How can I get over the constant wanting of unhealthy foods?

JacksonMetzger

i’m trying to lose weight, and struggling. any advice/tips/help is appreciated

yirara

Experiment, try to find foods you enjoy eating. Or eat your food but at a calorie deficit. I mean, weightloss has nothing to do with eating so-called healthy or unhealthy food but just with the amount of calories.

csplatt

How long have you been trying? When I need to cut, the first two weeks are the hardest. Once I make it past two weeks, I’m good. But also, I still eat the foods I used to overeat. But I put them on a digital food scale and control my portion.

Hobartlemagne

A one incident example here-
Yesterday afternoon I was so ravenous, I would have eaten just about anything.
I just chewed a bunch of different flavored chewing gum, piece by piece.
Its not perfect, but it helps satisfy cravings a little bit.

Sandiemichele1981

Eat more protein and journal when you are having the cravings to look for ways to make changes. Also, track your calories and incorporate small amounts of what you’re craving into the calorie budget.

springlering62

What they’re saying above.

It takes a few eeeks to lose the sugar and carbs craving. You’ve got to work through it and find substitutes.

Once you do, you’ll begin to taste things again. Strawberries and oranges are so sweet now they make me pucker up.

I also swore I’d never use sugar substitutes and sugar free products because they were “bad” for me. Turns out the extra hundred pounds I was carrying was “more bad”. I’ve learned to actually like them and incorporate them several times a day, in foods like iced coffees, diet sodas, homemade ice creams, etc.

One thing that made a massive difference for me was sweetened fruit balsamics. They come in all flavors- strawberry, blueberry, chocolate, maple, apple. Tons of flavors. Tart but that enhances the sweetness and very low cal. I use them on fruit and cottage cheese, as salad dressings, in marinades, on ice cream, or the apple is wonderful as a light and crisp stir fry sauce. These are not the same as regular balsamic. They’re more liquid and much sweeter. You’ll find them in a wine bottle type bottle, usually in gourmet shops. They are mostly from the same source and relabeled in local shops. I get mine from Oli+Ve. They ship. I buy them by the case, which last me about eight months or so. Amazon also sells them but at twice what I can buy for locally.

Another treat I enjoy is Nugo dark bars. They taste like a candy bar, vegan, high protein, and run about 200 calories. The coconut tastes just like a mounds bar. No artificial sweeteners.

Apples in almond butter is another nice treat.

AnnPT77

I agree with advice above, but also:

"Unhealthy" is a function of portion size, frequency, and overall eating patterns on average over a small number of days.

Sometimes people think they need to cut out every single scrap of what they think of as "unhealthy foods" in order to lose weight or improve health. It ain't necessarily so. 😉

Many of us have foods we can't eat in moderation. If we open the package, we're eating the whole thing. Those foods may need to be totally off limits, at least for a while.

But it's OK to have some treat foods sometimes, in calorie appropriate portions. A dozen chips/crisps doesn't cancel out broccoli elsewhere in the day.

Restricting foods more than necessary can make it too hard to stick with the process long enough to lose a meaningful total amount of weight.

IMO, balance is the goal, not abstract perfection. Common sense can help sort that out.

Best wishes!

PAV8888

Somewhere in the process (re)learning has to happen as to what is actual hunger due to calories not being enough and what is actual 'hunger' related to non caloric needs.

When dealing with actual hunger due to calories not being enough it doesn't always make sense for it to be ignored or suppressed.

You can then experiment with the situations where certain caloric investments bring up certain results... and add them to your toolbox.

springlering62

Sometimes dehydration cues feel like hunger pangs.

Make sure you’re getting enough water.

Consider drinking a glass of water, wait maybe ten minutes, and see if you still feel “hungry”.

I also have the opposite effect. I often get home from a late afternoon workout, feeling famished, and reach for salty things.

I’ve noticed, it’s not that I’m “hungry”. I do hot yoga, sweaty cardio, and I walk many steps in the Deep South heat. Even sweating under a bathing cap while in a flipping pool can cause me to sweat badly. I just need salt. I’ve depleted it during the day and it hits me all at once.

I won’t lie. I’ve even resorted to sprinkling a little in my palm and just licking it.

It’s whatever works for you, but learn your body and learn your cues.