Getting obsessive with calorie counts

Try this for a while: make a plan for your eating the night before that's spread throughout the day. Tweak it until you're within your calories and macros, then eat that. It may help you feel comfortable with getting some calories in early in the day.

I'm not suggesting you do it forever - just until you get comfortable with what a normal day's eating feels like in your calorie range.

Exactly. Pre-plan your meals to fit and make adjustments as you go along. Planning keeps you in control. No need to obsess.

Even if you are away from home, you have to plan your meals the day before. You can make sandwiches, snacks and small meals in the morning or the night before.

You have to take control of your eating and NOT leave it up to chance.

Just keep in mind that food IS your friend. Food is fuel and our bodies need it. It's just about making better choices about the calories we put into our mouths.

Plan a daily food menu of what you plan to eat and calculate it like that. That way you'll see exactly how many calories you'll consume for the day

What types of places do you eat when you are not home? You can plan for healthier choices at a variety of your usual places you might end up. Or, get a lunch box and take food from home that you have measured and already know the calories of.

Learn what is healthier and what is less healthy so you can make better choices when out. Grilled chicken instead of fried and battered. Mayo on the side instead of whatever sauce they put on. Steamed veggies instead of fries. Water instead of cola.

Plan ahead - log what you think you'll have for breakfast, lunch and dinner, then add some snacks. If you still have clls to spare add extras to meals or snacks like fruit, avocado, cheese, nuts etc.
Don't forget to estimate your exercise too so you get a few extra cals earlier in the day if you have a workout planned.
If plans change - then edit your diary, but at least you can see what a healthy eating day looks like.

^^^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^^

Reposting it so you read it again!

I bag a lunch and I'm OK with eating the same thing every day, especially at this point when I'm trying to lose weight and learn lessons I thought I already knew about food.

Sit down and spend some time with the foods you like, and maybe a few you want to try, and work up a day that:

1. Has you eating things you want to eat.
2. Has you eating frequently enough that you don't go through hungry times when you go searching for a snack (PLAN those snacks as part of your day!!!)
3. Has a good balance of proteins, fats, carbs, fresh fruits, veggies, etc.

Now take that meal and mix it up a little, and build out a half-dozen meals and snack combinations that all meet that criteria.

TODAY, plan what you will eat TOMORROW. TOMORROW, eat what you planned. Learn when you need to eat what to stay satisfied and happy.

Example - my daily routine:
- Breakfast: Half a bagel with cream cheese, coffee. I rarely deviate from this. It's enough to pick me up and get my day started.
- Lunch starts at 10:30 with half a lean turkey-and-cheese wrap
- 11:30 the other half of the wrap
- 12:30 or so - workout or walk, followed with eating a banana.
- 2:00 or so - nut and sesame stick mix, about 1/4 cup.
- 3:00 and 4:00 - Apple and Clementine
- 5:30-6:00 home for dinner, not tremendously hungry because I've been grazing ALL DAY LONG so I can eat a reasonable meal. What I eat for supper is heavily dependent on how much I was able to work out.
- 8:00 (if my budget allows) small glass of wine and 10-20 dark chocolate chips.

EDIT: And, yes, I do occasionally get "surprise" invitiations to lunch or dinner. Plans change. Be flexible, log the variances, and you'll learn your body's signals for "we're done" once you start eating healthier.

At the moment I am just making sure I am fueling my body correctly... Being too concerned with calorie counting was just putting me in a bad place with muscle growth. And It was holding me back.. I see a PT who pushes me hard!! So for me I Just follow a nutritional plan that we have developed and seeing how that goes

I found the same thing - i became obsessive and actually began to react negatively - put ON weight, wore myself down, became reclusive and quite sick... Now i log but don't get too worried... I live to eat clean, excerise for endorphins and enjoy my life!!!

so far this mentality is going WELL!!!

haha but really, if you find yourself doing this you may need to take a breather break from mfp. relax. food = NUTRIENTS not NUMBERS. try thinking of it that way. usually the nutritious foods are low cal. and everyone goes over their cals once in a while. food is meant to be nourishing and enjoyable while doing so, and while its important to watch proportions, if you become too obsessed with the numbers (cals in, cals out) part of this lifestyle its just not as enjoyable! so take it easy love!

I had the same issue- I am fine during the day, and plan my breakfast and lunch in advance. But I know when I get home I will be more apt to eat too many calories. I have started to have some higher caloric items in my house. For example, if I'm having a good day and low on my calories I will use regular salad dressing rather than the light. I also started buying more foods that I would normally not consider- like cheese. When my day is ending and I am way under my calories I will have pita chips and hummus as my snack instead of fruit or lower calorie options. Hope this helps!

Try not to obsess. I know, easier said than done. The thing is..everybody needs a minimum of 1200 calories for the day. If you're exercising, you need more, and unless you're already a tiny person, you need more than that for existing. I wrote my own plan because nothing was working for me. I'm eating 6 times a day (this actually means I'm eating practically all day long). I usually have 2 or 3 items per meal to equal around 200 calories, except for one meal, which I try to push up to 350-450. My food diary is open for public viewing and I am keeping a blog at followkarisjourney.blogspot.com if you want to see what I'm eating. You'll see it's a similar list of foods each day, but it's working for me and I'm making small changes as I feel they're needed along the way. If I can help you, let me know. Feel free to add me as a friend here if you want.

My only concern is that by pre-planning my day, I leave no wiggle room for myself in case my plans change. My day-to-day life can get rather hectic, and I'm worried that I'll begin obsessing about planning out the perfect meals and then if I don't stick to them I'll get very angry at myself.

EDIT: If I did have a smartphone, it might be easier, but sadly, I don't.

That's not the point of planning your day. You plan your day so you learn what balance of foods you need to eat daily. That way, when things get hectic, you can say "well, OK, I had planned on X, which is a high-protein food, I'd better substitute something like Y, which is somewhat similar". Then when you get home you adjust your "plan" for the day to reality, and learn whether your on-the-spot decisions were good ones.

If they weren't, then you just learned something that you can use next time.

I bag a lunch and stick pretty slavishly to it, at least for the time being. But now that I'm eating a regulated, controlled diet, I'm starting to learn the cues my body gives me when it wants fat or protein as opposed to when a complex carb might be the right answer as opposed to when a few calories of simple sugar for a quick pick-me-up might do, and more importantly when I'm mistaking thirst or sodium overload for hunger (a common mistake, and the source of the myth that you get "hungry" 2 hours after eating Chinese food - actually, you are THIRSTY because the MSG has just hit your system and the sodium is dehydrating you badly).

One you start learning those cues, it gets easier to make on-the-spot choices. "Man, my tummy is all rumbly, time for some filling fats and proteins!" "Oh, my energy levels are dropping, time for a glass of water and some complex carbs!" "I'm just dropping on my feet and I have to be my best for the meeting in 10 minutes, time for a lifesaver, a big glass of water, then a balanced carb/fat/protein snack to keep the energy there when the sugar runs out!" The cues will probably be different for you, and your reactions might be different depending on the balance of foods you discover works for you (Atkins/low-carb fans will probably be burning off a lot of calories screaming NNNNOOOOO!!!! at my last two examples).

My bag lunch has all the calories I need to get through a day in decent balances. When my body craves something, I have it. But it's all in a bag that contains a set amount of calories. At the end of the day, I know what I ate because it all came out of the bag. I found the sequence of things to eat that keeps me the most satisfied, but I don't fear changing the sequence, adding the occasional off-list snack (cookie or something from a friendly co-worker), as long as I log it and keep track of it.

My only concern is that by pre-planning my day, I leave no wiggle room for myself in case my plans change. My day-to-day life can get rather hectic, and I'm worried that I'll begin obsessing about planning out the perfect meals and then if I don't stick to them I'll get very angry at myself.

EDIT: If I did have a smartphone, it might be easier, but sadly, I don't.

It sounds like you are going to obsess no matter what you do. That means that food isn't the issue. The issue is your mental process that won't allow yourself some flexibility.

Listen, life is all about wiggle room. So what if you plan a meal and something changes. That's life. Why are you choosing to fell bad about that.

You keep backing yourself into a corner and there's no way out.

Plan ahead - log what you think you'll have for breakfast, lunch and dinner, then add some snacks. If you still have clls to spare add extras to meals or snacks like fruit, avocado, cheese, nuts etc.
Don't forget to estimate your exercise too so you get a few extra cals earlier in the day if you have a workout planned.
If plans change - then edit your diary, but at least you can see what a healthy eating day looks like.

^ I do this too, it really does help!