Early risers

Are you drinking enough water? Can you focus on low calorie high volume foods (fish, veggies, plain popcorn) for maybe lunch or dinner so you can eat more and stay within your calorie goal?

One meal a day with all your calories is not as bad as you would think. I do it. Never hungry.

identify the foods that make you feel full and spread those out throughout your day. my day starts at 6am and I eat roughly every 3-4hrs.

Don’t kick yourself for struggling. Weight loss is about problem solving. Allocating you’re calories is a big part of it.

I’m maintaining now. But when necessary, my target for losing is 1700. I allocate 1200 for 3 meals of about 400 calories, the rest for 3-4 snacks. Start with what you like to eat. In the big picture there are three options. Make the numbers work with portion control. Make the numbers work by modifying the dish or meal. Change what you like.

I’m retired now. But I still start the day with a big bowl of oatmeal with added egg protein and cut up apple. But that became breakfast after I started tracking. Because I couldn’t get cold cereal with milk and banana to work with my numbers. When I started I always had an apple for a morning snack. It kept me from being too hungry at lunch and making bad decisions.

On work days I tried to have something available mid afternoon, a bigger snack right when I got home, dinner, and 2 snacks in the evening. A bigger snack about 8, almost always some kind of plan friendly ice cream, and about 50 calories held back for just before bed.

Overall I’ve found this- I try to think in terms of satisfying. I want what I eat to be filling enough and tasty enough to be satisfying. I generally want to know what’s coming next. A battle for me was getting past the office vending machines on my way out. I had an hour commute. I was hungry a lot then. But it was temporary. I can wait if I have something I want coming later.

Some people set end times in the evening. Nothing after dinner, nothing after 7 or 8pm. That doesn’t work so well for me, so I hold back 50 calories to bedtime. Then it’s just about delay.

I hope you find something in this that helps you. But really know this- there’s a learning curve. It’s all a big experiment. Keep your food diary going no matter what. Over your number? Wildly over? Log all of it. Keep trying different things until you find something that works. Then move on to the next thing. Never quit.

Oh, and make a BIG pot of chunky veggie soup, separate into pots and freeze. Low calories and you don't have to think about lunch or dinner. Or its a healthy ealry evening starter which avoids eating junk!