I was doing good. Then last night happened.

My cal count for the day was a little bit low, around 1100 (I try for around 1500) and I was at school last night until around 10pm, dinner was a light one around 6pm. When I got home, I was fine for about 5 minutes, then got HUNGRY. Hungry as in feeling so empty I was nauseated, my hands/legs were shaking, and I broke into a cold sweat. I had a string cheese, which would have been fine, except that I followed it up with a BIG plate of spaghetti with meatballs (probably 2, 2.5 c of pasta, with 3 1oz meatballs). This was around 11pm. I felt much better physically after eating, but now I feel like crap mentally. My scale is up about 2 lbs, which could be because I ate so late last night and weighed early this morning, or because I'm due for my period (should be coming today or tomorrow), or...well, I don't know. Because it's a scale.:P

Can someone please tell me 1. I will get over this "need" to suddenly eat like it's my last meal and 2. kick me in the pants and remind me that I really do deserve to lose this weight?

Thanks.

I'm sure someone with much more experience in this area can help you more. Especially because lately I feel like I could have written this exact post. I just wanted to let you know you're not alone and don't give up. Also, you need this:

But don't beat yourself up. If you were hungry to the point of physical symptoms, then I don't think eating was a horrible thing to do. The scale is probably up because of sodium, and the fact that it was a late & heavy meal. Push the water today, and try and get lots of fresh fruit & veggies in. You do deserve this!

I get that way when I haven't eaten enough during the day. Dizzy, shaky, cold sweat, etc. In fact I remember one time while traveling to a family thing I had barely eaten all day and I was so shaky and just felt like I was going to pass out. I was sweating and quickly inhaled an apple, which I felt better within minutes of eating. I took that as a lesson, never have I been like that again. I eat mini-meals during the day. Like I'll eat a breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but I"ll fill in the day with little meals. I find that when I don't eat enough during the day I want something large and such in the evenings. I personally like my lunch to be larger and my evening meals to be smaller in size.

Gotta make sure you eat!!!

If your body is reacting as it did then it is screaming that it needs food. Can you make changes and perhaps up your calorie intake? Make sure you get enough food during the day? Can you bring snacks with you for your class?

You do indeed deserve to lose weight and be happy with yourself, including what you look like. But golly my golly...you also deserve to be able to EAT! Especially if your body is sending you messages like those.

So here's what I think: if you know you're going to have a long day like that, make sure that sometime during the day you're eating regularly and sufficiently. Your brain needs fuel too (and lots of it), especially if you're at classes until so late in the evening.

If a late night like that just happens and you didn't see it coming and you have another experience like that...like the above poster said, don't beat yourself up about it. Just as you deserve to like yourself, you deserve to not receive mental abuse (even from yourself).

Those shaky, dizzy, nausea feelings are most likely caused from your blood sugar being to low.

When you have those days/nights, when you don't get home till late, make sure you take a snack with you. You need something to eat about 8ish. Apple, orange, banana, cheese and a couple crackers, peanut butter and a couple crackers, etc.

In agreement with the above! Don't beat yourself up about this, because you experienced true hunger cues. Try to think of it as a puzzle - your body sent you a STRONG signal that what you did that day wasn't working for it, and now you get to be the objective, cool-headed investigator that has to figure out the clues and what they mean. You probably went too long without eating, so a possible solution might be to try to spread the calories over the day more evenly. Take a look at what you're eating, and see if somewhere in there you have a carb-heavy meal that needs to be balanced with some filling protein. Please don't get caught up in the emotional head game that you blew it ... focus on the target ahead and know that figuring out your new lifestyle will have some bumps and learning experiences! There's a tremendous amount of collective wisdom here ... and lotslotslots of different ways to eat that have been tweaked a million times. YOU CAN DO THIS!!!!

I have found that I am hungrier some days more than others. I haven't gotten dizzy or shaky yet, but when that hunger pang strikes, I also eat. I don't think it's necessary to beat yourself up about it. A spaghetti and meatball meal when you're that low on glucose is probably just right. Also, um, this might be gross to some, but that weight just could be due to poo. Heh. When you eat a lot, you generate more waste and I'm sure the next day after you go, you'll weigh less. I find that when I eat more on my "hungry" days, I end up losing more weight the following week.

Don't beat yourself up over 1 slip up. Life's too short. Just keep chugging along.

If you ate red meat, the weight is probably due to that. Red meat slows digestion. Also, the pasta is probably still sitting there.

Don't beat yourself up. If you don't like how things went down last night, plan for the next time hunger hits.

Eliminating processed carbs and white flour based products has completely eliminated my need to binge. It has also eliminated that cranky/headachy/weak hungry feeling one gets (or I should say, *I* got), when my diet was primarily processed foods and white flour products.

Get the pasta out of the house. If you MUST eat pasta, whole wheat or quiona pasta is a better choice but for me, even wheat pasta has the potential to lead me down that path to cravings and binging. I don't know if that's a mental or physical thing or both, but I know I function best with no wheat/grain based products in my diet. Trying to incorporate them leads to cravings and binge. Without them, I have been completely in control of my diet for months and havent eaten one thing that I didn't consciously decide to eat. And this is from a girl who used to obsess and fantasize about food the way and as frequently as guys are reputed to fantasize about women! Now, I am totally free of that and in control.

Experiment with what works for you, but I'd say trying to get these foods out of your diet all together may be a healthy choice.

It's a slip. It's not the end of the world. It happened and now you've learned that you can't expect your body to run on less fuel throughout the day and can plan accordingly.

I would like to ask: how long have you been at this? Even with the "best" diet from the start, you will go through an adjustment period where you feel a little dizzy and consistently "hungry". At least, that's been my experience. Your body is used to a certain level of food intake so some adjustment is necessary.

Don't beat yourself up, just get back on track right away. I had a binge last week, the first one since I have been losing and I too gained a couple pounds. I got back on track and did not weigh myself for several days. When I did weigh I had lost the binge weight.

I made a list of 100 calorie or less snacks. I try to plan to have a couple hundred calories per day that I can play with. I also wrote down in my food journal about the binge and how I felt about it and so forth. You are doing the right thing by getting back on track and getting support here.

Thanks everyone!

Altari -- haven't been at this long, I've spent the past couple of weeks tracking what I normally eat (without trying to change anything) and starting adjusting my intake this week, along with adding in some cardio. I think I just overadjusted and my body didn't like it. Today is a different day, and I've decided to just take last night as a lesson learned and move on.

i made a very similar post last week. i promised not to beat myself up and to move on, and i did. thats the BEST thing you can do, seriously.

my advice would be to eat more often. stash a granola bar or something in your purse for long days. the problem i have is that if i let myself get HUNGRY, i make bad choices. try to always keep something in your stomach.

you're fine! we all have slips, nbd as long as you get back on track!

If I'd only eaten 1100 calories and my last food was at 6pm I'd be shakey and starving by 11pm, too! Definitely start stocking some protein dense snack items for the evenings. Letting your calories go that low without some snack item, or even something like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or something, is setting yourself up for overeating when you get home. I have a whole bag of snacks at varying calorie levels in my car for moments like that.

I'll toss red sauce onto the list of scale up causes today as well - most of the canned spaghetti sauces have lots of sodium and always make me retain water.

Good luck! Of course you deserve to lose the weight!