Strange pattern emerging...

ruthie3110
ruthie3110 Posts: 160 Member
edited September 25 in Food and Nutrition
So I just looked at the reports page and looked at my net calories for the past 30 days.. Now I've not been doing it for that long but it was so I could see all of the days on one report.
I noticed a disturbing pattern.
The first three days I tracked I was really good, then I had a day which looks about 700.. But that was because I forgot and by the time I realised I couldn't remember what I'd had. I think it may have been a takeaway..... So anyway I did...
Good Day
Good Day
Good Day
Bad Day
Good
Good
Bad
Good
Good
Bad
Good
Good
Bad
Good
Good
Bad
Good
Good (Today)

Notice a pattern?!?!?!
Hmmm..
caloriepattern.jpg
The red splodge is the day I didn't fully track so it may have been a bad day but its way too long ago to remember!!

Replies

  • BerryH
    BerryH Posts: 4,698 Member
    How odd! Do you feel really hungry after your good days? Maybe you need to up your calorie intake a little to avoid a binge on the third day.
  • ruthie3110
    ruthie3110 Posts: 160 Member
    No not at all. If I'm hungry I'll eat!
    Admittedly the really huge one was a pub crawl and I counted all my alcohol calories. But It's really strange as I never usually feel hungry to the point of massively overeating, it's just little things here and there or a bad meal choice that bumps it up
  • morganadk2_deleted
    morganadk2_deleted Posts: 1,696 Member
    i have just looked at your diary !!! boy do you have a sweet tooth! on some of the days you sweet snacks are higher in calories than your meals!

    maybe you should have bigger meals and less snacks! maybe up your calories?

    Are you eating your exersise calories ? Are you drinking enough water? getting enough sleep?

    You might also find the links below helpful...

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/61706-guide-to-calorie-deficit


    This is just a part of it! please read the link above


    Generally someone with a BMI over 32 can do a 1000 calorie a day (2 lbs a week) deficit
    With a BMI of 30 to 32 a deficit of 750 calories is generally correct (about 1.5 lbs a week)
    With a BMI of 28 to 30 a deficit of 500 calories is about right (about 1 lb a week)
    With a BMI of 26 to 28 a deficit of about 300 calories is perfect (about 1/2 lb a week)
    and below 26... well this is where we get fuzzy. See now you're no longer talking about being overweight, so while it's still ok to have a small deficit, you really should shift your focus more towards muscle tone, and reducing fat. This means is EXTRA important to eat your exercise calories as your body needs to KNOW it's ok to burn fat stores, and the only way it will know is if you keep giving it the calories it needs to not enter the famine response (starvation mode)



    Good luck on your journey
  • morganadk2_deleted
    morganadk2_deleted Posts: 1,696 Member
    No not at all. If I'm hungry I'll eat!
    Admittedly the really huge one was a pub crawl and I counted all my alcohol calories. But It's really strange as I never usually feel hungry to the point of massively overeating, it's just little things here and there or a bad meal choice that bumps it up

    or Chocolate!
  • guppygirl322
    guppygirl322 Posts: 408 Member
    I see the pattern. Look at what foods you are eating on your good and bad days and see if you can hit a compromise. Do you eat a ton of chocolate on your bad day? Maybe incorporate some low cal chocolate treats on your good days to keep you from splurging. Are you not eating enough protien and fiber on the days that you are splurging? Do you have specific trigger foods that you need to avoid all together? I know that there are certain foods I CAN'T have in the house because if they are, I can't stop eating them once I start. Are there certain events going on in your life? Maybe tracking what you are feeling when you eat what you do can help too. I know there are several things going on in my life that cause me to splurge when said things are in my face.

    This is very interesting, I hope you figure it out!
  • ruthie3110
    ruthie3110 Posts: 160 Member
    I'm sleeping awfully, TOM, stressed as I am at uni and working on placement and have 2 essays due in around Easter as well as a group presentation and an exam....
    I don't normally eat chocolate funnily enough but if I have one, then I want more the next day, and then the day after.. If I stop eating chocolate I can go months without an actual bar!
    I don't think it helps that with things I'm not sure about I overestimate too. Like the fudge cake lol, I think I ate no where near as much as I put in but I was being on the "safe side", not that there really is one with fudge cake!!!
    Looking back actually, one was pancake day, one was the pub crawl/birthday party, and one was a takeaway. So they're all overestimate days..
    But yeah, I put everything down in snacks that isn't part of a meal, like if I've had a packet of crips or something I'll put them in snacks not with lunch even if it was part of my packed lunch.
  • ruthie3110
    ruthie3110 Posts: 160 Member
    I see the pattern. Look at what foods you are eating on your good and bad days and see if you can hit a compromise. Do you eat a ton of chocolate on your bad day? Maybe incorporate some low cal chocolate treats on your good days to keep you from splurging. Are you not eating enough protien and fiber on the days that you are splurging? Do you have specific trigger foods that you need to avoid all together? I know that there are certain foods I CAN'T have in the house because if they are, I can't stop eating them once I start. Are there certain events going on in your life? Maybe tracking what you are feeling when you eat what you do can help too. I know there are several things going on in my life that cause me to splurge when said things are in my face.

    This is very interesting, I hope you figure it out!
    Yeah I've deiberately not bought chocolate today as it sets me off wanting chocolate everyday, so hopefully in a few days I'll be completely off the chocolate again!!
    I don't buy biscuits anymore, and I only buy low calorie crisps, but I've even been off those recently..


    What I meant to add in the last post but completely forgot was that I've also been doing shift work so in some periods I'm up for a long stretch rather than normal days which may attribute to higher calorie days/more snacking...But it's the pattern that gets me!
  • 2bFitNTrim
    2bFitNTrim Posts: 1,209 Member
    I, like some of the others, notice a lot of chocolate or sweet, or high carbohydrates in your diary. Now, admittedly, I have a sweet tooth also. It's tough. But I find it I eat more protein and salads/veggies, and less starchy stuff, I do better. Eating too much starchy stuff or junk makes me want more too. Could that be the problem for you? Good luck in figuring it out. I'm working on it too. :flowerforyou:
  • ruthie3110
    ruthie3110 Posts: 160 Member
    Yeah the chocolate is one thing I'm working on at the moment. Boomin' pancake day set it off again! Honestly until then I'd barely touched chocolate, even at Christmas!
    My fridge is currently full of salady goodness, my big thing this week was trying to not eat so much carby stuff, especially after having a run in with reheated wedges at university!!
    Problem is, if I haven't enough time in a morning I end up needing to buy food at uni, which is hard as students almost never eat well! I tried doing it the night before but only managed that once!

    It also doesn't help that I live with my boyfriend so a lot of the time we eat the same meals, as it's practically the only time we get to spend with each other these days.

    I picked the worst point in my life to lose weight to be honest but I just felt if I didn't do it now I never would!
  • absie107
    absie107 Posts: 290
    I had that pattern for a while... as well as just strings of days on which I'd binge... turns out I have some strange inner dialogue going, no lie. I've got a childish part of me that screams for instant gratification and food-food-food, a part of me that scolds this child for being so greedy, but only AFTER I overeat/have a bad day, and a part of me that is so blissfully optimistic and proclaims that "tomorrow is another day" so often that it's annoying. I'm learning to recognize my childish urges for immediate gratification and am learning to distinguish hunger from emotions... that is helping me a little bit. Maybe it will for you!
  • BerryH
    BerryH Posts: 4,698 Member
    My pattern's far easier to explain - good all week and binge Friday to Sunday! :laugh:
  • Sarahr73
    Sarahr73 Posts: 454 Member
    I don't know if this will help for you, but I add in all my food from breakfast when I am eating it and also what I am planning on having for lunch and my snacks. Once I see the results I decide if I should make changes and also start thinking about what to eat for dinner. I was going way over on my sodium and stuff at first but when I started to do this, I did better. It might help for your calorie issues. It also helps me say no to extra snacks throughout the day, especially the candy type snacks.
  • mkskippy24
    mkskippy24 Posts: 45
    I don't know if this will help for you, but I add in all my food from breakfast when I am eating it and also what I am planning on having for lunch and my snacks. Once I see the results I decide if I should make changes and also start thinking about what to eat for dinner. I was going way over on my sodium and stuff at first but when I started to do this, I did better. It might help for your calorie issues. It also helps me say no to extra snacks throughout the day, especially the candy type snacks.

    Yes, I agree! It helps me too! I try to take time in the am and put in everything I think I'm eating....... and if it changes, I tweak it later. But by putting in the info, I can see about where my calories are gonna sit for the day, therefore also helping me to eat less snacks or sweets that aren't already added into my day!
  • ruthie3110
    ruthie3110 Posts: 160 Member
    I usually start off with the intention of planning.. But because of my lifestyle (student midwife) so much stuff can come up unexpectedly which really throws it out.
  • potluck965
    potluck965 Posts: 529 Member
    After you do this for a while, if you are conscientious about weighing, measuring and logging, you will develop a feel for what you are eating. You will be able to guesstimate your portions as time goes on and be pretty close to the mark.
  • ruthie3110
    ruthie3110 Posts: 160 Member
    I'm quite good with my portions if I've made it (I don't weigh much but from when I did and from how much is in the packet) but if I've eaten at uni I have absolutely no idea whats gone into it.. Like the wedges I logged at 7-800 calories.. I have no idea if that is close. I picked something similar and doubled it!
  • Lasa797
    Lasa797 Posts: 13
    It sounds like my adiction to alcohol was....3 good days of white knuckling it then the 4th day, boom! drinking again. I also found that the longer I stayed sober the less the cravings were. Now the same thing is happening to me with sugar. I NEVER used to eat candy, not even chocolate. But I have noticed that since I stopped drinking (over 2 years sober now) my body craves sugar. The longer I stay away from it the less the craving. But once I have something sweet, boom! here come the cravings again. Hence the reason I joined MFP. Before MFP I started to try and eat a good breakfast of a high fiber and protein cereal but the little bit of sugar in the cereal would set those cravings off again. Now I eat either a high protein meal for breakfast or fruit. The sugar in fruit doesn't seem to trigger the cravings.
  • sassyg
    sassyg Posts: 393
    I has a pattern similar to that emerge when I had my cals to low for me. i'd have a high calorie day, then the next day would be about on target because i was still satisfied from the previous day, then the next day would be on target again because I was being "good" then the following day I couldn't take it any longer and was super hungry again and it was a high day.
    And I mean I wasn't necessarily binging on the high days either, I was still eating well, just needing 2 sandwiches at lunchtime to be satisfied, and getting an extra helping at dinner and so on.
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