Can't stop eating

Food can become just as strong of an addiction as drugs. Processed and foods served in restaurants tend to be created with just the right amount of fats, salts, and sugars to trigger your brain into the addictive cycle of eating more and more. Rather than stepping into the world of the "diet" and deprive yourself, start trying to -add- things to your diet that will satiate your hunger, be healthier, and help you free yourself from the addiction of eating this food.

It's important that you learn how to cook for yourself, it can be a very rewarding art and you'll find the food you can cook tastes far better than what you can buy pre-made. Take it one step at a time. Add raw foods that don't need so much preparation, decide what type of food you like and start learning to make it on your own. Not only will your body thank you, but so will your budget. Don't be hard on yourself or push too fast, that leads to frustration, just add new healthier options and you'll more than likely gravitate towards that rather than the other foods. You'll start finding that willpower and control. You have the power, everyone does, you just have to practice at learning to control. I wish you luck!

My suggestion is to get a bit analytical about it. This is a basic summation of where I've got to since I sought advice for weight loss - mental/emotional and physical sides of things. Some, none or all of it may apply to you.

Think about what triggers your over-eating. Are you actually hungry (doubtful by the sounds of it)? Are you sad, are you bored, are you tired? What can you do to alleviate these feelings that doesn't involve food? Are there specific times of day that you have got into the habit of overeating during? How can you change your routine to combat this? Can you remember where the habits started, and is there an emotional issue or an experience that needs to be addressed in order to confront the habit?

Think about the effect what you're eating has on your body. I don't mean too much food = weight gain. I mean, are you eating/drinking loads of simple carbohydrates that may be giving you highs followed by slumps and a desire for more carbs? If you are the type of person who is affected by this, as I am, then protein-based snacks should keep you fuller for longer and reduce the spikes. I'm not anti-carb, but I try to eat most of my carbs as part of main meals, with a bias towards the complex carbs.

And, quite simply, I found that logging my food was a huge wake-up call.

Sounds like me! I am constantly thinking about food even when im not hungry. When I get to that out of control place it helps me by realizing I want to be healthy and thin. For the first few days I eat very low cal like around a thousand. Eat higher fat foods like eggs bacon but cut the bread out. This gets the overeating under control and thoroughly chewing my food til its liqued this helps get me full faster. I chew 32 times. This is a newer concept to me but it actually works. Whats hard for me is after I no longer feel hunger I continue to eat but I try to stop bc if you eat til full or past full which I also have a problem doing especially if it's really yummy then you are overeating.

If you must eat out for breakfast id eat eggs and bacon or oatmeal. Or sausage and eggs. Steamed carrots or side salad. Or have salad and add chicken sausage or bacon hold the dressing. For lunches or dinners eat a salad eat chicken or some other meat source. Fatty fish nothing breaded or fried no bread either. At least minimize bread intake if you cant go without. Eat more fresh veggies. These are portable and negative calorie foods mostly. Eat fruits like berries. Or eat avacado and coconut oil these are healthy fats. Eat macadamias or beer nuts but only a handful at a a time dont eat peanut butter its very high cal.

Start by only buying healthy food. If you can't control yourself around "junk," then don't keep it in the house. Take one day each week (perhaps Sunday) and sit down and plan all of your meals for the week. Make a grocery list of what you need for these meals and then go out and buy only what is on that list. And stick to it!! As for the emotional side of things, when you feel like you want to to eat unhealthy foods - when you get a craving for chips or cake or whatever it is that you can't stop eating - write down in a journal how you are feeling. Is it your body telling you that it is hungry (in which case, eat something healthy) or are you trying to fill an emotional void?

I suggest eating a lot, then! There are so many healthy snack options that are easy to cook and prepare. Salsa, for example, is yummy and low-calorie! You don't even have to put it on a stove! Also, things like roasted chickpeas, cheez-its (surprising), and some other things are low-calorie snacks. Half of weight loss is getting into the mindset to do it! You have to keep thinking about your motivations and why you want to get fit. Put them on your profile, and read them every day. If they don't inspire you and make you want to keep going, they're not good enough motivations. And lastly, find some healthier eat-out options. I don't know if you have a chipotle near you live, but it's delicious and will keep you full for most of the day! It's not too bad because it's nutritious stuff in it. Alternately, salads are everywhere. Your mindset can't change overnight, and neither can you! Don't be too hard on yourself! Have fun with your weight loss. GOOD LUCK!

if you have no money how are you going out to eat so much? i can't even afford once a week? Cut up ALL your credit cards, using cash only makes spending more difficult...

And I dont cook either, but you can still make meals in advance. Go shoping on Sunday - get a melon, some apples, some sliced turkey breast, some cheese, a jar of peanut butter, a cucumber, and some frozen vegetables you just microwave. And voila! You are st for meals for the week!

When I was in College I was addicted to sex lol... But seriously, life is not just about eating, find something to keep you occupied...

I second (third? fourth?) everyone who suggests learning how to cook. It is not only much healthier, but it saves you money (lots of it!) over eating out. Head out to the library and pick up a few simple healthy cookbooks. I always recommend Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, by Deborah Madison. Even if you aren't a vegetarian (I'm not) it has so many simple, fast, vegetable-driven recipes that are fresh, tasty, and mostly low-calorie. You can always add in some protein like chicken breast or steak or whatever you like, too. Learning to cook is one of the most rewarding life skills there is, and an incredible gift you can give yourself. I find I appreciate food so much more when I put in the work to prepare it myself. And you can always start small - cook one or two meals per week, just to see how it goes.

You may consider looking into Overeaters Anonymous or Food Addicts Anonymous. Or if you are of the Christian faith check out the book Made To Crave.

I have had this problem too for a long time. You aren't alone. One thing I am working on is to realize often times when I think I am hungry or just have a craving for everything in the house, more than likely I'm actually just tired. Sometimes when we overeat for so long we stop being able to identify other needs for what they really are.

I lost 50lbs 2 years ago. I was running about 15 miles a week and was in love with it. I felt great. Then I had a car wreck, messed my leg up, had some financial problems and found myself in a bad place emotionally. Instead of working through that I got fat again.

I needed a wake up call it seems this time. Only it wasn't some in your face deal some face. It was realizing I was killing myself. My ankles hurt. I can't workout with my kids. I'm ill as a hornet all the time because my weight has caused sleep apnea. I don't like myself. I was created to be more than this. And I will be more than this.

Also inability to cook is not a problem. There are plenty of easy things you can prepare and even if you eat out you can still practice portion control and watch what you eat.

There's plenty of toaster friendly TV dinners you can make. http://www.amys.com/ "Amy's Kitchen" makes some really good dishes like enchaladas, brocolli and cheddar casseroles and etc that are easy to through in the oven and come out tasting great. I know how to cook very well but I am a busy man, sometimes quick and easy meals help.

Salmon- I'm a big fan of frozen and already marinated salmon, I buy mine in bulk from costco and it takes literally 30 minutes to cook. There's no preparation either, if you can boil water without burning it then you can cook well enough to do this.

Ugh, I've been the same way lately! I have a couple suggestions:

1) Invest in a slow cooker! You don't really have to know how to cook to throw some things in a pot and set the timer. There are tons and tons of great recipes on the internet (and Pinterest!)

2) They aren't great for you, but I've found that frozen meals can do in a pinch when I'm really craving fast food. They should be used sparingly because of all the sodium, but can help you with portion control too.

3. Eat in this order.

Vegetables or fruit first. Water to drink with it.
Main meal. Juice to drink with it.
Make sure you count the calories, measure how much juice you are drinking, then you will be fine. This will fill you up! I promise. It helped me a lot today, and I feel great already. Happier, for instance. ^.-

i was going to say this. simply inserting a salad or veggies at the beginning of meals helped me tremendously. I didn't change what else i ate (at first). just added a large salad. and then i didn't eat as much of anything else, but i wasn't limiting myself either.

i think that's a solid place to start.

I have the exact same problem and although I fail to follow my own advice frequently, at least I have, over time, been able to identify the cause and solution.

When I plan out my day either in the morning, or the night before, and I enter everything I can eat within my allotted calories, I stick to it better. I do better when I know what I can eat and how much.

Things get hard when I fail to plan and end up hungry with nothing prepared or portioned out. If I let it go until I'm hungry, I don't want to start cooking, I want to start eating. So I say "screw it" and go out and grab something. Usually fast food because, well, it's fast. Which also means it's bad for me.

Rarely do I want to run out and get a salad. But.... if the salad was already made and sitting in my fridge, then it's fast AND easy. I just have to make it when I'm NOT hungry. Which gets back to the planning part.

I plan better when I'm not hungry, so I try to do it the day before. I plan tomorrow's food today, so I never end up being stuck.

That said, while I know what situations lead to picking junk, and I know how to solve it... I haven't found a solution to being lazy yet. Cooking takes effort and has to be done before I'm hungry, so if I don't make it that far after work, I end up picking up junk on the way home. So the planning has to be strategic (meaning, planning my afternoon snack to be very filling, i.e. fiber, and late enough to last until I get home AND cook supper).

Lastly, I know you're getting a lot of advice about eating on a college income. But unfortunately you're going to have to choose between cheap, easy, yummy & healthy. I shoot for at least three, settle for two. Fact is, convenience foods (prepackaged salads, per-portioned snacks) are expensive. Portioning your own foods is time-consuming. Raw veggies on the go aren't usually very yummy unless you are accustomed to eating that way (fat food to celery sticks sucks!), and while fruits are easy, cheap and yummy, they are often calorie dense. So even though they are healthy, you can't realistically just eat fruit all day.

Losing weight on a budget is a balancing act. I wish that balancing act burned calories! lol

Take it easy on yourself. You didn't gain it overnight, you won't lose it overnight. The best advice I read here was to sub out stuff a little at a time. Start easy, pick something you can change right now that won't stress you out. Stress leads to bad choices and overeating (ask me how I know!). For me, it was whole grains. I couldn't give up bread, no matter how many people preached to me about carbs and gluten. I couldn't do it. It stressed me out. So I switched to whole wheat. I also switched my coffee creamer to fat free half-n-half. I didn't give it up, I just subbed it.

Baby steps.

You'll get there. You just have to find what works for you. Try mine. Try planning ahead. Try fixing food a day before. See if that's it. If not, move on to the next idea. Prioritize and plan.

There is no magic pill. No magic solution. No magic food or supplement. Healthy diet and exercise have been the only answers since the dawn of time. The diet industry makes BILLIONS off our desire to find the easy way out, but if any of them worked, no one would be fat anymore. So do NOT believe that crap. The only thing you will lose is time and money.

Good luck!

Does your college have therapists available for students? Often, they'll provide therapy at a low cost for students.

Stop waiting for tomorrow.

I was always bad about the same thing…I would wake up late…not have time to grab a healthy breakfast so I would grab donuts and chocolate milk. So I would do the same thing with lunch because the day was already shot…and so on and so on.

Here is something someone wrote once on a forum and I have tried to embrace it…if you were distracted driving into work this am and blew thru a stop sign (and no one got hurt) you wouldn’t ignore all traffic signals for the rest of the day would you?

Think of every time you are hungry as an opportunity to do something better for yourself and sometimes that something better might just be ice cream.

MFP has been great for me this time (over 2 months and counting) because the overwhelming attitude is eat what works for you within your parameters. Yes, there are foods I honestly have no control over (Reece cups for instance) but I am trying to be realistic about what I can eat and how much I am eating. I have started days off with Ho-Ho’s and chocolate milk and still ended them under my calorie count.