Slapped in the face by cravings

AwesomeOpossum74

Since May/June, I've been doing well, losing my self-prescribed 1-2lbs/week. No real derailments or obstacles, no killer "need to eat".

About 3 weeks ago, all this awesome success hit a wall. Seems like I suddenly crave everything sweet and fatty. I'm not eating the whole office cake, candy and snacks, but I have the desire to eat more at meals ... and I have raided the kid's ice cream and chips stashes on occasion. My current caloric allotment is 1840, so it's not like I'm starving.

As a consequence, I'm up about 2lbs and feel kind of like I'm swimming backwards.

What's weird is that nothing really changed about what I was eating, or my exercise/daily routines leading up to this.

What might be the explanation?

kommodevaran

What kind of diet has those 1840 been?

AwesomeOpossum74

kommodevaran wrote: »

What kind of diet has those 1840 been?

We are a busy family with active kid's activities, so about 50% going out, 50% eating in. When we go out, lots of carbs and protein (e.g. Chick-Fil-a, Italian, Mexican, etc.) When we eat in, lower fat, more veggies, baked/grilled meat, less carbs. Even when we eat out, it's not been difficult to stay under 1840.

About once a week, I just munch down on my own home-made guacamole. Mmmm ...

Edit: As an example, I had a banana for breakfast today. At lunch, I had a Panda Express bowl (chow mein/teriaki chicken). For dinner, I'm making my guac, with corn chips.
Yesterday, small bowl of frosted mini wheats for breakfast, Firehouse medium Steamer sub for lunch, and my wife's home made chicken and dumplings (medium portion) for dinner.
As far as the steamer sub, I usually can't finish it. Yesterday, I could have polished off a large if I'd wanted to.

AwesomeOpossum74

It's like my body decided it's time to par-tay.

quiksylver296

AwesomeOpossum74 wrote: »

kommodevaran wrote: »

What kind of diet has those 1840 been?

We are a busy family with active kid's activities, so about 50% going out, 50% eating in. When we go out, lots of carbs and protein (e.g. Chick-Fil-a, Italian, Mexican, etc.) When we eat in, lower fat, more veggies, baked/grilled meat, less carbs. Even when we eat out, it's not been difficult to stay under 1840.

About once a week, I just munch down on my own home-made guacamole. Mmmm ...

Edit: As an example, I had a banana for breakfast today. At lunch, I had a Panda Express bowl (chow mein/teriaki chicken). For dinner, I'm making my guac, with corn chips.
Yesterday, small bowl of frosted mini wheats for breakfast, Firehouse medium Steamer sub for lunch, and my wife's home made chicken and dumplings (medium portion) for dinner.
As far as the steamer sub, I usually can't finish it. Yesterday, I could have polished off a large if I'd wanted to.

Maybe try to incorporate more protein? See if that helps?

AwesomeOpossum74

quiksylver296 wrote: »

Maybe try to incorporate more protein? See if that helps?

I'm conscious of my protein. Seems to me just about every meal I eat has a "healthy" portion of protein. And it's not until recently that hunger was even an issue. When I did get hungry, I'm usually sated by a spoon of peanut butter. I'd say 50% of my meal contents are some sort of meat, not including the veggie proteins. Isn't that pretty good?

cheryldumais

I have had this happen from time to time too and I finally figured out it was when I started eating more carbs. I am not on Keto but if my macros start leaning a bit too far in the carb direction I get hungrier. I usually find if I eat more protein and less carb it settles down. Usually when this shift happens is when I'm getting tired of cooking and using more pasta or rice etc. One of the really great benefits of this site is being able to go back to what you were eating before the hunger showed up and seeing what you changed. Hope it settles down for you.

quiksylver296

AwesomeOpossum74 wrote: »

Edit: As an example, I had a banana for breakfast today. At lunch, I had a Panda Express bowl (chow mein/teriaki chicken). For dinner, I'm making my guac, with corn chips.
Yesterday, small bowl of frosted mini wheats for breakfast, Firehouse medium Steamer sub for lunch, and my wife's home made chicken and dumplings (medium portion) for dinner.
As far as the steamer sub, I usually can't finish it. Yesterday, I could have polished off a large if I'd wanted to.

I was going off this.

Today - No protein at breakfast. No protein at dinner.

Yesterday - No protein at breakfast. Depending on the chicken and dumplings, probably minimal protein at dinner.

Any idea how many grams of protein you get in a day? Your diary is locked, so I can't look.

88olds

Try some breakfast. Oatmeal & lean protein.
The only cold cereal I found that helped me was Kasi Golrean But it’s been so long since I’ve had anything other than oatmeal, I don’t recall the specifics.

Have an apple before lunch and aim for more protein. Actually, aim for more protein in general.

Use the search feature to find GoaD and join our Guys On A Diet group. We use to be on Weight Watchers but most of us quit that.

middlehaitch

Can you look and see what your protein intake is in your log?
From the meals you posted I was about to agree with @quiksylver296, your protein looks low.
Aim for somewhere between 0.8-1g per lbs of LBM.

You haven't been doing this for long and the body will accept being under nourished for quite a while before there is some negative feedback.

Not knowing your stats, 1840 does seem a good amount of food, but if you are taller, heavier, including exercise, have an active lifestyle, you may well be under nourishing yourself by a lower than needed calorie goal, and sub par nutrition.

You could change your goal to 1lbs a week, eat back exercise cals (if your not), and up your protein, to try to increase your saitiety.

Just a couple of thoughts.

Cheers, h.

Also if your not, start using a food scale consistently.

jondspen

I would agree with diet. I'm not doing keto, but I do keep my cards to 40-50% range with potato and rice (FODMAP problems). I've been incorporating more fats into diet (olive and coconut oil, sour cream with my raw veggies) and it seems to help. I'll do something low cal/high filling (i.e. veggies with dip), then after 30 min, if I still have a sweet craving, might do a cookie or two. Often times, the healthy snack does the trick for me though. If not, I only do 2 cookies, instead of half a bag! Good way to still keep calorie count low, but feed my desires to keep sanity and motivated.

lorrpb

I find it's helping me to drink tons of water and make sure that half of what I eat is veggies.

AwesomeOpossum74

quiksylver296 wrote: »

I was going off this.

Today - No protein at breakfast. No protein at dinner.

Yesterday - No protein at breakfast. Depending on the chicken and dumplings, probably minimal protein at dinner.

Any idea how many grams of protein you get in a day? Your diary is locked, so I can't look.

I get what you mean. Sometimes it takes a second set of eyes to see. So I'll have to rethink this a little.

AwesomeOpossum74

middlehaitch wrote: »

Can you look and see what your protein intake is in your log?
From the meals you posted I was about to agree with @quiksylver296, your protein looks low.
Aim for somewhere between 0.8-1g per lbs of LBM.

You haven't been doing this for long and the body will accept being under nourished for quite a while before there is some negative feedback.

Not knowing your stats, 1840 does seem a good amount of food, but if you are taller, heavier, including exercise, have an active lifestyle, you may well be under nourishing yourself by a lower than needed calorie goal, and sub par nutrition.

You could change your goal to 1lbs a week, eat back exercise cals (if your not), and up your protein, to try to increase your saitiety.

Just a couple of thoughts.

Cheers, h.

Also if your not, start using a food scale consistently.

I took a look at my protein intake, per @quiksylver296 and @middehaitch. It does look like I'm a bit deficient every day. On average, it looks like I'm getting about 80% of daily goal. So this is what I will try to tackle next.

Yes, I am eating back my exercise calories, and typically get within 200c of my calorie goal daily. My goal is set to lose 1lb/week.

I'm hoping it's this simple.