Tips for staying within Calorie allotment!?

To stick with my allotment I eat lots of veggies and other fibrous foods, watch my carb intake (ie eat enough protein and fat), exercise a little extra on hungry days so I can eat more (like today), and try to get my water in. I basically eat what I want for breakfast and lunch and then check my calories and macros when planning dinner.

goldthistime wrote: »

To stick with my allotment I eat lots of veggies and other fibrous foods, watch my carb intake (ie eat enough protein and fat), exercise a little extra on hungry days so I can eat more (like today), and try to get my water in. I basically eat what I want for breakfast and lunch and then check my calories and macros when planning dinner.

I start with dinner first and work backwards I prelog right before I eat to make sure the math works out.

On the occasions when I go over, I don't beat myself up. Log it and move on.

I pre log every morning. Then I can tweak things if I'm over or under.

Pre-logging my day helps me tremendously, as I always leave room in there for my treats (whatever I feel like).

I too pre-log. I cook in bulk for the week. Depending on the meal, I may a salad or extra veggies, etc... Cooking in bulk is so much cheaper and I can mix it up.

I am logging my dinner when I log in my breakfast. I know how many calories I may have left over for a snack or even sneak a cookie for dessert. Since I cook, I do my own recipes in MFP and get the macros straight on.

I plan ahead, sometimes i have at least dinners figured out for up to a week beforehand. That's because my family gets days where different people get to decide what dinner will be. Keeps everyone happy, makes it easy for me to budget food $ and then i can budget calories for myself a lot easier.

When the day comes, sometimes there are changes but it's easy to figure out because most everything is already done. It's also handy when i have an unexpected lunch outing or when i am really craving something higher in calories. On those days i will just reduce the number of french fries with dinner or lower the amount of mayo in a sandwich.

Pre-logging makes it really easy to see which items can be shaved down or even bumped up.

I only prep,an insomuch as I have a few go-to low calorie meals. (Vegan chili, vegan bolognese, egg white omelet, Siggis yogurt, thick vegetable soup, turkey wrap....) I just make sure I don't run out of the ingredients for those, and then I mindfully eat what strikes my fancy. I also don't sweat the calorie limits on a daily basis, I will stretch it out as much as a week...that's how Thanksgiving and Christmas got to be all about food and drink and I still met my weekly goals.

Eat a TON of veggies! If I'm feeling really hungry I'll have a HUGE salad (like 3cups of romaine) with my meal and it fills me up.

I pre log breakfast & lunch, & sometimes snacks b/c I bring my food to work with me, so I have to prepare it the night before. If I forget to prep it, I have a few things in the freezer (egg sandwiches, boca burgers, etc,) that I can grab on my way out the door (I leave anywhere from 6:15-7 am). If I don't eat something (the yogurt I brought for snack, or the piece of fruit to have with lunch) I just remove it from the diary. Sometimes, I'll grab a bag of chips in the cafeteria to have with my sandwich, or make a salad at the salad bar if I'm feeling extra hungyr, so I'll add them in. I basically like to leave myself at leas 500 calories for dinner/evening snacks, so I try to make sure my earlier meals stay at less than 800 total (1360 for the day), or that I get some exercise in to give me more.

MaryCS62 wrote: »

segacs wrote: »

I use TDEE method so I don't eat back exercise calories (as they're already taken into account, averaged, in my calorie allotment). This makes it easier for me to plan, as my calorie goal is consistent every day and doesn't fluctuate.

I pre-log for the week and do my grocery shopping accordingly. Things change, because real life and all that. But I just adjust as I go. I always leave myself a couple hundred calories for an evening snack (I'm a snacker) and I tend to choose the snack based on how my macros looked for the rest of the day. So if I'm doing fine on macros I might "reward" myself with a treat, whereas if I'm under on, say, protein, I'll snack on a glass of milk or a piece of cheese or something.

Out of curiosity, do you exercise regularly? I usually manage 3x week, 30 minutes, but I want to increase it. How does TDEE allow for that, or do you have to consistently exercise, etc?

the TDEE is what I use because I like things simple... you select how often you work out so when you increase or decrease then you recalculate... you also select moderate, vigorous etc.. and it will give examples of each type. I don't like to fluctuate my food each day lol I tend to eat much less on the weekends anyway

MaryCS62 wrote: »

Out of curiosity, do you exercise regularly? I usually manage 3x week, 30 minutes, but I want to increase it. How does TDEE allow for that, or do you have to consistently exercise, etc?

Semi-regularly. But TDEE averages it out over time. I just log actuals -- weight lost, calories consumed -- to get an idea of my average TDEE based on the amount of exercise and activity I typically do. If I increase it significantly (e.g. by starting a new exercise regimen) then I'll just up the calories a bit if I'm hungry, or else simply enjoy the faster weight loss. Likewise if I were to decrease it significantly for a long time, I'd lower the calories, though I aim not to do that.

But for me, this method takes the tedium and guesswork out of logging every little bit of exercise I do. Especially since logging exercise calories is rarely all that accurate anyway.

Works for some people, not for others. I tried the MFP method at first but this suits me better, I've found.

segacs wrote: »

By the way, I should specify that I started off using a calculator to estimate it, but I adjusted based on my real-world results over the first 90 days or so. I log calories and weight daily in Excel and calculate my actual observed TDEE based on that. Yes, I'm a nerd. It's valuable, though, because it turns out I had been *under*estimating my activity level.

So I am NOT the only one!!! lol

I eat the same thing for breakfast and a.m. snack just about every day. I don't input my lunch until I eat it, but I do make sure it's around 400 calories. I usually only have 400-500 left for dinner unless I workout (or at least walk the dog!), but that's just life. Let's face it, to lose weight while still having a little treat daily (for me usually a Luna protein bar) ya gotta work out at least a little!

What do you like to eat? How do you prepare your meals (do you cook for example). I see that you are 19 and I really did not cook at 19.

Be glad to help...