9-5 job diet

Hi there. It's easy to get bored and snack, isn't it?

I bring breakfast, lunch, and a snack. I try to start eating my breakfast at 9:30 and make it last as long as possible. Lunch is at 1. I get really hungry around 4 (I'm eating now!) so I'm having a 70 calorie cheese snack & some crackers.

Let me grab a screen shot of today's food so far.

Here's today so far. Today was the first time I've had this particular yogurt and man, one cup is a lot of yogurt and kept me very full!

OP when you set up MFP, it should have asked you for your activity level, which is usually based off of your type of work, since that's how many adults spend a significant portion of their waking hours. If you put in sedentary, and how much weight you want to lose as well as a reasonable time frame to do it in (your profile says you want to lose 15 lbs so you really should be set at about 0.5 lb/week loss), then it will give you a calorie goal.

It may take some time to get used to, since it sounds like this type of schedule is something new for you, but really, you can eat whatever you want within your calorie goal and lose weight. If you exercise, and track the calorie burn from MFP estimates, many people recommend eating back about half those calories.

I have an office job but I'm pretty active before, after, and I even try to walk at lunch so my activity level is set higher than sedentary. My calorie goal, before exercise, is close to 1700. I eat back my exercise cals and so I usually eat around 1900 -2000 cals. I am far from a clean eater.

A typical work day for me looks like this:
Breakfast: Greek Yogurt and Coffee with Creamer or Breakfast Sandwich and Coffee w/ Creamer: 250-350 cals
Lunch: Leftovers from dinner the night before, or a Frozen Meal with a salad from the work cafeteria, or a sandwich and chips or a bowl of soup. Usually about 400-600 cals for one of those, but if we go out to lunch maybe once a week I may exceed 700.
Snack (either morning or afternoon, if needed, I'm not a huge snacker) - Kind Bar or another Greek Yogurt. 200 cals
Dinner: usually have about 800-1000 cals for this. Grilled protein, vegetables, side of noodles or rice. Probably would have room for wine and or gelato too.

The American Diabetes Association recently made a "toolkit" with exercises and tips for desk sitters. Here's a link to it, or if you don't trust it you can always Google "Get Fit don't Sit" and look for the PDF listed:

http://http://main.diabetes.org/WellnessLivesHere/GetFit/ADA_GetFitDontSit_toolkit.pdf"]http://main.diabetes.org/WellnessLivesHere/GetFit/ADA_GetFitDontSit_toolkit.pdf

I love all yogurt, especially the Greek, but you have to watch because many natural kinds have a lot of sugar. I won't eat the artificial sugars. You can buy unsweetened and add fruit or honey for some natural sweetness. I noticed some people's sample menus lack sugar tracking. You'll be blown away (if you start tracking it) how fast you exceed a daily sugar limit, especially with yogurt. I also love natural creamer in my average 2 cups of coffee a day, but there's more sugar sneaking in. I've been experimenting with flavored almond milk, figuring you aren't even putting a serving of that in your coffee.

Im an 8-5 office desk sitter too. Just bring the snacks that will fit into your daily allowance. Im sure you have go to low calorie snacks you like. I also drink a lot of coffee or tea or the flavored water enchancer like Mio so that im always doing something in regards to eating/drinking.

platypus91 wrote: »

Hey all,
I'm having some trouble with my weight lately. Started a 9-5 job a few months ago, and I've gained about 10lbs. It's a sit down job, but I get pretty hungry while ditting there for 8 hours a day.

Does anyone have some advice about what I should be snacking on? Also what kind of foods should I eat everyday for my sedintary lifestyle. I work out about 2x a week, but not for long. Helllllp!

I have similar hours and a sit-down job as well.

So ... I walk a bit on my way to work in the morning and home again at night. I also have an hour for lunch, so I walk then too. In addition, I work on the 5th floor and have been climbing the stairs more often ... sometimes I remember to climb them twice a day, other times I forget (old habits) and only climb them once.

As for eating, I do not eat breakfast.

I have a small crackers and cheese snack (100 cal) at about 10 am.

Then I have something like brown rice, veg and chicken or lentil soup and veg (approx. 300-400 cal) for lunch.

And later I have a 60 cal yogurt ... and a 50 cal mandarin orange.

So all up till 5 pm ... somewhere between 500 and 600 cal.

Is it really hunger or more like boredom or need a distraction? Try drinking more of water. Sometimes we think we are hungry but we are not really. Water can sometimes help that feeling pass.