Is This You?! Help!

[Tallgirll22T]

Ok, so you have been working out consistently all week. 3 sets of total body moves with 3 sets of a specific body workout tacked onto the end i.e. delts, glutes, quads, etc. You do 20-30 minutes of cardio 5 days a week. You get up early and work all day doing fast-paced shiftwork with lots of heavy lifting. You pack yourself a cooler with lunch and lots of clean snacks. You don't touch sugar, barely even drink milk or dairy because of the sugar and fat content, no juice, not even coffee. Just unsweetened herbal tea. You are the smallest you have ever been. Yet, you are SUPER hungry all the time it is SO ANNOYING!

Then your day shifts for the week end and that dreaded evening shift rolls around. It is slower at work. You pack a cooler anyway, preparing for the worst. You get to the locker room and someone has brought in snacks for everyone--a minefield of salt, sugar, and processed who knows what. You somehow avoid eating any, knowing that later on your break you have boiled eggs, cottage cheese, and lots of raw fruits and veggies, plus all the water you want.

But then break time rolls around and you are STARVING. You get in that break room and scarf down the food you packed...and then you somehow eat 2 huge handfuls of pretzels and so many peanut butter filled sandwich cookies you lose count. You leave, then when you get off work you are hungry again, so you eat some more, telling yourself "Peanut butter is good for me at least." YOU CAVED. What do you have to say for yourself the next morning?

The next morning it is time to weigh yourself for the week and take measurements. You have gained 3/4 inches and 2 pounds. You get mad and vow to work even harder, eat even stricter, be even awesomer! Then you do the same dumb thing again. You cave. Why is this happening?

If this is you, or was you at one time, please share what you figured out you are doing wrong, because most of the time, this is me. It is pretty impossible for me to refuse food that looks good when it is put in front of me, is free, and I am so hungry I can't think straight. I'm sure I'm so hungry all the time because I am a workaholic and burn up anything I eat, but what good, clean stuff can I be adding to current diet? I am afraid muscle is catabolizing (or is it cannibalizing?) itself because I am not seeing much muscle gains or flab loss. It is also hard not to overeat when I am always starving. I eat about 5 meals a day as is. That evening shift at work really kills me because I essentially don't get dinner, then I'm there about 3 hours before I get a break, which is only 15 minutes, so I have trouble thinking of anything substantial to bring with me. I'm not there long enough to get a lunch, but I am hungry again after work. I've been told I am probably not eating enough, especially for size. (I'm rather tall and large framed.) 5/11", 196-198 pounds. B40, W32, H40.

Suggestions please? Here is a sample of how I normally eat:

Meal 1: 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats (1 cup cooked) with flax, bee pollen, walnuts, dash almond milk.
1/2 cup berries
eggwhites
3-4 pints water
Meal 2 (if post workout): 1/2 scoop whey powder with water, 4 oz tuna, 1 apple.
Meal 2 (if on the job): 2-3 celery stalks with natural peanut butter OR 4 oz natural unsweetened applesauce and 1-2 boiled eggs.
1-2 pints water
Meal 3: 1 cup mixed berries+melon
1/2 cup raw spinach
1/2 cup low or non-fat cottage cheese
sprinkle ground flax+wheat germ
(if at work, I also have 4 oz of lean meat)
3 pints water
Meal 4: 2 grilled boneless skinless chicken breasts, stir fried in EVOO with 1 cup mixed veggies
1/2 cup rice
2 pints water
Meal 5: 1 scoop soy, whey, or casein protein powder in 8 oz skim milk
handful whole, unsalted cashews
herbal tea (no sweetener)
2 pints water

Any suggestions as to what else I could be eating and when would be appreciated. Thanks

[Boss Man]

Try increasing your carb intake by around 10g per meal ang see how that pans out. Your calories dont' look understated, nor does your protein intake, but you might find a bit more energy is what is required.

[Tallgirll22T]

Thank you for the very specific reply. Everybody always says in order to lose weight you have to cut carbs or carb cycle, so I try to keep carbs at 2 meals a day, except for fruits and veggies. Do you mean I should be adding more carbs like bananas, sweet potatoes, and beans? Or more rice, oats, pasta sort of stuff? I noticed on your method post you said 1 cup whole grain, 1 cup non whole grain is a good rule of thumb. I actually read that on here a year ago before I was a member and have tried to stick to it. I feel hungry, shaky, or jittery a lot, so maybe it is a lack of carbs.

[Boss Man]

Add the carbs in. Lowering carbs is good as excess carbs can turn to fat, but too few carbs, can affect your body as it could affect bloodsugar, make your lethargic and affect brain functions and sleep patterns.

By carbs I mean anything with carbs in that is not dried fruit, processed sugar sources or junk.

I'm nto aiming this forthcoming comment at you, but one pet peeve of mine is people using the words carbs and veggies, as if they're two seperate things. They're not. Veggies have carbs in them, just like pasta, potatos and rice do. there's high GI carbs and low and moderate GI, but there is not a 4th macronutrient called veggies and there never will be.

Nor are there macronutrients called beer, chocolate and salad, though I'm sure some people in this world that think there is.

You can add some high GI carbs in your choices , but moderate them and consider mixing them with lower GI ones, like a parsnip and some green beans, or brown rice and mushrooms as examples, so the bloodsugar impact is lessened, not least as things like rice, pasta, parsnips and wholegrain breads have usable nutrition, but don't contain salt or processed sugars or fats, so you CAN eat them in opinion if you're using a sensible approach and you needn't exercise an abstinence mentality to high GI carbs unless you want to.

Moderate not abstain is always feeling .

In relation to cereals, some cereals do contain some sugar or salt, but not all, so you can include cereals as well, expecially as oats and barley and to a lesser extent wheat and rye, contain cholesterol lowering beta-glucan.

I cannot tell you offhand though, if cereals like triticale, spelt, teff, quinoa, chia etc, do or don't contain b-g, but you can buy it supplementally.