Possible Food Addiction?
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RusticBeautyQ
Posts: 10 Member
Hey everyone, so I am on my fitness journey and I am starting to wonder if I'm starting to get a food addiction? Reason being is because I feel like I do a really good job throughout the day as far as eating healthy and staying on track, but then night time kills me. I eat foods I like throughout the day, and I eat until I'm satisfied. So I guess I'm either dealing with a really bad habit or a food addiction.
What do y'all think? Do you have any tips and tricks to breaking this?
What do y'all think? Do you have any tips and tricks to breaking this?
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Replies
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That's not very much information...have you done any research about true food addiction?
I have my meals and when I hit my calorie goal I sometimes still have more to eat. It's not every day, but it does happen. I find if I can stay close to my macros it helps a lot, so I focus on getting enough protein and fat and then make sure I'm getting 4-6 servings of fruit and vegetables for the nutrition and the fiber. A well-balanced and varied food plan that is low in added sugar is the best strategy I've found.3 -
What specifically is happening at night?
Are you feeling hunger? Boredom? Unhappiness?
What happens if you try not to eat? Is this a strong urge you're able to resist or is it something you haven't yet found a way to resist?
What kinds of things are you eating? Extra portions of what you're already eating? Are you buying foods just to eat them at night?
Is this kind of eating always an issue for you or is it only when you try to stay "on track" that you're eating extra food at night?
Whether you want to call it an addiction or not, I think there's some value on getting clarity on these questions. That helps people figure out what type of advice might be relevant.6 -
I find evenings harder sometimes for various reasons. I think it's fair to say most people do their stuff (work, home, childrene etc.) during the day and wind down in the evening. If I'm not somehow busy then I can turn to snacking/binge eating of an evening.
Then there are days when I've made poor food choices which leave me feeling hungrier. I have a sweet tooth but eating too high a percentage of my daily calories in sweets, chocolate, cake etc. can result in me feeling ravenous in the evening.
Then there are days when I'm not well rested because I slept poorly and it's incredibly difficult for me to stay on track.
Also back when I started this calorie deficit business I was starving in the evening because I was eating too little, like many people on here I started with this notion of losing weight fast and eating at as big a calorie deficit as I could. Ultimately doing that has held me back as it created more problems than it solved.
So those are all things to consider. Maybe there will be other factors for you too.5 -
It's not necessarily a bad habit or a food addiction. It might just be that you prefer to eat at night, and there's really nothing wrong with that despite all the conventional wisdom telling you to eat a huge breakfast and small dinner. I always get a huge appetite at night as well- I just eat less during the day to compensate.3
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I think this is pretty common for most people that during the day they are busy and don't feel the hunger as much. However, at night you may not be as busy as you were during the day, you begin to get hungry.You mention you eat healthy foods during the day and its just at night you have some cravings. You could research some good either sweet or savory healthy treats to curb that craving.
The other thing you can do, to "extra_medium" point, you might want to try eating less during the day and saving most of your calories at night. I would be careful of this as it could cause you to overeat but it might be worth a try.
Maybe eat 25-35% of your calories before dinner and then the balance after dinner at night. As long as you are eating the right foods and maintaining a caloric deficit, eating at night will have no impact on weight loss. Goodluck!0 -
RusticBeautyQ wrote: »Hey everyone, so I am on my fitness journey and I am starting to wonder if I'm starting to get a food addiction? Reason being is because I feel like I do a really good job throughout the day as far as eating healthy and staying on track, but then night time kills me. I eat foods I like throughout the day, and I eat until I'm satisfied. So I guess I'm either dealing with a really bad habit or a food addiction.
What do y'all think? Do you have any tips and tricks to breaking this?
Usually when people say things like "I do a really good job throughout the day" they are actually undereating.
How much weight do you have to lose total and what weekly weight loss goal did you chose?
Also, what's your goal weight and how many grams of protein are you eating per day?8 -
JW, what do you consider an addiction?
We have to eat to survive. Aren’t we all kind of addicted to eating? Lack of self control is more likely.2 -
Sometimes I binge eat. For example yesterday I came back from lunch and I just wanted to eat the candy in the dish on my desk. I then proceeded to eat 2 snack size peanut butter cups, 2 snack size milky way bars and a snack size mr. goodbar, racking up almost 500 calories just in sweets. The only reason i kept eating them is because they tasted so good and i couldn't stop myself. The moment I was done eating the sweets I felt this enormous guilt weighing on me because I knew better. There are days where my taste buds just can't get enough of a certain food and unfortunately its always sweets, fried foods and calorie filled foods. The longer I can stay away from those foods the less I crave them but sometimes the craving is to much to resist. I would say I am addicted to food.2
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LeannJeffers wrote: »Sometimes I binge eat. For example yesterday I came back from lunch and I just wanted to eat the candy in the dish on my desk. I then proceeded to eat 2 snack size peanut butter cups, 2 snack size milky way bars and a snack size mr. goodbar, racking up almost 500 calories just in sweets. The only reason i kept eating them is because they tasted so good and i couldn't stop myself. The moment I was done eating the sweets I felt this enormous guilt weighing on me because I knew better. There are days where my taste buds just can't get enough of a certain food and unfortunately its always sweets, fried foods and calorie filled foods. The longer I can stay away from those foods the less I crave them but sometimes the craving is to much to resist. I would say I am addicted to food.
I don't know if a 500 calorie treat would qualify...food addiction generally is when compulsive eating has negative consequences in your life. Like extreme obesity, long-term dysfunctional eating behaviors such as stealing, neglecting social interactions to eat, secret eating of thousands of calories, eating way past the "full" point until feeling sick, going into financial crisis due to buying food, and it can include binging then purging but that's not a diagnostic feature.
I don't know...it's just what I've read, I'm no psychiatrist...I have 1000 calorie "treats" in a day and go way over my calories but I don't do it often and it doesn't affect any other part of my life other than just going over calories. I have certain foods I just don't get started on because one package is one serving. *Looking at you, Breyers Vanilla ice cream/1600 calories worth in one sitting.* I don't consider that a food addiction, but perhaps I'm in denial, that's happened before.
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cmriverside wrote: »LeannJeffers wrote: »Sometimes I binge eat. For example yesterday I came back from lunch and I just wanted to eat the candy in the dish on my desk. I then proceeded to eat 2 snack size peanut butter cups, 2 snack size milky way bars and a snack size mr. goodbar, racking up almost 500 calories just in sweets. The only reason i kept eating them is because they tasted so good and i couldn't stop myself. The moment I was done eating the sweets I felt this enormous guilt weighing on me because I knew better. There are days where my taste buds just can't get enough of a certain food and unfortunately its always sweets, fried foods and calorie filled foods. The longer I can stay away from those foods the less I crave them but sometimes the craving is to much to resist. I would say I am addicted to food.
I don't know if a 500 calorie treat would qualify...food addiction generally is when compulsive eating has negative consequences in your life. Like extreme obesity, long-term dysfunctional eating behaviors such as stealing, neglecting social interactions to eat, secret eating of thousands of calories, eating way past the "full" point until feeling sick, going into financial crisis due to buying food, and it can include binging then purging but that's not a diagnostic feature.
Good to know, thanks!0 -
cmriverside wrote: »LeannJeffers wrote: »Sometimes I binge eat. For example yesterday I came back from lunch and I just wanted to eat the candy in the dish on my desk. I then proceeded to eat 2 snack size peanut butter cups, 2 snack size milky way bars and a snack size mr. goodbar, racking up almost 500 calories just in sweets. The only reason i kept eating them is because they tasted so good and i couldn't stop myself. The moment I was done eating the sweets I felt this enormous guilt weighing on me because I knew better. There are days where my taste buds just can't get enough of a certain food and unfortunately its always sweets, fried foods and calorie filled foods. The longer I can stay away from those foods the less I crave them but sometimes the craving is to much to resist. I would say I am addicted to food.
I don't know if a 500 calorie treat would qualify...food addiction generally is when compulsive eating has negative consequences in your life. Like extreme obesity, long-term dysfunctional eating behaviors such as stealing, neglecting social interactions to eat, secret eating of thousands of calories, eating way past the "full" point until feeling sick, going into financial crisis due to buying food, and it can include binging then purging but that's not a diagnostic feature.
I don't know...it's just what I've read, I'm no psychiatrist...I have 1000 calorie "treats" in a day and go way over my calories but I don't do it often and it doesn't affect any other part of my life other than just going over calories. I have certain foods I just don't get started on because one package is one serving. *Looking at you, Breyers Vanilla ice cream/1600 calories worth in one sitting.* I don't consider that a food addiction, but perhaps I'm in denial, that's happened before.
Binges don't have to be a crazy amount of calories. It's entirely subjective as it's usually more to do with the feeling of a loss of control rather than a set amount of calories.1 -
scarlett_k wrote: »cmriverside wrote: »LeannJeffers wrote: »Sometimes I binge eat. For example yesterday I came back from lunch and I just wanted to eat the candy in the dish on my desk. I then proceeded to eat 2 snack size peanut butter cups, 2 snack size milky way bars and a snack size mr. goodbar, racking up almost 500 calories just in sweets. The only reason i kept eating them is because they tasted so good and i couldn't stop myself. The moment I was done eating the sweets I felt this enormous guilt weighing on me because I knew better. There are days where my taste buds just can't get enough of a certain food and unfortunately its always sweets, fried foods and calorie filled foods. The longer I can stay away from those foods the less I crave them but sometimes the craving is to much to resist. I would say I am addicted to food.
I don't know if a 500 calorie treat would qualify...food addiction generally is when compulsive eating has negative consequences in your life. Like extreme obesity, long-term dysfunctional eating behaviors such as stealing, neglecting social interactions to eat, secret eating of thousands of calories, eating way past the "full" point until feeling sick, going into financial crisis due to buying food, and it can include binging then purging but that's not a diagnostic feature.
I don't know...it's just what I've read, I'm no psychiatrist...I have 1000 calorie "treats" in a day and go way over my calories but I don't do it often and it doesn't affect any other part of my life other than just going over calories. I have certain foods I just don't get started on because one package is one serving. *Looking at you, Breyers Vanilla ice cream/1600 calories worth in one sitting.* I don't consider that a food addiction, but perhaps I'm in denial, that's happened before.
Binges don't have to be a crazy amount of calories. It's entirely subjective as it's usually more to do with the feeling of a loss of control rather than a set amount of calories.
ok. But if it's a loss of control, I'm not gonna stop at 5 small candy bars, I'm going to eat till I can't anymore.
At least that's my take. Sure, there is some loss of control if you only meant to eat one and you ate five, but c'mon. There is binging and then there's just...dessert. I don't need to eat that whole 1000 calorie mudslide at Red Robin, but it's in front of me. Is that a binge? Who stops before it's gone??
I would think (just guessing here) diagnostically I would be sent home with a, "You're fine, it was 1000 calories," if I went looking to call that a binge. Seems...hysterical? Over reacting?1 -
Going to chime in. Some foods might make it harder to stop eating them. Some of these "trouble" foods might include, chocolate, chips, cookies, cake, icecream... ect. You stated that you kept eating because they tasted "good". Have you ever wondered why certain foods taste good? Many of these types of foods contain nutrient combinations that the brain likes. It is possibly an evolutionary holdover from when such foods were rare and valuable. The various foods can be cultural and individual, but the macros tend to be similar. Dont feel guilty about eating them, just remember that you have issues controlling your intake when eating them and dont make the same mistake twice. @cmriverside eating a pint of ice cream is not a food addiction. Eating a pint 7 days a week might be. Lol2
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scarlett_k wrote: »cmriverside wrote: »LeannJeffers wrote: »Sometimes I binge eat. For example yesterday I came back from lunch and I just wanted to eat the candy in the dish on my desk. I then proceeded to eat 2 snack size peanut butter cups, 2 snack size milky way bars and a snack size mr. goodbar, racking up almost 500 calories just in sweets. The only reason i kept eating them is because they tasted so good and i couldn't stop myself. The moment I was done eating the sweets I felt this enormous guilt weighing on me because I knew better. There are days where my taste buds just can't get enough of a certain food and unfortunately its always sweets, fried foods and calorie filled foods. The longer I can stay away from those foods the less I crave them but sometimes the craving is to much to resist. I would say I am addicted to food.
I don't know if a 500 calorie treat would qualify...food addiction generally is when compulsive eating has negative consequences in your life. Like extreme obesity, long-term dysfunctional eating behaviors such as stealing, neglecting social interactions to eat, secret eating of thousands of calories, eating way past the "full" point until feeling sick, going into financial crisis due to buying food, and it can include binging then purging but that's not a diagnostic feature.
I don't know...it's just what I've read, I'm no psychiatrist...I have 1000 calorie "treats" in a day and go way over my calories but I don't do it often and it doesn't affect any other part of my life other than just going over calories. I have certain foods I just don't get started on because one package is one serving. *Looking at you, Breyers Vanilla ice cream/1600 calories worth in one sitting.* I don't consider that a food addiction, but perhaps I'm in denial, that's happened before.
Binges don't have to be a crazy amount of calories. It's entirely subjective as it's usually more to do with the feeling of a loss of control rather than a set amount of calories.
But I wouldn't assume that a binge is the main reason people overeat when snacking in the evening. Much more likely to be some kind of mindless eating when doing other things or choosing high cal treats without making room for them.2 -
kshama2001 wrote: »RusticBeautyQ wrote: »Hey everyone, so I am on my fitness journey and I am starting to wonder if I'm starting to get a food addiction? Reason being is because I feel like I do a really good job throughout the day as far as eating healthy and staying on track, but then night time kills me. I eat foods I like throughout the day, and I eat until I'm satisfied. So I guess I'm either dealing with a really bad habit or a food addiction.
What do y'all think? Do you have any tips and tricks to breaking this?
Usually when people say things like "I do a really good job throughout the day" they are actually undereating.
How much weight do you have to lose total and what weekly weight loss goal did you chose?
Also, what's your goal weight and how many grams of protein are you eating per day?
I think this is a really good question to start with, OP.
And I also think the questions about why you are eating and what you are doing when eating in the evening are good ones.
I think for some saving room for evening eating can be a good plan, but then it has to be planned as any other eating choices would be. For me, certain kinds of snacking (I just want to eat something while watching TV) lead to mindless eating, so I am generally better off getting in my cals in meals and drinking a no cal beverage (like herbal tea) instead of the snacking. But I also find that it works if I want a dessert to plan for that after dinner and to measure it out -- like a planned amount of chocolate or certain amount of ice cream. I don't at all imagine that if I just eat until I feel like stopping in the evening that I will naturally self-monitor, and it kind of sounds like that's what you are assuming you should be able to do.
For one example, when I was growing up we'd have popcorn while watching TV some nights. For a while recently I started making popcorn (on the stove, cooked in oil) and eating it while watching stuff or playing on the computer in the evening, and I have absolutely no off switch for that -- I can just start eating and eat until it's gone. I don't think this is a popcorn addiction, I think that style of eating, and eating from a large amount with "when I want no more" as my reason to stop vs. "here is the amount I will have tonight" simply means that I will overeat.
My options are to make less or make it less often and plan for the cals. I mostly do the latter since I find it easier just not to snack in the evenings anyway, but others will have different answers.1 -
kshama2001 wrote: »RusticBeautyQ wrote: »Hey everyone, so I am on my fitness journey and I am starting to wonder if I'm starting to get a food addiction? Reason being is because I feel like I do a really good job throughout the day as far as eating healthy and staying on track, but then night time kills me. I eat foods I like throughout the day, and I eat until I'm satisfied. So I guess I'm either dealing with a really bad habit or a food addiction.
What do y'all think? Do you have any tips and tricks to breaking this?
Usually when people say things like "I do a really good job throughout the day" they are actually undereating.
How much weight do you have to lose total and what weekly weight loss goal did you chose?
Also, what's your goal weight and how many grams of protein are you eating per day?
This is true of me. Throughout my 2 years losing weight there have been times when I didn't account for new activity properly or that I needed to eat closer to my misery line temporarily for medical reasons. During these times I struggle to moderate more and especially at night.
The majority of time I have eaten what I need to eat to stay comfortably above the low energy/misery line and I can moderate my food without much problem.
Also, I do faithfully practice an eating practice that forces me to fill up at least partially on lower calorie options before eating things that are calorie dense. This also improves my moderation. Before my pizza arrives I have eaten at least one high protein item and a large bowl of vegetables.
ETA: During the off times when my moderation was impaired I will admit I did not always feel in complete control which I think some might mistake for addiction-like behavior.2 -
This is so common lots of people struggle at night. Best ideas I had for solving it is making room in my day and budget in a snack or two for after dinner something filling like a yogurt or whatever. Sometimes we are just in the habit of mindless noshing while tv is on. Maybe you need a new habit or hobby to keep you busy instead of thinking about food. I distract myself by watching shows about weight loss or success stories on you tube. Sometimes I’ve gone for a walk or color or shower something relaxing like meditating as well1
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LeannJeffers wrote: »Sometimes I binge eat. For example yesterday I came back from lunch and I just wanted to eat the candy in the dish on my desk. I then proceeded to eat 2 snack size peanut butter cups, 2 snack size milky way bars and a snack size mr. goodbar, racking up almost 500 calories just in sweets. The only reason i kept eating them is because they tasted so good and i couldn't stop myself. The moment I was done eating the sweets I felt this enormous guilt weighing on me because I knew better. There are days where my taste buds just can't get enough of a certain food and unfortunately its always sweets, fried foods and calorie filled foods. The longer I can stay away from those foods the less I crave them but sometimes the craving is to much to resist. I would say I am addicted to food.
Sometimes when this happens to me it's because I'm low on protein and/or hungry and something gets crossed in my brain - I'm seeking protein from foods low in protein, and never feel satisfied so eat and eat and eat the wrong things to fill that need.
I also have the urge to eat like that if I'm sleep deprived or didn't get my exercise "fix."
I used to think something was wrong with me, but changed my mind after learning it was easily avoidable with lifestyle changes like getting enough protein, regular exercise, and sufficient sleep.1
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