Help me stop cheating ...

Hey OP

Sorry to hear about your unfortunate problem.

I'm an ex cheater myself and if it wasn't for my wife's big forgiving heart I'd be noes deep in a brothel right now.

I'm glad to see that there's motivation and support for people like us on MFP

Feel free to add.

:flowerforyou:

I do good most of the day feel good but by the end of the day i am tired and hungry so i seem to pig out .. I need to stop doing that but it is hard ... I live in Nevada and it is just about summer already and i still have 60 lbs or so to go but at least 20-30 befor i will even consider wearing a swim suit ... plus they are opening 2 new water parks in a few months .... please help .....

It sounds to me as though you are not feeding your body enough calories and nutrition. To lose weight effectively and in a healhty way, you should not be hungry and tired at night, you should feel full as a tick. ) I have learned that cravings are 99% physical. Your body does not have a voice, it's can't say "hey! you are eating too little, I don't have enough calories, I need so quick glucose right now and I'm low on protien and while you're at it, I need more high-quality fats too.:" Your body speaks to you through cravings, hormonal and chemical urges. Which your brain associates with your common foods. If you crave pizza, but give yourself high-quality protein/carbs/fats instead, your pizza craving will go away. If you crave sweets but give yourself high-qualty, quickly absorbed carbs instead, your sweets craving will go away. If you eat the right amount of caloires with all the nutrients that your body needs and you do this consistently every day, after a few weeks or months at the most you will find that you almost NEVER get any kind of cravings. Because there is nothing left to crave when your body is getting the fuel/nutrients that it needs.

I recommend a great book called Intuitive Eating. The website is awesome too. http://www.intuitiveeating.org/ Your diary is closed so I can't see your settings but if you are like most of here, you started MFP putting in "sedentary" as your activity level and "2 pounds" as your diet goal and you get 1,200 calories as your default. For more adult women who need to lose weight, 1,200 calories will not get them where they want to go. I recommend that you check out the MFP group: Eat More 2 Weigh Less. They have a ton of links and a website with tools and resources to help you find out how many calories you should be eating.

The basic idea is this: To lose weight, you should calculate how much you burn per day (e.g., 2300 calories) and then eat a moderate deficit below that (between 10-20% less), which is about 1800-2000 calories. The exception is if you are very obese with more than 75 lbs to lose, you can eat 30%+ less. But on days when you work out, eat more to fuel your workout (that's why MFP add exercise calories to your diary). I was in the category of more than 75 lbs to lose, and I did mistakenly eat too little (around 1300 for a couple months). I hope/think I didn't do too much damage to my metabolism because at least I ate every 2-3 hours, 5-6 meals a day religiously, which helps with hormones, such as helps to keep leptin in place and helps avoid cortisol. But now that I have lost a lot of weight, I've had to bring my calories back up. I'm in the process of ramping up, eating about 1700 now.

But my point is this: at no point have I ever let myself go hungry or feel deprived. I kept reminding myself that this is NOT a temporary "diet" -- this is just how I eat now. ) Even at 1300 calories, I made sure I was full all day and NEVER hungry. Best secret: eat massive amounts of veggies. I eat 2-4 servings of cooked veggies for lunch and dinner almost every day. Add on lean chicken/turkey/fish and high-quality filling carb like brown rice, and you will not be hungry at night.

I also discovered that how I ate at the very beginning of the day set up my whole day and had a ripple effect into that night. Whenever I ate right away upon awakening (within 20 minutes) and ate a full, balanced breakfast with adequte carbs/fat/protein, and in particular, a minimum of 20 grams of protein, then I noticed the whole rest of the day that I only got hungry at meal/snack times and was very satisfied with my meals/snacks. But when I didn't eat enough breakfast or 20 g protein, I would be up-and-down and plagued with ravenous hunger all day. So even if I don't feel like eating breakfast, I force myself. I know I'll be sorry later in the day if I don't.

It sounds to me like you are putting a lot of pressure on yourself to lose a certain amount of weight by a certain date. I'm sorry to tell you, but your body is a mechanism that does not understand "swimsuit season." LOL If you feel pressured to lose weight FAST you are more likely to do counter-productive things, like cut your calories drastically at the same time that you increase your exercise sharply. This will mess up your hormones and slow your metabolism. I recommend that you take a high-pressure deadline off yourself and settle in to learning a new eating lifestyle, in a healthy way. I have lost 70 lbs while never once "dieting" -- I eat cookies almost every day and waffles/eggs/bacon for brunch every weekend. Of course, I have also learned how to find yummy delicious ways to eat 4-8 servings of veggies every day. I've been losing since Sept. 2012 and never once have I felt hungry or deprived or stressed. The "diet' mentality won't serve you, because after the "diet" is over, you will go back to the eating patterns that god you here in the first place. The other day I realized that when I reach my goal weight someday and increase my calories to maintenance levels, it will only be a few hundred calories more than I am eating now. (Because when I am smaller, it will take less calories to maintain me, so the 20% less I am eating now is close to what I'll need to eat when my body mass is 20% less). So I consider how I am eating now to be practice for maintaining a healthy weight! Basically, I am eating RIGHT NOW exactly how I need to eat to maintain my healthy weight. So, I AM a healthy weight eater RIGHT NOW, and my body is just in the process of catching up to that reality. ) This is a much happier way to lose weight than trying to deprive yourself.

You know, honestly, at the end of the day it comes down to willpower. Resisting late night binges has a lot to do with your commitment to your weight loss, and being accountable for the goals you set for yourself.

if you're used to eating/snacking at night, it's probably habitual. your body is used to eating during that time so it will naturally feel "hungry" even if it's not so you need to break that habit. to do this, just don't eat at that time and distract yourself. if you have eating your calories for the day and are full (before you actually get to your usual snacking time), then distract yourself - drink water, brush your teeth, go for a walk etc. the habit will break after 2-3 weeks of avoidance.

food doesn't have any power over you; YOU give food power over you!

what it comes down to is will power -- you have it within yourself!

For me, it's one of three things--either I am not eating enough, or I am actually tired, or I am restless/bored/unsettled in some way.

For the first, changing to a calorie level based on TDEE did the trick. 1200 calories was just punishing, eating at TDEE-20(or less)% leaves me content most of the time.

If I am actually tired, the solution to that is obvious (even if hard to do sometimes). In the past, eating when tired hasn't really helped, anyway, so it's just not worth it.

If I am restless/bored/whatever, I tell myself that I will just have a good breakfast in the morning and look forward to that instead. I eat dinner only about 2 hours before bed anyway so it isn't a huge long time to deal with. If I had to stay awake more than 3-4 hours after dinner I would make sure to plan for a 300 calorie snack. Sometimes I kinda do this anyway by making part of my "dinner" snack-like (popcorn, nuts, etc. as long as it fits in my macros), especially if it is a noshing in front of the TV kind of night.

If you determine what the real cause of your "cheating" is, fixing the problem is much easier. Willpower is a finite resource and I don't do deprivation well, so I prefer to use habits for day to day issues. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg (probably available at your library) is a really good read and has lots of ideas that can be used for dietary modification.

What is it that you find yourself wanting to eat that makes you cheat? If it's sweets, you could always buy a bag of cotton candy from your local movie theatre, the whole 1 oz is only around 114 calories, and it should be enough to kill your sugar cravings picking a little bit from it throughout the week.

Save calorie for a bed time snack. Get all unhealthy snacks out of the house.

I'll save up to half my caloric intake for a night time snack (popcorn with coconut oil and peanutbutter is yummy). That's the thing about it though is that I now plan for it, and adjust accourdingly. No, salad with vinegrette isn't the world's yummies lunch (loads of vitamins though), but having a movie night and still losing weight is killer.

if you're used to eating/snacking at night, it's probably habitual. your body is used to eating during that time so it will naturally feel "hungry" even if it's not so you need to break that habit. to do this, just don't eat at that time and distract yourself. if you have eating your calories for the day and are full (before you actually get to your usual snacking time), then distract yourself - drink water, brush your teeth, go for a walk etc. the habit will break after 2-3 weeks of avoidance.

food doesn't have any power over you; YOU give food power over you!

what it comes down to is will power -- you have it within yourself!

This. I had the same problem! I started eating more protein in the middle of the afternoon to fill me up (saving a few calories for something light at dinner) and avoid needing so much at night. I even fasted for a few meals here and there and one day, once - just to put my mindset in the right place.

bump

OP...What is your daily calorie level and are you any particular diet (low carb, paleo, etc.).

My guess is your problem is a combination of a low calorie level and overly restrictive diet.

First and foremost, for a lot of us weight loss is a matter of a change in lifestyle. If I am cheating, my lifestyle has not changed.

Second, think of a hunger at night as a sign of "success." NOT A GOAL, but as "success." Mind over matter, the hunger goes away.

Third, have low cal healthy snacks on the counter waiting for you if you walk in -- grape tomatoes, sliced cucumber in wine vinegar, chunked cabbage, raw broccoli. You'd be surprised how good and filling they are.

Finally, trainer Bob Harper (Biggest Loser) says going to bed hungry is one of the "rules." If you cheat at night, my experience is you break the rule. Your body will burn fat at night, and you do not wake up hungry.