Cant find my trigger

I started Calorie Count at 204#. dropped to 193, then back up to 196. I eat for no reason. I KNOW i'm not hungry, but i cann't find what my trigger is or why i eat the way i do. I dont keep food at my desk at work, but i am a full time student, go to work full time, and have a part time job. Is it from being tired? I just cant figure out how to lose this weight! i want to be 170 by july 1 and then 160 by september 1. what am i doing wrong? i stay under 1800 cal/ day, work out 3 times a week (HIIT and weights). ALL of the weight is on my stomach. my legs and arms are relatively toned. It's all belly fat. HELPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP! :-(

Hey hun :) what time of the day are you typically eating, are you alone, bored, stressed? these can all be triggers. I know being home alone late at night, for me, is a HUGE trigger. Being tired can also do it. Try and focus on how you are feeling emotionally, does this change when you are eating? Try drinking water when you feel hungry or try sucking on hard candy, and eat regularly throughout the day 6 small meals is a good way to spread it out, and really try to eat a lot of variety so that you stay satisified. Thats what Ive been doing. Great job with your weight loss so far, focus on your little victories not your little fall backs. Good luck! Hope this helped :)
Kristin

How many meals do you eat in a day?  For a while I was eating a small breakfast, small lunch, and then when I came home from work, I would be famished, eat a big dinner, and just keep on eating!  Once I broke that up into 5 meals of the same size, my appetite balanced out.

My other triggers are the tv (I've always eaten while I watched tv, so now I feel like I should be shovelling something in my mouth when I do watch it)  and boredom.

Well, i work from 8-430 and go to school from 5-730, then work out for 30min x 3 days 8-8:30 at a gym. I try to eat 5 meals. oatmeal for breakfast with some fruit, a banana at 10, frozen lunch (like smartones or healthy request), and then i snack on some beef jerky or something small, then a good dinner. but, between all of that, i end up adding a bagel or two at breakfast, something at lunch, etc.. I just can't seem to not have something by my mouth to eat! I know my portions are out of control, so i tried to make lunch before i go to work - and i'm just too tired from working both jobs and full time school. I also noticed that my daily energy needs are 2500 calories? this seems ridiculously high, given that i work out pretty hard 3 days a week and can't lose any weight anymore! i have very "normal" sized legs / arms for my body, but a 44" waisteline!! ugh... I'll try to track what i'm eating better. i always forget to put it in CC dot com.  

OH YEAH - and thanks to both of you for your quick responses! Helps to know people are watching.

I'm a stress eater-- it sounds like you have a lot going on (a full time job AND part time job AND school)

If you think you're eating b/c your are stressed out, maybe some meditation time or a walk before/after dinner would help?

pay attention to your sodium intake on your analysis. if i go over 2500 or so milligrams of sodium i go up a few pounds. the good thing about it is, if i drop it down for a few days it comes right back off. also, make sure you get enough fiber and enough water to balance out the fiber.

Thats a good idea. i wonder how much you can do if you have 10 minutes though. I'm a little short on time.

i KNOW my sodium is way high. do you think that's making a big issue for me?

Hey, you sound really overworked I hope you are taking time for yourself with that busy schedule.

Maybe you can try portioning out snacks in bagies, maybe 100 cals per bag. Take those with you when you are on the go. Also try and plan your meals ahead every week, and keep variety in it.

As for the needing something in your mouth, i hear you with this one :) try chewing sugar free gum and drink water. also keep carrots or celery at your desk, they are great to eat, and they wont make you gain :) try them with some spicy mustard that is my fav snack at the moment :)
good luck!

the sodium thing is the biggest cause of water weight gain! buy low sodium and try to make as much fresh food as possible. healthy choice is very good on sodium for pre-packaged meals and canned soups. (they also make microwaveable soup cups that are good for work)

i just noticed you are from va beach. i have so much family there it's rediculous.

aww, yeah i'm from va beach. and i don thave the beach body, i want it back! I'm gonna try pre-packaging but i can never get it right. i think i'm just too tired. LOL. Thanks everyone for the great advice, i'll work on it

sounds like your appatite is derived from being tired and stress.  Also lack of sleep and lack of fluids.. water.. can really put a damper on your weight loss.

Hang in there.  When did you start calorie count? When were you 193? and when did you bounce up to 196?  Is this in a short amount of time?  Just like females, males have hormones that play a roll in their weight loss.  They actually go through a 'cycle'.. so this just may be hormonal too.

Hmm interesting. i started calorie count in oct 2006 and i used it faithfully, then gave up. i was 193 this march, and it's going slowly downhill. I'm very confused - all of the calorie count things around here say that if i work out 30-60 minutes a day 3 x a week, i shoudl take in 2800 calories! I only take in 2000 now and work out and i still gain weight, any clue what's going on there? ? anyone know where i can find good informaiton on this, i have been everywhere including webmd. CC.com says that i should take in at least 2400 cal/day because i work out, but that seems astronomical to me!

I think you're a great candidate for the Dr Oz book, You on a Diet. It explains everything you wanted to know about belly fat, and how to reduce it. See if you can get a copy from the library.

"all of the calorie count things around here say that if i work out 30-60 minutes a day 3 x a week, i shoudl take in 2800 calories! I only take in 2000 now and work out and i still gain weight, any clue what's going on there? ?"

Looks to me like you're not eating enough!  If you should be taking in 2800, or "at least 2400 cal/day", then you should do so.  If you eat too little, your metabolism slows down to compensate and it can get very hard to drop any weight.  And for a guy that weighs close to 200 lbs and works out 3x per week, I don't think 2400-2800 cal/day is an unreasonable amount at all.  Try eating more! 

1800 calories/day?  Seriously? 

I'm a 5'4" woman and sometimes I eat that much; to lose...

Eat more.  Protein (handful of nuts, etc) at every meal, helps keep you from constant hunger. 

Yeah, you are under eating.   I bet you spend a lot of time on your feet in one of those two jobs you work and you probably walk around some while on campus between classes.

Seriously if you want to use the site to get your weight down you gotta follow it.

Either that or get a notebook like I did and jot your calories and exercise down in there and make sure you ATLEAST are getting a NET calorie count of 1500.

If you are more active with your work then add in another 400.

Then ADD on what you are burning in working out.

So yeah you may just need 2500 calories...

But don't think of it as eating 2500...

Think of it as

2500 eaten
-300 burned at work
-100 burned at school
-600 burned at the gym
____
1500 total NET for the day

Seriously though... it definitely sounds like you aren't eating enough... which combined with maybe not sleeping enough is why you are so tired.

So I'm also thinking that if other parts of your body are toning up, what you might need to do is ramp up your cardio work-out. I know often there's an inclination to emphasize one's weight training, but it's recommended that you get in at least 40 minutes of cardio per work out. Going to school and working full-time myself, I understand how difficult it can be to get that much time out of your gym visit, but I suspect you need to be doing more running/biking/elliptical -- try staggering it so that you're doing a cardio work-out twice a week, weight training once a week. Once you've lost some of the extra packaging, you can trade off and go to cardio once a week and weight twice.

Hopefully I'm not repeating any advice here. And yeah, you should defintely consider cutting down on sodium.

Good luck!!!!!!!

You should also make sure you're getting enough sleep :)  Several studies have shown that people who don't get enough sleep are actually hungrier and make worse food choices than those who get more sleep. 

You sound incredibly busy with school/work, but as the spring semester is winding down try seeing if you can sleep a little bit more.  If you're still not seeing results, maybe try increasing your workout schedule to 4 days/week.