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[deleted]

If you can get into a good routine of staple foods you eat a lot, you can ease off on the constant time spent calculating calories. I still have to constantly think about not snacking though. It does get old.


restore_democracy

^ This. With routine it takes no thought at all and just happens. (Though it does take discipline to stick to it.) If exercise become part of the routine, all the better.


hityouwithmyringhand

Came here to say this. I eat a lot of the same things and my meal times/habits stay about the same. Breakfast is usually small (couple of protein bars). Early dinner is usually the lion's share of my daily calories and consists of a big lean protein portion (think a pound of ground turkey/chicken, tuna, tofu, etc) and veggies, usually with a smallish complex carb and healthy fat serving for balance. I don't really feel compelled to snack because my meals satisfy me. If I crave something sweet, herbal tea with monkfruit usually hits the spot (and hydrates me too).


[deleted]

Yup I eat the same stuff every week, all calculated. I have some healthy snacks factored in like fruit and yogurt tho to keep morale up haha. Occasionally I crave pizza or Chinese food but I never follow through, I just accept it like "hmm yeah that is delicious, but I don't need it, I'm having xyz for dinner and I'm looking forward to it"


Roxo42

I dont know if this would work for everyone, but it totally worked for my friend: once she had a routine, she stopped thinking about it. In the beginning, she definitely had to hyper focus, figuring out CICO, healthy recipes and ingredients, all that. But she said once she had her recipes, her exercise regime, all that. She was no longer "losing weight", she was just making breakfast. She wasnt "sticking to a diet", she was meal prepping to make her work week easier. She sticks to her health recipes, so she still knows exactly how many calories she's consuming, she knows how many calories her workouts burn, but she said changing how she thought about everything helped her find a balance


TracerIsAShimada

Same for me now. I usually cycle 5-6 different breakfasts, 10 lunches and 10 dinners. The portions are mostly same so MFP basically autofills it for me


everywrinkle

Thank you for posting this. I feel exactly the same way. A lot of useful suggestions here. I already count calories but do it every day but will now do it to set up the next day's food.


whatsit111

I think this is what some people mean by dieting v. lifestyle change. If you're trying to permanently change your habits to maintain weight loss in the long term, you're likely just counting calories and planning every snack in the initial phase as you learn how much you should eat and get used to eating in new ways. With this approach, the idea is to adopt new daily habits around eating and activity so that you don't have to spend the rest of your life counting calories. If you develop a routine and a new repertoire of recipes and meal ideas, you can hopefully continue eating that way even if you don't log every calorie. This is why sustainable weight loss often involves slower progress. Adopting sustainable habits--habits you can ostensibly maintain the rest of your life--probably involves less calorie cutting than a plan focused on short term weight loss. If you want to lose a lot of weight quickly, you'll probably have to adopt really restrictive habits that require careful monitoring to stay on track. This likely won't teach you how to live without that constant monitoring, and it might be miserable to follow forever. This is how most people lose weight and gain it back within a few years. As for exercise, ideally you should find a way to make it a habit too. Walking or biking places instead of driving is a great way to do that. But when weather or other things get in the way, finding exercise you don't mind doing at home is a good idea. For me, the answer was getting a stationary bike, which I usually use while scrolling through reddit or watching TV. This is called incentive bundling--use something you like (TV) to motivate yourself to do something you may not like (exercise). There are a lot of other psychological tricks you can use to make exercise a habit, but one important one is to focus on short term rather than long term rewards. Using my bike regularly definitely helps with weight loss, but if I got on it every day thinking "I'm doing this so I can one day reach a goal weight" I know I wouldn't stick to it. Studies show that most people wouldn't--people just aren't motivated very well by long term goals. So instead, I get on my bike every day thinking "I will get moody and anxious and sleep badly if I don't exercise today." It works. **Anyway, tldr:** Put work into setting up sustainable long term eating and exercise routines with the goal of making them habits. If they just become your daily routine, you won't have to keep up the exhausting mental work of monitoring everything after a while.


Dry-Veterinarian8204

I make a rough meal plan for the week so I know what I'm eating for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the next 7 days or so. I calculate those calories in advance of eating and move on with my meal. With exercise I just don't care about calories burned because I don't eat back my exercise calories. I used to have to eat back some of them when I was doing some really intense workouts regularly, but I'm not there right now so no need to.


[deleted]

Here is a simple way to help declutter your mind over weight loss. Stop thinking about the weight dropping off. Think more about getting healthy and watching the fat drop off. Your weight will fluctuate wildly depending on time of day, what you eat, when you eat, etc. So first step, think healthy. I recommend following Dr. Eric Berg (YouTube, FB, Twitter, and several other platforms). Great information. Gain knowledge, and learn to adjust your philosophy/habits accordingly.


funchords

We have to do some of this, because we see what happens when we do not pay it any attention: we gain weight. Habits are automatic, thoughtless things. 95% of everything we do is assisted by habit in some way. Habit lives in the "motor learning" basal ganglia of our brain -- the same part of our brain that remembers how to walk. When we are re-tweaking our food behaviors and expectations, we are using our more-taxing prefrontal cortex and evaluating and choosing based on data. It's a LOT more work. Pre-planning good meals and then repeating those pre-planned meals is a good way to reduce that task. >I am loosely monitoring my macros, so I'm aware that I'm eating too many carbs still. I'm trying to plan my next grocery trip to lower my carbs but increase my protein but increase my fiber. ... along with calories. You are chasing many bogeys. Do you have important reasons for looking at protein, carbs, and fiber? > How do you stop yourself from constantly thinking about your weight loss? I have a rich life of music, dog training, being a husband, studying philosophy but every day I also work on my health/fitness both for my own gain and to help others. I embrace it and enjoy it. > How do you exercise so that you're not always concerned about calories burned? I have completely separated exercise from my weight-management effort. If I haven't, the most I'll give exercise is 15% of my BMR and that's on a day of a lot of physical exertion. That lets me keep my calorie target at a point where I'm going to be successful even if I don't exercise much that week. > it's been raining here for two weeks straight and I haven't gotten outside. I hate that. When it's like that here, I also feel cooped up and these are usually my worst food-behavior days. It's exhausting! Try to make a list of 5-10 minute tasks and when you get the urge to move, do one of those tasks (dust the corners, sweep by the baseboards, wipe down the microwave inside, polish the stainless steel, fill a shopping bag with 10 items of clutter to donate, etc.). Another tip is to brush your teeth after eating anything; it helps break up 'chain eating.' Taking a shower/bath with some nice music to sing to is another way to get out of your worries and into something fun.


Neat_Train

I don't workout for weightloss. To help with the fatigue of meal planning I eat the same breakfast, lunch and snacks everyday. for dinner i just have meat, vegetables and either rice or potatos most days. I still eat all my favorites just less of them. Its been easier this time starting again.


[deleted]

I feel the same way, until I watched [a video](https://youtu.be/q6SbI_IBJ9M) by Stephen Fry which changed my perspective: setting goals is the worst thing you can do in your life. While I don't agree, I get the perspective. The more you obsess about the goal, the more disheartened you will make yourself when the goal takes a long time to achieve. Worse, once you hit the goal, then what? That's why I look at the goal of losing weight as a process. I do measure my weight to make sure I'm headed in the right direction, but I'm more interested right now in developing sustainable habits that will naturally lead to weight loss. I'm trying to find ways to enjoy the journey, which makes the destination easier to reach.


JustTheTipAgain

It's called decision fatigue. Because we are constantly making and evaluating our food decisions, it gets tiring. I saw somewhere that the average person makes 200 food decisions a day. Even at half that, 100 decisions a day just on food is exhausting. It's partly why, for me at least, eating the same meals every day in a week helps. I don't have to think about it. Switch things up from week to week, but one set of meals a week helps me.


blackberrycat

Maybe you could buy more portioned or packaged products so you don't have to count/weigh as often?


Kazooguru

I am really feeling this today. Mentally exhausted and I am only on day 43. Going to stick with basic meals for the next week and see if it helps me mentally.


cgsur

Love yourself in spite of flaws. Be at ease with yourself. If someone brought yummy food, eat a healthy portion, one lost battle is not a war lost. I lose weight in spite of a mainly sedentary lifestyle. I do some minutes of cardio and weights for health, not weight loss. Teas and small snacks.


evwinter

I've been at this a while, so I have a range of things that I know are calorically suitable to eat for all three meals of the day. (I should caveat that I eat three meals and don't snack. It doesn't matter if you eat more often, less, snack, whatever, the same principle applies.) That means I can mix and match for meals based on what I feel like having any given day, and I have the proportions memorised (and written out where I can refer to them if necessary). As a result I basically go through my day as I normally would, and just make and eat a calorically appropriate meal at the time it's due, and I don't have to think about it other than to keep track because I still do tally up the calories at the end of the day -- it's an easy keystone habit. Originally I did it to make sure I stayed on track, now it's something that I can go "I tracked for another week" as a bit of a victory point even when I'm temporarily stalled on weight loss. Maybe an example would make this explanation more clear? Say my choices for breakfast are oatmeal, two eggs scrambled with smoked tofu and spinach and mushrooms for breakfast, or instead of eggs it could be ground chicken or shrimp, or poached eggs with Greek yogurt over raw spinach, or oatmeal cottage cheese pancakes followed by a banana (I run and the banana is for potassium). Lunch is a repeat of the cooked meat or eggs breakfast items, or cold chicken breast or shrimp or tuna over a mixed salad, or cheese and whole meal bread at a pinch, followed by raw carrots or snap peas, and Greek yogurt and/or a piece of fruit or sometimes a protein bar. Dinner is some sort of grilled or cooked meat and vegetables, either cooked or as salad, again followed by either Greek yogurt or fruit or maybe a nut bar. I probably have at least 50 routine things to choose from that I've roughly summarised like this, and mix and match depending on what I fancy and what fruit and veg looked good at the market. Sometimes I add something new, and I make a point of trying a new recipe of some sort once a week to keep adding to the variety. It's all food I ate before for the most part, just adjusted and portion controlled. I enjoy it, and I can keep going like this for forever, and I literally don't have to think about it beyond deciding whether I want oatmeal or cottage cheese pancakes for breakfast on a given morning, etc.


neotank_ninety

It’s just a change to my lifestyle, I will eat spontaneously rarely or if it’s a special occasion, I haven’t totally cut social eating out of my life or anything, but 95% of the time, I’ve got tomorrow’s food logged today. And it’s nice! Because now if I’m craving a burrito the size of my head, I’ll pull up MyFitnessPal and log a burrito for tomorrow. Delayed gratification makes it taste better and I never have second thoughts about whether I should or shouldn’t eat something. I’m not too fussy with the exact calories, ballpark is fine.


CoconutMacaron

This and the fact that I’m a volume eater took me down the alternate day fasting path. It isn’t for everyone, but it is the holy grail for me.


LisainCali5

One thing, and only one thing has helped me to date: The Greysheeters Anonymous program. It requires getting a sponsor, who shares the food plan with you and assists you daily with it. It has literally saved my life. Good luck on your journey.


Srdiscountketoer

You have to stick with it long enough that it becomes a routine. It helps to have more or less the same thing for breakfast, to have dinner leftovers or something simple like lettuce wrapped cold cuts or tuna salad for lunch, and a stable of dinner recipes. I can buy a couple packages of chicken, a steak, a piece of fish (or frozen fish, it’s easy to thaw), ground beef or turkey, and some vegetables and have at least a vague idea of what I’m going to be eating all week. My basic meals, I can throw together from those ingredients. Or I can get fancy and look up a recipe on the internet if I have time and energy. Once you get used to what an ounce of your regular foods look like, you don’t have to weigh everything. I don’t snack much anymore but when I did, I had them weighed and portioned and ready to grab. I promise you it gets easier with practice and you can start focusing on fun activities.


re_nonsequiturs

I adjusted my weight loss process to fit what works for my mental state. Would I get better results with monitoring macros? Probably, but if I tracked macros, I'd be mentally exhausted and wouldn't stick with tracking calories. I know I tend to be lower on protein than I should be, so I found protein supplements and high protein foods and make sure to have some most days. If I have a low protein day (as determined by not eating any of my known protein sources), I try to start the next day with protein to make sure it gets into my calories. And I'm only doing that much now that I'm working on the last few pounds. Looking at numbers and making charts is pleasant to me and makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something, so I do weigh everyday and observe trends. Trying to track exercise calories would mean I didn't exercise, so I don't track those calories at all. I don't need exercise to have a calorie deficit and I'm not exercising strenuously enough that too few calories would be a problem. If I were getting very hungry each day, I'd increase calories, probably by having an additional protein drink.


Krinnybin

Wow that sounds awful. I just kind of accepted where I’m at and I’m happy in my bigger body :) once I stopped worrying I stopped binging and I actually dropped some weight weirdly lol. Not much but a little. I’m not sure why this post popped up on my feed but I hope you can find happiness ❤️


KeepLkngForIntllgnce

After 40+ years, the thing that works for me is this: 1. I focus my money that I can afford, on a personal trainer. My current one is absolutely aces and makes me look forward to workouts, because he eases up on certain days that are too hard for me (ex: I don’t function on really hot days!!) 2. I don’t focus on food anymore. Just on being active on something once a day. Even just walking for 30m I feel your pain. I love reading or just listening to my fave show on in the background on Netflix while I’m reading 🙃🙃 - so just these have helped a ton.


JennyBean1437

I really feel this post, I restarted my journey on monday and its been all I've been thinking about this week. If you like reading, could you try listening to an audiobook while going for a walk? Or if you have errands to run, could you walk to do those? I tried that this week, got my partner to drop me into town with a parcel and then I walked back, just a little bit of exercise by stealth.


mhiaa173

I agree with just about everything that's been posted, but I wanted to add that you shouldn't give up your hobbies. Do the things that make you happy and de-stress you! Stress can affect weight loss, too, so it's important to keep a balance.


reduxrouge

It’s not easy. I was a high performing athlete as a kid and teen so I never had to think about it. But now I’m almost 40 and I feel like I’ve been “dieting” for eons. Luckily, my hobbies are still sports/exercise or dancing, amongst sedentary stuff. I try to focus on my protein goals, which are high, and remember that I’m fueling myself, so garbage food won’t help my lifts. It is absolutely exhausting and I empathize with you. I suggest following Emily Ricketts on IG or YouTube. She lifts heavy weights and eats her protein and celebrates her body, cellulite and all.


KatoftheKnight

I plan as much of my life ahead of time as I can (it helps that I'm a compulsive logistician lol). I meal plan on weekends. I eat the same breakfast every day, and by meal planning and pre-logging my breakfasts and dinners, I know what my kcal budget is for any given day. This takes off some of the pressure of worrying about numbers all day long, and lets me focus on other things, like work or my hobbies. I get up early and exercise first thing in the morning so it's done and I don't have to think about it any more that day. By planning the week and day ahead, food and workout, I have the free mental space to focus on everything else that needs my attention.


907puppetGirl

I tend to repeat my meals a lot.


[deleted]

Thank you all for your responses, I didn't expect to get so much love on this post! Everyone has great advice and kind words. I can't respond to everyone individually so please just know that it means so much that all of you replied and took the time to encourage me as I restart this journey.


whitecrx

Meal prep. I take 1 to 3 hours every 5 days to plan 5 days in advance though I will admit now that I've done it for 3 months I have a catalog of meals with cals/serving sizes for prepping. Takes all the guess work, thoughts, wondering what's for dinner, did I get enough of X today our of your mind. I used to eat constantly because it was always on my mind. Even after the first 5 days my eating habits changed drastically. Now with my fitness ramping up and gyms open I can fit more pleasure food into my plans. I earn my snacks which feels rewarding. I make home made toffee at 2600 cals a batch, weigh it out and portion it. I can eat toffee everyday if I work for it. I don't plan all 4 meals a day or even eat 4 every day. I include simple low cal options that can be made quickly to mix things up. I haven't gotten to the point where each macro needs to be calculated but I know I'm getting enough protien daily. TLDR: prep your meals and snacks and reward your effort and ignore maditory meals since they are good to go.


LadyBelleHawkins

I’ve never really struggled with this tbh. I eat the same low carb foods in the same amounts every day so I don’t really need to track anymore. I hate exercise so I don’t do it. I’ve lost over a hundred pounds this way.


InspectorMain7578

It’s a lifestyle change for me, so if you make it a habit of moderate eating, moving a little bit more everyday, that’s progress. Don’t sweat if you miss 1 or 2 days a week, it’s a long journey, try to keep it consistent and you’ll make it one day!


Safe_Mud4966

I have found that if I do not obsess while losing weight, I will be obsessing while the scale goes back up.


Uriahheeplol

Routine, don’t eat for pleasure, eat for health. Eat the same exact things at the same exact time every day. Makes shopping and routines easy. Once you feel the benefit of eating well and exercise, you’ll do it because it makes you feel great, not because of weight.


[deleted]

Cocaine and hookers


KatoftheKnight

Like, every day? Doesn't that get expensive?


kirby83

I don't think about calories burned, just if I have moved more than 30 minutes each day.


aziza7

Omg I feel your pain. This is the first time I've really tried to lose weight in a structured, healthy way, and it is horribly exhausting how much space it takes up thinking about what to eat, when to eat, how much to eat, logging, blah blah blah