Obsessing over food.

Sauleeh

Ever since I've started to use MFP (about two weeks) I have become obsessed with food. I always feel like I have to count every single calorie, think about exactly how many grams of pasta I will have or will that dash of mayo will wreck my daily calories. This is driving me absolutely crazy. Has anyone got any tips how to manage this a little better before I give up?

janejellyroll

If you're counting calories, success often comes down to tracking what you're eating to the best of your ability. This includes understanding how many grams of pasta you're eating and logging calorie-dense foods like mayo.

But if you feel like it is making you unhappy, maybe this isn't for you. But there may be some things you can try first.

Have you tried focusing on hitting a weekly deficit instead of a daily one? Going over your calories in any individual day isn't a big deal as long as you're consistently in a deficit over time.

Have you tried pre-logging? I found that when I decided the day before what I would eat and logged it then, I could pretty much go on "autopilot" the next day and not have to make decisions when I was stressed or hungry (tricky times for me).

TranquilityBreeze

It took a few days for me to get used to tracking, but here is what I do:

1. Like the previous post suggested: track foods early. If I know what I am having I will track it before I even eat.
2. I add my own meals and recipes so it is quicker to add my food.
3. This is what has worked best for me: I see the calorie goal as a game. It actually helps to keep me not going over too much. If I do go over, I don't get upset about it.

It does get easier. I measure things like rice and pasta. You will get used to what a serving looks like. I will admit I don't always weigh everything as for me I know I won't weigh food once I reach my goal.

goldthistime

Are you eating enough? Before giving up completely, I'd try aiming for a smaller deficit. Hunger can drive me to do strange things (and have strange thoughts).

bikecheryl

I obsessed about food before MFP..... I'd wake up thinking of ways I could sneak out for McDonalds, how I could hide chocolate bars in my night stand, how I could eat a whole bag of potato chips because my husband wasn't home. Food is my drug of choice.
But now I'll take my new "obsession" - weighing and logging everything I eat so I can get a better understanding of what I'm doing - any day.
But I don't think of it as an obsession - it's me developing new, better, healthier habits.
1 gram of pasta and one dash of mayo at a time.
And I'm 48 lbs lighter than what I weighed when I started in April.

lalepepper

Weight loss can often bring out anxiety and tendencies around food that we hadn't really been exposed to before. It sounds like this is tied to a fear of doing it "wrong" or undermining your efforts. Personally when I first started losing weight and was doing this all for the first time, I found seeing a therapist was really helpful to work thru my irrational thoughts/fears and not sweat the small stuff. It also made a big difference elsewhere in my life. If it is accessible for you, it might be worth a shot.

rankinsect

I typically plan my meals the day before and pre-log my food. I do weight it, but I weight it so that I measure out the amount I already decided on, and I don't bother fixing it to be exact unless I'm way off when I actually prep the meal.

The nice thing about pre-logging is that you can tweak all the variables in advance, so you don't have to think about it when you actually cook. You know exactly how you will succeed on any given day, and you don't have to worry about the amount of mayo because you already figured out how much you will have.

WanderingRivers

I'm always anxious about every calorie in food. There were cupcakes at work for a coworker's birthday and I didn't eat any because I didn't know how many calories were in them. I'm anxious today because I'm going to a child's birthday party today and IDK what kind of calorie traps are going to be there. it's just something you have to live with and manage as best you can.

mpat81

I have been maintaining my 60lb loss for almost 2 years now and i still feel obsessed with it sometimes. Like others said above, prelogging really helps by taking away all the tough decisions. I think you have to obsess a little bit in order to be successful. For me, it was lack of forethought and a careless attitude that made me overweight in the first place.

Heather4448

You may do better by prelogging your main meals daily and leaving a little wiggle room for the unexpected.

nowine4me

MFP isn't for everyone.

Sp1tfire

I switched to MFP because my fitbit irritated my disordered eating (which also included obsessing over food + calories) Having it constantly on my wrist as a reminder made things so much worse. I switched to MFP to stop it. I log what I ate and forget about it now. Usually log 3 x a day, rather than constantly checking my fitbit app, calories burned, etc.

Try allowing yourself to mentally have a "general" idea of how many calories you've eaten over the course of the day for awhile to give yourself a break from the religious logging. Then reintroduce it in a week? Some days I don't finish logging, like today. I had 1500 cals left, ate a bit more and I haven't (and probably won't) log it.

ccruz985

Sometimes I get so tired of it.

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OliveGirl128

ccruz985 wrote: »

Sometimes I get so tired of it.

I'm 4 years into maintenance, (so I've been at this for around 5 years now)-some days I want to throw my dang food scale out the window But, every time I get my blood work panels done and my former pre-diabetic glucose number comes back in the 80s, I'm reminded that it's so worth the small hassle of being mindful of food/my calorie intake

kshama2001

Sauleeh wrote: »

Ever since I've started to use MFP (about two weeks) I have become obsessed with food. I always feel like I have to count every single calorie, think about exactly how many grams of pasta I will have or will that dash of mayo will wreck my daily calories. This is driving me absolutely crazy. Has anyone got any tips how to manage this a little better before I give up?

What's your weekly weight loss set to and how many pounds away from your goal weight are you?

Are you exercising? What % of the calories you earn from exercise are you eating back? There's no way I could deal without the extra exercise calories.

Meganthedogmom

Yes, I have also felt obsessive over food/calories after using this app for quite a while.

I haven't read all the posts but I saw a few others say to pre-log. This actually worked the opposite for me. When I pre-log, I find myself thinking all day about what I can eat next/for the rest of the day. I also found myself eating those things just because I could and it was logged, not because I was hungry.

What I've been practicing lately is listening to my body, eating when I'm actually hungry, then logging it while still trying to stay in my calorie goal. I know pre-logging works great for others, but I honestly feel more mentally healthy when I listen to my body this way and just log as I go.

(Edit) but I do still weigh my food so I have accurate measurements. I don't find that this adds too much extra time or worry.