Thought???

NurseChristy3
NurseChristy3 Posts: 41 Member
edited September 25 in Health and Weight Loss
I ususally have a very light breakfast...possibly an egg (70 calories) or maybe a Light Frappachino cold (100 calories) but Ive stagnated on the scale for the last week or so :( and Im raging hungry after dinner till I go to bed. Not to mention I stay up late most nights and Im up till say anywhere from 1am to 3am working on editing. I have a sensible lunch and a regular dinner of 3oz protein and a veggie.

Im gonna try to switch it up today and so for breakfast I had 2 eggs (140 calories), piece of light toast (45 calories) and the frappachino light (100 calories). Considerable difference from my usual breakfast and some proteins to boot. Any thoughts to whether this will help with the late night munchies or possible help budge me off this plateu??? Soooo frustrated to stay under my calories like I do and then on top of that to have the caloric burn and STILL not lose weight

Replies

  • cdelbove
    cdelbove Posts: 12 Member
    you shouldn't be staying "under your calories". You should be eating all of them. Having a bigger breakfast is a good start.
  • kimmymcd85
    kimmymcd85 Posts: 10
    hey!
    i find that eating little but often works for me! even if its just a bowl of fruit or a low fat yoghurt....toast or cuppa with a custard cream!! 3 standard meals a day doesnt work for me as i get hungry like your saying. so i do tend to snack between meals & have slightly smaller meals for my lunch & tea. drinking alot of water also might help as sometimes you arent hungry you just need fluids....dont know if any of that helps at all....maybe keep a food diary in a scrap book too as well as logging it on here so you dont miss anything out that you have eaten or drank. scares me when i write down EVERYTHING i have passed through my lips!! them glasses of vino deffo add up! haha! ;-)

    Hope ive been helpfull...if not then hope ya enjoyed my rambling! :-)
  • slimkitty
    slimkitty Posts: 418
    Do you always get hungry after dinner? Just took a quick peak at your food diary over a few days and it seems that you are routinely way under your calorie goal. You could probably eat a little more at all your meals or have a nice sized snack after dinner. Another thing to try is to have 5 smaller equal sized meals throughout the day. This seems tougher to me, but I try it on days when I am working from home and I feel less hungry when I can do that.
    Good luck,
  • kps1104
    kps1104 Posts: 58
    you should be eating all your calories :) I found out the hard way that a larger breakfast helps me stay fuller longer and boosts my metabolism. In my case I tend to exercise later in the evening so I do a protein shake or a light dinner, but I usually go to bed no later than 11. If I stay up any later than I will binge. I hope that helps, good luck!
  • Princessa1982
    Princessa1982 Posts: 82
    are you having an evening snack? I usually have 1/2 cup of fat free cottage cheese and some berries around 8pm (I go to bed 1030 or 11ish) My trainer friend suggested this as your body should not go too long when awake without eating.

    I have done this for the past 3 weeks (i switch it up sometimes to a mini bag of 100 cal popcorn, or 100g fat free low sugar yogurt with 1/2 cup of fiber 1 crunchy original (has no sugar and tons of protein!)

    I will also mention that I am down 16 lbs in 3 weeks, so my faith in my trainer friend is high right now!

    Your breakfast today sounds great, you need a good hearty 300-400 ish cal breakfast packed with protein and a good start for your day, they mean it when it is the most important meal of the day! She broke it down to me like this (now i was 273 lbs when i started so you may be a tad different, but should always aim for 1200 cal, any less than that is no good for you)

    300 cal - breakfast
    150 cal- snack
    300 cal - lunch
    150 cal - snack
    300 cal - supper
    150 cal - snack

    Thats 1350, i usually have a tad more or a tad less whatever the day brings. Right now I do not feed into the whole eat your exercise calories, but that is because i have so much to lose, when I am closer to my goal weight i will probably be more likely to.
  • lioyka
    lioyka Posts: 6
    When I first started, I was eating exactly 1200 calories a day. No more. Some days less. The first week I dropped 5 lbs. Quick! Wow... Then I stopped. during the next 3 weeks, I didn't lose an ounce. I started feeling fatigue, had black circles under my eyes and the hunger went away. I looked at a few other calorie calculators online and realized I went too low on the calorie intake and pushed my body into starvation mode. I raised my limit to 1600 then to 1800. Now I lose weight at the right pace. The black circles and fatigue vanished within a few days of being on the higher caloric intake. Hope that helps you.
  • NurseChristy3
    NurseChristy3 Posts: 41 Member
    No I dont eat my exercise calories! I MAY allow myself around 50 of them from time to time but for the most part i DO NOT eat them. I tried that method for a month and GAINED weight...which makes sense...there was NO calorie deficit!

    When I say "stay under my calorie goal"...I either hit right under it by 10-15 calories or go over slightly...maybe 20-50 calories.

    I cant help but wonder if the staying up late is to somewhat blame for this plateu. I drink ALOT of water but I also allow myself 3-4 diet cokes during the day since Im consuming way more than the alloted 8 glasses of water a day. I do my exercise in the late afternoon...anywhere from 2 - 5.

    Alicaiberrettee....the hearty breakfast makes SENSE...but I absolutely HATE breakfast. It makes me sick to even THINK about having to eat as soon as I wake up. I was never raised to eat breakfast and it has always been a working force against me since it was never a norm for me even growing up. Im gonna try the larger breakfast and scale my lunch down. My lunch is the largest meal of my day and I eat it around . Im a photographer and trying to eat 5 to 6 meals is extremely difficult. I end up having to eat them on the go constantly and it creates that habit of eating every 3 to 4 hrs...so on the days that I dont have time to prepare something healthy then I find that im starving and either cant get my hands on a healthy snack OR I eat something not so healthy and pay for it on the scales. Im GENERALLY not that hungry until late evening. Im gonna try to hang it up and see if I cant go to bed around 11ish or at least midnight...not sure if that will make any difference or not
  • dlaplume2
    dlaplume2 Posts: 1,658 Member
    you shouldn't be staying "under your calories". You should be eating all of them. Having a bigger breakfast is a good start.

    I agree!
    You should be having a good breakfast and eating all your calories. I have for breakfast. 2 egg whites, a slice of cheese and a bagel flat, sometimes I add pepper and onions and make it omeltte like.
    Other days I have a Chobani yogurt with Flaxseed and a banana or oatmeal with bluberries and flaxseed.

    I always have my coffee. :drinker: :drinker:

    Take a look at my journal if you want some ideas. Ignore the birthday cake from yeserday. I don't have cake everyday. :wink:
  • dlaplume2
    dlaplume2 Posts: 1,658 Member
    No I dont eat my exercise calories! I MAY allow myself around 50 of them from time to time but for the most part i DO NOT eat them. I tried that method for a month and GAINED weight...which makes sense...there was NO calorie deficit!

    When I say "stay under my calorie goal"...I either hit right under it by 10-15 calories or go over slightly...maybe 20-50 calories.

    I cant help but wonder if the staying up late is to somewhat blame for this plateu. I drink ALOT of water but I also allow myself 3-4 diet cokes during the day since Im consuming way more than the alloted 8 glasses of water a day. I do my exercise in the late afternoon...anywhere from 2 - 5.

    Alicaiberrettee....the hearty breakfast makes SENSE...but I absolutely HATE breakfast. It makes me sick to even THINK about having to eat as soon as I wake up. I was never raised to eat breakfast and it has always been a working force against me since it was never a norm for me even growing up. Im gonna try the larger breakfast and scale my lunch down. My lunch is the largest meal of my day and I eat it around . Im a photographer and trying to eat 5 to 6 meals is extremely difficult. I end up having to eat them on the go constantly and it creates that habit of eating every 3 to 4 hrs...so on the days that I dont have time to prepare something healthy then I find that im starving and either cant get my hands on a healthy snack OR I eat something not so healthy and pay for it on the scales. Im GENERALLY not that hungry until late evening. Im gonna try to hang it up and see if I cant go to bed around 11ish or at least midnight...not sure if that will make any difference or not

    Not sleeping will stress out your body and not help with weight loss. I was reading yesterday that if you eat your exercise calories back and you don't lose weight one of 3 things happened.
    1 either you miscalculated something to many exercise calories or the calories in food you are eating
    2 you were in starvation mode and didn't realize it
    3 you need to check your MFP settings.

    When I did eat my calories back I did the same thing I gained. I went and bought a HRM and all my exercise calories were high. I was eating too many calories.
    Double check your settings too. they do change as your weight goes down.
    Best wishes.
  • NurseChristy3
    NurseChristy3 Posts: 41 Member
    When I STARTED this I set my activity level to low...I exercise CONSTANTLY now...at least 5 days a week if not everyday. Should I go back and change it?
  • NurseChristy3
    NurseChristy3 Posts: 41 Member
    You guys are going to bash me when I tell you this Im sure...as there are many on here who have much more weight to lose without being bothered by myself.

    My current weight is 141 lbs - 5ft tall - 32yrs old - and Im pretty active. I wear a size 14 jeans and even tho this doesnt SOUND that bad...I LOOK fat. My bmi is unhealthy at 28 and my doctor harps on me every year that Im in the overweight range!

    Im looking to get down to 115 so not a MASSIVE weight loss and I started this journy at 149lbs and started MFP at 145lbs. No matter what I set the settings to on MFP it gives me the same exact results...1200 calories no matter my activity level or anything else.

    MFP projects that I can lose 3lbs by May 12th...it seems that what im doing is quite extreme for just a 3lb weight loss in 5weeks!
  • dlaplume2
    dlaplume2 Posts: 1,658 Member
    dont' sweat it. The less weight you have to lose the slower it will come off. You should probably set it to lose .5lbs a week and see what it gives you for calorie goals. You really should eat those calories and be very careful to count everything. the smaller you are the smaller your room for error. You are not going to lose 1-2 lbs a week and do it in a healthy maintainable way.

    The other thing to look at is what you are doing for exercise. Make sure you are incorparting some sort of weight training to build muscle and tone. That will help fire up your metabolism. Drink all your water. I love coffee and the thing that has helped me with water, is I force myself to drink a whole bottle (20oz) between cups of coffee. I really want my coffee now but I have like 15 oz of water to go. :drinker:
  • NurseChristy3
    NurseChristy3 Posts: 41 Member
    Thank you dlaplume2....I was just feeling like I was doing something wrong but what you say makes sense. I actually JUST started to incorporate the weights yesterday so maybe I will start to see some results from that ;) Thanks for your advice....makes alot of sense. I count EVERYTHING that goes in my mouth...if I cant measure it or it be an exact amount such as something bagged...then I wont eat it. I even count the 3 to 6 tic tacs I have from time to time! lol
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