Struggling with calories

candyben · February 2012

I keep struggling with keepingn within my caloric intake, I do great during the day but the minute I get home I go overboard and it is sabotaging the weight loss I have completed already. Also am curious on how often we should weigh ourselves I weigh myself three days a week and am thinking this might be too much, anyone have suggestions on how often we should weigh ourselves? And also how to stay away from those bad foods at night?

Serafimangel · February 2012

i also have a problem with bad foods at night, i only live with a flatmate and we eat seperately so you could maybe try to just not have the food in the house? Obv that is very dependant on if you are in a family/living with people etc. I always have something i really like at night to look forward to that I have projected in my calories, like a mango or other nice fruit, yoghurt (chocolate once a week), but something you could personally look forward to, i find if you have that, you wont go looking for other things

clarkie57 · February 2012

I am seeing a nutritionist to help me in this journey. One thing she suggested was before you eat something ask yourself " would i eat a salad right now" if you say " yes" then you are really hungry. Otherwise if you are not and are eating from stress, anger, sadness, verbalize it, say out loud " i am hurt, i am sad..." i found it helps and will keep me from grabbing something for the wrong reason
Other than that try and make sure you have some "go to" items in the fridge or cabinet, fruit, nuts, some source of protein. She also recommends a weigh in once a week, same time under the same conditions. Hope this helps!! Good luck!! :flowerforyou:

mrsbastone · February 2012

I know exactly what you are going through with the sabotaging. Anyway to answer the question at hand. I weight myself once a day sometimes twice because I like looking for trends. Personally I don't think it matters as long as you weigh yourself every once in awhile to make sure you are on track with your goals.

I agree with what was previously stated. Keep any "trigger" foods out of the house. When you start forming a new healthier habits you'll have the momentum to not give in to snacking and stuff. Plus I make sure I plan a snack for at night.. when I first started it was sugar free jello pudding. It's pretty good. Now I am trying to avoid that as well and planning snacks like nuts/fruit and hummus/veges.. Warm Tea at the end of the day helps. Brushing your teeth helps stay away from treats.

However, the best thing that has helped me through my weight loss journey more than anything else has been cutting sugar out my diet. I am not so anal that I avoid things like ketchup, but no sugar bombs like desserts, muffins, granola bars, etc. I honest to god have almost no cravings for sugar anymore. It has made this whole journey so much easier then past attempts. Now I know this isn't for everybody, but it's what has helped me the most.

MammaSki2Boys · February 2012

I only weight myself once a week. Also, at times, when I'm finished with dinner I would brush my teeth right after to keep me from nibbling the rest of the night.

HisMissus · February 2012

I only weigh myself once a week, every monday morning when I get up.

Are you going overboard by eating a high calorie meal or do you snack/buy takeaways? If you feel it's because you're snacking, try not to have those foods in the house. As there's only me and Hubby, we don't buy chocolate, crisps or biscuits then we're not tempted. If you're relying on takeaways as you don't want/have time to cook, maybe make some home-made ready meals to put in the freezer (chilli, bolognaise etc)

If you're eating because you're bored (I do that sometimes) get active! I do a lot of crafting - card making, cross stitching, - and I find I tend not to snack as I'm pre-occupied with that.

Maybe find some healthier alternatives to the bad foods - fruit dipped in a bit of melted chocolate rather than eating a whole choc bar...

cressievargo · February 2012

I know exactly what you are going through with the sabotaging. Anyway to answer the question at hand. I weight myself once a day sometimes twice because I like looking for trends. Personally I don't think it matters as long as you weigh yourself every once in awhile to make sure you are on track with your goals.

I agree with what was previously stated. Keep any "trigger" foods out of the house. When you start forming a new healthier habits you'll have the momentum to not give in to snacking and stuff. Plus I make sure I plan a snack for at night.. when I first started it was sugar free jello pudding. It's pretty good. Now I am trying to avoid that as well and planning snacks like nuts/fruit and hummus/veges.. Warm Tea at the end of the day helps. Brushing your teeth helps stay away from treats.

However, the best thing that has helped me through my weight loss journey more than anything else has been cutting sugar out my diet. I am not so anal that I avoid things like ketchup, but no sugar bombs like desserts, muffins, granola bars, etc. I honest to god have almost no cravings for sugar anymore. It has made this whole journey so much easier then past attempts. Now I know this isn't for everybody, but it's what has helped me the most.

Avoiding sugar (not completely eliminating) has worked for me as well. Some foods that I once enjoyed now taste so sweet that it makes me gag. One thing I have eliminated is pop - of ANY kind. Diet pop is a major trigger for me. I still drink crystal lite, but I can make 2 or 3 things out of one "stick" now. I'm working on eliminating that as well and just using lemongrass, lemons, etc to add some flavor to water.

jademh · February 2012

oh I am the same exact way and I absolutely HATE it!!! And those nights where I do give in and eat I just feel so guilty!! Anyways, what I've found works a little better is not buying your go-to foods anymore and stocking up on extremely healthy foods, and foods that take a lot of preparation to cook. Now in the evening if this happens I'm munching on carrots in stead of chips, strawberries in stead of chocolate, etc. Makes a big difference. Best of luck to you

HulkDiesel77 · February 2012

I only weigh myself about every two weeks. The daily fluctuations will drive me mad if I weighed in every few days. I ask myself the same question before putting anything in my mouth....."Will eating this fuel my body and get me closer to where I need to be or only give me a short term satisfaction and disappointment after it is gone". Well it helps for me anyway.

farmers_daughter · February 2012

Ditto here....

And my house (this was valentines weekend and school valentines) for the most part is "junk and trigger" food free.

I don't blow it on junk food, I blow it on healthy food, I just OVEReat, anything, if it stands still it gets eaten.... :embarassed:

The only thing I've been able to do is to keep busy, clean, laundry, play the wii with my kids, do my zumba, anything to avoid the .265 seconds it takes me to grab the fridge door and look at what's in there for me to blow my day on.

Idle hands, make a straight entry to your mouth. It's like a robot almost....you don't realize you are doing it. :huh:

kathyc609 · February 2012

However, the best thing that has helped me through my weight loss journey more than anything else has been cutting sugar out my diet. I am not so anal that I avoid things like ketchup, but no sugar bombs like desserts, muffins, granola bars, etc. I honest to god have almost no cravings for sugar anymore. It has made this whole journey so much easier then past attempts. Now I know this isn't for everybody, but it's what has helped me the most.

I agree. As soon as I took sugar out of my diet all cravings were gone. Doesn't matter what is In the house - it is just not appealing to me. When I started my mindset was that I would eat a healthy dinner and then know that I was finished eating for the day. It is very rare I snack at night And if I do it is usually cucumber, celery, or green peppers.
Good luck to you on your weight loss : )

aghack · February 2012

I had this problem the first time I tried MFP. I'd do great all day, and then blow it at night. I've done 3 things to help me with this, and I've been doing great.

The first thing- I eat the same thing for breakfast every day. I like it, I add the calories right away, and I know what my budget is for the rest of the day. I hated to eat breakfast, but it really does help. I'm not starving at night anymore.

The second thing- I enter all my food for the day while I have my morning coffee. I include my snacks, lunch, any sugared beverages I might want, etc. So I start off with a successful day, and then I eat from the list. If I don't eat something, I just delete it. If I'm full before I've finished my lunch, I save everything in my lunch bag to have for a snack later. If I don't know what's for dinner, I add one of my low-cal faves from a fast food place (even if I don't want to go there that night). That let's me know that if I don't figure out what's for dinner, I have a simple option that fits with my calorie budget for the day.

The final thing- I keep about 10 different snacky, munchy, night-grazing type of foods around the house. If I have to have something, I pull from those and most of them only take a few minutes of walking to burn off.
Here are my go-to snacks: Salty- hard boiled egg(1/2 yolk), cucumber slices dipped in 1Tbsp hummus, 2 mini pitas dipped in hummus, 100 calorie pack of beef jerky, 30 cal small can of tuna, 4 or five shrimp.
Sweet- Weight watchers strawberry smoothie bars(60 cal), 3 large strawberries, frozen grapes, 1 dark chocolate and almond sandies cookie, or a single Ghiradelli square.

If you know that night snacking is your weakness, go ahead and add 200-300 calories worth of snacks to your daily budget. Good luck!

candyben · February 2012

Thanks everyone for the help and suggestions. I am a salty snacker, I tend to pick up a bag of chips and once I get my hand in it i am a goner. The other one is chocolate, I try to stay away from it but the store is so close. But I think i might try to eliminate sugar from my diet, I have done this before and it really helped but once I introduced it once again i just started eating it like ti was going out of style. I always have lots of fruit and vegetables and a pre made salad in the fridge but somedays it just isn't what I want - especially if the kids or hubby is eating ice cream or potatoe chips in front of me. Oh well thanks to all your suggestions I now know some tricks to keep myself going.

As for the weigh in I think once a week will be good as I find three times a week drives me crazy with what am i doing - then comes the why not just eat it I mean really I gained attitude. So maybe oinly doing it once a week might really stop me from doing that.

And finally I guess excercise is my friend - yep have to start to get more active and stop looking at the amount of time I do it and concentrate on the fact that I am finally moving and starting, I am so critical on myself and have such high expectations that it is impossible to reach.

mikajoanow · February 2012

I was doing that before. If you're just starting, stop trying to fit into a calorie number. Just start logging everything you eat. Get used to logging for a few days and lower your calorie goals as you get used to it. Once you're used to logging those calories all the time, it will honestly get easier and easier for you. This always happens to me when I get out of practice.

Some times you can't do everything at one time. Some times you have to pace yourself. Don't be hard on yourself.

Struggling with calories

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