Withdrawals from food
sharpshooter_babe
Posts: 2 Member
I have been losing weight & at the same time having withdrawals from food. Food is my addiction. Or used to be. Does anyone have any tips on getting rid of the food withdrawals?
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What is the nature of the "withdrawals"?0
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Yes. Headache and fatigue lasted a week or so.0
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I never did. I never saw anyone who did. Except for caffeine, I don't think I know of any food substance that could cause any sort of withdrawal symptoms.
Why kind of symptoms do you have?0 -
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I've been fighting with B.E.D (binge eating disorder) since I was young. I tend to get extremely moody and insane cravings when I try to eat "better" or more mindfully. Sometimes I crave a food for days or even weeks. I even often dream about eating food. I try to eat things I like in moderation to keep the crazy cravings away. If I mess up one day here and there I don't beat myself up over it and move on.0
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I think that if you are a sweet eater or a salty eater....you just need to find foods that are healthy to supplement those things. It is actually a good question for someone just starting out. It takes a little time, but if you stay with it and try your very best....your taste buds will go through a change. make your diary public.....I find that great for accountability and friend people like myself that do the same. It will give you ideas of things you can give a try that maybe you like, but forgot that you even liked it. I log it even if it a slip up....that way when i don't lose, I can look back on my week and the truth is in the....donuts....or whatever. good luck to you!0
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OP, if it is caffeine withdrawal, it will pass. Drink lots of water, take some painkillers for the headache if you have to, but it will go. However - there's nothing inherantly wrong with caffeine, so if a coffee gets you through the day, hit it up.
Other 'withdrawal' sysmptoms you may feel will likely be psychological. It's hard when you start to change things up and you might feel like things are "bad" or that you can't have them, which leads you to start to fixate on them and crave them. You can either find a replacement, or have those things in moderation. The biggest obstacle is in your head, so you need to rationalise it - don't make it bigger than it is. You're not going to never have your favourites again, you can even have them in your calorie goal.0 -
Perhaps you are having cravings, not withdrawal? Sometimes if you look at something from a different perspective, it can make it easier to handle.
For example, you want a certain food. You think, I'm addicted, it's withdrawal! This is terrible! It's hopeless and out of my control! Or you think... I want this food. It's a craving. I can handle that by either reasoning with myself, or by making conscious choices, either working a bit into your daily calorie allotment, or going cold turkey if eating some causes a binge.0 -
Anyway, I am guessing you either mean missing certain foods you used to enjoy before committing to weight loss, or that you feel hungry eating fewer calories.
Missing certain foods - I definitely have this problem! My plan to combat this is to cook with creativity. Think of ways to make a tasty low-calorie dish. Designing and cooking your own recipes is satisfying and fun for me... perhaps even more fun than a fry lover burger from Rally's or a Snicker's bars! This could also include finding ways to "lighten up" favorites, and if you cannot/do not want to do this on your own, you can always find some recipes online. Skinnytaste.com has a lot of good recipes.
There is also -
Having 1 cheat day a week (a day where you eat what you want)
Fitting those foods "in moderation" within your calorie limits (personally doesn't work for me... Lol I always go overboard. But everyone is different!)
Hunger -
I have trouble with this one too. My best advice is to try to eat lean protein, whole grains, and vegetables... foods that are generally bulky but also low in calories. With the right foods, you can eat a large VOLUME of food, but stay within your calorie limits.
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Apart from caffeine it's merely a behavioural change (and not a physical withdrawal although it might seem the same)
Is like trying to stop a toddler from having a tantrum, you just have to be patient and determined wait until they (your behavioural symptoms) grow out of it
Consider your head and desire to lose weight the parent
And listen to it
Your body changes over time so does your mind
It just takes commitment and a CICO no food is bad approach IMO0 -
And to the OP, I never experienced any physical symptoms, but the psychological effects of my changes in diet were tough. Hang in there, it does get easier!0
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I try to find low cal options to curb the craving, food was my drug, now I try to keep active, when I feel hungry I get up and clean or drink some water, the first two weeks were the hardest. I'm 29 days in, it gets better.0
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I think rabbitjb nailed it as far as the withdrawal part goes. Personally I would hazard a guess that you probably have your calorie deficit set too high, here is a link for figuring out an appropriate calorie intake...
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/819055/setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets/p10 -
I think you need to get a friend or family member to distract you and go out and geocache! It's so much fun. Or go somewhere like in the city like for me, i go out to seattle and go experience pike place and eat fresh fruit and there's so much life since its been super sunny. Or play video games, there's always the Call of Duty diet, where you play for so long that you forget to eat or don't have time to get food after each game. Jk, that was me once upon a time, I played to escape reality but don't spend too much time. Do you eat every 2 hours ? I do and I havnt had any difficulties with withdrawals that I adapted my cravings toward fruit and chocolate chips
msg me or take a look at my diary but don't look today... 0 -
chandelierbee wrote: »I think you need to get a friend or family member to distract you and go out and geocache! It's so much fun. Or go somewhere like in the city like for me, i go out to seattle and go experience pike place and eat fresh fruit and there's so much life since its been super sunny. Or play video games, there's always the Call of Duty diet, where you play for so long that you forget to eat or don't have time to get food after each game. Jk, that was me once upon a time, I played to escape reality but don't spend too much time. Do you eat every 2 hours ? I do and I havnt had any difficulties with withdrawals that I adapted my cravings toward fruit and chocolate chips msg me or take a look at my diary but don't look today...
But... but... Doritos? Mountain Dew?0 -
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It's a proven fact that a brain responds to sugar the same way a brain responds to cocaine. Much processed food contains sugar. So changing your eating habits is absolutely going to result in withdrawal symptoms.
best thing you can do is fight through the withdrawal, and limit the chance you might slip up (I.e. At this point you may want to eliminate all junk food in the house.) it DOES get better.
If you want some more info on what you're feeling, the documentary Fed Up is great. It's on netflix right now.
Good luck!0 -
I let tracking and meal planning become my new obsession. For me it got better after a few weeks. For so long I was so used to just having that large back of chips next to me while I was on the computer, or hitting the drive thru after work. After work I would never, ever return home without something junk food in my bag to eat that night, and often several things. It was a lot of habit breaking that was the most difficult thing, not the actual diet change.0
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OP - i think this "withdrawal" thing is all in your head. Kind of like a self fulling prophecy. You think that you are addicted to food; hence, you have to have withdrawals from food in order to be addicted.
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It's a proven fact that a brain responds to sugar the same way a brain responds to cocaine. Much processed food contains sugar. So changing your eating habits is absolutely going to result in withdrawal symptoms. best thing you can do is fight through the withdrawal, and limit the chance you might slip up (I.e. At this point you may want to eliminate all junk food in the house.) it DOES get better.
If you want some more info on what you're feeling, the documentary Fed Up is great. It's on netflix right now.
Good luck!
sorry, that is a load of malarkey. Your brain responds the same way to petting puppies, sex, driving fast, etc. Yet, no one would claim a petting puppy addiction.
please stop filling the boards with fear mongering and pseudoscience.0 -
It's a proven fact that a brain responds to sugar the same way a brain responds to cocaine. Much processed food contains sugar. So changing your eating habits is absolutely going to result in withdrawal symptoms. best thing you can do is fight through the withdrawal, and limit the chance you might slip up (I.e. At this point you may want to eliminate all junk food in the house.) it DOES get better.
If you want some more info on what you're feeling, the documentary Fed Up is great. It's on netflix right now.
Good luck!
Those same responses occur when you has sex, or do anything enjoyables. Basically, dopamine is release whenever you are happy.
And fedup is a joke and has been proven wrong by a ton of people as it tends to cherry pick science to make a point.
OP, are certain foods causing this issue? Some people do have binge disorders, which if that was the case, you would need to see a therapist to address those issues.
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It's a proven fact that a brain responds to sugar the same way a brain responds to cocaine. Much processed food contains sugar. So changing your eating habits is absolutely going to result in withdrawal symptoms. best thing you can do is fight through the withdrawal, and limit the chance you might slip up (I.e. At this point you may want to eliminate all junk food in the house.) it DOES get better.
If you want some more info on what you're feeling, the documentary Fed Up is great. It's on netflix right now.
Good luck!
Those same responses occur when you has sex, or do anything enjoyables. Basically, dopamine is release whenever you are happy.
And fedup is a joke and has been proven wrong by a ton of people as it tends to cherry pick science to make a point.
OP, are certain foods causing this issue? Some people do have binge disorders, which if that was the case, you would need to see a therapist to address those issues.
so much yes to the bolded part0 -
chandelierbee wrote: »I think you need to get a friend or family member to distract you and go out and geocache! It's so much fun. Or go somewhere like in the city like for me, i go out to seattle and go experience pike place and eat fresh fruit and there's so much life since its been super sunny. Or play video games, there's always the Call of Duty diet, where you play for so long that you forget to eat or don't have time to get food after each game. Jk, that was me once upon a time, I played to escape reality but don't spend too much time. Do you eat every 2 hours ? I do and I havnt had any difficulties with withdrawals that I adapted my cravings toward fruit and chocolate chips msg me or take a look at my diary but don't look today...
the call of duty diet?? what …
so you play video games long enough to forget to eat???? That does not sound that healthy as you just replacing one obsession with another.0 -
withdrawls from food = starvation.
so if you're eating so little that you create that problem you need to see a professional.
if you are having psychological issues with consuming to much out of an obsessive need- then you need to go see a professional.0 -
It's a proven fact that a brain responds to sugar the same way a brain responds to cocaine. Much processed food contains sugar. So changing your eating habits is absolutely going to result in withdrawal symptoms. best thing you can do is fight through the withdrawal, and limit the chance you might slip up (I.e. At this point you may want to eliminate all junk food in the house.) it DOES get better.
If you want some more info on what you're feeling, the documentary Fed Up is great. It's on netflix right now.
Good luck!
100% not true.
Cocaine is a reuptake inhibitor for serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. A reuptake inhibitor prevents neurotransmitters from breaking down and being recycled. Normally, as when happening from eating, dopamine will hits a receiver, then the receiver sends a kind of acknowledgement signal that tells the whole system to reduce floating dopamine as a natural feedback loop. Reuptake inhibitors stop that whole cycle, so dopamine hits a receptor, boom reward sensations, no signal gets sent to reuptake dopamine, dopamine continues to float, hits receptors, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat..
That can be a huge difference. You're hungry, you eat, you get a little "reward" signaling in the brain, process turns itself back down, dopamine returns to normal.
Cocaine: reward center lights up, dopamine gets flooded in the "reward" signaling, process does NOT turn itself back down, dopamine remains elevated. Long term effects include neurons losing dopamine receptors because they're trying to correct the excessive signal they're getting. Suddenly, you can't get the same pleasure, so you need to take continuously more of the substance.0 -
it's a horrible movie. it's about fear mongering.It's a proven fact that a brain responds to sugar the same way a brain responds to cocaine. Much processed food contains sugar. So changing your eating habits is absolutely going to result in withdrawal symptoms. best thing you can do is fight through the withdrawal, and limit the chance you might slip up (I.e. At this point you may want to eliminate all junk food in the house.) it DOES get better.
If you want some more info on what you're feeling, the documentary Fed Up is great. It's on netflix right now.
Good luck!
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