So it took 30 minutes of re-installing My Fitness Pal, adding in the day's calories in/out and comparing to exactly one year ago to figure out the culprit(s).
1) Snacks throughout the workday.
I ate (I can't believe I'm revealing this to the world) 1000 calories between 10:00am-4:30 pm. The snacks I was bringing, to avoid mid-day hungry/hangry just kept creeping up.
June 16, 2014: Breakfast, Salad lunch with a peach, pineapple at 3pm
June 16, 2015: Breakfast, 10am: 2 lite string cheese sticks, 12:30 pm: Salad lunch + full-fat yogurt with berries + pineapple. 2-4:30pm: pistachios and rice crackers, celery/bell pepper mix, grapes
Today I brought my lunch and a container of blueberries and the celery/bell pepper mix. I only ate the wrap I made for lunch and the blueberries so far, and I'm leaving in 5 minutes. I'm hungry now, but walking outside will cure that (its too hot to be hungry).
I am trying (and liking) OMDG's trick of waiting as long as possible to have lunch. That leaves no time/appetite for snacking. It was easy today, a clinic day. I had no time for mid-morning snacks. I didn't have lunch until 2pm. Will be harder tomorrow when I'm in my office all day AND I work out in the AM
2) Decreased exercise?
June 2014, I was routinely logging 15-20K steps/day at least 5 days/week (some of those were from running, which is the only exercise I did back then, 2 short runs + 1 long run/week). I don't know how many I'm getting these days because I haven't been tracking, but I suspect its less. Some of this may be artificial, because the calorie burn MFP gives me for my workout classes seems WAY too low, considering I'm working much harder than I would during a 30 minute run. But I'll use the calorie burn they give me, because that actually would workout in my favor.
I realize that if/when I lose the weight I want to lose, I need to reset MFP and figure out the right amount of food for maintenance, instead of just increasing willy nilly (and increasing and increasing and increasing...). I probably need to repeat this exercise every 3 months of so, to make sure I'm staying on track, its so easy to veer off unintentionally.
Good for you. Though I'm cringing at what I will find when I begin logging again. For instance, I just grabbed a handful of candy that we got at the beach despite knowing that it is the wrong thing to eat. Shudder.
ReplyDeleteagree that making it until lunch is key for me too. usually i really am pretty busy in the AM which helps a lot. i KNOW i would snack more if i wasn't running from pt room to pt room.
ReplyDeletedo you eat protein w/ breakfast? i make it from breakfast to lunch much more easily now that i usually have eggs.
yes, I do eat protein with breakfast. After a workout and walking to work, though, I really get hungry around 10:30-11.
DeleteI used to do the wait really late for lunch option. Somehow between 11 and 2 I would stop feeling hungry. This was definitely a strategy that only works if you are busy!
ReplyDeleteI am pregnant with twins right now and am using MFP to attempt to get to my mandated 3000 calories. It's hard!
3000 is a lot, especially with pregnancy nausea/heartburn/stomach compression. congrats on your pregnancy!
DeleteOMG -- twins!!! That's wonderful, congratulations!!! How far along are you? Best of luck!
DeleteThat's interesting about the late lunch. I require a mid-morning snack, or I eat lunch around 11:00. If I don't, I completely lose focus.
ReplyDeletethat's the thing. If I'm working on "thinking" stuff at my desk, I lose focus. If I'm seeing patients or doing stuff iin the lab, I can power through.
DeleteMe, too. i don't want to wait until I'm cranky to eat. I'm also trying to avoid getting so hungry that I eat everything in sight. I'll let you know how that works out, though! Hm...
DeleteTotally with you on the calorie creep. It's scary how quickly that can sneak up with you. I also agree that sitting still at my desk, I feel hungry earlier. Sometimes when I'm running around in the hospital I can go 3-4 hours longer before I even notice I'm hungry just because I'm running around doing stuff. As for being cranky, there are so many other things to make me cranky at my job, I don't think that being a little hungry plays that big a role. Between nagging people, getting yelled at by patients, not sleeping enough, being the middleman between attendings who won't talk to one another, seriously, a little hunger in nothing.
ReplyDelete