So, the first 50 pounds came off relatively easily. Every pound after that has been a struggle. I've responded by attempting to cut back my calories during the day, and still eating fairly heavily at night, like I've done since the start of my new lifestyle.

But since I've gotten below the 180's, that isn't working so well. I end up feeling starved by the end of the day, and I end up over eating. I've tried to simply summon the willpower to overcome this, and it doesn't look like I have the inner strength to do this successfully. So, I'm going to try eating more during the day, hoping this helps be keep control at the end of my day.

I am getting discouraged, thinking that I am as close to goal as I am going to get. I don't want to be borderline obese anymore! Ever again! Any input at to what you all think of my tweaking my way of eating would be greatly appreciated.

Here's what I mean to eat now. Until I get home, I stick to plan. Also, exercise 4 times a week on average, either walking 3 1/2 miles up a hilly road, or spending 30-40 minutes on the elliptical on a hard setting for me. Just restarted some weight training, but nothing too spectacular.

Breakfast: About 100 to 150 calories. Toast, or cereal and skim milk.

Snack: 100 calories. A banana.

Lunch: 200 calories. Roasted vegetable and pasta salad, or a sandwich of diet bread, fat free mayo, 58 grams lean turkey or ham.

Snack: 80 Calories. A cup of Skim Milk or light chocolate soymilk.

Misc: 70 Calories. 2 liters Splenda sweetened tea.

Subtotal: 570

Dinner: Various things, around 300-350 calories.

Fruit: An apple. 100 calories.

Dessert: , 200-300 calories- Lite ice cream
Subtotal: 1290

Unplanned: Crackers, handfuls of cereal, extra chocolate soymilk (yummy!). Extra handfuls of veggies with FF dressing dip. Dried fruit such as dates or raisins. How many calories? Who know?! Enough that I'm not really losing weight.

New Plan

Breakfast: 200 calories. 1/2 cup Eggbeaters- 60 cal, either two slices of diet bread and a slice of fat free cheese or refried beans with onions and peppers- 120 calories, salsa- 20 calories.

Snack: 100 calories. A banana.

Lunch: 250 calories. Same as above, but with a wedge of low fat cheese- 50 calories.

Snack: 200 calories, more or less. Apples with peanut butter, veggies with FF dip. Granola bar. Half a sandwich and a cup of soymilk.

Misc: 70 Calories. 2 liters Splenda sweetened tea.

Subtotal: 820

Dinner: Various things, 300-350 range

Fruit: 100 calories, an apple

Dessert: 100 calories. Jello with coolwhip, maybe some fruit.

Total: 1370

So, I'm planning on eating more, but it is less than I currently really am eating. The extra calories are coming from mainly lean protein sources such as eggbeaters and fatfree or lowfat cheese. I will not be ditching the splenda in the ice tea. Ever. Sorry, but that just is the way it is.

This seems kind of a counter-intuitive approach to me, since I have been successful so far. But I just cannot grind to halt now, and am getting pretty stressed about it.

It is a scientific study result that consuming the bulk of calories in the evening at dinner and beyond is not conducive to weight loss. You need to eat a better breakfast that has protein, fruit, dairy, starch - LOTS AND LOTS of veggies for snacks and meals, cut down on the ice cream - 1/2 cup is a serving and there many that come in at about 100 calories for 1/2 cup. Cut the BLT completely.

I AGREE WITH SUSAN ~ I was having the same problem as you; I felt like I was starving by my evening meal. Now I have a bigger breakfast, a healthy lunch, and regular dinner. Oatmeal with bran or natural cream of wheat are very filling for breakfast.

YES, I agree about cutting the light ice cream down to 1/2 cup, so you can use those C's for a whole grain carb that fills you up more. Have you ever tried skim milk puddings; they only have about 100 C's in them? That would give you 200 C's to add to your meals.

HAVE you tried having soup with lunch or dinner to feel more full (ie cup-a-soups are quick); maybe a thermos of broth or veggie-based soup to take to work? I know you work, as I have been following your blog; maybe you need some more C's to keep you strong and feeling full all day.

THERE was a thread in the Support Forum about keeping your total C's to about 1400-1500 a day; any less and your body may feel it is starving and not let you lose anymore (just a theory); many have found by changing up the amounts they eat each day helps them to lose again.

I AM now trying all these tricks as well; my first 60-70 lbs came off pretty easily too; then I hit a huge plateau just like you; now I have lost three lbs, but it is slow moving; I also realized (with some advice from a nurse friend) that I really need to up my daily energy output (exercise) to about 50 minutes a day to help me continue to lose. As you get closer to your goal weight (and you are), you would probably need to increase it too.

HOPE some of these ideas are helpful to you TEALEAF; your blog has been a great inspiration to me ... ROSEBUD

Actually, there is recent evidence that debunks the theory that eating at a certain time of day effects weight loss results. It was published in the New England Journal of medicine and featured on Yahoo a year ago. This isn't to imply that I necessarily agree with this theory because I lost weight when I avoided dessert after dinner and instead had more snacks during the day!

Thanks! Yeah, I know the ice cream is a problem. I'm not including it at all in the "new" plan. I mainly eat it when I'm feeling weak willed and deprived, which as of late has been every night it seems! Getting rid of it gives me alot more wriggle room in my during-the-day calorie count.
I might well try the soup thing at work. I do love me some soup!

Thanks for the encourament and ideas. And thanks for liking my blog, Rosebud! I like to think it's doing someone some good, or at least is good for a laugh.

One thing, Susan, BLT means to me Bacon/lettuce/tomato. I'm guess it mean something else to you? Even at my heaviest, I was never a big bacon fan!

Going to bed now, look forward to seeing if anyone else has any input!

Hey Tealeaf!

Your new plan looks good to me--more calories, and more earlier in the day!

Won't hurt to pass on the ice cream, no matter how "lite" it is.

Bacon isn't terribly high in calories (a thin slice)--the difficulty is that they are primarily fat cals. But, I'm a believer in *some* fats in one's program. Also, I like whole eggs. More calories, though.

Try your new plan for a week and let us know how it goes... You could aim for 1400 as your top number.

Cheers!

Jay

A nutritionist told my husband (this was for diabetic control) that the biggest meal of the day should be breakfast, so that you have the whole rest of the day to use those calories and enough energy to keep you going so you shouldn`t feel hungry at dinnertime. He also told my DH that he didn`t necessarily need to eat typical breakfast foods at breakfast, either. He could eat anything at all, as long as the carbs were the good kind and he ate enough protein and fat to balance it out. My DH was going overboard on the notion of carb cutting, and probably was only eating about 20 carbs a day. He was actually getting sick over it.

Hey firehorse66,

Jay

Howdy Tealeaf! Sounds like a great plan. I am a huge believer of eating a protein with each meal or snack. If I eat "just" an apple, it won't hold me for more than a few minutes. Now, an apple and a string cheese....or hard boiled egg....that will hold me for hours and keep me from overeating the first chance I get.

Best of luck!!

Hello again everyone. Well, I've decided to do this, starting this very day! Some thoughts: I also believe that the time one eats doesn't affect weight loss. A calorie is a calorie is a calorie whenever one eats it. In fact, since I work 3rd shift, my "breakfast" is around 9pm, Lunch 3am, and Dinner 10am. The issue isn't the clock per se as feeling so hungry during and at the end of the "day" that I overeat.

The only "meal" I have were I don't include a protien is my first snack of a banana. I've found through trial and error that a banana is pretty good at holding back hunger for me. Plus they are just plain good! I am hoping that adding more protien throughout the day does help, though.

I eat bacon about 3-4 times a year. Really, that's about how into bacon I am. No offense to the bacon lovers out there, but I am not among your ranks. I did a ctrl-f on the word to see if I accidently used it in my first post, but I didn't find it mentioned till QuilterinVA made the suggestion that I drop the BLTs altogether. Perhaps she just misread something I wrote? Anyways, um, sure! No BLTs for me!

Ok. Off to start my new day and new diet. Aiming for around 1400 calories. Hope this works out!

Annie -- I think a lot of it is about trial and error and what works for you. I am in a plateau -- completely self-induced. Eating a little too much every day to lose.

Like you, I'm playing around with different ways of "packaging" food to see what works. You're doing it healthy and seem willing to "tweak" -- two big pluses.

I do find that sometimes my hunger is in my head. In the evening I'm trying to have a cup of tea before I think about having my planned "snack". That seems to help sometimes. I should probably bring some tea to work during the day.

I also sometimes wonder if my self-induced plateau is "mental" I'm no longer obese and am just less invested in losing... changing the mental game is what got the scale moving down when I was 205 and maybe that's what it would take to go down from "just under obese"...

Just chiming in to say I'm in the same boat...I gave up my beloved slow churn this weekend. If that's the key to the whole thing? Hey, small price to pay. I can add it back later and see if maybe it isn't such a trigger anymore.

The BLT was from anther post...

I just wanted to add that those current pics are amazing, Annie!! You are quite the supermodel!

You mentioned you starting adding some weight training. There is a lot of scientific evidence that adding muscle speeds up your metabolism all day long letting you burn more calories in total. For me seriously hitting the weights has been the definite turning point & plateau buster I needed.

BLTs = Bites, licks and tastes. Basically all the little nibbles you are having seem to be really adding up to stall your weightloss. If you are really hungry between meals/snacks then I agree that you need to shuffle things around. I too have a very low calorie breakfast and lunch (only around 200 each) and two snacks of 100 each and save the bulk of my intake until dinnertime. However its rare for me to feel true hunger during the day now and I eat around 500-600 main meal. To me 200-300 would be too much to 'spend' on a dessert.

You're a real inspiration to me Tealeaf and wouldn't want to see you fail after getting so far so my advice would be to cut the nibbles and re-assess the way you are using your calories for dessert.

Kitty