Getting my body to self regulate again

I can totally relate to this challenge. Up to this point, my approach to dealing with restaurants has been avoidance. I know that's not a reasonable strategy long term, but I hate feeling like I don't have control over the calories. Of course, restaurants serve larger portions and the methods of preparation are higher in calories, so I when I do go, I just order salads with grilled chicken (which, in fairness, I actually love). Moving forward, I'd like to feel comfortable eating out and not stressing over every single calorie that I might consume, but I'm just not there yet. Maybe when my maintenance doesn't feel so new and tenuous?

I'm a bit wobbly right now with the same thing challenges. Finally recently got down to my goal weight and immediately gave myself a pass to stop with the caloric obsessing, which when combined with restaurant and breakfast indulgence/visit from my boyfriend I ate over 2500 three days in a row and you know what, it just made me feel like obsessing again, and that's awesome. For me a few days of indulgence **I hope** doesn't mean every day is going to be like that, or that months of work are erased by a few questionable choices (the alcohol is what really gets me). I'll follow my "binge" with some smaller intake days, boost the salad and the activity and get back on track. Good luck to you, I don't know how many calories you need in a day, but if you did decide to go all out at lunch at an indian buffet or something can you just eat some veggies and hummus for dinner?

Well, the thing is, for some people it might be possible to listen to your body and hear that pleasantly full signal if you keep eating slowly and remain mindful while keeping an eye on the scale for any weight creep.

For other people? This might not work.

You could try to see if you're one of these people for whom it works. You could always just eat at restaurants without worry, relying on what you've learned about portion size. Remember what I said about eating slowly. It helps you to realize you're full when you eat slower. Then, at home, you could fall back on being more accurate and mix both methods into a sustainable way of moving forward with life.

This is what I do now. It's too much trouble dealing with logging and weighing everything when we're on vacation, so I don't bother. Oddly enough, I always lose weight after we come back!

My satiety response is so damn delayed (I swear I feel starving until 1-2 hours after I've eaten) I could never do this effectively. I hope you find a good strategy OP!

For me, it works like this:

Big restaurant meal fills me up and I don't eat for the rest of the day and sometimes still feel full the next morning too. If I under-eat one day, I may be really hungry the next day. If this is happening to you, if you are eating naturally and staying the same weight, more or less, not creeping in one direction or the other, then your appetite is likely working correctly to keep you the size you are.

I watch the scale and freak out if the number is over 140 or under 130 now, so I guess the "freak out" method is part of what I use, in a practical sense. But the weight stays pretty consistently in 135-140 unless I am lifting more than usual (can be heavier then) or having time off for injury/working out lighter (I get lighter then) and truthfully I think even those swings are mostly water, not the body adding or losing appreciable fat or muscle.

So yeah, you can follow appetite and watch the scale, take action when the weight is above a certain number, that action does not HAVE to involve tracking, you could skip supper for a week or something like that.

Well, I do still log everything, eat lots of things everywhere, so a couple of thoughts.


1. PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR BODY. I know that after a few bites of a high calorie food that I'm full, have gotten a lot of enjoyment after it, and don't need any more. I can just feel it. I remember going to Panera and buying a muffin I really wanted. I ate around 1/3 of it, which was delicious, and realized it was enough. And I stopped eating and gave the rest to my ever-hungry very skinny son.

2. Remember that just because some is good doesn't mean more is better. I'm told in Japanese culture, they are taught to stop eating when they're half full because your body feels fuller and fuller after you stop eating. And it doesn't feel good to be overfull.

3. Weight watchers uses points and not calories. You might like that better.

4. You've logged a long time. I bet you have a good idea about calories. Don't obsess. Guestimate when you're eating someplace new. But keep logging. Or log most of the time and skip meals where you don't want to pay attention. Just keep weighing.

I self-regulate, and have lost most of the weight through self-regulation rather than calorie counting. For quite a while I just had to accept that I wasn't going to feel fully satisfied when I finished a meal. The point at which my body says "I'm done" is usually well past the quantity of food I actually need. Now what I previously considered "full" I consider to be uncomfortable.

I'm terrible with sugary things and they are my go-to overeating foods. Because of this I do little things to reduce my chance of having *kitten* it moments. I don't keep sugary treats in the house (the best I have is dark chocolate and grapes). I keep a water bottle with me at all times. I clean my teeth soon after eating. After eating in the evenings I don't even go into the kitchen. Often when I want food but I'm not really hungry, I do something to keep myself away from food, like walking the dog or taking a bath and by the time I've finished I do actually feel full. Often I try to think "Do I really want this?" or "Is this going to make my health better or worse?" and if the answer is "I don't give a *kitten*", then I need to use any remaining will power to remove myself from temptation ASAP!

I'm not perfect but I don't beat myself up when I overeat and I try my best not to use it as an excuse to say *kitten* it. I've found that the longer I self-regulate, the easier it is. At first I felt like I was hard work but now I don't even think about it.