How committed are you??

I stay within my calorie allowance. When I was losing weight, I followed a daily calorie budget. Once in a rare while, I ate at maintenance. In maintenance, I now follow a weekly calorie budget in which I save a few calories for the weekend. (You can do this while losing weight too.)

My result was that I lost the 100 pounds I wanted to lose and have maintained my weight for a year and a half.

vetvicki wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Do you follow your calorie allowance religiously every single day all the time?

If I'm quite short on protein, and can materially improve the situation without huge calorie overage, I will. (Now, the banked calories can easily cover some of this.)

In maintenance, I'm rarely hungry and out of calories on normal days. I guess that was true while losing, too, once I got the in the swing of it: I'm pretty good at managing satiation at this point.


I'm retired. What is this "stressful days" and "busy" of which you speak?

Thanks @AnnPT77 I found this very interesting!
So do you just make sure you're eating regularly to avoid getting hungry? What would you typically eat as a filling but nutritious (lower calorie) snack? Today I got ravenous whilst waiting for lunch and it set off a few hours of overeating.
Ahh retirement, I work part-time and have a 4yo and 2yo twins.... Maybe I need to lower my expectations of myself 😂😂

Satiation seems to be very personal/individual. The big variables - no surprise - are what you eat, and when you eat it.

You'll see people around here advocating everything from grazing all day, to 6 small meals, to 3 meals and snacks, to no snacks ever just meals, to one meal a day, and lots of other variations. There are a lot of breakfast skippers, but also some (like me) who will crash and burn two hours into the day, without breakfast.

As far as what to eat: Some people find protein satiating, some get it from fats, some from high volume things (often large amounts of fibrous veggies, but there are other variations). Some people do best low carb, others need carbs (often complex carbs like potatoes or grains) in order to feel full. Some need a combination of one or more of the above. For certain people, there are particular foods that are extremely filling; those can be anything.

What I'd suggest is to figure out your personal best options via experimentation and diary review.

If you have a particular crave-y day, try to figure out why: Look for patterns. It may be eating, but it could also be stress, insufficient sleep, dehydration, exercise (day of, or day before), boredom, emotions, habit, social triggers. If the cause is something other than eating, the solution isn't eating: Gotta fix the root problem.

If you have an extra good day, or part of a day, again try to figure out why. Look at your food log: Did you eat differently? If so, what/when? Try repeating that pattern, see if it improves things. (Here again, the reason could be something other than food: Exercise, distraction, non-food indulgence, etc.).

Pay attention to how you feel when eating, and (especially) after eating. What sticks with you? What makes you want to eat more? What helps your energy level, and what tanks it? Try a new variation for a couple of days, and see whether it helps or hinders.

For me, I found that I need a solid breakfast, with a decent fraction of my day's protein, and protein spread through the day. If I get hungry when it isn't close to meal time, I'll have a small snack, usually one with protein (adjusting calories elsewhere in the day as needed): If I let myself get super-hungry, I'm much more likely to overdo the upcoming meal. In addition to protein, I need volume, mostly in the form of pretty large amounts of veggies. One meal is almost always old-fashioned oats (microwaved) with berries/walnuts/Greek yogurt: Incredibly filling to me.

Since I have a flexible schedule, I also eat somewhat flexibly. I wouldn't say that I eat on a "regular schedule" necessarily; it depends on the day. It also depends on when I'm hungry, within the idea that I need to account for how much more day is left to come, of course. It depends a lot on my exercise schedule, which changes seasonally. In Summer, I row (on water) or spin 6 days a week, so get up early and have a small breakfast (protein!) beforehand, with lunch sometime afterward, and dinner in the evening. In Winter, I'm more likely to sleep later when it's not spin day, & stay up later, and often only have 2 main meals, with sometimes some snacks. But even that varies.

But this is me, not you. You'll need to figure out you. It's like a big, fun, high-payoff science fair project for grown-ups.

P.S. You asked explicitly what snacks I like. This will be individual, but some that work well for me, since I find protein satiating, are string cheese; crispy chickpeas or dry-roasted soybeans or crispy broad beans; apple with peanut butter (if I need a bigger snack & can free up the calories); Greek yogurt with berries and maybe chocolate peanut butter powder; small portions of nuts (you can get 100-calorie packs for portable use; note that nuts are also high fat, but they work for me sometimes); hard-boiled eggs; cottage cheese with spices and maybe cherry tomatoes or something like that. (BTW: I'm a long-time ovo-lacto vegetarian. If I weren't, there would be some meats or maybe tuna in there.) I keep some single-serve long-keeper snack packets in my car, in case I'm out longer than expected running errands or something.

vetvicki wrote: »

I'm really impressed by everyone's commitment here! I only started on Tuesday and today has been my first difficult day where I have really over-eaten. It seemed to go downhill as I just got too hungry before lunch and it set off an ongoing eating frenzy. Back on the wagon now for me, thanks for the motivation 😊

I'm wondering if you chose a weekly weight loss goal that is too aggressive for how much weight you need to lose?

https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/1200-calorie-diet/

Try to remember that weight loss is a journey not a destination. You can't think of it as a diet but rather changing your habits. Long term weight loss and maintenance is a lifestyle change. It is a proven fact that if you go on a "diet" 85% of people will gain most or all of their weight back once the "diet" has ended.

For now focus on healthy eating. Remove unhealthy snacks and foods that are packaged and processed. Don't drink juices or soda (even diet) and start an exercise program that you can stick to. Preference in exercise is resistance training. Muscles are fantastic calorie burners and maintaining your current muscle mass is just as important as gaining more muscle mass. As we age we start to lose muscle mass especially after age 40 so it's important to maintain what you already have.