I’ve figured out a way to keep my motivation

I dislike counting calories for each day in an app or on paper. I also can’t guesstimate because I always end up in a calorie surplus and gain weight when I do. So I’ve been on a seesaw, counting calories for a few days, then giving it up for a week, and so on.

Then I started making a schedule for fall term (I’m a college student) and realized I will have very specific windows when I can eat. And it dawned on me that I can just set a rough calorie target (plus or minus 50 calories in either direction) per “eating time slot” (I can’t really call my eating times meals because of the odd timing) and not bother about counting for the whole day.

I worked out how many times I would eat per day (4-5 depending on the day - I like spacing out my “meals” so I’m never too hungry or stuffed) and calculated proportions of calories for each time depending on how long it would be before the next time I eat (or I go to bed).

I’m at maintenance which is about 1700 calories for me so I made sure my calories would, on average over time, be about 1700 at the end of the day.

My schedule now looks like this:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday - 9am: 500-600 calories - 1pm: 500-600 - 5pm: 400-500 - 8pm: 100-200

Tuesday - 8am: 300-400 - 11am: 300-400 - 2pm: 300-400 - 5pm: 100-200 - 6:15pm: 400-500

Thursday - 9am: 300-400 - 11:45am: 300-400 - 2pm: 500-600 - 6pm: 200-300 - 8pm: 100-200

Saturday, Sunday - 9am: 200-300 - 11am: 400-500 - 2pm: 400-500 - 5pm: 300-400 - 7:30pm: 200-300

It’s not as exact as a daily limit, but as long as I’m staying within the boundaries each meal - and not eating the upper limit each time, but varying it - my calories should even out over time to keep me at maintenance.

My point in sharing this is, A) to remind people that you don’t have to do exactly the same thing as everyone else as long as it works for you, and B) in case anyone else shares my sentiment and wants to try out this method.

submitted by /u/ceramicthumb
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/j0hfm0/ive_figured_out_a_way_to_keep_my_motivation/