Scared of trying moderation
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PoisonIvy088 wrote: »PoisonIvy088 wrote: »
SO a roughly 500 calorie deficit, right? With so little to lose, change it to a 250ish calorie deficit. This will give you more room to eat reasonably.PoisonIvy088 wrote: »
Then if you have the calories, eat?PoisonIvy088 wrote: »PoisonIvy088 wrote: »subversive99 wrote: »I think, realistically, if you want to lose weight and have it stick for life, that you will have to learn moderation at some point. So, while eating to an alarm would definitely not work for me, I think part of this journey is trying different things with an open mind and seeing which ones work for you. Good luck!
I agree. ETA unless the alarm was to help with medical reminders (e.g. need to eat every x hours for blood sugar levels), I don't see this as being something you can keep up long term.
I'd also note that it's important to figure out what prompts things like mindless eating or binging on high calorie foods. FOr me mindless eating related to a) probably not drinking enough water, and b) not eating large enough meals. I do not snack, unless I'm just eating an entire meal spaced out over a few hours. But at that point I still am full from what I was eating earlier. But for a while there I wouldn't even do that... now I can do it easily and not feel that I want to eat more based on hunger unless my meal overall isn't enough calories (e.g. log a 300 calorie meal and eating it over 2 hours doesn't work, log a 600 calorie meal eaten over 2 hours does work). I'd also set my meals as x calories each, 3x a day, so that I'd stick to this. Like your alarm, this is not something that I could keep up long term and I now naturally eat more during the latter part of the day which enables me to "graze" throughout the evening if I desire.
And binging on high calorie foods was due to me labeling food as food or bad. Food is just food, nothing is forbidden, and because of that I keep a lot of "junk" in the house that takes months to eat. I have chocolate left over from christmas, and some chocolate from even before then that I never ate. And I have some cinnamon buns and donuts and maybe a few muffins in my freezer from last year left. And I bought 2 small bags of jelly belliesa few weeks ago, I have half of the entire purchase left if not more.Knowing that I can eat it whenever I want means that I can just eat it whenever I crave it and not worry about how much I'm eating.
Wow you've clearly got the moderation thing down! Yeah I don't usually eat out of hunger or thirst. My meals are pretty huge because I love bulking them up with vegetables and stuff. So a 400 calorie meal ends up being an oversized plate of food that's actually enough (volume wise) for 2. I think mine might be out of boredom. Or just because it bothers me and I can't stop thinking about it.
A 400 calorie meal, even if consisting of a lot of low-calorie foods, would unlikely be enough of a meal for 2 people by my books. Huge meals are subjective. I ate a pot of soup that took ~1hr to eat, but I'd not consider it a meal for two despite being ~800 calories. It was just a big serving for my evening calorie needs, with about 4 cups of liquid and plenty of veggies, noodle, and chicken.
What is the boredom causing, eating without thinking about your consumption or binging on high-calorie foods? If you're bored and just want to have something to do with your mouth, you might do better eating small amounts of food throughout the day, e.g. every few hours.
The boredom makes me think about food. Usually when I think about it there's a compulsion to eat it. Particularly sweet stuff, but also normal food.
Like I mentioned above, I only seem to have this problem when I'm alone, not when I'm around people. Which is what led me to believe its boredom.
How many calories are you eating in a day, do you eat back your exercise calories, and waht is your weekly weight loss goal?
When I started here I was netting 1250. I've since added 100 so I now net 1350. And I'm eating between 1500-1600 depending on the amount/type of exercise I do. My weight loss goal is a little less than half a kilo a week. I also have one day a week where I eat up to maintenance. Sunday. When we eat dessert after dinner.
More like a 300 cal deficit. I'm pretty sedentary if I don't exercise intentionally. Like, I only get up to go and pee. Lol. My maintenance (at sedentary level, I do eat back any intentional exercise calories) is only 1650.
I doubt you are as sedentary as you think you are. Most people here would likely do just fine using the lightly active setting.
I am lightly active. But I use sedentary setting and add my exercise. Its just easier. I do get 10 000 steps a day plus gym some days. Intentionally. Unintentionally, I really do just sit on my butt all day. So with exercise included, my maintenance is 1800-1900.
I am not referring to your TDEE activity when I say lightly active. I am saying that even without accounting for exercise, most people will actually be lightly active, especially based on the MFP numbers the website spits out. Even when I use external calculators to estimate my NEAT needs the externals estimate at least a few hundred calories higher, and the external calculators are generally more accurate for me.
Do you not shower, cook your own food, walk to and from your school/work? All of this adds to your NEAT burn.0 -
PoisonIvy088 wrote: »LoupGarouTFTs wrote: »I understand craving sweet, since I should not have them for medical reasons. Can you tolerate sugar-free versions of things? I let myself have a sugar-free gelatin parfait (25 calories) every afternoon as part of my lunch. Since I get something sweet every day, my cravings are a little less and I can keep other things, like sugar-free puddings and no-sugar-added ice cream and cookies in the house without binging on them.
I really like your alarm idea for building awareness of your mindless eating problem. Is there anything you can do to deal with the boredom problem?
I try to deal with it but it still sometimes creeps into my head. For example, I can be busy exercising and still think of it. I do need something to make me focus.
And yes I do occasionally eat sugar free stuff, but sometimes there's no substitute for the real thing.
Plus, for some reason sugar free is not really a big deal where I live, so its hard to find a good variety. For example, sugar free ice cream?! Wuuuut?!
then why not log something sweet while you are exercising and eat it when you get home? Either log it for today or log it for tomorrow if it won't fit your calories.0 -
I bet you could find no sugar added ice cream in a larger grocery store. I live in Dogpatch and the Walmart near me has Skinny Cow ice cream, Blue Bell and Blue Bunny no sugar added, and a bunch of others. Take my word for it, it's very good stuff. LOL Jell-O pudding makes an awesome dulce la leche pudding . . . anyway, there's lots of good stuff out there now as opposed to even a few decades ago when every sugar-free item tasted like death.
I guess I just don't understand boredom. I can't think of a day in my adult life, except for when I was recuperating from a broken back, when I was bored. Can you do handicrafts or go walking or something?
Edited to add:
I have to take that back. When I was recuperating, I think I read about 200 books, watched the Olympics, practiced singing a few of my favorite songs with my karaoke machine, crochets an afghan, watched birds, wrote a few short stories, and finished work for two college courses. So I was inactive and at the end of it all a bit restless, but I don't think bored covered it.0 -
PoisonIvy088 wrote: »PoisonIvy088 wrote: »
SO a roughly 500 calorie deficit, right? With so little to lose, change it to a 250ish calorie deficit. This will give you more room to eat reasonably.PoisonIvy088 wrote: »
Then if you have the calories, eat?PoisonIvy088 wrote: »PoisonIvy088 wrote: »subversive99 wrote: »I think, realistically, if you want to lose weight and have it stick for life, that you will have to learn moderation at some point. So, while eating to an alarm would definitely not work for me, I think part of this journey is trying different things with an open mind and seeing which ones work for you. Good luck!
I agree. ETA unless the alarm was to help with medical reminders (e.g. need to eat every x hours for blood sugar levels), I don't see this as being something you can keep up long term.
I'd also note that it's important to figure out what prompts things like mindless eating or binging on high calorie foods. FOr me mindless eating related to a) probably not drinking enough water, and b) not eating large enough meals. I do not snack, unless I'm just eating an entire meal spaced out over a few hours. But at that point I still am full from what I was eating earlier. But for a while there I wouldn't even do that... now I can do it easily and not feel that I want to eat more based on hunger unless my meal overall isn't enough calories (e.g. log a 300 calorie meal and eating it over 2 hours doesn't work, log a 600 calorie meal eaten over 2 hours does work). I'd also set my meals as x calories each, 3x a day, so that I'd stick to this. Like your alarm, this is not something that I could keep up long term and I now naturally eat more during the latter part of the day which enables me to "graze" throughout the evening if I desire.
And binging on high calorie foods was due to me labeling food as food or bad. Food is just food, nothing is forbidden, and because of that I keep a lot of "junk" in the house that takes months to eat. I have chocolate left over from christmas, and some chocolate from even before then that I never ate. And I have some cinnamon buns and donuts and maybe a few muffins in my freezer from last year left. And I bought 2 small bags of jelly belliesa few weeks ago, I have half of the entire purchase left if not more.Knowing that I can eat it whenever I want means that I can just eat it whenever I crave it and not worry about how much I'm eating.
Wow you've clearly got the moderation thing down! Yeah I don't usually eat out of hunger or thirst. My meals are pretty huge because I love bulking them up with vegetables and stuff. So a 400 calorie meal ends up being an oversized plate of food that's actually enough (volume wise) for 2. I think mine might be out of boredom. Or just because it bothers me and I can't stop thinking about it.
A 400 calorie meal, even if consisting of a lot of low-calorie foods, would unlikely be enough of a meal for 2 people by my books. Huge meals are subjective. I ate a pot of soup that took ~1hr to eat, but I'd not consider it a meal for two despite being ~800 calories. It was just a big serving for my evening calorie needs, with about 4 cups of liquid and plenty of veggies, noodle, and chicken.
What is the boredom causing, eating without thinking about your consumption or binging on high-calorie foods? If you're bored and just want to have something to do with your mouth, you might do better eating small amounts of food throughout the day, e.g. every few hours.
The boredom makes me think about food. Usually when I think about it there's a compulsion to eat it. Particularly sweet stuff, but also normal food.
Like I mentioned above, I only seem to have this problem when I'm alone, not when I'm around people. Which is what led me to believe its boredom.
How many calories are you eating in a day, do you eat back your exercise calories, and waht is your weekly weight loss goal?
When I started here I was netting 1250. I've since added 100 so I now net 1350. And I'm eating between 1500-1600 depending on the amount/type of exercise I do. My weight loss goal is a little less than half a kilo a week. I also have one day a week where I eat up to maintenance. Sunday. When we eat dessert after dinner.
More like a 300 cal deficit. I'm pretty sedentary if I don't exercise intentionally. Like, I only get up to go and pee. Lol. My maintenance (at sedentary level, I do eat back any intentional exercise calories) is only 1650.
I doubt you are as sedentary as you think you are. Most people here would likely do just fine using the lightly active setting.
I am lightly active. But I use sedentary setting and add my exercise. Its just easier. I do get 10 000 steps a day plus gym some days. Intentionally. Unintentionally, I really do just sit on my butt all day. So with exercise included, my maintenance is 1800-1900.
I am not referring to your TDEE activity when I say lightly active. I am saying that even without accounting for exercise, most people will actually be lightly active, especially based on the MFP numbers the website spits out. Even when I use external calculators to estimate my NEAT needs the externals estimate at least a few hundred calories higher, and the external calculators are generally more accurate for me.
Do you not shower, cook your own food, walk to and from your school/work? All of this adds to your NEAT burn.
Yes I do. Except walking to and from school/work. I drive everywhere. I also didn't calculate with mfp, I used scooby.
And I have a pedometer (which I haven't used in a while) but that first time I wore it the whole day to see how many steps I take....and without intentional activity, it was only almost 3500. Sedentary is considered <5000 per day. According to wikipedia (and yes, I know its a load of bull, but it did hit me between the eyes)
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LoupGarouTFTs wrote: »I bet you could find no sugar added ice cream in a larger grocery store. I live in Dogpatch and the Walmart near me has Skinny Cow ice cream, Blue Bell and Blue Bunny no sugar added, and a bunch of others. Take my word for it, it's very good stuff. LOL Jell-O pudding makes an awesome dulce la leche pudding . . . anyway, there's lots of good stuff out there now as opposed to even a few decades ago when every sugar-free item tasted like death.
I guess I just don't understand boredom. I can't think of a day in my adult life, except for when I was recuperating from a broken back, when I was bored. Can you do handicrafts or go walking or something?
Edited to add:
I have to take that back. When I was recuperating, I think I read about 200 books, watched the Olympics, practiced singing a few of my favorite songs with my karaoke machine, crochets an afghan, watched birds, wrote a few short stories, and finished work for two college courses. So I was inactive and at the end of it all a bit restless, but I don't think bored covered it.
The only talents I have are walking (haha), videogames, drawing and studying. Lol I suppose I've learned to "multitask" doing them. Which is why my thoughts still intrude.
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Yeah, I say try it!! That's what weight loss is all about, imo -- trying different strategies until you find the one that works for you.0
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Buy single servings of things... much easier.0
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LoupGarouTFTs wrote: »
I have to take that back. When I was recuperating, I think I read about 200 books, watched the Olympics, practiced singing a few of my favorite songs with my karaoke machine, crochets an afghan, watched birds, wrote a few short stories, and finished work for two college courses. So I was inactive and at the end of it all a bit restless, but I don't think bored covered it.
Wow! This is extremely inspiring. I do get bored, and it's pretty clear how that relates to my eating patterns because I actually eat less on busy work / hang out days, or days when I exercise. I never really thought of any kinds of food as bad, to be honest; I love the freakin things! A little too much! Like the OP I'd just really love to be one of those people who can keep all kinds of food in the house and just eat them at a normal pace. The main thing I haven't tried is prelogging food. Maybe that's the key but.... I just can't. It's a mental thing; I can't. Maybe I could try prelogging activity to fill my day hahah
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If i didn't have snacks i wouldn't be able to do this! BUT i have chosen things that are close to the snacks i would like to eat (instead of doritos i eat those tortilla rice chips) stuff like that, because i can eat those in moderation but doritos i can not haha it just does not work!0
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I've actually thought about buying those 100 calorie Oreo packs and giving them to a coworker to lock for me at their desk and then give me one per day. Grr. The convenience store used to carry it and then they stopped. There's pretty much always room in my day for a 100 calorie snack!0
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Moderation is really hard for me when it comes to savory things. I already don't really care much for sweets, but bread and cheese products really get me! I have been planning my meals ahead of time and just staying away from them for now. Maybe one day I'll have the self control I need.0
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PoisonIvy088 wrote: »It's because of these failed attempts that I've kept it out of my home, and only buy them in single servings when I crave them.
That sounds like sensible moderation to me. I'd stick with doing that.
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I like the idea of the alarm. It is a great behavioral tool. It is hard to just stop doing something. You usually have to replace one behavior for another. Keep up the good work!!!0
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It is certainly different for everybody. For some of us total elimination becomes necessary. The single meal snack does work though. I also find that gradually reducing sugar intake (eg in drinks) over time, helps to control your sweet tooth. You will notice the transition after a while and no longer want stuff as sweet. Good luck.
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