I can't count cals anymore, what should I do?

I have been on CC for 7 months. it was a success.

I started to get discouraged after hearing comments from here and there. " you are not eating enough, you are very skinny, you should eat more".

now, I eat like crazy. everytime I say " tomorrow is a new day". I can't really do anything. Today, it is still 9 am, I had a croissant, a muffin, a Glenny Bar, 2 bananas, one apple, and steel cut with milk and a yogurt with egg whites, 450 cals trail mix.

why can't I go back? what is wrong with me? am I normal?

I hear the frustration and fear. Yes, you're "normal", but your mind and body are trying to tell you something - they need a break from dieting. (It's not uncommon to want to consume everything in sight when you've been dieting.)  Also, I would listen to the people around you - your body may be telling you the same thing they are - I'm too thin.  The best way to curb this binging behavior is to structure your eating and promise yourself that you will eat when you're hungry and you will eat at least every 3 - 4 hours (even if you're not hungry.) After a few weeks of structured, "mandatory" eating the urge to binge should subside, but I would listen to your body and give it a break from dieting.  

You may be experiencing an 'all or nothing' reaction.   If being 'on the diet' was very restrictive and highly&nb sp;controlled or if you've been under-eating for a long period of time you will react like this now that you're mentally 'off the diet'.  That would be pretty normal.  If you've been left underweight then it would also be normal (self-preservation) to overeat in order to get back up to a healthy weight.

For the long-term you somehow have to work out a healthy relationship with food.  Not over-eating or starving but finding a happy medium with mostly healthy food choices, sensible portions and regular meals.   

thanks bjben. I forgot to mention that last time I was a serious calorie counter was five months ago. isn't that enough break?

don't worry...  it'll come off  LOL  do you really need to lose though?!  i don't think so

i was overweight all my life since I was a kid. last year was the first successful attempt to live like normal people and eat healthy. now, I am not normal AGAIN.

Snowfence, I am 5'3" and 170 pounds.  my waist line is 35 inches.

I do the same thing... when I try to increase my caloric intake from around 1800 to 2200, which is my maintenance number, I then go crazy and eat closer to 2500 or even 3000 on some days.

Rethink you mindset.  Do you really want to ruin all of your past 7 months hard work?  Do you think you are too skinny, or are you just eating to prove to your coworkers or whoever, that you aren't? Just because you've had success here in the past doesn't mean that you should abandon all of CC's principles since its time to maintain.  I would recommend finding your maintenance calories and stick to them.  Even tell yourself that those calories are just as important to consume and not go over as your weight-loss count was.  Good Luck!

And remember, we all have a few bad days, but yo-yo dieting is awful for you.  Don't let yourself gain back the weight just to lose it again :-/ that's not every good for your health. 

Laura. If I had the chance to slap my coworkers in the face, I would do that. But I really can't. Yes, I am showing them my belly and hips so they stop harassing me.

simply, nobody wished me good luck. they were all freaking jealous. one of them told me that I look skinng and pale and I might lose my job because I look unhealthy. ( I was fine at 140 and 5'3"). she was just jealous and I was stupid.

I notice you still haven't increased your protein intake like we have advised you to do over and over again.  Safina, the protein will help keep you satiated, it will regulate your blood sugar and keep it from having the big spikes and drops that you experience which causes you to want to keep grabbing those high carb foods.  You keep reaching for those because your blood sugar keeps dropping dramatically after the spike from your last high carb snack. 

I suggest you eat a protein and a carb with every meal and every snack.  Egg whites are good, but that yogurt you keep eating is just not a good source of protein for you, you need a protein that doesn't have sugar.

Eat cheddar cheese with your apple, eat cottage cheese with your banana, eat some sliced turkey on your croissant, etc.  This WILL help.

Also, don't put yourself in the mindset that you have to start cutting out any foods, that's going to put you into a "last meal" mindset where you feel you have to eat as much as you can before you start "dieting" again.  Don't do that, just start making some better decisions about what and how you eat.  No need to cut out anything you eat, just rethink HOW you're eating it.

shandykat,

Thank you. yes, you are right. Sometimes, I eat because I feel it is going to be my last day eating muffins, so I grab as many as I can and eat them all like crazy. the problem is I do eat protein. one day, I had a binge on about a pound of shrimp. it was too much protein and too much cholestrol.

Yes, the yogurt has sugar but it has live culture too. and I need good bacteria..

I miss my healthy life style but I just can't go back. I have tried many times and every time, it lasts like 3-4 days then I miss simple carbs again.

maybe it is lack of motivation. or lack of fat in my diet. I don't know.

I understand, i really do.  I didn't say you had to give up simple carbs, I didn't say you had to give up anything.  In fact, get out of that mindset completely.  Relax in the knowledge that you don't have to stop eating what you want, i'm just trying to get you to eat more protein along with those simple carbs so you can stop the cycle of blood sugar highs and crashes that keep you reaching for that next muffin.

And if you really want to start eating better, how about looking at this as adding to what you eat instead of taking away from what you eat?  Add the things you want to eat that you think will make you feel better?  Don't try to stop yourself from eating the other goodies you like, but also eat the good for you things.

thanks. I will give it a try. today for example, I started my day with a steel cut and egg whites and a yogurt but then on my way to work I grabbed that muffin, followed by a croissant.:(

maybe I should avoid any protein that has sugar like milk and yogurt. maybe that will help.

That is exactly what happened to me.. I've decided that for the next week or so I'm going to stop counting calories.. So far it's worked for me and I haven't binged... I almost did so tonight but stopped myself after some cereal and granola... I think my body is definitely telling me that I need to quit being so obsessive about my diet hence why I've decided not to count this week.. Maybe that would work for you as well.. Good luck...

Try making some of the black bean brownies.  One, they are really good, two they are pretty darn good for you and three, it satisfies some of that crazy cravings that we all get from time to time.

Overly restricting can be just as bad or even worse as eating anything you ever felt like.  Try limiting your junk to 10-20% of your daily calories and see how well you do.  Tomorrow is not the new day, this minute is when you get your next chance to hop on the band wagon and have a healthy number of calories and balance for the remaining food in your day.  Even if you're already over your maintenance calories for today, still have a light dinner or snack.  Tomorrow you can start with a good breakfast and add in some extra snacks.  You can either eat all your snacks or just some of them depending on your calorie goals and what you feel like.  It's nice sometimes to have the option of extra snacks. 

My advice would be to take baby steps....

If I remember correctly, you posted in the Fitness Forum about wanting to run a half marathon. Training for that, and trying to work on your diet might just be too overwhelming all at once. Focus on one small thing at a time - and don't forget to celebrate the small victories. 

I personally LOVE food. I don't feel any satisfaction from depriving myself and saying "Gee, I really wanted that piece of cake, but I wouldn't let myself eat it. Ha - I'm amazing". I find it much more satisfying to say "God, I feel really lazy today, but I managed to go to the gym and get a workout done"

I focused on making working out a part of my daily routine first. I set small goals - like for the first month, my goal was to go to the gym 5 days a week for 4 weeks. Whether or not I had a long or short workout, I just wanted to get into the habit of going. Once working out became a habit, it was actually very easy to go. I'm now at the point when I get cranky when I have to miss a workout.

While I was working on that, I made very small changes (if any) to my daily food intake. The only major change I made was to stop eating fast food. Apart from that, I didn't really tell myself I couldn't have something. If I wanted cake, I had cake. If I wanted fries, I had fries. That said - I didn't do it often and I always tried to make smart food decisions whenever I could.

Your weight loss might not be as quick as some of the other members on CC that are "dieting" - but the weight will come off. I just found that I wasn't so cranky when I wasn't "counting" all the time. I also wasn't wasting a ton of energy punishing myself mentally when I did eat "junk food". It's crazy how much some people worry about every last thing that goes in their mouths. Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying "eat what you want, when you want, in whatever quantities you want" - but don't beat yourself up either. Make smart food choices. Substitute where you can (baked potato instead of fries, green salad instead of Ceasar etc. etc)

Oh - and the one thing I also found that was really helpful....don't think about tomorrow....focus on today. If you keep telling yourself that you'll be good tomorrow, you subconsciously allow yourself to keep eating today.....and then you get to a point where you feel hopeless if you don't start fresh "tomorrow". Do the best you can, every single day.

Good luck - you can totally do this!!!!

Original Post by bjben:

I hear the frustration and fear. Yes, you're "normal", but your mind and body are trying to tell you something - they need a break from dieting. (It's not uncommon to want to consume everything in sight when you've been dieting.) Also, I would listen to the people around you - your body may be telling you the same thing they are - I'm too thin. The best way to curb this binging behavior is to structure your eating and promise yourself that you will eat when you're hungry and you will eat at least every 3 - 4 hours (even if you're not hungry.) After a few weeks of structured, "mandatory" eating the urge to binge should subside, but I would listen to your body and give it a break from dieting.

 you are so wise!!!!! this is the best advice i've seen in a minute, thanks :) i find everything you say to be true. i just came through a bad patch and realized that i need to let myself eat EVERY time i am hungry and plan my meals ahead of time. and you are right about the urge to binge subsiding, it has, thank goodness. you have to stick to it!

I am exactly the same place as you are and for the past two months (I stopped counting back in Sept 2007) my diet is exactly as it was before the diet except I now eat voluminously more. I am worried I too am becoming someone with binging tendencies (I always ate a lot but never this much and in rapid fire succession). I don't have any advice as I am in the similar place as you but perhaps people like us - those who  are struggling/sabotaging ourselves after successful weight loss to maintain a healthy lifestyle - can support one another to SNAP OUT OF IT. It's even worse now as I *know* I know EXACTLY what to do to make it better but I just cannot motivate myself. I hope my mood changes soon.

NYCgirl, I am here for you. we are all here for you. don't feel bad about it. I went to the gym today and I feel great. you can do it.

what happened? I know the reasons that were behind my binges, what about you? I believe the whole thing is emotional......

fitnessfreak, I have to agree with you. Setting small goals is the best to maintain losing weight.

I just need motivation. I need it very much... joining a race might help. what do you think?

I still eat in a very bad way. I eat simple carbs every two hours. Needless to say, I am gaining weight very rapidly.

As caloriecountingme suggested before. She said that I need a plan to attack food. Maybe a race like this will motivate me. What do you think?