Bites vs. Weight Re-evaluation time! I have decided to keep my bites the same for next week. I recently changed my goal weight from 150 to 148 for the next month+ starting on Monday March 17th on my new Maintenance Contracts. I dont know if I will sometime go lower or higher with my goal, I just dont want to ever have my goal above 150 lbs!
Current Weight: 144.6 lbs
Below 5 lb Maintenance Range (145.5 to 150.5)
See Goal Range/Trend wieght graphed out here
https://trendweight.com/u/cd1f67ad57c04c/
The maintenance Range is always 2.5 lbs above and 2.5 lbs below my goal wieght (148 lbs)
So I am still below my 5 lb range, but just decided to keep my bites the same for next week.
Monday-Friday (N days): 45 bites
Saturday-Sunday (S days): 55 bites
My daily plan for N days looks like this, I recently started eating breakfast before I exercise
7:30 Start exercising 4 miles
aprox 7 AM- 7:30 AM 7 bites
12- 12:15 PM 14 bites
6 PM or when family eats 24 bites
Total Monday-Friday N days 45 bites
Saturday- Sunday 55 bites total eat 3-4 times
Do you think you'll always count bites, or do you think you'll just try to have smaller portions?
ReplyDeleteI look at bite counting as a Lifestyle Change, long term. I am part of a Maintainers group on spark people and people that are maintaining their still track calories for life even after they have lost weight. Portion control is one of the secrets of long term maintainers. Bite counting makes me feel in control.
ReplyDeleteWhen I used to do Intuitive Eating, Years ago, I would have trouble knowing **Exactly** where to stop. And I would argue with myself, and make excuse why I could just keep eating. And when you are not keeping track, one extra bite leads to 10 extra bites....leads to 20 extra bites...you get the idea and pretty soon, a person would be right back where they started.
Some people think its obsessing to count bites. Actually it was obsessing when I was doing Intuitive Eating. My brain would have to argue, Analyze a lot of the time, Am I hungry yet? Maybe I am a tiny bit hungry, should I go ahead and eat? Well, maybe I should And... Am I full yet? Is this a small enough portion, or can I eat a bit more?
You get the idea...."small portions" and "Intuitive Eating" was so Obssessing! It took so much of my mental energy!
Bite counting is easy...I know when to stop...when bite number such and such comes along. I AM DONE!!!!! =) No more ifs, no ands, no buts about it....I don't have to constantly analyze if I should eat more or less, I do that a few minutes each week when I decide how many bites to eat for the next week. And recording my bites takes less than 30 seconds a day!
ALl the advantages of calorie counting without the Time, obsession and hassle!
I apologize if this is too long of an answer! =)
I appreciate your long reply. You are an example of what works. I know it works, but didn't keep it off, so that is the difference :). I too would rather count bites than calories, but I have kept my bites at 80, and will continue that unless the weight loss slows. So far (just one week in) I have lost 2#, and that loss is reasonable for me. Now we'll see if I can keep it up.
DeleteThanks for commenting again! Keep me updated on your progress! you can do it! :)
DeleteI hear you about Intuitive Eating.
ReplyDeleteLike me, I see you follow the No S diet. With your bites program do you eat sweets on weekdays as well as weekends? I noticed you dropped the Intermittent Fasting. Was it a problem?
Yes, the Intermittent Fasting was causing some side effects. I was having symptoms of possibly maybe high cortisol and blood sugar issues. I just decided to try having 3 spread out meals a day and I felt better. Not to say I wont ever try IF again, just not right now.
ReplyDeleteAs far the as the sweets, I do eat whatever I want pretty much on N and S days both that way I never feel deprived.
Thanks for commenting
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi I somehow found you whilst doing a search of fast 5..lol...small world. I don't want to pry but can you elaborate on the problems you were having with fast 5 ie. cortisol and BS issues. The reason is I want to do fast 5 with times of 2pm-7pm, I think that would really suit me as eating too early in the day is a problem for me and I do better with rigid type rules. I am alarmed as I am reading several comments on well respected forums stating that IF is fine for men but can cause problems for women, particularly adrenal/cortisol issues so I am concerned and just wondered what symptoms to look out for. Did you feel that your blood sugars went too low during fasting and you need to eat the three meals throughout the day for stabilisation of the sugars? Congratulations on the weight loss, awesome results, not sure if I could do the bite thing, but sure would love to give fast 5 a go moreso to maintain my weight as a lifestyle rather than to lose heaps of weight. If I could maintain I would be very happy. I would be grateful for your input from someone who has had mixed results from IF. Cheers
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting. I was having heart palpitations and when it would get a couple hours before my window opened my blood sugar would fall and I wouldn't feel well. Also very irregular and delayed ovulation. I have a history of gestatational diabetes 4 times. I was also exercising while fasting hours and hours before my window opened. I think this only increased my symptoms. I still like IF and I may try again sometime but right now my body didn't like it. I did feel some better after moving to 3 meals 5 1/2-6 hours apart and eating a bit of peanut butter to stabalize my blood sugar with each meal.
ReplyDelete