Doing well, then doing terrible,

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Andrilla87
Andrilla87 Posts: 14 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Most weekdays I don't have a problem with going over my calorie goal. The only food I have available is what I've packed for lunch, I don't usually have access to snacks, and my mind is kept busy. This means that I have more than enough calories left over for a large dinner when I get home. I don't feel hungry during the day, I don't spend my time thinking about food, and I'm not starving when it is time for dinner. There are times when I have finished my day and go "hmm, need to get another helping of dinner because I'm so low on calories."

But weekends, or days where I have a shorter day at work I have SO MUCH TROUBLE. I feel hungry all day long, all I can think about is food, and even when I try to stick to the healthier things I know that I eat more than I should. I could blow past all of my calories before lunch! I do have activities that I will do to keep my mind busy, but it doesn't have the same effect as when I'm at work. Because of the "open layout" of the apartment (IE: too small to have separate rooms) I'm always in the same room as the fridge and never more than 15ft away from it. I try to snack on healthy things, like carrots and apples, but you can only eat so many carrots in a day before you need something else. I overeat on lunch and dinner, have multiple cups of coffee (only 1 on weekdays usually), and nothing seems to satisfy me.

This past week was especially rough because I didn't work as much as typical, which meant that it was much more difficult to avoid snacking. I'm not losing weight, even though I am now better at weighing things, and I think that this snacking is the problem. Any advice on what I can do to curb the home snacking habit?

Replies

  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,106 Member
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    I do exactly the same when I am at home, prime example is when we were stuck at home last Monday because of the Hurricane force winds. I ate everything in sight purely out of boredom.

    What I do find helps on most weekends is to do intermittent fasting so I have brunch rather than seperate breakfast & lunch and then I have a lot more calories available for later in the day. I also seem to be ok until I actually start eating so I try to leave it as late as possible, normally I will do my workout and housework in the morning.

    There are certain foods that I just don't seem to be able to moderate, so I don't keep them at home and the snacks I do keep in the house I have pre-weighed in little pots in a basket in the kitchen (I could go a step further and put it on top of the cupboard (out of sight, out of mind and all that jazz) but it's full of stuff I tend to be able to control my intake of.

    If I have no social plans, I try to keep myself busy with little mini household projects like clearing out my wardrobe, organising my kitchen drawers, sorting out my meal planner for the next week or two, etc.
  • DX2JX2
    DX2JX2 Posts: 1,921 Member
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    Try getting yourself into a 'weekend' eating routine. Just like you would during a normal workday. It helps to take some of the spontaneity out of your meals and gives you some structure to lean on (for example, I won't snack now because I'll be eating dinner in 90 minutes, etc.)

    Also, you might want to play with the types of foods you're eating and the timing of your meals to see if any help to satiate you better than others. I found that by eating a slightly larger than normal 'brunch' on weekends (about 600 calories at 11:00 AM or 11:30AM vs. a piece of fruit at 9AM and a 400 calorie sandwich at noon on a normal workday), I was much better able to control my mid-afternoon snack cravings.

    It also helped that my weekend brunch was higher in protein & fat than my normal meals and that the time I spent actually preparing the meal helped because it was very easy to resist snacking when you know you're going to have a pretty substantial meal in 20-30 minutes.
  • Sunnybrooke99
    Sunnybrooke99 Posts: 369 Member
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    toxikon wrote: »
    I purposefully eat under my goal on weekdays so I can eat over my goal on weekends. Usually around 800-900 on weekdays and 2000 on weekends. The average works out to around 1200-1300.

    This is what I do also. Plus, I prepare by having some low cal volume foods that will be filling. Stuff like a can of mustard greens with chunky veggie marinara, or tabouli lettuce wraps. If I didn’t do this, I’d never get to enjoy some of my favorite higher calorie foods.
  • cathipa
    cathipa Posts: 2,991 Member
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    How much weight do you have to lose? Maybe 1200 is too restrictive. Have you tried snacking on higher protein/fat foods to see if this helps with satiety?
  • Andrilla87
    Andrilla87 Posts: 14 Member
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    cathipa wrote: »
    How much weight do you have to lose? Maybe 1200 is too restrictive. Have you tried snacking on higher protein/fat foods to see if this helps with satiety?

    The reason I went with 1200 is because that is what my doctor recommended. She said that I would need to go that low to lose weight, but I figure that she is probably setting it that low knowing that most people underestimate their calorie intake.

    Do you have any good recommendations for the higher protein/fat snacks?
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    How much do you have to lose? How many calc does MFP give you for a reasonable loss rate?
  • Andrilla87
    Andrilla87 Posts: 14 Member
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    lorrpb wrote: »
    How much do you have to lose? How many calc does MFP give you for a reasonable loss rate?
    I'm trying to lose 50lbs, and if I were to lose 1.5lbs a week I would get 1290 calories.

  • sebedina
    sebedina Posts: 160 Member
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    I find it helpful to eat at certain times. 9.45 for 10.00, 12.15 for 12.30 then 4.00pm snack (for 4.15) then dinner at 7.15pm. I find I frequently forget to eat at 4pm so by 5pm I'm ravenous snd massively overeat. Then don't eat at 7pm so end up eating again at 9pm. I find when I stick to the timings I'm much more successful. My calorie count is between 1 500-1,700 on a good day.

    On bad days it's 3,000k which is very often sadly. I forget to stick to my plan!!
  • hydechildcare
    hydechildcare Posts: 145 Member
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    I try to take walks when I am home if I am wanting a snack but not hungry. I also double my activity when I am at home than the office so I do eat more on the weekends and shorter days.
  • MegaMooseEsq
    MegaMooseEsq Posts: 3,118 Member
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    If you’re already packing your food for work days, could you try packing your food for the weekend as well? Not necessarily as a long term thing, but as a way of trying to break that bored/accessible food eating pattern?
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    edited October 2017
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    My coping mechanism for weekend eating is to increase my deficit a bit more on weekdays, works a charm. :smiley:
    Late night snacking use to be an issue for me too, I reserve 200-300 calories for that. If I am still hungry or wanting to eat I sip water or diet tonic water and that helps. Alot of the time we just fancy eating because we are bored.
  • Andrilla87
    Andrilla87 Posts: 14 Member
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    MegaMooseEsq wrote: »
    If you’re already packing your food for work days, could you try packing your food for the weekend as well? Not necessarily as a long term thing, but as a way of trying to break that bored/accessible food eating pattern?

    I've tried that a little bit, maybe I'll give it a deeper try. I've done that when we go over to friends house for D&D (my weakness is his homemade pizza, but I try to eat less of it) My problem then is that I go through my snacks too quickly. It is almost like I feel that I NEED to eat them all quickly, but then I'm hungry later. I might try putting my snacks in the other room at his house so that I can't just reach over and grab them. That will be more difficult at home, but I'll give it a shot.
  • Mommybug2
    Mommybug2 Posts: 149 Member
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    Same! I do great all week and even leave a deficit knowing I don't have time for the high intensity workout I do on weekdays and expecting I'll go over a bit but lately it has been enough to totally blow my whole week out of the water. It's gotten to the point I am gaining and not maintaining because my weekend binges are so out of control. I know the only way is to occupy myself during the weekend. Get out of the house, get away from food! Its hard with small kids who always want treats or who want food related rewards. But I know it is all boredom eating.
  • aeloine
    aeloine Posts: 2,163 Member
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    Andrilla87 wrote: »
    cathipa wrote: »
    How much weight do you have to lose? Maybe 1200 is too restrictive. Have you tried snacking on higher protein/fat foods to see if this helps with satiety?

    The reason I went with 1200 is because that is what my doctor recommended. She said that I would need to go that low to lose weight, but I figure that she is probably setting it that low knowing that most people underestimate their calorie intake.

    Do you have any good recommendations for the higher protein/fat snacks?

    We've been seeing a LOT of this on the forums the last couple of days. What is your weight/height/age/gender?

    There's a good chance that your calorie goals are too restrictive and unsustainable. What does MFP say when you put in your stats and weight loss goals?
  • cathipa
    cathipa Posts: 2,991 Member
    edited October 2017
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    Andrilla87 wrote: »
    cathipa wrote: »
    How much weight do you have to lose? Maybe 1200 is too restrictive. Have you tried snacking on higher protein/fat foods to see if this helps with satiety?

    The reason I went with 1200 is because that is what my doctor recommended. She said that I would need to go that low to lose weight, but I figure that she is probably setting it that low knowing that most people underestimate their calorie intake.

    Do you have any good recommendations for the higher protein/fat snacks?

    Unless your doctor is a bariatric/weight loss specialist 1200 is the typical calorie number they recommend. For most females this is the lowest calorie recommendation. It would be good to know more about you (weight/height), but if you don't feel comfortable then MFP is set up to calculate this for you. Choose a reasonable goal 0.5-1 pound a week is reasonable for most. I know you said you want to lose 50 pounds, but how far are you from a healthy weight (not your desired weight)?

    ETA: higher protein/fat snack ideas: nuts, seeds, nut/seed butters, cheese, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, deli meats
  • Andrilla87
    Andrilla87 Posts: 14 Member
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    I'm female, 30, 5ft 7in, about 190lbs, and not worried about anyone knowing that. The healthy range for that height is 121-158lbs, so losing 50lbs would put me firmly in the middle of that. I used to weigh about 135 to 140 and I was the happiest with my body then. I've been lower due to an anxiety disorder that affected my eating (not an eating disorder), was not as happy with my body.

  • changeconsumeme
    changeconsumeme Posts: 229 Member
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    Andrilla87 wrote: »
    I'm female, 30, 5ft 7in, about 190lbs, and not worried about anyone knowing that. The healthy range for that height is 121-158lbs, so losing 50lbs would put me firmly in the middle of that. I used to weigh about 135 to 140 and I was the happiest with my body then. I've been lower due to an anxiety disorder that affected my eating (not an eating disorder), was not as happy with my body.

    A simple BMR calculator that I plugged your stats into gave me 1656 kcal. That's the minimum amount of calories your body would need to keep your vital organs functioning.

    You aren't eating enough!
  • always_smilin_D
    always_smilin_D Posts: 89 Member
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    Avoid the extra helping to accommodate hitting calories during the week and add them to the weekend - as long as you are at a 3,500 (1 lbs) deficit at the 7 day mark, you should still be seeing healthy loss.

    Do however listen to your body and pay attention to your energy levels - low energy levels mean too little fuel ;)

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