Eating too much! :(

I have the same habit as you, and was awful in college! Especially come test time! :sad:

But now when I snack, I limit myself to certain times of the day and calories that I can consume during that snack. For instance, I know my 2 snack periods are at 10am and 3pm (ish). I will allow myself a protein bar, generally in the a.m., and in the afternoon, it might be carrot sticks, an apple, some raw almonds, a rice cake or something of substance, but not a bad fat.

I hope that helps. I also find, that by tracking it on here and knowing that i have to look at it add up in my daily calorie in take, I won't eat it. This has kept me accountable.

You are so young, so you are fortunate with a quick metabolism, but you do really need to eat 5 balanced meals a day. 3 "meals" and 2 "snacks", in a perfect world!

HOw do i burn more? I do 30 minutes of cardio on 3 different machines everyday and lift weights and feel exhausted and BORRRRED out of my mind when exercising

You do 30 minutes total or 30 minutes on each machine? I'm assuming you mean total since you said you burn 300-400 calories. Have you tried an exercise class? Running also burns a lot of calories especially once you start to work yourself up to higher miles. Or try increasing your cardio a few minutes every time til you get to an hour and increase your intensity too. Don't give up though, just change things up!

~Leash

Yeah, re: burning more, I'd recommend biking (HILLS), spinning, and running. Running burns like crazy especially if you give yourself some rolling hills which basically result in intervals. if you're pressed for time like me, it's really the fastest/most efficient way to burn--and it's HARD and you can change your route and change your music and not be so monotonous.


I hear you re:eating too much. My calories would have been fine today if I had not eaten 900 calories worth of licorice! WTF! How did that happen? I'll tell you how: it was 2pm.

I have the same problem and what I intend to try next, while the boyfriend is out of town for a few weeks and I don't have to keep to regular meals, is try to eat no more than 100-200 calories at a time, at certain times a day, so that I just stay satisfied but not full all day long. Also, if I eat too much in the afternoon, when it gets to be PM and I've got time to exercise, I feel too "heavy" to do it sometimes.

you really should drink more water, or fluids at least, maybe tea? It helps fill you up, and replaces snacking. also you should attempt making meals, maybe a healthy salad? or soups? otherwise you will always feel a little hungry and snack more. if you must snack eat carrots, celery, cucumber, peppers, low fat 100 calorie popcorn bags, frozen fruit ( like grapes, mmmmm). Notice when you are snacking on unhealthy things, and replace them. good luck!

First, 300 to 400 calories is plenty, you don't need to do more then that. Focus more on the TYPE exercises you are doing the the amount of calories. You want to lose 5 lbs? If you're that close to ideal, then WHAT you do is going to be far more important then how long you do it. As some mentioned, get that heart rate waaaay up for about 15 or 20 minutes, into the mid 80s (interval training will do this, go hard for 5 minutes, rest for 5, hard for 5, rest for 5...etc)

2nd, be careful about creating too large of a deficit, if you're close to your goal, creating a large deficit is going to kill your progress. IMHO you should be at about a 300 calorie deficit, AND you should eat most of your exercise calories, if not all. If you don't feel comfortable with eating exercise calories, then just eat your maintenance, and use your exercise calories as your deficit. It's the same difference as far as your body is concerned.

Side benefit, having a small deficit will help you not to feel hungry through the day. Plan your meals out in advance, and pre-package your snacks so you don't overeat when you grab for a snack, tough to overeat when you are eating prepared snacks as you'd have to willingly go back and grab an extra snack to do so.

Lastly (and MOST important IMHO), focus on Body Fat % instead of the lbs you lose, when you're this close to your goal weight, it's not about what you weigh anymore, it's about how you look and feel, and reducing your body fat % will give you the lean, trim look we are all looking for, not weight, remember, even if you are at your goal weight, but have a BF% of around 28 or 30% you're still going to have a little bit of fat hanging around, but you could be 10 lbs above goal but if you have a BF% of around 20 or 22% you're going to look far better, because that extra weight is bone density and muscle, which looks good, is less bulky, and doesn't "jiggle"

best luck to you.

You should also try interval training. If you are doing machines at the gym, hop on the treadmill and increase your speed for 2 mins, slow down, increase, slow down, etc. Or do an incline for a few minutes, bring it back down, etc. Same goes for any other cardio machine. I like to switch up my workouts often, so I get bored at the gym. P90X has worked wonders for me.

What about a meal replacement shake for your lunch or dinners? Especially when you are on the go?