How to stop eating/not eat when you are full/shouldn't eat anymore.

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fitasacello wrote: »

I love all of these tips! My advice is to exercise, getting cardio every day just seems to end bad food cravings for me, and buy some healthy food that you're not particularly fond of (say raw radishes or unsalted pistachios) and then when a craving hits say to yourself "well if this was real, true hunger, then I would eat the freakin radishes now wouldn't I?"

Ya, Mom used to say, "If you're not hungry enough for an apple, you're not hungry."

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lizzocat wrote: »

the only thing that worked for me was to develop a habit, but to get there, I literally had to remove myself from things that triggered me to eat, or from the kitchen. For a while I literally just would not be home after meals (i would go to the gym, go for a walk, etc) or if I was home, I would stay as occupied as possible and as far away from the kitchen. Over time, that mental "eat eat eat" just goes away, it did take a few months though to make this feel like it's my 'lifestyle' and not just a 'diet' i'm following

I do the same thing. I tend to want to overeat at restaurants because the people around me are as well. When I visually see the amount of food I've eaten to be enough, I excuse myself from the table and walk to the restroom or the other side of the restaurant to break the cycle and when I return I ask for a box and make a statement about how good the food was to reassure myself that I've finished eating. Sometimes I'll even sit on my hands at the table while continuing to talk to a group.
Another trick is eat slowly and chew slowly. It takes 20 to 25 minutes for hormones to tell our brain that we're full.

Sweep4412 -- I often wonder this myself. I wonder how people can just stop eating. When I overeat, I know exactly what I'm doing and that it's bad for me, yet, many times I do it. How can people just put some food on their plate, eat that and be done? I've not always been this way. I used to maintain a nice weight, overweight, but maintained around the same weight without thinking about it. But the last 10ish years has been difficult. During this time, I've lost and gained around 80lbs a few times now. I always regain.

People here will say that I didn't change my lifestyle, you're lazy or just don't eat. For some people it's not that simple. I find losing weight to be "easy", but maintaining my weight loss very difficult. The longest I've maintained my weight loss was three years. I had to think about it every meal. I had to "just stop".

Planning does help. Measuring or learning how to measure by eye. Staying away from trigger foods; don't even have a bite. Decide what you're going to eat, eat that, then remove yourself from the situation. I have to think about doing that every meal. I have to say to myself, "You're done. You've had enough."

I am not a lazy person. I don't do formal "exercise", but I take the kids to the pool, do a few laps and play with the kids. I walk to the park that is 1/2 mile away and play with the kids. I take a walk at lunchtime. I do sit all day at my desk job, so I try do do these things with the kids as often as possible. What it comes down to is that I have trouble "stopping" eating.

I'm not blaming this on anyone but me. I'm not saying there's something in my genetics, I'm not blaming something other than myself.

Sweep4412, as a person who understands, I hate to say it, but I've found no other way to do it rather then just make a decision at every meal (planning helps) and go from there.

kshama2001 wrote: »

I've heard to allow yourself 20 minutes for the satiety signal to get to the brain from the stomach.

And I've heard from somewhere a long time ago to wait 30 minutes. Same sort of thing.

Whatever it was that I read those many years ago also suggested that during those 30 min, we get up from the table, do the dishes, tidy up the house, maybe brush our teeth and start in on an evening activity.

When something is SO good, I try not to eat it all so I can have some more the next day. Spread the joy, so to speak.

Overeating is such a hard habit to break. It'll probably take a long time, but that's okay.

maillemaker wrote: »

One camp says that when you get to maintenance you won't be hungry anymore since you have learned all your great eating habits over the months and years it took you to get there.

Another camp says that your body is still going to detect the lowered Leptin levels and will still be pushing to restore body fat levels to their previous high level by reducing metabolism and increasing hunger.

Pretty sure the first camp is full of crap and the second camp is correct. Just google the Minnesota starvation study.

There's plenty of condescension in this thread.

OP, getting to or maintaining a healthy weight DOES NOT REQUIRE YOU TO FEEL LIKE YOU'RE STARVING. You don't need superhuman willpower. You should plan ahead like others have suggested, but you should also be eating foods that are filling and contain healthy fats, protein, and fiber. Meals should preferably contain a combo of these things. A cupcake doesn't fill anyone up, but a salad with lots of veggies, a bit of protein and avocado will. Low calorie volume foods with fiber + healthy fat + protein.

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learn to embrace hunger. Honestly, being hungry isnt bad. It is OK to have feeling of hunger.. you dont need to feel full all the time, however obviously dont let yourself get to starving. Drink lots of water. Drink like a gallon a day.. helps with hunger a lot.

The thing that helped me the most was whenever I was hungry drink a glass or two of water. If after 10 minutes still hungry, then go ahead and eat something. Thirst often disguises itself as hunger.

And lastly, if you find you cant stop yourself from eating snacks even if you not hungry... get rid of the snacks. I stopped buying things like nuts just because even with all the self-control I learned, I lose all of it around nuts.

For me this is always about carbs. I could eat two cartons of Ice Cream easily. I could eat a large package of vanilla oreos and want more when I was done. But since I've been eating butter and meat and coconut oil and pork rinds and chicken livers etc, even though they taste good to me (some more than others) that taste comes with satisfaction and a feeling of fullness. So I am now able to easily stay within a calorie limit that I didn't have the willpower to sustain before.

I don't know it is works that way for everyone. But that's how I did it. Once I became used to eating mainly fat and moderate protein, I tended to feel bad (mildly ill) when I did eat cake or ice cream, etc. So that reinforced my desire to avoid it.

So I guess my answer is that you don't get more willpower. Instead you find an eating strategy that both works and that you want to follow. You're not fighting yourself.