Food Addiction

Yes! I was able to get off the sugar and carb cravings by changing from a glucose based diet to a "ketogenic" based diet and it has helped greatly.

Check out "primal blueprint" or paleo if you're interested in learning more. I eat a ton of veggies, a moderate amount of fruit, healthy fats (olive oil, avocados, olives, etc.), and a moderate amount of protein (fish, poultry, beef, eggs). No calorie counting. Before going to the new lifestyle, I would eat handfuls of chocolate chips in between meals, and other cheats throughout the day so even though I was jogging I couldn't lose weight and kept craving more carbs.

By eating this way, my body is satisfied and the cravings have stopped.

I hope you find the help you need. If you haven't tried this way of eating, I encourage you to research it and then go for it!

Take care, Jessica.

When I do the following, I don't have cravings:

1. Get sufficient sleep
2. Exercise regularly - when I get the happy hormones from exercise, I'm not prone to seeking them from food.
3. Get sufficient protein in relationship to carbs. I'm not low carb, but reducing carbs and upping protein worked for cravings for me.
4. Eat moderate amounts of fruit
5. Take a magnesium supplement. This can be especially helpful for women premenstrually.

Is it craving or a desire for specific food or just the feeling that you couldn't stop eating?

It's probably habit -- you are used to eating at those times or maybe using eating as a way to procrastinate other things you need to do or some such -- or else a reaction to the fact you are dieting (sometimes we overcompensate because of the fear of deprivation), or a combination of the two.

I think you can deal with the deprivation reaction, if that's part of it, by making sure you have a plan that will keep you satisfied. Don't cut too low on the calories, make sure you plan in filling, satisfying meals (and usually having some protein and eating foods you enjoy helps), and plan on a regular schedule. If you think eating more often will help, plan calories out that way (and plan ahead). If three meals (or the like) works better, plan on that. When you want to eat, remind yourself that you will be eating a delicious meal in just a few hours, and can wait.

I found that once the old pattern was broken I stopped wanting to eat all the time, but at first I let myself eat low calorie foods (raw vegetables) in-between meals. I stopped needing to eat anything after less than a week.

Some other ideas:

If it makes it hard or makes you think about food all the time and you are home during the day, consider getting rid of the foods you aren't planning to eat at your meals and easy snacking foods in general or at least the ones most tempting. Have your meals as easy as possible (ingredients on hand, premake what you can) while increasing the barriers to other foods (much harder to eat cookies all day if you'd have to bake them first).

Maybe put out and make available stuff you don't mind snacking on, like cut-up raw vegetables and, perhaps, some berries. Log these in advance.

I found Brian Wansink's Mindless Eating and Charles Duhrigg's Power of Habit helpful in understanding how our minds work with stuff like this.

Going wheat free, high protein moderate fat and low carb helps me. Its very hard at first but once the cravings are gone I feel so much better, more energy and better sleep and a lot more self control. If you cant control yourself then you may have a particular food intolerance that is causing you to be addicted to whatever it is. Diabetics crave sugar even pre diabetics can have issues too. The books 'wheat belly' and 'the blood sugar solution' have helped me so much in identifying certain foods that trigger me into addictive behavours. Everyone is different some people thrive on high carb diets while others thrive on ketogenic diets. It has taken me forever to find what suits me best and doesnt leave me starving or craving. Eating lots of veg or drinking it in a nutribullet makes me super full and It stops me from craving.

Twice a year I go on a juice fast for 3-7 days. It does a great job of resetting your stomach to proper portion sizes, resets the taste buds so you're more receptive to healthy foods, and it even resets my alcohol and spice tolerance. It truly is like a reset button. As a bonus, you'll lose a few lbs!

Check out Fat Sick and Nearly Dead on Netflix. It really is a good watch, even if you don't end up juicing.

mollyallen89 wrote: »

I find bread products to be incredibly addictive. Dont leave me alone with cheezits, garlic rolls, cookies etc. I find that avoiding these foods at all costs vs trying to moderate is the answer for me personally. The longer I go without eating them, the less I crave them. For me, having 1 slice of pizza is like an alcoholic just having one glass of wine. Not really possible.

This is SO me!! I have a love/hate relationship with garlic bread!! I love to eat it but my body hates to digest it...lol

You gotta make the choice, whether you wanna make a real difference to your life or whether you wanna just keep complaining about the crap food youre choosing to eat, switch to healthy snacks like a few carrots and you can eat until youre stuffed.

queenliz99 wrote: »

I've struggled with real addiction and can tell you for a fact food is not addictive.

Yeah same...

I think we all love indulging in delicious food. I could easily eat through the pantry and fridge at any time. But I made sure my willpower over rides my need to scoff everything in sight. I'm not perfect, and sometimes I just say "stuff it" and eat loads until I'm completely full to the gills, but what stops me most of the time is the regret and annoyance with myself I feel the next day... I keep that feeling in the forefront of my mind when I feel like pigging out.

ETA: If you feel like bingeing pre- log it all first. Seeing all those calories may be enough to put you off.