How much should I be eating?
 

Since starting a new job a month ago, I've had a lot of trouble with figuring out how much I should be eating.

I use caloriecount.about.com to track my food and activities. I have myself set to sedentary with 8 hours of sleep per night as baseline then manually add any significant activity. I figured the calories burned estimate would be most accurate this way. My baseline sedentary amount of calories burned per day with no activity is 1840.

My job is a store clerk at a clothing store so I am on my feet for 8 hours, folding clothes, squatting, climbing ladders in the storeroom, and carrying boxes of clothing. I simply log my 8 hour shift as "standing, light" on the calorie counting website. Calorie Count estimates my 8 hour shift as 1396 calories burned. My total calories burned for a working day is 2597 according to Calorie Count. Some days I also walk 1.5 miles to work, which adds another 143 calories burned. That bumps my total calories burned to 2695.

I have a hard time believing I burn so many calories on the job but even after increasing my intake to 2000 per day I still feel hungry almost constantly. I've had occasional trouble (once per week or so) with carb binges since starting this job, due to stress, weird scheduling, and having trouble balancing meal times, meal quality, and amount of calories eaten. My weight is up almost 10 lbs because of this, though I know the majority of that is water weight. Still, it is distressing when piled on top of everything else I am dealing with at the moment.

I have also just begun weight lifting and find that on the day after lifting I am ravenous all day. Yesterday I worked an 8 hour shift then went to the gym afterward for cardio and weight lifting and today I seem to have a bottomless appetite. Since today is a rest day from the gym and I don't work, my amount of burned calories is the sedentary 1840. I am struggling to keep below that and it's likely I won't have much of a deficit today.

I feel as though my nutrition is falling to pieces since I am constantly tired and constantly hungry. I don't know how much to eat per day and the (water) weight I've gained is making me worry that I'm eating too much although I usually have a 500-600 calorie deficit almost everyday.

Should I be eating about 2000 calories per day on work days? What about off days? I'm so tired of being constantly hungry!

The question could be what you are eating? The answer is definitely there, if you post it it'll be easier to see where you are going wrong maybe.

I'm new here as of today but I am not new to healthy eating/dieting. To keep from getting hungry between meals I go for protein. A spoonful of peanut butter, a handful of nuts, or a chunk of cheese keeps the hunger pangs at bay. Sometimes I even go for a high protein, low carb, low calorie drink such as an Atkins shake.

Carb binges with no protein and/or little fiber will make you hungry again very fast! Have you ever noticed how you're hungry very soon after eating pancakes with syrup? The carbs ingested make your blood sugar rise very quickly and drop very quickly which makes you feel hungry.

As far as how many calories you should be eating, I'll let one of the old hats help you with that.

Hang in there and don't get discouraged!