During the week I can plan my meals and eat them evenly spaced throughout the day. However the weekends are another story. For instance today, I had my breakfast (eggwhite, spinach, lean ham FF cheese) around 1PM. I didn't eat anything else until after 9PM - Shake, chicken breasts, veggies, salsa, half and apple with PB. Is it detrimental to my goals to eat so many of the calories I need in a day at the end of the day? How detrimental is it if it is?

Tiki

The problem is that when your body doesn't get food in regular intervals, your metabolism will slow, and your blood sugar levels will rollercoaster. Also, you're just perpetuating unhealthy eating patterns which got you overweight in the first place. Your body needs fuel to run properly and be healthy, and when you don't give it that fuel, you're not respecting it. That's not to say we don't all have hectic days, or that eating regularly is easy all of the time, but the bottom line is that not eating nothing for 12+ hours, then not eating again for another 8 is just putting your body through needless distress.

One of the reasons to go through this whole process is to build new habits for ALL the reasons they are good for us, not just because they'll provide optimum weight loss.

Yep. Also, during those long hours without food is when most "food disasters" occur. It's the "too hungry, too tired, too cranky, gotta eat NOW" syndrome when rational thought goes out the window and McD sound like a good idea, then what the #$^&, why not top it off with a visit to DQ?

Can you keep some emergency food in your purse? Something that's not so tempting that you'll eat it just because it's there, but palatable for those times when you either wouldn't be able to eat all or would have to eat something you'd really rather not? I keep foil packed tuna and individual serving containers of natural applesauce (and a spoon and can opener) in my bottomless purse, gym bag, and car. I don't keep meal bars anymore because 1) they melt, and 2) the only ones that I like I tend to eat like a candy bar.

Mel

I realize that packing and carrying stuff with me is what I should do, however, sometimes that doesn't always happen. What I was asking is if I find myself at a huge calorie deficit at the end of the day, should I eat enough to get in a healthy amount of calories or should I just let it go?

Tiki.

Pesonally, I would let it go and do better the next day, instead of going to bed with 600+ cals under my belt... But this is just moi, I may be totally wrong... ( I probably am ) ...

Tiki:

I think it depends on how YOUR body reacts. For me, I would probably try to skip overeating (b/c that's a problem I have now that I'm trying to get a handle on), but realize that I may wake up early absolutely starving. The worst is when I wake up during the night with a grumbly stomach -- that's when disaster can fall if I have off-plan food in my house.

I would probably also try to make sure I had closer to the upper end of my calory limit the next day. But, again, this isn't med. advice -- just what I've ended up doing when I realize that I'm really really low on my calories for the day.

I like Mel's idea of carrying around emergency food, but I'm very bad about following that advice. It's probably b/c I change bags way tooo frequently.

It will happen if you MAKE it happen. It's your responsibility to make sure you're prepared. As someone who led her entire life by whim and lack of desire to plan ANYTHING, trust me, I know what a pain in the *** it is to get in the habit of going to the grocery store regularly to make sure I have the correct foods available, and making myself pack my snacks for the day or otherwise making myself eat on a regular schedule. But, I also don't want the consequences of not doing it, so I do it. I don't want tooth decay or bad breath, so I brush my teeth. I don't want roaches and a stinky house, so I take out the garbage. Do I enjoy any of these activities? No, but I do them.

Tiki-
I'd eat enough to make sure you aren't hungry and won't wake up at 4am starving, but don't forcefeed yourself. Then as mox suggests, eat at the high end of your calorie range the next day. There's nothing wrong with a little calorie zig-zagging, but try not to go so long without food

Mel

It's like the saying goes: "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail."

If you go to the store and stock up on some non-perishable staples, they will be there when you need them. You should see my desk drawer, I could live for a week in my office if I ever got snowed-in.

My office is fine, my cabinets at home are fine and if I know I am going to be out and about on weekends, I do carry stuff. I get jacked up when my plans for the day change and I get stuck away from home or get super-busy and flat out forget to eat. I don't carry money around with me so I can't buy bad stuff, I just don't think about it until I get home and realize I have been running around all day on fumes and now I have too few calories for the day.

Typically when I am eating poorly, its when I am at home, surrounded by good choices and just don't make them, not when I am out and about without my staples and give in and buy dumb stuff.

Tiki.

Hi Tiki,

I think I know what you mean: You get so involced in other things that you forget to eat, then you eat most of your stuf at the end of the day. I can imagine the situation, i am also trying to get away from almost not eating in the morning and wanting to eat everything between 3 pm and 7pm. But I think this is not good for you because you won't sleep off the calories at night and then you are not hungry in the morning again.

Maybe this is a crazy suggestion but if you forget to eat at home maybe you could set an alarmclock to go every 3-4 hours to alert you to have some small snack ??? Or can you coincide your snack with a time that the kids are having a snack ???

rabbit

Rabbit - that is a great idea. I set a kitchen timer to remind me to get my clothes out of the washer or dryer, why not to eat, too?

I know of many people on other boards who set their alarms to eat, some set a reminder on their computers at work to remind them to eat...I'm a clock watcher and I'm always hungry I rarely miss a meal ...

Forget to eat? I couldn't do that if I tried. I'll admit there have been days here and there where I have not been very hungry and could forget, but since I have been trying to stick to a schedule of eating I throw a if I don't get to eat when I'm suppose to...just ask my husband how I get on the weekends when my schedule can get a little thrown off We have been working really hard to make sure that does not happen anymore! I think if you start an eating routine and stick to it, your body will let you know that it is time to eat...what we have been doing is packing a little cooler on the weekend when we are going to be out running around.
This has helped tremendously....also keeps our pocket book a little fatter