I'm up about 17 - 18 hours a day, and what I do is in the mornings and early afternoons, I'm not as hungry as I am in the late afternoons/evenings. So I eat lighter during the times I'm not as hungry. I have a reduced calorie cheese stick and 1/3 of a serving of almonds for breakfast. My lunch is generally under 300-400 calories. I have a light 100 calorie snack around 4:00, and then dinner is my main meal, because this is the meal that is hardest for me to feel full. Everyone's body is different. If you're hungrier earlier in the day, eat more of your calories then. This has worked for me, for the most part. It's not perfect, but I'm down some, and when I don't get to exercise, I maintain doing this.

slimfast shakes are also loaded with sugar...

I'd say your best bet is to reduce your meal frequency to three (or Gd forbid, two) meals a day. If you eat 1200 calories a day it will be very hard to eat a balanced 200 calories for 6 times a day. But if you eat three 400 calorie meals, or even 2 600 calorie meals, that suddenly becomes a whole lot easier. The other way i can think of is to make at least 3 of your small meals protein only.

What are you calling "balanced"? It's very possible to get balanced macro-nutrients in 200-300 calorie meals & snacks. I don't ever feel like I've eaten, though. :laugh:

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Fruit is a necessary part of a healthy diet. Luna bars are not and neither are fake shakes. If you are resorting to those foods, then you need to eat more real food. Processed stuff is a fast path to defeat, they are designed for people who work out intensively - like 1000 calories at a time - and have to supplement! They aren't meant as a substitute for a natural food sources. Fruit and dairy sugars should not be counted as "sugars" - subtract them out of your sugar count. Just concentrate on eliminating processed foods, artificial sweeteners, and add whole fruits, veggies, beans, nuts, avocado, lots of fiber, and yes water :drinker:



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You're good!!!!!

I'd say your best bet is to reduce your meal frequency to three (or Gd forbid, two) meals a day. If you eat 1200 calories a day it will be very hard to eat a balanced 200 calories for 6 times a day. But if you eat three 400 calorie meals, or even 2 600 calorie meals, that suddenly becomes a whole lot easier. The other way i can think of is to make at least 3 of your small meals protein only.

What are you calling "balanced"? It's very possible to get balanced macro-nutrients in 200-300 calorie meals & snacks. I don't ever feel like I've eaten, though. :laugh:

Balanced in my book would be fairly low in carbohydrates, moderate fats, fairly high protein. I suspect, that with 200 calories to spend on a "meal", those will almost always have relatively high carb content. This causes insulin spikes, which cause a hunger response, hence the sensation of "always being hungry".

Well, you said on another thread that you eat 1000 calories a day, on purpose. So you must know that it is very possible to get all your macronutrients in a 200-300 calorie meal. For instance, one egg, one half whole wheat muffin, 7g grated cheese, a half of an orange. Not necessarily high in simple carbs. A green salad, some tuna and a mist of olive oil with balsamic vinegar topped with pumpkin seeds, with half a whole wheat muffin. A handful of almonds, some plain yogurt and a few slices of fruit. Some cottage cheese or tofu, a couple slices of avocado, and two whole wheat crackers. A bowl of steamed clams, some steamed veggies and a half portion of butter. Etcetera. Many different combos can be well balanced with low carbs. Blanket statements rarely are entirely true.

I can only speak for myself, but I've found that to be quite hard actually, and have something of a "meal" instead of eating "things". For me there's a difference, also socially, so that's the reason why I started to reduce my meal frequency. Those examples are excellent, but for me, I'd rather not deal with the repeated insulin, low blood glucose spikes those smaller, frequent meals cause over the course of a day. I know that "eat smaller meals often" is somewhat of the received wisdom when it comes to controlling feelings of appetite, but for me I've found it's better to eat all my calories in one go. Being constantly busy with and obsessing over making small meals and their precise composition is another factor: that was just too much to concern myself with.

Also, I don't see it as a blanket statement: I do want to point out that eating like this you have to be very careful at every meal to get it right, and it's easy to go over the total number of allotted calories for a day in that manner. I suspect that "many small meals" may be a factor in people unwittingly consuming more calories than they intended or allowed for themselves. For me that's a factor, because I really need to be at about 1000/daily and it's something I need to do for a long time to come, hopefully. So being very concerned with food and meals during the day is going to be counterproductive for me.