I need advice!

KaleiAlanaSmith
KaleiAlanaSmith Posts: 133 Member
edited November 14 in Health and Weight Loss
So I started my journey to lose a few pounds and eat healthier. For the past few months, I have been very good about my new and healthier lifestyle and have lost a few pounds as well!. In these months I've been eating more greens, less processed foods and sugar, decreased my portion sizes..etc. all that good stuff.

HOWEVER: All of a sudden (within a week or so) my brain has totally switched on me. Now, I am ALWAYS craving sweets, snacks, desserts. I'm having a hard time keeping my portion sizes moderate because I feel like I am still very hungry and end up getting seconds. I cave into unhealthy and bad-hearty meals instead of opting for healthier ones like I used to. I don't understand why this happened all of the sudden, and I'm reaching out for advice on what I should do to before this turns into a constant thing. These are strong cravings and feelings of hunger that I can't just shove aside! Since I've only been like this for a week or so though, I'm hoping I can overcome this easily! I've come too far to just to wipe out my progress, and I am hoping this is just a bump in the road.

Has anyone else been through this? Any advice on how to overcome it?

Replies

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,176 Member
    How many pounds a week have you been losing? Is the 20 pounds on your MFP profile progress bar the total amount you want to lose, and you've already lost 16?

    You may simply be trying to lose weight too fast, especially if you have relatively little to lose. Other than that pure speculation, you'd need to provide more information, including your height/weight.

    Looking at your diary, if you're logging everything you eat, you're severely undereating a lot of days - the 1240 goal suggests you have an aggressive weight loss goal unless you're very petite (since you're only 19, especially), and you're logging much less than your goal a lot of days - that's a recipe for causing cravings & binges. Many of your days, you're logging way too little protein if you are an average-height woman (I see 27 grams, 29 grams, things like that on a number of days).

    Set a reasonable weight loss rate - no more than 1% of your bodyweight per week, but less than that if you have little to lose: no more than 1 pound a week if you have less than 20 pounds to lose, no more than 1/2 pound per week if you have less than 10 pounds to lose. Then eat in a way that keeps you at that loss rate (even if that turns out to be more calories than MFP recommends). Get enough protein pretty much every day, as well as enough fat (especially from healthy sources), along with plenty of fruits/veggies.

    Take your time - it will make things much easier. This doesn't need to be a race.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    I agree. I'm guessing you are close to goal but set up with an aggressive weekly goal. If you are over-restricting, your body will for sure start begging you for more food! If you are set to more than 1 lb per week, you should dial it back and eat more calories. Unless you are very short and sedentary, 1250 calories is just not a lot of calories!
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    You have to pace yourself. Eat enough, both quality and quantity. Eating healthy, being good, healthy lifestyle, processed foods, good stuff, unhealthy, overcome - these words are shouting out to me - ironically, isn't it - that you are being too strict and not aiming for a healthy lifestyle, because a healthy lifestyle is balanced, relaxed and sustainable. You can be too strict for a while, but you can't for very long, and it's the very long that counts.

    What you need to do, is to set a reasonable weight loss goal, at a rate that is no more than 1% of your total body weight per week. Don't cut out anything completely unless it's causing you trouble. You will have so many calories in your budget that you can eat whatever you want if you plan well.
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
    The 3 posts above me are so knowlegable--listen to them.
  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
    You don't NEED to eat "healthy", cut sugar or processed food to lose weight. You just NEED a calorie deficit.
  • terbusha
    terbusha Posts: 1,483 Member
    I would suggest that you find a way to work some of that into your normal diet from time to time. Trying to overly restrict yourself will cause problems down the road. Work some of that in, but make sure you stick to your overall calorie, macro, and fiber goals. As long as you do that, you'll be just fine.

    Also be sure that you're destroying your workouts :)
  • crzycatlady1
    crzycatlady1 Posts: 1,930 Member
    edited December 2016
    trigden1991 wrote: »
    You don't NEED to eat "healthy", cut sugar or processed food to lose weight. You just NEED a calorie deficit.

    This. Sounds like you may have gone overly restricted with cutting out foods you like, which is now leading to cravings/bingeing. Ease up on the restrictions and just focus on hitting your calorie targets. And then make small, sustainable changes that you can actually do long term.
  • manda00629
    manda00629 Posts: 2 Member
    Your recent cravings might be based on hormone levels and the specific time of month you're in in your cycle
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