Psychological Hump

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MFPfriend
MFPfriend Posts: 1,121 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hey MFPers, I've got another problem, lol.

Today, I ate pretty darn well. I made sure to eat every few hours, got all my water in, and still made a healthy dinner (except for those potato wedges, lol).
Anyway, so it's 10:30 at night, and I'm about to close my food diary when I notice I have 271 calories left. Wowza! I'm usually right at my goal or a little above, so this was definitely a surprise.
So, I'm ready to go to bed, and I'm not hungry or anything, but seeing those 271 calories just fooled me. I went into the kitchen... looked around for SOMETHING to eat. I didn't want anything at all... nothing. I ended up eating some applesauce and a cheesestick.

(excuse the crappy paragrpah here, I'm trying to figure out how to explain what was going through my mind).
Why do I feel the need to eat the calories, when I'm not hungry and not craving anything? I know I shouldn't go below 1200 (which I never would do more than 2 days in a row. Besides, that's the numbers side of this, and I'm more stuck in the psychological part). I just feel like "Yeah, I've got some more calories, why NOT eat? If I can, I will."
I just don't get why I tell myself I should eat when I don't need to and don't want to.

And grrr, I'm finding it really hard to explain this in the right way.
Anyways, has anybody else been stuck in this mindset? I could use some help getting over this. I do it almost every night that I happen to go under calories.

Replies

  • jrbowers83
    jrbowers83 Posts: 282 Member
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    My best solution for this is to plan your meals ahead of time. I try to plan about a week ahead, and make changes as I go along. That way if I have a huge calorie deficit, I can figure in some higher calorie snacks earlier in the day when I am hungry and not forcing myself to eat later. My issue is (and I'm not sure if it's exactly what you're having a problem with) is that I'll tell myself I'm not hungry. Then I'll eat a small snack that kickstarts my appetite, and then I feel ravenous and eat a ton. Luckily this tends to happen most in the early afternoon so I can still save myself by getting an extra workout in. Still working on finding my eating habits and triggers, and they change as I get more into this lifestyle change. It sounds like you're doing the same. So I would just recommend listening to your body for hunger cues. You're not sabotaging your weight loss by getting in those extra cals because as you said you were at a deficit, but I do understand your feeling that it might be leading you back to bad habits. Like if you force yourself to eat when you're not hungry, then you might go back to eating out of boredom or whatever else you might have done previously. I hope this helps :smile:
  • MFPfriend
    MFPfriend Posts: 1,121 Member
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    My best solution for this is to plan your meals ahead of time. I try to plan about a week ahead, and make changes as I go along. That way if I have a huge calorie deficit, I can figure in some higher calorie snacks earlier in the day when I am hungry and not forcing myself to eat later. My issue is (and I'm not sure if it's exactly what you're having a problem with) is that I'll tell myself I'm not hungry. Then I'll eat a small snack that kickstarts my appetite, and then I feel ravenous and eat a ton. Luckily this tends to happen most in the early afternoon so I can still save myself by getting an extra workout in. Still working on finding my eating habits and triggers, and they change as I get more into this lifestyle change. It sounds like you're doing the same. So I would just recommend listening to your body for hunger cues. You're not sabotaging your weight loss by getting in those extra cals because as you said you were at a deficit, but I do understand your feeling that it might be leading you back to bad habits. Like if you force yourself to eat when you're not hungry, then you might go back to eating out of boredom or whatever else you might have done previously. I hope this helps :smile:

    I think that's exactly it. It's almost boredom eating, but what I feel an "excusable" boredom eating.
    I'll try to start planning my meals in advance. Thanks so much for your help, I really appreciate it.
  • Azadi
    Azadi Posts: 25 Member
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    My rule for myself is that I eat 3 meals every day, no snacks. That specific plan probably won't work for most people, most people need snacks... but if you designate a specific number of meals/snacks and make a rule for yourself that you won't eat outside of those, maybe it would help. It certainly helps me... I get a strong desire to eat when I am bored or especially when I am lonely, but having my plan of eating keeps me out of the kitchen. It has also helped me to learn the difference between feeling actually hungry and just wanting to eat.

    What you've got to try to learn and stick to is that food is not an activity. Eating isn't a pastime. Food is wonderful and delicious and should be enjoyed, but primarily it is fuel for your body. If you're under your calorie allowance but you've finished your meals and snacks for the day, just tell yourself that you're done. You don't have to fill up your count, just like you don't have to finish food that's on your plate if you're no longer hungry (another thing that is very hard to learn).

    I hope this is a little bit helpful. :)
  • ❤B☩❤
    ❤B☩❤ Posts: 634
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    What about if you close your diary out the minute you are ready for bed? And then GO TO BED! I know it sounds overly simplistic, but you do lose weight when you sleep...plus you don't want to eat that late at night.

    Good Luck, you are doing the right thing for reaching out! : )
  • Kimber1012001
    Kimber1012001 Posts: 30 Member
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    same thing for me today!

    i still have 500 cals left over to 'use', i'm not hungry and it's 9pm BUT there's a chip bag in the pantry that can mend this situation...oh so easily... lol

    Should we do it just cause we can?? I think it will lead us to slip back into old habits quickly, seriously. There is an element of truth in the saying 'old habits die hard', it takes a lot of mental energy to stop emotional/boredom/social eating from ruling ure life.... we should both resist temptation! hehe

    lol just let it go for the day and assume you either over calculated exercise calorie expenditure or miscalculated a meal and that's why there is an negative value ;)

    good luck!

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