I thought I'd start working on getting my weight off before surgery, so I started a food journal today. There's no wonder I weigh what I do, I eat too much. I want a snack every two hours or so and in the evenings between lunch and supper I get the munchies bad. I feel hungry, but not. Ugh, why can't this be easy? Any way to help keep me out of the kitchen and away from Snacks?

Here's what I have ate today (which is a mild day for me):

EAS Protein shake 110 Cal.

1 Orange 90 Cal

2 crab cakes 400 Cal for both cakes

Cottage cheese 90 Cal

Saltine Cracker ?

1 chocolate chip cookie ?

1 cheese stick 80 Cal

1 box yogurt covered raisins 120 Cal

Isn't it shocking, when you start journaling, to see what you eat? There is a great website for helping with the journaling deal. Click here to see it: Calorie Counter, Diet Tracking, food Journal, Nutrition Facts at The Daily Plate and it will track your calories, Protein, carbs, fat, sodium, Fiber....everything to help you know where you are lacking, or exceeding. And it has a fabulous search engine for specific foods, brands, restaurants.

It sounds like you are making pretty good choices. And there is nothing wrong with eating every two hours, if you can keep your total at around 1200 calories! Discovering how to "budget" your calories is just as daunting as learning to budget a limited income!

Good luck! You are doing a great thing for yourself!

I know how you feel. I have tried food journaling before and never got more than a week down at a time b/c I was so disgusted with what my choices were I would stop writing and ignore it. Here I am back at it again for a Weight Management Workshop I am doing (it was my choice, not required by dr or insur for WLS) Today is my 7th day and this weekend was sickening. Yesterday was over 3200, but a normal day is around 2500 for me.

For the person that said to keep it at 1200, well that's fine and dandy if you want to starve yourself, but everyone's calorie intake should be tailored to their height/weight. For me, my maintenance numbers are 2250-2600, but as you are trying to lose weight you should take off about 500 a day combined with exercise and increased physical activity. I myself, would starve on 1200 a day (this is all on account to those of us that have not had lap band yet) and I'm sure you would too. I use a tool called sparkpeople.com, it's similar to thedailyplate.com - you input your height and weight and it calculates how many calories you should be consuming. Then you set your goal for 500 less so my goal is 1750 - 2100. Every 4 weeks or so I will make a new goal for 250-500 less (i.e. 1500 - 1850)

Edited July 13, 200818 yr by em-tucky

Thanks for the great info!!

i also love the www.thedailyplate.com

it seriously tracks everything and they have a very large food list. I actually look forward to using it every day