I get intense cravings for specific foods. Now it's back to brownies.

dontlikepeople

Once or twice a year I will get intense cravings for very specific things:

• Brownies
• Fried Fish and Vanilla Milkshake
• Fried Chicken with Pickles

The chicken and fish cravings usually aren't so bad, b/c I can have it once or twice and move on. The brownie craving is more problematic because all it does is rev up my sweet tooth and make it hard to portion control.

I've read that cravings can mean you are lacking specific things, but my cravings seem to be a bit weird and random.

Anyone else? How do you deal with your intense cravings? I know I can't be the only one.

Jthanmyfitnesspal

Two ideas:

1) Enjoy what every you want for a special treat. Fit them into your weekly calorie budget, not being overly worried about a particular day

2) Consider substitutes. A great one for a brownie is some dark chocolate with walnuts. Skip the butter and flower and get right to the good stuff!

dontlikepeople

Jthanmyfitnesspal wrote: »

Two ideas:

1) Enjoy what every you want for a special treat. Fit them into your weekly calorie budget, not being overly worried about a particular day

2) Consider substitutes. A great one for a brownie is some dark chocolate with walnuts. Skip the butter and flower and get right to the good stuff!

I mean, that's good advice, but I have some issues with it:

If I eat a brownie (or at least a regular brownie), I have two choices: Go over my calorie goal, or go under my protein goal. Neither of which make me mentally excited. As for substitutes.... nothing really substitutes brownies for me, and as soon as I bite into one my sweet tooth kicks in. It's like giving a recovered alcoholic a beer and saying it's okay in moderation. A lot of people don't understand this, or want to pretend it's not a thing.

cwolfman13

I get cravings for fried chicken and for fish 'n chips. I was feeling the fried chicken cravings much of last week but it was manageable because I knew we'd be going out for brunch on Sunday and I had already planned on having the fried chicken and waffles. I basically fit them in two...sometimes three times per month depending.

When we do a brunch, it is typically one of only two meals that day and dinner is usually something lighter because I usually go pretty big at brunch. So like yesterday I had my platter of fried chicken and waffles for brunch and dinner was a roasted chicken with gravy and a salad. If I'm going out for fish 'n chips for lunch, I usually skip breakfast altogether.

Not much help with the brownies. I've never had much of a sweet tooth so I can have a cookie or a brownie or something and move on and I may or may not even think about it again for months. I'm horrible with savory stuff, especially something like a good charcuterie board of meats and cheeses and crackers. My in-laws are in town this week, so we have a lot of that going on at the house right now and it's hard to not just go to town on a good brie. In general I only keep that stuff around when we have company or we're having a party or something...it's often enough to satisfy my cravings, but not often enough to derail anything.

dontlikepeople

cwolfman13 wrote: »

I get cravings for fried chicken and for fish 'n chips.

I am so glad I'm not the only one who gets the fried fish craving. I do about the same, it's not a big deal b/c I can just have it a couple times and the craving goes away. Brownies not so much, it's like one of those cartoons where the little snowball rolling down the hill turns into a snow boulder.

dontlikepeople

Out of curiosity does anyone have any experience with "thinslim foods" particularly their ultra low calorie brownies? Wicked expensive, but I just placed an order.

JBanx256

dontlikepeople wrote: »

Out of curiosity does anyone have any experience with "thinslim foods" particularly their ultra low calorie brownies? Wicked expensive, but I just placed an order.

I tried some of their bread when I was in contest prep. It was better than cardboard, but I bought it exactly once.

dontlikepeople

Thanks. That is about what I would expect considering the macros on it I guess. Hoping I can just quell my craving with lousy low cal brownies. Fingers crossed. Summer is right around the corner.

dontlikepeople

I am following up that I bought brownies (and other assorted 'sweets') from thinslim foods, and they are just awful.

The brownies and other "squares" taste like..... wet cardboard. They're a bit gelatainous and its pretty gross

The cloud cakes are edible but have the same cardboard + artificial flavor thing going on.

I have eatmeguiltfree brownies coming in the mail, at least I know those are sort of tolerable.

So far the best brownie craving killer I've found is flapjacked chocolate (or chocolate peanut butter) mighty muffins, cooked with a minimum of water.

I spend most my days thinking about brownies for weeks. Its weird. It's like all I care about :P

PAPYRUS3

Why don't you try making this:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10839394/ridiculous-brownies#latest

Sounds like anything would be better than those other things you've tried.

dontlikepeople

That's just chocolate meringue. It's not the right texture. The recipes that use dates aren't bad.

Lenny and larry used to make a "muscle brownie" that was damn near perfect (like a little debbie brownie but with 14g protein). RIP. The EMGF brownies aren't "bad", just more pound cake than fudgey. After 5 EMGF brownies I think I'm almost over it lol.

Edit: And I also went to town on some quest fudgey brownie bites, which are freaking amazing. I've been eating protein junk food all day and I love it.

KL1887

I tend to crave fried or salty foods in direct link with an impending or active migraine. Thankfully I’ve never been one for a sweet tooth

susanlee53

Since you can't seem to find anything to satisfy your craving, maybe the answer is just good old fashioned will power?

When I get a craving, I go to the mantra "what do I want more? the xxx (in your case xxx=brownie) or accomplishing my goal?" which will make me feel better? after eating xxx, it rarely, if ever, satisfies the craving, and then having xxx makes still makes me feel the craving, and want more xxx. this spirals, and at the end of the day, I'd feel better about myself, my weight accomplishment if I don't succumb to the craving. I do really feel the guilt and I feel like a failure if I have xxx; if I can make myself skip it, then I feel successful. This is regular, totally predictable outcome. So why not do the things that I know I can do, and then feel good about it? All you have to do is succeed once, and then you know with certainty that you can succeed again.

Another strategy I use is to tell myself I'll have xxx later, not deny it altogether. Then I get busy doing something else, and I might forget about the craving; also, by then, it might be mealtime, in which case I'll eat my planned meal, or not, I'll just make xxx my meal.

One final thought, for me substitutes don't really do it. Some diet advice years ago told me: if you go for an ice cream, but it's lunch time, and have burger, fries and ice cream, it's the burger and fries that is the junk food. Just have the ice cream if that's what you wanted all along.

Be happy in 2022!