I started calorie counting at the beginning of september. Rather than set myself a specific daily calory limit, I've aimed to ensure that daily calories are between 1200 and 1400, and that the monthly average is the same. My BMR is around 2900 (so a daily deficit of 1500-1700).
Part of the reason for doing it was to save some money by budgeting more as I'm a bit financially skint now.
My daily routine has been a breakfast fruesli bar (on some days, not all), a lunch at around 600-700 calories (2 rounds of sandwiches) and a ready meal for dinner of between 500 and 700 calories.
So far, so good. I've not had any problem sticking to it, and I weighed in today to a 9lbs loss in 16 days.
But the last few days, I've realised I'm just not that hungry - my dinners fine, but my lunch is too large, and today I couldn't actually finish it.
I've considered substituting one round of sandwiches for a packet of crisps, but that would take me below 1200 a day without compensating somewhere else (and compensating somewhere else means buying more at the supermarket!). I presume I'm not already under eating if I'm not as hungry any more (the first week I was quite often wanting a snack).
So in short, what's better to do - should I 'force' myself to eat (I thought about dividing my lunch into two portions as well, which may help with this), or should I just eat when I feel hungry and drop below the 1200 calorie level?
Part of the reason for doing it was to save some money by budgeting more as I'm a bit financially skint now.
My daily routine has been a breakfast fruesli bar (on some days, not all), a lunch at around 600-700 calories (2 rounds of sandwiches) and a ready meal for dinner of between 500 and 700 calories.
So far, so good. I've not had any problem sticking to it, and I weighed in today to a 9lbs loss in 16 days.
But the last few days, I've realised I'm just not that hungry - my dinners fine, but my lunch is too large, and today I couldn't actually finish it.
I've considered substituting one round of sandwiches for a packet of crisps, but that would take me below 1200 a day without compensating somewhere else (and compensating somewhere else means buying more at the supermarket!). I presume I'm not already under eating if I'm not as hungry any more (the first week I was quite often wanting a snack).
So in short, what's better to do - should I 'force' myself to eat (I thought about dividing my lunch into two portions as well, which may help with this), or should I just eat when I feel hungry and drop below the 1200 calorie level?
