dont know what just happened!

Everything does make sense, in a way. I have suffered with depression and maybe that is linked to the times when I binge. My lg is getting older and it was about the same time a got pnd with my lb. Do you think food is affected by things like depression?

There are many reasons for this - PMS, TOM, hunger, deprivation, etc. But whatever the reason, you are only back to square one if you choose to be. Otherwise, you made a bad decision and it's time to move on.

Food consumption is about conscious choices. Period. PMS, mestruation and other things are not responsible for food choices and scapegoating them onlu leads to longer term issues.

I guess you've never actually experienced the insatiable hunger that often accompanies PMS. The kind of hunger where no matter what or how much you eat, you continue feeling so hungry you're actually light-headed.

I participate in a support group for obese women trying to get in shape. What you describe is an ongoing process for them and what they experience constantly, not just during certain times of the month. Assuming your food intake meets your macronutrient and caloric needs and you don't eat so that you become deficient in micronutrients (most norably B vitamins, iron, and magnesium) there's no actual physical reason you would need to eat differently and no medical reason for lightheadedness. It is, however, a pretty typical emotional response. Once you start feeding cravings instead of your body, you begin to teach your body the habit of engaging in that behavior and it becomes more ingrained and perpetuates those cravings in an ongoing cycle.

No.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-antidepressant-diet/201008/you-can-prevent-pms-destroying-your-diet

The solution is to increase the production of serotonin, the brain chemical involved in regulating mood and weight. We discovered at MIT that serotonin activity is diminished during PMS so simply increasing serotonin production reduces the unpleasant mood and overeating during this time of the month.

Increasing serotonin is easy. The brain chemical is made when a non-fruit carbohydrate is eaten. Here is all that needs to be done:

Twice a day (or more if necessary) eat a snack containing 30-35 grams of a starchy or sweet carbohydrate. Choose foods that have no more than 2 grams of protein and 2 grams of fat. Protein prevents serotonin from being made, and fat just adds calories.

Eat the foods on an empty stomach or three hours after a meal.

The snacks should be regarded as edible therapy for the PMS, not as a source of nutrition. Make sure you take your usual vitamin and calcium supplements and eat as many fruits, vegetables, low or non-fat dairy products and lean protein as your PMS cravings will allow.

Good snack choices include popcorn, fat-free fudge sauce (for PMS chocolate cravers), sweetened breakfast cereal, an English muffin with jam, oatmeal with brown sugar, graham crackers, low-fat granola bars, very low-fat ice cream or frozen yogurt, low-fat rice or soy crackers, pretzels, low-fat meringue cookies, low-fat biscotti and cotton candy (in case you have PMS while at a county fair).

A few caveats:

* Alcohol is not a substitute for the carbohydrate.
* Eating fruit will not lead to serotonin production.
* Soda and other foods made with high fructose corn syrup sweeteners do not lead to serotonin production.
* Restrain yourself from munching on fat-filled brownies, chips, ice cream, and chocolate. Your brain doesn't know the difference but your scale will.

My point was twofold: 1) all manner of physiological, hormonal, environmental and life factors can affect cravings and hunger 2) eating food in response to them is a choice. Period.

I often crave chocolate. I used to eat candy bars or whatever I had available to make the feeling and hunger go away. I recently realized how few calories (by comparison) are in chocolate chips. Now when I'm really craving chocolate I grab a handful and I don't even feel guilty over the 80 calories.

I love all foods. Portion control is my main issue. Oh, and cake. I love cake more than anything else. :laugh:

No one here is starving. If you can exaggerate hormonal dips and hunger to that degree, it's not at all surprising that you missed my point and are off on some tangent about how you absolutely have to consume more calories during these fluctuations, let alone not realizing that hormone dips are propotionate to the food consumed on an ongoing basis.

Hormones do not cause food consumption. If they did, people with PCOS could never lose the weight they need to lose in order to help restore a healthy hormone balance. They would have to eat, because otherwise they'd be starving!

Personal responsibility is a wonderful thing. It's something we should all do have and abide by. However, you are going waaaaay overboard with your point. Yes. What we put into our mouths IS a choice. However, acting like hormonal fluctuations don't cause increased hunger/cravings, is a recipe for disaster. It is better to KNOW your weaknesses, so you can better prepare yourself for them. It often helps me, when I know I'm having experiencing an insatiable appetite or cravings to check my calendar, see if it's a TOM deal, then say to myself, "Oh. It's that TOM. No biggie. This will pass," than to say, "I have an insatiable appetite. I must be undisciplined. Allow me to starve myself to prove a point about my defect of character."

See the distinction?

I didngo overboard with my point. I just repeated the same, small point while others refuted what I wasn't actually asserting.

My point was twofold: 1) all manner of physiological, hormonal, environmental and life factors can affect cravings and hunger 2) eating food in response to them is a choice. Period.

Again, no one here is ever starving themselves, except perhaps, the anorexics. Ever.

You're all reading all kinds of moral judgments about a simple point of fact.

If your cycle makes a huge change in your subjective experience, it's wise to get a full hormone panel run. Standard OB-GYNs don't often run them except in cases of thyroid issues or extreme weight gain with suspected PCOS, but even on the pill hormones can be out of whack and you can be harming fertility or health and not know it. For reasons that have never been clear to me, it has become medically acceptable to write off symptoms as overexaggerations when, in fact, women are really suffering.

I feel very hungry. What would you suggest I do?

High-protein snacks have a high satiety value, meaning they keep you full longer: hard-boiled eggs, portion-controlled nuts (if they're in the shell, they take longer to eat), weighed cheese (string cheese can take a really long time to eat), yogurt...

If you're hungry in the evenings, budget some of your calories for after dinner.

Drink 2 glasses of water before you eat anything. Brush your teeth. Take a walk. Call a friend.

If you're unreasonably hungry, your weight loss goal is probably set unreasonably high. With only 15 lb. to lose, a healthy loss is .5 lb. per week. The closer you are to goal, the more slowly you lose.

But, yes, if you go back a bit, you'll see the controversey started over the completely factual (but apparently high infammatory to the hormonally impaired woman) statement:
"Food consumption is about conscious choices. Period. PMS, mestruation and other things are not responsible for food choices and scapegoating them only leads to longer term issues."

But, yes, if you go back a bit, you'll see the controversey started over the completely factual (but apparently high infammatory to the hormonally impaired woman) statement:
"Food consumption is about conscious choices. Period. PMS, mestruation and other things are not responsible for food choices and scapegoating them only leads to longer term issues."

It was actually in response to you stating that somehow I'm making a choice to feel very hungry for a few days each month, as though I have actual control over that.

Yes, I choose to eat when I feel actual hunger. I realize that's a revolutionary idea, but it's what I do.

You're projecting. You should try reading what I actually wrote, rather than imputing.

But, yes, if you go back a bit, you'll see the controversey started over the completely factual (but apparently high infammatory to the hormonally impaired woman) statement:
"Food consumption is about conscious choices. Period. PMS, mestruation and other things are not responsible for food choices and scapegoating them only leads to longer term issues."

It was actually in response to you stating that somehow I'm making a choice to feel very hungry for a few days each month, as though I have actual control over that.

Yes, I choose to eat when I feel actual hunger. I realize that's a revolutionary idea, but it's what I do.

You're projecting. You should try reading what I actually wrote, rather than imputing.

That was your response to me stating that I feel very hungry during the week before my period. I read what you wrote. You told me it was psychological. I can assure you it very much is not.

I'll repeat my earlier advice from this thread, with two additions. If you have "trigger" foods, don't keep large quantities of them at home. And think about practicing "mindful" eating, really paying attention to and enjoying every bite.