Hoe bad am I messing up by...

by only eating dinner.  I get up drink a cup or 3 of coffee on my commute to work.  I immediately start drinking water at work 60-90 ounces M-F I keep drinking water through lunch and then the day is over I go home and eat a small dense dinner, turkey breast, tilapia, chicken tender, etc...  I've done this routine probably 3-4 times now, and I am just not hungry.  I know I should get my protein in, I'm taking my vites.  Please tell me specifically why?  Thanks

I think it's pretty important that you balance the day out and provide a steady routine of nutrients across the day.

Your body will become accustomed to the routine you're following and will start banking calories, become more efficient at using them, and this will diminish your weight loss results over time.  You might still loose weight, but it will take longer as your metabolism slows down.

You need to setup a schedule, with the appropriate amounts of food, and follow it regardless of your hunger level.  That's part of this process and good training for the future.  "Binging" like you're doing is not a health behavior.

Also, stop drinking so much coffee in the morning, it's not helping either.  Switch to water.

Binging on coffee?  

Your body needs protein to keep muscle mass. That includes your heart muscle. People who suffer from anorexia die from heart attacks. The lack of food/protein result in damage to the heart. 

Well the biggest problem is that you are not doing anything to speed up your metabolism. You are basically keeping yourself hungry throughout the day and your body will conserve energy when it does not get a consistent readily available supply of nutrients. Remember you not eating because you are hungry and hunger should not really be your trigger. Time/schedule should be your trigger. If you just eat when you are hungry you are not changing the behavior that made you fat in the first place.

Eating small regular meals will increase your metabolism and given the amount we eat we need all the help we can get in that department.

I had hoped you would weigh in on this.  I knew there was a reason for following the plan so strictly, and I also knew that I was messing up but I didn't know the specifics.  Low metabolism rate makes as good as sense as anything.   I get busy and eating is uncomfortable and takes time away from sipping the water so I've been lazy.  It would be easier to continue on like this, but this isn't about what's easy, or getting to be lazy.  SO I'm going to quit skipping B & L.  Which I knew I shouldn't have been doing anyways.  Sometimes I have to push the limit and learn things the hard way.  Thanks for giving me the reason!

Laziness will kill you in this process so get on a schedule and stick to it like your life depends on it because it does. Certainly your success does. Here is what I did and I still do. I bought myself a good small soft cooler lunch bag (ebags: http://www.ebags.com/product/ebags/crew-cooler-jr/221629?pro ductid=10153372&rlid=DETAIL_AI), its black so it doesn't look bag, I often get asked if it is a camera bag so it doesn't look weird carrying it. It has a shoulder strap too so it convenient to carry however you want, lots of pockets to hold everything. I also got some thing ice packs (2 sets so you can always rotate). In my bag every day goes my water (4 bottles), my snacks (usually some nuts and greek yogurt (snack 1 and 2)) and my lunch, usually a small circular ziplock container with what I am going to eat. For you to make it easier take a couple of ounces of sliced ham and some cheese slices and cut them in to bite sizes and just eat as much as you feel comfortable with (a few bites is fine) at designated eating times. For me that is 10:00am, 12:30, 3:00pm. After I pack my lunch I make my breakfast (a protein shake or yogurt and oatmeal in a disposable cup, makes it easy to clean up when you get to work), if it after a workout a rice cake with pb and banana (too early for you for that). I eat my breakfast in the car on my way, I also make sure to have one bottle of water gone by the time I get to work. I have an hour drive though. So by them time I leave work I have eaten 4 times and drank 80 oz of water. So the rest of the evening 1 or 2 bottles of water will finish me up on liquids. I eat my dinner and then one more snack before bed. My body is constantly getting hydration and nutrition. I eat clean, I make sure to get my fiber in. You have to find ways to do this that are sustainable and easy so they become habit. 

Put in the work now so you don't have to work so hard at it all the time. When I was at your point I used to cook something on Sunday that I could eat all week long in those small containers. Chili is good, taco bake is good, chicken, crack slaw is great (and you never get sick of it), I have done versions of beef stroghenoff that worked out well. My few favorite thing is cold grilled chicken breast with coleslaw or I just found this sweet kale slaw that is really good with either ginger dressing (for an asian flavor) or wing sauce and light blue cheese dressing that I recently started that I was able to eat for a week straight without getting sick of it. Be creative just use something like MyFitnessPal to make sure you are not going outside of your plan. 

Bottom line is, as counterintuitive as it may sound, you have to eat. You want long term success, you don't want to hit goal, relax, and gain it all back (and yes that absolutely does happen and you don't get the easy train that you have right now for getting it off next time around).

Before surgery this is the program I followed and lost 40lbs pre surgery.  We were required to follow it at my clinic.  I found it easy once I got the hang of it.  I use the 1 cup rubbermaid container for easy measuring and have about 10 of them at home.  On Sunday's I would measure out my breakfast into 5 of them (either greek yogurt or cottage cheese).  Lunch was often a can of tuna with fat free miracle whip (cucumber or bell peppers on the side) or left overs from the previous night.  Snacks would be a banana or apple & pb...sometimes I would snack at night on something healthy.

Post surgery this is a lot of food and it will take me time to work up to it but I felt healthy and content when I was eating like that. It was more than the 700 calories a lot of people here aim for but I was happy at around 1000 calories.

I love my morning tea so my schedule would be...tea on the commute to work, breakfast at 8am when I got there, snack at 10am, lunch at noon, snack at 2pm and water all day in between (sometimes some tea).

I also have a black lunch bag to fill up...though much more girly looking lol.  Once you are in the habit it takes no time or much thought...just part of your daily routine.

Feed your body...it will love you for it!

I meant to add this is the container I use that measures 1 cup to the bottom of the lid.

Maybe instead of three coffees in the morning, you could do one coffee before leaving the house and a protein shake during the commute? I definitely understand the desire to drink, drink, drink (and the need to hydrate), but maybe by drinking protein shakes every now and then instead of water, you'd be getting the protein you need? Just a suggestion. I know some people advocate for real food rather than drinking protein, but maybe in this case, you might want to try some middle ground?

Just my two cents' worth. I hope you find something that works for you. Muscle issues can arise if you're not getting enough protein... and that includes your heart as it too is a muscle.