My first day dieting and working at improving my lifestyle.

[Junoberries]

okay so today I bought a fitbit blaze and I've been excited to try it, so throughout the day leading up to activating my device, my day started with a bowl full of flax and hemp seeds with cherries. lunch came around with creamy butternut squash soup followed by a lengthy hike around my area. for dinner I had some beef goulash the husband made and a salad made up of Kale, spinach, olives, a small yellow pepper and some cherry tomatoes with a small pinch of salt. it turns out im 240 cals short of 1900 calories. I felt hangry so i went ahead and had a piece of garlic sausage (1 serving), and according to the tracker i went from being under on my macronutrients to over. and I am still freaking starving after... 

from what I can tell I am meeting my needs but I am really not used to this. 

Am I on the right track minus the garlic sausage? 

[Dominique · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the community, @Junoberries, and congrats for your decision to improve your lifestyle!

Assuming you set a moderate/reasonable deficit (e.g. 500-750 calories), I wouldn’t necessarily eat back the calories Fitbit says you have left, especially at this stage (where you’re just starting). There is no way you can know how accurate your Blaze is in estimating (stress on estimating) the calories you burned during the day, and you may not be counting calories in your intake with 100% accuracy either. In fact, it’s not uncommon that an activity tracker overestimates calories burn and we understimate the calories we eat. If your Fitbit overestimates your energy expenditure by 250 calories and you underestimate your intake by 250 calories, a 500 calories deficit (as reported by Fitbit) becomes no deficit at all. If you have a few calories left on any given day (as in this case with your 240 calories) and you don’t feel super-deprived (being a little bit hungry is normal when undereating on purpose to lose weight), just leave it that way and see after a while (e.g. a couple of months) what the scale says.

As to the garlic sausage, I wouldn’t worry about it. Succesful weight loss is not about perfection on a single day, it’s about consistency over a longer period of time. If 80-90% of your diet is healthy (mostly whole/minimally processed food), the remaining part can be whatever you like, as long as your total calories don’t exceed the targeted amount.

[Esya]

Yes you are on the right track for now. Our stomache gets used to the amount of food we give it daily. When we change that it will take a few weeks before it is used to this new amount. It should get a bit easier after the first week I think.

For now do what you are doing and check your progress in 4 weeks. You will notice your weight might sometimes go a bit up in the day to day measurements, but if you are on the right track this is mostly due to water retention. For women the cycle has an impact on water retention too. Therefore, I would suggest to go at it for 4 weeks, then check your progress and adjust where needed. If you keep evaluating your progress every 4 weeks and adjust where needed, you will find what is right for you.

[Junoberries]

thank you!, yeah today I hiked 10'731 steps. doing awesome right now!... I will try not to sweat the fatty meats too bad. 

[Junoberries]

This is great info! much appreciated Esya 😄 time for a bowl of cherries and some probiotic yogurt 😄 

and yeah I find during my cycle i have to be more careful about dehydration. it sucks! 

i'll keep at it! 😄 

[Baltoscott]

Your meals sound pretty tasty and nutritious to me.  You breakfast is probably pretty filling.  Lunch, maybe not so much.  To address hunger throughout the day, you could add one of those side salads to all of your meals (low calorie density, high nutrient value, fiber fills you up), and I would probably add some more protein (i.e, cottage cheese, a piece of chicken, some edamame) to lunch.  (Protein will help you maintain muscle mass while you are in a calorie deficit for weight loss, and your metabolism has to work a little harder to digest it, so you can eat a bit more).  A little olive oil as dressing to the salads would address hunger some too.

To get in a sustainable weight loss mode and eventual "weighless" balance mode, you want a calorie reduction that doesn't make you feel hungry for too much of the day.  If you eat your meals a regular times, you can shoot for eating enough to feel fully satisfied at the meal and being hungry 30-60 minutes before the next meal.  

If you consistently find you are hungry after dinner, you might plan a late snack.  My nightly dessert is 1/2 cup of plain yogurt with 1/2 cup of frozen berries or fruit.  Having an idea ahead of time of what, if anything, that you are going to have after dinner, might help you avoid whatever looks tastiest (and maybe not so good for you) when you first open the fridge door while "hangry."  Though, a sausage here or there won't matter in the long run.  If you have good nutritional goals and hit them 80% of the time you will be fine.