When the cravings start - What's your secret to stop them?

Myweightlossdiary

Hi everyone,

I've been a myfitnesspal member for a while but have noticed that no matter how hard I try to log all I eat, I find myself still having cravings occasionally that have a psychological impact on me while trying to lose weight. It usually goes something like this:

Craving: "I bet you really want [name of food]"
Me: "I really shouldn't eat that"
Craving: "Don't worry, it's only a little bit - plus you deserve it for all your hard work!"
Me: "Yea, but I don't want to lose the benefits of all the hard work I've done!"
Craving: "Just take a smaller portion, it won't hurt you".

By this time, I usually rationalize and justify whatever the craving is and allow myself to partake of it. I've tried substituting things like candy for protein bars or carrots, but sometimes I just have that urge to eat a chocolate bar or a pack of skittles. Problem is, how do you stop yourself from over-endulging? What secrets do you use?

I've heard that planning your meals in advance can sometimes thwart the cravings because psychologically you know what you are going to eat on any given day and therefore you can tell yourself that's not on the meal plan for the day. I've never had luck with planning my meals but I'd love to try. I think I need to be more disciplined.

I'd love to heard what works for you all. Losing weight is so hard and I dare say, more psychological than anything else.

crystalewhite

A life without chocolate is sad. Just have the smaller portion like you have been doing, log it and move on. It does take discipline, but once I saw how well calorie tracking has been working, that was enough to stop me from over indulging.

What I do now is buy a bag of good quality chocolate chips, measure them out and put the bag back. Eating the better chocolate slowly satisfies me more than scarfing down a cheap candy bar.

Meerataila

This will sound really gross, but someone mentioned it in a thread once and it's been working great for me:

Processed foods are my weakness, and it turns out they are loaded with bugs and bug excretions. Deliberately put in the food and otherwise.

Thinking about it just turns my stomach and turns me off food.

If that fails, google customer complaints about your favorite binge foods. If you're lucky, you'll get pictures.

lauren_jb

If that fails, google customer complaints about your favorite binge foods. If you're lucky, you'll get pictures.

That might just be the greatest idea of all time.

catremistrae

I plan for both a salty and a sweet craving and bring snacks for both. The salty snack is usually veggies and cheese, and the sweet snack is a piece of chocolate or two. When the craving hits, I grab the appropriate container out of my lunch bag. I don't worry about the craving because I've already included the snacks in my plan.

gypsy_spirit

No matter how far or long you run - there will always be food in your life. I struggled with bingeing for a long time before I finally learned that the only way I could stop it was to learn to moderate what I ate. Learning to stop yourself from overeating is a skill. It begins with simply putting off the urge to eat for a few minutes. Go as long as you can. The longer the time - the more empowered you will feel. Next time, try to put off eating even longer. You will eventually find that you lose the "need" to overeat.

You've taught yourself many things in your lifetime and this is just one more thing. Retrain your brain to see correct portions. Derail the thought process that causes you to lose control.

When you learn to moderate your eating, you will be able to handle vacations, eating out, parties, movies, etc. without freaking out. That alone has made life so much easier for me.

Take back your power.

lukewind

I grab a large hammer and give myself a hard smack on the head. I wake up 10-15 hours later and for some reason my craving is gone......along with my ability to do math.

crescentgaia

Truthfully? I get the 100 calorie packs of things and munch on one packet a day. Makes the craving go away, I'm not cranky at myself or the system, and therefore, I don't sabotage myself. Right now, I'm working on the 100 calorie pack of mini fudge stripes. Keeps my chocolate and cookie craving down and I really only need to have one.

Fit4Yah

For me, frozen blueberries takes away the sweet tooth. I love them. You can always try something else like making your own "ice cream" with frozen banana and adding what you like to it. Cocoa powder for chocolate ice cream, or peanut butter, or both Also a piece of toast with a little bit of real salted butter or an avocado tomato salad with olive oil, salt, and pepper help with my salty cravings. Just find the healthy foods you REALLY like and somehow incorporate them. And of course I am human so I do give in here and there like today I had a s'mores ice cream sandwich. But I just worked it in to my calories and I did an extra 20 minute workout.

Also, I joined myfitnesspal beginning 2012 and my 10 lb only loss is because I've had 2 children since then, and I'm pregnant again so Very little time has been spent on here not pregnant. I feel I always have to say that because I've heard "well you've been on here for this long and only lost this much so what do you know"?

Cblsplcr

May not work for everyone but I take my lunch and snack for the day every morning. I like snacks with the most flavor like instead of an orange I take the little mandarin oranges or some grapes. Anything with lots of flavor but not to many calories. It seems to work for me.

swertyqwerty

1 litre of water with 1 tbsp of chia seeds (or any other fibre rich food) inside. After the chia gels, I down it.

CindyMarcuzAdams

Pre log a yummy snack in the morning. Its there if you need it and you wont go over. Personally my snacks consist of 6 almonds a lite cheese string or a 35 cal yogurt. Usually does the trick. But then again I dont have ooey gooey goodness in the house either...

followzyzz

I eat some veggies or drink water until the cravings go away lol.

Samstan101

I eat small amounts of what I like as part of my daily cal count, that way it doesn't get to the craving stage and so I don't over-indulge. Maker it a lifestyle change and not a diet - if you're cutting things out now to lose weight, you're almost certain to put the weight back on when you stiop 'dieting' and gop back to eating 'normally'. Unless you never intend eating chocolate/ bread/ ice cream etc. again then don't cut them out now, just learn moderation.

Bluemints1

Try not to cut the sweeter things in life out, it's good to have that treat!
I am a massive sugar addict, but the way I see it, if one day, i have a huge craving for a bar of chocolate, and grapes, or nuts or other fruit won't satisfy it, i will go and eat a chocolate bar. BUT, i will make sure it is a small one, and that it has as little calories and fat as possible, and that during the remainder of the day, i add more exercise into my schedule - enough to burn off what you ate.

This way, i feel less guilty by having my cravings, but i know that if i just cut out sweets and chocolate, this diet won't last long and i would just crack.

So the key is to allow yourself these treats, but instead of trying to justify a reason as to why you deserve them, just make them worthwhile by cutting the portion size down and burning it off afterwards

Jkj95

I have a small portion of the thing I'm craving, even if it's something really unhealthy like french fries or pie, and then cut back on something else later. If you include items you crave into your diet it'll be a lot easier to stick to.

amberj32

I say don't cut out the occasional treat. Just add it in your macros for the day. I find that if something is forbidden I want it more.

GothyFaery

I don't deny my cravings. I have a treat almost every single night. I make it work. I always save room at the end of the day for something. Because I don't deny myself something sweet, I can easily keep the portions under control. I'm trying to decide between ice cream and cookies tonight. I had cookies last night so probably going to be ice cream tonight..... I might work in extra walking and go for both.....

LianaG1115

Don't buy the stuff, don't have it in the house...

I used to push myself and try my patience by buying a candy bar and pushing myself to see how long I could go without eating it., reverse psychology is what I like to call it...push yourself to the challenge of "how long can I go without .... until I cave?" My boyfriend says it's messed up thinking but I believe it's a different way instead of the "I can't" thinking to a more positive one...

bald_navy_wife

This will sound really gross, but someone mentioned it in a thread once and it's been working great for me:

Processed foods are my weakness, and it turns out they are loaded with bugs and bug excretions. Deliberately put in the food and otherwise.

Thinking about it just turns my stomach and turns me off food.

If that fails, google customer complaints about your favorite binge foods. If you're lucky, you'll get pictures.

OMG YOU'RE A GENIUS! i would've never thought of such a great idea. thanks for sharing because this will really help me

bookworm_847

I've started doing this thing where if I have a craving for something I usually can't squeeze into my diary, I'll allow myself it have it if I'm craving it for three days in a row. Not a ton of it, but just enough so that I can enjoy it and have my craving satisfied. It has actually been helping control my cravings, and I don't find myself having as many which has allowed me to stick to my meal plans easier.

For a while, I was also trying to figure out what I was craving (salty, sweet, cheesy, etc.). If I could figure that out, I'd try to make a healthier substitution and see what happened. Pineapple and mango would usually help my craving for sweets, and veggies & ranch or hummus have been helpful with my salty and crunchy cravings.

Meerataila

This will sound really gross, but someone mentioned it in a thread once and it's been working great for me:

Processed foods are my weakness, and it turns out they are loaded with bugs and bug excretions. Deliberately put in the food and otherwise.

Thinking about it just turns my stomach and turns me off food.

If that fails, google customer complaints about your favorite binge foods. If you're lucky, you'll get pictures.

OMG YOU'RE A GENIUS! i would've never thought of such a great idea. thanks for sharing because this will really help me

You're welcome. It's not my genius, though, someone else here shared it in a forum post. If I could remember the name, I'd give credit where it's due!

Edit: And I just realized how much it's helping me. I'm happily daydreaming about going to the grocery store and buying all fresh ingredients to make my own salsa and tomato sauce instead of dreaming about going to buy some junk food or other. My tastes are changing and I feel better.

becs3578

I give in a little bit. That is how I deal. For my sweet chocolate craving I keep a bag of semi sweet chocolate chips in the freezer. I scoop them out in qty of 1 tablespoon.. and no more than 3 (if it was a particularly bad day). They are tiny so it takes some time to eat them and by the time I am done the craving has been deal with. IT was a happy accident I came across about 6 months ago after a realy really crappy day. It works for me!