Help! Not hitting my goals! :(

jsmnmrshll8989 · February 2022

I've been logging my caloric intake for almost a month now but I've barely seen any progress yet. It doesn't really come as a surprise though because I'm almost always over my calorie limit. I'm not necessarily overeating, but I'd say most days I probably end up eating at maintenance, which isn't very effective when you're trying to lose weight. How do I hit my calorie goals more consistently without feeling super hungry and low-energy all the time?

sbelletti · February 2022

It will take your body to adjust to the lower calories.

For me, I eat a lot of veggies that fill me up without using a lot of my daily allotted calories. I hate going to bed hungry so I usually eat meals later than many people and always save 100-150 calories for my evening snack. Look for foods that satisfy your craving and fill you up. 250 calories of butter won't fill you up nearly as much as 250 calories of oatmeal, for example.

Drink plenty of water throughout the day. Some people prefer hot tea or black coffee.

If you've made a big change in what you're eating, it will take awhile for your body to adapt. Hang in there, tighten up your logging and really think about the foods you enjoy that will fill you up and how often/when you prefer to eat them.

BCLadybug888 · February 2022

It's always a balancing act between eating & losing. Don't give up, tinker with what you've learned over the last month.

You've barely lost, but you've barely been eating below maintenance. If you want to speed up the loss, there is only one way - eat fewer calories. Your sweet spot may only be 250 calories below maintenance, which will translate into 1/2 pound a week - in a year that is still 26 pounds! And very doable.
If you could add in a little exercise everyday for an extra 250 calories without eating more, that would bring you up to 1 pound a week.

Excellent food suggestions above, soups & stews can be very filling for lower calorie meals. If you have a slow cooker/crockpot, load it up with veggies & broth plus some meat or beans for healthy eats 😋
I find apples to be very filling also.

Good luck - it's working, just slowly 👍

Lietchi · February 2022

Experiment with what foods satiate you:
- different macro splits: some people find high protein filling, some people low carb, some find fat combined with carbs filling,...
- experiment with meal frequency: some people need smaller meals throughout the day, others prefer fewer but larger meals (like me, I am hungry when I eat 6 meals a day), some people find intermittent fasting helpful (I skipped breakfast for the first year of my weight loss because it made it easier to stick to my calorie goal)
- high fiber intake helps a lot of people feel fuller
- some people just need high volume (there's a volume eaters thread here somewhere) bulking up meals with salad greens and other low calorie vegetables

yirara · February 2022

Two ideas:
1. For now just chose the lowest calorie deficit you can chose. That would be 0.5lbs per week. Work towards hitting it. I don't mean get there every single day but aim to get to it. It's a start. You didn't write how heavy you are, but if you've been overeating for years it can be difficult to eat less, and even eating at maintenance can be difficult. So take baby steps. If even this is too difficult then set your calorie goal to maintenance for a few weeks and then take one step down.

2. experiment with food. Chose food you enjoy and that satiates you. What works for you is unfortunately very individual. I'm surprised that nobody has come in saying you really need to do keto because it worked wonders for them. It doesn't mean though that it will for you. And maybe you even hate that way of eating. So also here it's baby steps. Experiment. Also, do you drink a lot of your calories? Maybe there are calorie-free alternatives or something that you enjoy just as much. Fluids just don't fill up many people as much as solid food does. You might be one of them.

knotmel · February 2022

Another vote for a small deficit and experimenting! Satiety seems to be fairly individual. For example, though oatmeal is often listed as something very filling, it doesn’t do the trick for me (sadly, because there’s nothing I want more on a cold morning). I need more protein than it has to feel full. Also, another plus one on the question about drinking calories: I can’t have sodas when on lower calories because they do nothing for my hunger. They’re just not worth it to me.

yirara · February 2022

knotmel wrote: »

Another vote for a small deficit and experimenting! Satiety seems to be fairly individual. For example, though oatmeal is often listed as something very filling, it doesn’t do the trick for me (sadly, because there’s nothing I want more on a cold morning).

I have a really funny experience with rolled oats. I once bought some to make cookies. Didn't like the cookies, had the box still. Thought: ok, lets try a warm brekkie. Didn't work for me. Then I whacked a few things together I had at home: oats, skyr, raisins and whatever fruit I had. And it's super filling!

OnceAndFutureAthlete · February 2022

Some things that work for me you might want to try:
1. "stealth" reducing the quantity (calories) you eat over time. For example, I went from 2 T to 1.5 T to 1 T of peanut butter on my breakfast toast, and hardly noticed the difference, but that's 95 calories saved. Same with oatmeal: from 1/2 to 1/3 cup (dry) on oatmeal days.
2. Make sure to drink enough water - helps with hunger and tiredness. Start the day with a full glass, then more thru the day. I add ~2 oz of low cal lemonade to the water. Easy and less boring. Not sweet enough to trigger sugar cravings.
3. Most any lunch or dinner, especially prepared meals and many recipes, can have more veggies added to bulk it up for few added calories. I keep bags of frozen chopped veg (especially broccoli, spinach and green beans) for just this reason. Works for soups, stews, stir-fries, ground meats (mushrooms), even spaghetti sauce (add a can of diced tomatoes and/or "blenderized" carrots!).

AnnPT77 · February 2022

Is there any variation day to day? If so, consider your day, look at your diary, theorize about what makes the difference, and experiment with making improvements.

It can be lots of things that contribute to hunger/cravings, besides food choices:
* Sleep quality or quantity
* Stress
* Type or intensity of exercise or other activity-level things (that day, or day before . . . sometimes even cumulatively)
* Targeting too-aggressive weight loss rate (slow steady loss sometimes makes a faster path to goal than restricting then over-eating. While there are some rules of thumb about what's "too fast" generically, it's always fine to go slower for sustainability unless one's body weight itself is a health threat).
* Timing of eating or exercise
* Weather (really)
* Overall nutrition (body can get crave-y from sub-par nutrition, may not crave what it's short on)
* Boredom
* Habit (of eating/snacking in particular circumstances)
* Social triggers
* Etc.

To the extent that the root problem isn't hunger or nutrition, the answer isn't food or eating.

P.S. I agree with others that satiation is individual, so requires experimenting. It can be about nutrition, macro distribution, specific food choices, timing of eating, among other things. Some people find so-called "whole foods" more sating than so-called "highly processed foods". (I say "so-called" because those terms are so, so poorly defined.)

So, experiment, review, assess, adjust. I like to think of all of this as sort of a fun science-fair experiment for grown-ups. 😉

Best wishes!

Help! Not hitting my goals! :(

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