How do you ladies/guys DO IT!

What works best for me is to see how many calories my meal may be before I choose to eat it. If it is too much I would choose something else that would keep me in my caloric range. The MFP database has a lot of the foods you already eat in the system so it is very helpful. If you cannot find it in there the look at the companies website and they may have the info needed. Preplanning for a few weeks until you can get your breakfast calories under control may be the best for you right now.

Mine is 1470 and there are days when I struggle, and days when I end the day saying "holy @$#@$, how am I going to eat all those calories!" (especially on days when I work out).

At the very beginning, this is going to get a little tough, but it gets better really fast. Honestly, it really does.

Here are a few things to start out:
1. Start tracking carbohydrates, fat, and protein as well as calories. Try to eat ALL of your allotment of at least fat and protein, and if you're like most of us try to get your carbohydrates down to the recommended levels. Even if it means going over your calories at first. A balanced diet - feeding your body ALL of what it needs - is key to avoiding hunger.

2. Experiment with eating different amounts at different intervals. For example, I'm fine with an under-200-calorie breakfast (1/2 cup oatmeal with cinnamon and one hardboiled egg), because I know that 2 hours later (10AM) I'm going to allow myself to start eating lunch, which I eat in 100-200 calorie increments all day long until 4PM. The oatmeal-and-egg breakfast has also given me a good balance of carbs, fat, and protein so I remain easily satisfied until 11AM most mornings.

NOTE: It's not the actual eating less / more often that helps you lose weight. It's if doing so helps you feel more full all day long. It does for me. Your mileage may vary. Just experiment with timing and portions to find what works for YOU. Some people prefer one humongous meal once a day - if I tried that I'd be emptying the contents of a fryalator into my gaping maw by 10AM. But it works for them.

3. Work out. Exercise. It earns you more calories to eat. Eat them. (cue argument 14,000 about this subject). If you use exercise as an incentive to eat more, you'll exercise more, and you'll still lose weight just as fast.

4. Cinnamon gum. Appetite suppressant, constant flavoring, and something to focus on. I would NEVER have gotten through the first two weeks without it. I don't need it any more, but it came in really handy at first!

5. Water, water, everywhere! Drink, drink, drink! If you haven't upped your water to the 8 glasses, do it now. It helps for many reasons. You'll go through a few days to a week of peeing a lot, then it goes away.

I was hoping for a different kind of post..

You'll learn how to manage it as time goes on and you learn just how many calories are in things. A big breakfast isn't bad, so long as you don't follow it up with a big lunch, then a big dinner, then a slice of chocolate cake!

I'm on 1480 and I usually have about 150/200 for breakfast, 400 for lunch then 400-600 for dinner, that leaves me with some to play around with if one day I want a big breakfast or one day I want to go out for dinner or one day I want a big lunch or something.

I'm never hungry doing it this way, but my only real energy burner is the gym - I'm not currently working, maybe if I was on top of all this I would be hungry more.

Getting started sucks! You'll learn what the penalties are for the foods you like. For me, the trick was to eliminate the higher calorie foods that I didnt really really love, cut the portions on those that are in the awesome category, and stock up on the things that are in the "meh" category but low calorie penalty. I love really good bread. Most breads are pretty high in calories. I eat Healthy Living (35 cals/slice) bread as a snack with a little smear of peanut butter and sugar free Polanar preserves. I get to splurge on Sunday and I have 2 slives of a LeBrea loaf with a very tiny bit of real butter. The reward treats taste so very much better after abstaining. After a couple of weeks of getting used to the process of looking at food and seeing it as a yummy hunk of calorie penalties, you'll just fall in. I have a calorie goal of 1400-ish and seldom make it upto 1200 these days.

Log everything.
Dont kill youself if you go over. Look at what you ate and see what you could have done without. Actively plan your meals in advance.

Log everything.
Dont kill youself if you go over. Look at what you ate and see what you could have done without.

^^^ This. My early diary was a disaster, and I expect you'll find a lot of agreement there.

Actively plan your meals in advance.

^^^^ And double on this. I log my breakfast and lunch (which I pack to work every day) during breakfast.

That way, when I get unexpected surprises (like the instant message I just now got from my wife announcing that we were going out to dinner in a half hour), I know exactly how many calories I have remaining for the day, and I can plan how I will expend them when I reach the restaurant.

So, at the risk of boring you, here's how my thought process is going right now: Let's see (hops to diary)..

I ate my turkey wrap and vegetables, so leave those. I didn't work out so no calories there, but I also don't need the potassium and sugar from the banana or the protein from the nuts, I can skip those and also the apple I usually munch just before heading out... subtract those.. now I have 995 calories.

OK, I can work with that. A small sandwich or salad, healthy side. Maybe there's even room for a 10-12 dark chocolate chips for dessert when I get home. Man I wish I had worked out today, might have been able to have fries! Oh, well, this can work. I'll look at the sandwiches and find a nice 500-calorie one. Maybe a nice roast beef with dark mustard... mmm.... and some fresh vegetables on the side, that'll leave plenty for a beer.

I'm far from good at this, but I"m better than I used to be. I eat tons of vegetables that are low in calories. I eat a salad with every lunch and dinner meal. Lots of spinach, radishes, onions, grapes, tomatoes, etc. keep it low in calories and fill me up before I eat a "main course" item. I started out eating REAL Ranch dressing, allowing for the calories and letting that be my splurge. Then, I switched (somehow) to cottage cheese as the dressing. Now, I'm finding that I'm eating those veggies without anything on them and enjoying them just as much. I have been doing it so long now (almost a year) that I feel really lost if I don't have my "greens" for the meals. Now, if I could just figure out how to avoid that late night zombie eating I'd be Twiggy!!!!

I can completely relate to your post! I felt like that at the start too. I'm still frequently amazed at just how many calories are in some foods - the trick for me, like others have already said, is logging in advance to avoid any nasty surprises. And you'll learn as you go along plenty of lower calorie alternatives...

Plenty of other good advice in this thread already so I won't repeat it all. Good luck, promise it gets easier!

Processed, packaged foods - like you had for bfast - are notoriously high in calories, fat and sodium. You can make something just as hearty and filling and tasty for much less calories.


I don't advise skipping breakfast. Research shows that people who eat a good breakfast lose weight faster and keep it off more consistently than those who don't.

but you may have to experiment a while and find what works for you.

Take a week or two, even a month if you need it, to eat how you normally would eat, log it, see the crazy numbers, let them sink into your brain, and make tiny changes. If it's that hard to jump right in, don't. Baby steps.