Back to calorie counting

spyrosmom

Cathlete
*le sigh*

In 2009 I started with the Daily Plate and was very successful and found it very motivating. Then after about a year, it made me neurotic:p

OMG!!! I have an extra 100 cals to eat today! YAY!!!! Then I'd proceed to raid the kitchen in the search of 100 cals I wanted to eat, regardless of whether I was hungry or not. In the search of those 100 cals, I'd end up eating way more, because there was nothing that I wanted, because I really wasn't hungry. I was eating because I was "supposed" to. Then I'd freak out because my cals were too high, and either feel awful, or of there was enough time in the day, add in extra exercise. The extra exercise would give me MORE food to eat, and I was back where I started.

Or, I'd fill in the whole day with breakfast/lunch/dinner/planned snacks and realize I still had room. Then I'd end up grazing all day (again not hungry) just because I had the room. And then end up back with too many calories and back to step 2. OY!!!!!!

I let the daily plate go towards the middle part of 2010. Great. I can do this. I've been able to maintain my weight, but not lose a dang thing. Which tells me I'm eating too much, because my workouts are solid. I have a bad habit of eating while not hungry and eating while cooking (because I'm hungry and dinner's not ready yet, dang it!!!!)

I decided I've got to start counting again, and 3(?) days in to using the food diary on the new WM, I'm not freaking out. It doesn't give me a calorie goal that I have to hit or a limit. I just see where I am, my TDEE, and my exercise calories. This I think will work better than a magic number I have to get to. Plus, there's a nifty little graph, and I dig graphs.

I liked the Daily Plate, and some of it's features, I really did. But it seemed so big on "don't under eat (not even one day) or you'll kill your metabolism and gain 25 lbs over night" and "don't go over by even one calorie, or your jeans won't fit in the morning"

I think this will be the nice line between "this is what you have to do, or the world will end" and "hey, perhaps you shouldn't eat that, you're not hungry and there's not a number you have to hit"

I think the way this is laid out, it will prompt me towards a more steady calorie intake, but still allow me to eat if I'm legitimately hungry, especially on tougher workout days. The DP would mess me up on lifting days, because I'm always crazy hungry after lifting, but the calorie burn wasn't there to support the extra eats.

I just hope it won't make me nutty this time. Although, I guess by knowing it makes me bonkers, I'm halfway there to avoiding that situation, right? Or I could just be crazy :eek::p:rolleyes::p:eek:

Nan
 
Boy can I relate to you! I did months on weight watchers last year and started losing well but it also made me crazy. When I stopped I quit obsessing over my food but didn't always make the best choices. I continued to lose but not as quickly, maybe it was because I was getting closer to my goal weight? Either way I need to rein it back in. I can't wait until the workout manager becomes an iPhone app as I no longer have Internet access. I'm hoping I'll be able to use it to log my foods and not be as crazy as I got on ww. Good luck to you Nan :)
 
Ladies, I found a website too, its called calorie count.com. I have been using it just five days but it has helped me pick better choices and u can adjust ure calorie goal and wt goal, which I did cuz I know my body so I upped my calories some and my goal wt by five pds. If I have a day where I'm hungrier I eat . Ijust make sure I stay in the negative.
 
Don't worry.... it will make you go bonkers and obsessive. It's inevitable. Good luck! For the record... when I have an extra 100 calories left, I drink a glass of wine. Problem solved.
 
I had to do a double take because I thought at first that I had written this LOL! I can soooo relate to the whole, "OMG, I have leftover points/calories today? Heck yeah, now what can I eat with that, even though I'm not remotely hungry??"

I'm really, really, really trying hard not to give into my obsessive tendencies. I think to a certain extent, that'll always be something I need to be aware of and make sure I don't go overboard (because I can definitely get way too anal about the tracking), but at the same time, I know that not having any discipline or oversight at all is not the way for me to go either.

Balance is the key, but it also happens to be the hardest thing ever :p.
 

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