Failing every day :(

My trigger is that once the kids are in bed for the night, I sit down to watch TV and immediately start thinking about snacking. I'm a sucker for sweets as well.

The change I made was to go to bed soon after my kids do. Once they go to bed, I brush my teeth and then watch television for an hour, and then I head to bed myself. By brushing my teeth is sways me away from eating at night, and kind of "sets me up" to be ready to go to bed.

Not only am I not doing the night-time binge snack thing, but I'm getting more sleep as a result as well.

And when I do want a sweet - I log it. No matter how big or small.

I think you definitely need to increase from 1200 calories a day - that's not sustainable in the long-term.

Do you know whats trigger you to eat the food choices you're eating? Are you hungry and those are all the options? Are you bored or emotionally eating? Can you get rid of the snacks and sweets?

coops3180 wrote: »

I dont know whats wrong with me im gradually gaining more and more and movibg into the overweight bracket. Every day I start off really well and have a healthy breakfast, snack and lunch but i when get home from work around 3pm, I just start eating loads of sweet stuff until im full!!! im aware its really bad for me and i hate myself after but its happening every day, I just dont know what to do or what diet to go on.. I need to lose about 18 lbs! but just dont know how im going to do it with this binge eating stuff when I get home from work any advice would be appreciated.. On here it says I need 1200 kcals but I dont know how to stick to that and not be starving or craving sweet stuff...

Don't know if your got your answer or not but here's my 2 cents. (and these are just the things that worked for me so it's not saying I'm an expert or anything)

First don't diet... change your life style. Dieting, typically, means your planning to stop and the goal should be to change your life and have weight loss as a side effect.

Plan in the treats, my vice is chocolate covered almonds... so I put the 800 calories into the plan... so I'm having it on the days after 2 hours of trampolining or something. (where I was easily burning 1000-1500 calories)

Support, kids don't need junk food any more than adults. So would help if they change with you... got a lot of resistance from my daughter on that.... but we've been sticking to on sweet treat a week. Something else that can help is separate the snacks. Out of mind sort of thing.

Protein. It burns ~30% of the calories to process. so keep your protein percentage where it should be. And watch some of the protein sources... some have a high fat/calorie count to go with it.

Lower salt.... one thing I've found is the high calorie foods are usually the processed, and high in salt. (my life style change was to lower blood pressure so this was a big one for me)

Be partly vegetarian (wife's mostly vegan). I have a steak maybe once a month... mostly eat chicken for protein, because it's closer to just pure protein... point was to reduce the meat in take. If you start trying to go vegetarian you end up cutting out a lot of the high fat foods.

Pick inefficient foods. Mars bar is packed with energy... celery or no sugar yogourt is mostly packed with water. My evening snack, after my evening routine, is usually 200-300g of low calorie yogourt, with a very small amount of dark chocolate chips, with maybe a banana. (granted my evening routines usually include some crazy activity)

Fitness. The more fit you are the better you burn the calories. I started with a resting heart rate of 80-90bpm, and a blood pressure something 146/101. Now my blood pressure is normal and my resting heart rate is 42bpm... every since I got fit I find it's easier to work with the cravings. Sometimes just walking out the door and walking around the block is enough to help with any cravings... also a good way to separate if your eating because your hungry or because it's there.

On the 1200 kcals? seems really low. My base calories to lose 2lbs a week is little under 2,000 calories... which goes all out of walk when you add exercise.

coops3180 wrote: »

Thanks for the advice I know I need to do weigh stuff etc but with work and 4 children ive become lazy with doing stuff like that and reching for whatever is easy.. And sweet!!

I find it hard to weigh and log too, i have two kids and study full time and there's just so much to do and remember all.the.time. that it's just too hard to log consistently. And I feel your pain at not being able to clear the house of "junk" too, the kids eat well and have an occasional treat so why should they have to change that because of my weight issues!

I also have that problem with afternoon snacking and it's more than just a little craving or being a bit hungry. It's a compulsion to load up with carbs *right now*. One thing that I'm going to try is to have breakfast and lunch as normal but have dinner ready to go when i get in the door (leftovers from last night) then when I serve up the family meal, dish myself out a portion for tomorrow afternoon. If i could do that regularly i know i would find it much easier.

@diannethegeek That is a great response!!!

Have you been tested for diabetes? A lot of times a diabetic untreated will have sweet cravings. Just a thought!!

Yep! You need to throw that stuff away! And take a little time to prep some healthy snacks to keep in the house to stop you binging on junk. I just made a fish soup. Throwing it in the freezer so I can just chuck it in the microwave when I want. Hot soup, drinks will help you feel full!

Banish junk food from the house. Junk food defined here as high calorie/low nutrient foods. This includes for your kids. Are you the one buying groceries? If so, don't buy junk foods. If they're buying them for themselves, make it a rule that it needs to be consumed by them before the day is over. Anything left is thrown away before they go to bed. They can still have junk food outside the house, and inside in limited quantities, but you'll be removing a huge temptation for you. And maybe helping them learn moderation on their part. Yes, they will complain and whine and moan about it. However it's not going to hurt them, so be firm.

If you've got a sweet tooth, work with it. Always hungry for something sweet at 3pm? Have some fruit or head to the store or gas station and pick up a SINGLE of something you like. Make room for it in your daily calories. This goes for any foods that you crave. Don't cut everything you like out of your diet. Instead, find out how much of it is a serving and find places to work it into your day. You still get to eat stuff you like, but in a way that won't disrupt your progress. Remember, this is not a diet, this is you changing your eating habits. Learn to work with foods you like and you'll be able to keep the weight off once you get to your goal

It's also ok to start small and build. Make a couple of small changes, give yourself time to get used to it, and then make a few more. If you have to schedule a day every other week or once a month to adjust something, do so. Keep adjusting until you're comfortable staying within your calorie goal for the day. Make sure your calories aren't too low. If you don't think MFP is correct, google for a calorie calculator and use a few that come up to check it. They'll all be different because each one uses a slightly different calculation for activity levels, but they should all be close. Average them and use that as your goal.

You might also consider splitting up your calories differently. Some people do better on several smaller meals over the course of the day instead of 2-3 big ones. That might be something to explore.

I think it's a great idea to practice and get to the point where you can keep candy and other treats around and only eat one serving. Many of us (me!) can't do that in the beginning, and may never be able to. I think it's okay to acknowledge that and manage your environment with that in mind. I'm slowly developing that skill, but I still have to be super-cautious when I have treats around because it only takes one moment of weakness to break down and eat a crapload of calories with energy dense foods.

Been there, Done that!! And I bet you aren't hungry when you are mindlessly eating all those biscuits and kit kats and stuff?!! But the key word there is MINDLESSLY! The only way I have started to conquer my overeating is to literally ask myself "Am I ok with putting this into my mouth when I know I will feel bad? If the answer is yes then promise yourself to really enjoy it!"

xx

Buy a key for locker and give that to kids and tell them to keep it locked haha

Have a look at this calorie calculator scoobysworkshop

I plugged your stats in and with a 10% reduction, even without exercise it suggests 1471 calories a day. Your binging is mostly because you are not eating enough up to that point. Eat more earlier, and you are less likely to binge from hunger.

I'm short too (you have a couple of inches on me, and I weigh another half a stone on top of you). My calorie suggestion is around 1480, which should let me lose just over 1and a half lbs PER MONTH. If your short, your weight loss will take longer, much longer. Losing about a lb per month is more likely, which means MFP's goals are a bit too aggressive. You can manually change your calorie target. I suggest figuring out what your maintenance calories are, and what your goal calories are. Gradually reduce what you are eating whilst not feeling like you are starving, then stick at that level.