Why can't I just stop eating when I'm full?

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  • bubaluboo
    bubaluboo Posts: 2,098 Member
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    I always eat desert. Whether that's a small piece of chocolate or some fruit with yoghurt and a little honey or something sweet. It can fit in your calorie limit if you are careful with how much and what you choose.
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
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    Would you be willing to set your diary to public/open? I'm curious about a few things and it would be much easier to just look at your food diary.
  • mbaker566
    mbaker566 Posts: 11,233 Member
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    first, don't say can't. you can.
    second, try saving calories for it or eating some berries at the end of dinner
    third, try going for a walk. you are then changing one habit for another
  • likehlikeo
    likehlikeo Posts: 185 Member
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    I usually do the dishes and clean the kitchen RIGHT after dinner, so my brain knows, that "food time" is over for sure. It sounds silly, but it kind of works :)
  • KathleenOsborne
    KathleenOsborne Posts: 6 Member
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    Wow, thanks for your thoughtful responses everyone! I read each one of your comments thoroughly and found some very good tips to consider.

    I think one of the other issues is that I eat by "habit" rather than eating when I'm actually hungry. Next week when things slow down I'll try going for walks after dinner. Exercising usually curbs my appetite; if I run before dinner I'm not that hungry. I'm really going to work on the portion control for sweet treats ;)

    I know it's no excuse but I feel like I don't always have "time" to exercise, so I really have to moderate my caloric intake most days. I just finished a grueling second year in uni and went through work out sprees and plateaus when I was really stressed. I finish for the summer next week though, so I should be better able to be consistent with workouts.
  • KathleenOsborne
    KathleenOsborne Posts: 6 Member
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    SideSteel wrote: »
    Would you be willing to set your diary to public/open? I'm curious about a few things and it would be much easier to just look at your food diary.
    Not sure how to do that lol
  • havingitall
    havingitall Posts: 3,728 Member
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    I grew up in a dessert family too. We keep a bag or Werthers in the cupboard and I take one after a meal for that sweet taste
  • laddyboy
    laddyboy Posts: 1,565 Member
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    Here is what works for me and many others...Brush your teeth after dinner and again if you get that urge to eat. Something about brushing your teeth cuts out the wanting to eat again. You're doing great. Keep up the good work.
  • msf74
    msf74 Posts: 3,498 Member
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    It's a conditioned response I suspect - your brain over riding your natural hunger cues and expecting a reward from hyper-palatable food given your previous behaviour.

    Every noticed how many adults just have to have a snack around 3-4pm? Is it because our bodies are all the same irrespective of what we have eaten through out the day or because lots of us got back from school when we were younger at around that time and were given a snack or a treat?

    The way to over come this is to consciously practice a different behaviour after meals (preferably a positive or pleasurable thing - like having sometime to yourself to read, catch up on emails with friends, beauty treatment) to create a different association. The more you do it the easier it will become.
  • Calliope610
    Calliope610 Posts: 3,771 Member
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    razzjam334 wrote: »
    I believe it means food is an addiction for you and your family also for mine I grow up the same way and I believe this to be the reason I'm over weight

    No, it's probably more of a Pavlovian response. Over years of repeated behavior, you have "trained" your body/brain to expect a dessert shortly after dinner. You have to "untrain" yourself by establishing a new behavior. Train yourself to walk around the block after dinner. Replace your dessert habit with a healthier habit.
  • ahamm002
    ahamm002 Posts: 1,690 Member
    edited June 2015
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    Calliope610 wrote: »
    razzjam334 wrote: »
    I believe it means food is an addiction for you and your family also for mine I grow up the same way and I believe this to be the reason I'm over weight

    No, it's probably more of a Pavlovian response. Over years of repeated behavior, you have "trained" your body/brain to expect a dessert shortly after dinner. You have to "untrain" yourself by establishing a new behavior. Train yourself to walk around the block after dinner. Replace your dessert habit with a healthier habit.

    ^^This. You're used to dessert so you crave dessert. It's really that simple. Changing habits takes time. Avoid eating dessert after every meal for a couple months and then you'll stop missing it so much.

    I'm not saying that you should never eat dessert. But dessert after every meal is going to make it a lot harder to stay within your calories/macro goals.
  • ahamm002
    ahamm002 Posts: 1,690 Member
    edited June 2015
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    double post
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
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    The big issue not addressed yet is does this eating pattern put you above your maintenance calories for the day or do you eat at a deficit? How are you determining the caloric content of your meals and snacks?

    "Normal portion" is relative. Some people are more comfortable with several small meals throughout the day. Others find one large meal works best for them. Some do intermittent fasting of one format or another.
  • meganjcallaghan
    meganjcallaghan Posts: 949 Member
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    I love ice cream. and cake.....etc. So I eat it. It's much easier to make sure you can get what you want when you plan ahead, though. I generally plug in my planned exercise for the day as well as my usual breakfast, lunch and dinner and see what I have left available and plug in my snacks and whatnot after that. then I'll know beforehand if I'm going to need to add an extra 5km to my run to get as much ice cream as I want or not. lol
  • Gosser
    Gosser Posts: 178 Member
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    1 went on a liquid diet for a week. Milk, soup, fruit smoothie, etc.
    I was really hungry all the time for the first couple of days, but eventually I realized I wasn't actually hungry as I was eating enough calories. My stomach shrank as well which helped curb the large meals I had been able to eat

    After that I realized that I wasn't hungry when I thought I was and could then cut down and swap in healthier alternatives for dessert and treats.

    I still make space in my food diary for everything from crisps and chocolate to cake and sweets but it is in moderation and I can now have half a portion without expecting to eat the whole thing.

    Everything in moderation works. If I start to fall into old habits I go back to a liquid diet for a couple of days.
  • BoxerBrawler
    BoxerBrawler Posts: 2,032 Member
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    I'm the same way and there is a big difference between being hunger and just craving something. I've learned that it's simply a habit with me. For a long time I would think about what I'd have for dessert after dinner. It didn't matter if I was still hungry or not and sometimes I didn't even crave a sweet but I'd have it anyway. Have to learn to make a new habit, take your mind off of it until you break the old and learn the new.
  • mistikal13
    mistikal13 Posts: 1,457 Member
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    I can't relate to the sweet tooth, but I think that if your brain is trained to expect something sweet after dinner, you could try to replace it with some fruit or a hard candy.
  • _lyndseybrooke_
    _lyndseybrooke_ Posts: 2,561 Member
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    KathleenHope2015 wrote: »
    It doesn't matter how delicious and satisfying that lunch or dinner was, I ALWAYS feel the urge to eat "dessert" within 5-45 minutes of eating. Even if I should be full, I feel like I just need to have dessert! It adds ~200-300 additional calories to my meal.

    Unfortunately, in my family I have grown up this way, I've watched my parents eat this way. I'm in university and am still living at my parents, so it's not like I can just decide what we keep in the house. I've been a little overweight since my childhood, and although I'm just on the edge of the "healthy for weight/height range", I haven't reached my fitness goals.

    I don't know how some people can do dessert one day a week!
    I also can eat like 700-800 calories in one meal and not feel sick, and still eat 3 or 4 hours later. Why can't I just eat normal portions?

    Does anyone else have the experience of finding it hard to eliminate sweets or have tips??

    Not feeling sick after 700-800 calories and being able to eat 3-4 hours later DOES sound pretty normal to me. I think most people can do that.

    As for dessert, I eat ice cream every single night. It's not about being hungry - I don't think one needs to be "hungry" to eat ice cream. I eat it because it's delicious and I want it, so I fit it into my macros each day and it's not a problem. My dinners are 450-500ish calories and my dessert is typically around 300.

    I'm almost never "full" after a meal. I can put away some serious calories. Eating 3000-5000 calories in a day is easy and I do it every so often. However, that doesn't mean I have to do it every day just because I can. I make the decision to stick to my goals the majority of the time in order to obtain/maintain the body I want. I'd say most of us could easily eat more than we do, but we simply don't because we know what needs to be done in order for us to reach our goals.

    So, the short answer as to why you can't stop eating is this: poor self control. Sorry, but that's what it comes down to. You are the one that chooses what you put into your body. There's nothing wrong with eating dessert every night, especially when you can fit it into your calorie and/or macro goals - which is totally possible. However, if you can't manage to fit dessert into your calories, I suggest to pick a lower calorie dessert, eat smaller meals/snacks earlier in the day to save calories for a bigger dessert, or skip it altogether. The choice is yours, but there's no magic trick to make you not want dessert after dinner.
  • mikeski52
    mikeski52 Posts: 59 Member
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    If you're logging your food well enough, you should know for yourself how many calories you have left for dessert at the end of the day. If you eat that many calories for dessert but no more, you shouldn't have anything to worry about.
  • MamaBirdBoss
    MamaBirdBoss Posts: 1,516 Member
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    1.) Eat less dinner.
    2.) Eat a smaller dessert.

    :)

    Over time, you can decrease the dessert, if you desire.

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