Ideas to overcome cravings

Welcome to MFP! I drink a bottle of water and then wait 20 minutes or so, before I give in to a craving. However, more than half the time, the craving goes away before the 20 minutes are up--which is awesome.

Learn to manage it. This is a lifestyle change for me. I am not giving up chocolate (forever) so I DO eat chocolate while trying to lose weight.

What has changed is, now I account for it. Learning "how much it costs" is important information. When I get to maintenance I can't just "eat whatever" (or I will get fat again).

becknomad wrote: »

I like the water idea and brushing teeth! I definitely am not stopping myself from eating anything I like. But once I eat simple carbs I have a REALLY hard time with stopping and portion control. And most of the time when I'm having a craving I'm not hungry at all. I want to stop eating when I'm not hungry. Those cravings are so intense and painful though. I know they are about either being dehydrated or stressed. If I can distract myself for 5-10 minutes like you say MrsCaitlin - they usually go away. I just need more distraction ideas... LOL.

Believe me, it's hard to distract myself sometimes too, lol! I'm the type of person that can't "just have a little" so that's why the water method works for me, but I've been known to clean house just to get through a craving. Which is kind of a bonus in and of itself, lol.

BUT, if you absolutely, positively cannot stop thinking about whatever it is you're craving, give in and move on!

From personal experience, if you try to eat too little your body will overwhelm you with the need for calories! Some people can do interment fasting (fasting for 12-20 hours a day) but for a lot of us if we don't eat on a regular basis (for me if I miss breakfast) I'm way more liable to have overwhelming urges to eat later in the day. IF you aren't balancing your calories throughout the day, it's possible you've a biological urge to eat overpowering your will power. I'd check you're eating enough, (no less than1200 calories a day) and your meal timings work for your body. Then if that's not the problem, I'd look for emotional triggers to eat. These are harder to address but certainly need to be if you are going to be successful long term. If you are having issues with trigger foods, you might have to go cold turkey off them. Food can be an addictive substance for some people. If you can't stop eating ice-cream once you start for example, you may have to give up ice-cream if that's easier than eating it in moderation.

The thing about weight loss is there is no 'one method works for all.' You need to listen to your body, to your mind and find the way that's manageable for you.

As an aside, my favorite distraction method is exercise!

You could paint your nails as it's something to do for a few minutes but whilst they are drying you can't really eat without the risk of smudging them :-)

Make what you're craving fit into your allotment.

The evening is always worst for me with snacking so I leave myself some calorie room for the end of the day. That way, if I do have a craving, I can have *some* and not feel guilty. And if I escape that craving, I've just had a larger deficit! When I don't have room - I drink a glass of water.

I make my food fit the flavor profile I'm in the mood for while still falling under my calorie goals.

While I love buffalo wings, I really just want the hot sauce/blue cheese mixture so I make baked buffalo meatballs or buffalo chicken soup.

If I want Chinese food, I bake rangoons/wontons and make a stir fry. Cornstarch/egg dipped and pan seared chicken thighs makes a really good crispy chicken.

If I want a chimichanga, I make a burrito and broil it until crispy.

And so on.

I don't know how many meals you are eating per day but I found that three meals evenly spaced helped me to stop munching all day long. I eat at 8am, 12 noon, and 5:30pm. I then have snack at 10am and again at 2:00pm. Two hours after dinner I walk on my treadmill for 30 min at about 8pm. After the treadmill I drink about 16 oz of water and I'm not hungry. Then I brush my teeth and go to bed between 10-11pm. All this to say just find a system that works for you. Know what your weaknesses are and find ways around them. I use to snack while I'd watch TV. So now I watch TV while I walk on the treadmill. It has helped to cut down on the amount of TV I watch. Last weekend I was on that darn treadmill for 90 minutes watching Fear The Walking Dead.