Addicted to fast food.
Mirelle242
Posts: 63 Member
HELP!
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Replies
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You're not addicted to it, you just choose it over something else. Make different choices - plan meals, make a shopping list and stock your fridge and pantry with other options.17
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I'd start by making homemade versions of what you're getting. Then start making it healthier, whole wheat buns or tortillas, turkey instead of beef, etc. Also, you could figure out how much you spend a week, save it, and do something cool like vacation or new gadget14
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Mind over matter. It's like cutting back or quitting anything. You have to want to do it. I struggle with fast food too. But now before I head out I make sure I have some food in my belly and I make sure I have a banana or apple or some nuts and water with me now. It helps. When I'm tempted I eat the fruit or nuts and it works for me.
Also as far as ordering in at home, I'm lucky I live in a small town so my favourites aren't at my finger tips. But I make sure not buy a bunch of crap food anymore too. If I don't have it, I can't eat it.2 -
No, you're not.2
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livingleanlivingclean wrote: »You're not addicted to it, you just choose it over something else. Make different choices - plan meals, make a shopping list and stock your fridge and pantry with other options.
^THIS
Also, take some time to look at what effect fast food has on health.The sheer volume of sodium alone is disturbing. https://www.google.com/search?q=truth+about+fast+food&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=fast+food+average+sodium+content+&* Nothing is more empowering than knowledge, and the more you know about what you are putting into your body, the more likely you are to make healthy choices0 -
Been there! Make sure you have food in your fridge, and from there just do not allow yourself to turn into the drive thru.
I find that once I make it home, it's much easier to resist getting back in the car just to go pick up a burger. Making it straight from work to the gym to the house is key for me and my shaky willpower lol!5 -
I do understand the feeling, there are certain foods that can really set off cravings for me. All I can really do is tell you about my experience with fast food. When I first started MFP, I was really motivated (and also having health motivators) which made it easy for me to go "cold turkey" off fast food. And I think doing that for even a month or two helped *me* with the cravings etc. YMMV. I also got what proved, for me, to be some very good advice from a dietician that I have been working with. She told me that I needed to figure out what was going on with me and fast food, because it would be difficult to avoid it for the rest of my life, and because I needed to realize that food is just food. For various reasons, too long to go into here, fast food has some strong happy emotional triggers for me -- it's comfort food.
Once I realized that and was able to understand part of the craving, it got easier. I started to slowly work *some* fast food back into my diet. For me McDonald's McDoubles - sort of like a double cheeseburger with only one slice of cheese - worked really well as an occasional (about once every two weeks or so) lunch. It fits my calories and my protein requirements, and it satisfies the comfort food craving. Another favorite is Taco Bell, and I occasionally have a burrito bowl from there, after having looked at all the choices online. If I stayed within my calories, I could eat fast food every day, for every meal. I don't because it's nicer as a treat, and because it isn't always very filling -- I would be hungry a lot more if I only ate fast food. I've told myself if I ever really want to have more calorically 'expensive' things from a fast food place, I can, I just have to make the adjustments elsewhere in my calories. But, when I get a craving for it, I also ask myself what it is I really want. Am I just craving a burger, or is there something bugging me that I am trying to fix with Mickey-D's?5 -
I always knew there was interesting chemicals in fast food but it took one time if reading the ingredients on a very popular southern chicken chain restaurant for me never to eat it or any fast food every again. I just couldn't get over this ingredient and figured there are so many more that I would cry if I knew what they were.
The ingredient that I saw that ended it all?!
Foaming Agent4 -
I am addicted to fast food, but I still lose weight. You just have to eat stuff that fits your macros.
I stick to eggwhite delights for breakfast during my deficit plan.
My favorite fast food joint is Jack in the box. I usually eat a sourdough chicken sandwich or sourdough burger with fries. During a deficit plan, I will just eat a chicken fajita pita with no cheese (300 cals) plus chicken nuggets (about 300).
Taco Bell tacos are about 150 cals a piece, and I usually get the fresco option which eliminates cheese and cream.
I worked in fast food as a kid, food measurements are premade and very precise. I would get in trouble if portions were too high or too low. I trust the listed nutritional information and I haven't had any problems.
The sodium levels are high, but my blood pressure has been around 114/70 for my whole so I am not worried about it.0 -
I do believe that fast food is an addiction, physically and mentally. Most fast food is loaded with sugar or salt and both have a way of overwhelming the taste buds so that food you eat without massive loads of sugar and salt taste rather bland by comparison. That's the way it was for me anyway. When I ditched the fast food and sugar for homemade and more wholesome foods, I found my tastebuds came alive and I was much more in tune with all the subtle nuances of all the various aromas and flavours in homecooked food and the tremendous variety of fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, grains etc.9
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What are your habits with fast food? Are you leaving your house to make a trip just to get fast food or is it usually something you get to eat while you're already out?
If it's the first one, I recommend as other posters have said, try to make some homemade versions of your favorite fast food meals. If you're careful with substitutions and you're willing to experiment with a lot of recipes, you may find a version that is healthier and tastier than fast food. For recipe and substitution ideas, the forums here have a lot of good suggestions or you can try websites like skinnytaste.com.
If your problem is just that whenever you're out, you keep stopping at fast food because it's easy and convenient, start planning ahead. Find some tasty portable snacks you can take with you. It's easier to skip McDonald's when you know you have pretty delicious turkey wrap in your purse that's only a fraction of the calories.
The final option is to start studying the menus. You can still lose weight and eat fast food, you just have to do the math. It may mean skipping the fries and opting for the kids meal size or picking the grilled sandwich instead of the fried one. For me, I find that I can usually eat more food for fewer calories if I make it myself, but if you really like the convenience of fast food, you can at least make sure you choose the best option possible.2 -
JohnnyPenso wrote: »I do believe that fast food is an addiction, physically and mentally. Most fast food is loaded with sugar or salt and both have a way of overwhelming the taste buds so that food you eat without massive loads of sugar and salt taste rather bland by comparison. That's the way it was for me anyway. When I ditched the fast food and sugar for homemade and more wholesome foods, I found my tastebuds came alive and I was much more in tune with all the subtle nuances of all the various aromas and flavours in homecooked food and the tremendous variety of fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, grains etc.
I've had the same experience. There are some who will argue over the appropriateness of the word addiction, so maybe I would say that I was compulsive and impulsive with fast food when I used to consume it. Now that I consume fresh produce, meat, eggs and dairy, I rarely feel compulsive or impulsive. What a relief to not have to deal with that!
The fast food giants put a huge amount of effort into crafting these foods so that people will want a lot of it often. Their goal is your repeat business. Refuse to be a victim of industry-created franken-foods!4 -
Like many of the above posts suggest, making similar foods at home will help you have more control over what you're eating, I was a big fan of fakeaways when I first started out this time around - Pinterest has loads of great recipes. I've made my own donor kebab meat in the slow cooker, made baked "southern fried" chicken with instant potato powder, seasoning and a little butter, homemade burgers and curries.2
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Make whatever you're craving at home. You'll most likely save on calories, it will be tastier, more filling, and have less sodium.1
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sunsweet77 wrote: »I always knew there was interesting chemicals in fast food but it took one time if reading the ingredients on a very popular southern chicken chain restaurant for me never to eat it or any fast food every again. I just couldn't get over this ingredient and figured there are so many more that I would cry if I knew what they were.
The ingredient that I saw that ended it all?!
Foaming Agent
Foaming agent could be something as innocuous as Cream of Tartar, Lecithin, Gelatin, or Agar. <shrugs>5 -
I think for most people fast food is more of a habit than it is an addiction. Recently, I've been limiting my eating out to only when I am riding my bicycle. It's interesting that when I'm picking a destination for a bike ride that a fast food restaurant is never a place I choose. Part of that may be because it is less convenient to stop at a fast food restaurant on a bicycle than it is at a regular restaurant.1
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Who cares?? I am too. But, I only let myself have it about once a week. Just like eating one salad won't make you fit, eating one BigMac won't make you fat. To me, this is a lifestyle not a diet and that means I'm not going to eliminate anything I enjoy, I'll simply be balanced. Alcohol? Check. Burgers? Check. Pizza? Check. Fast Food? Check. Try to take it from me and you'll get cut.6
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If some of us had the level of self control to eat just a little fast food here and there we wouldn't be here.joemac1988 wrote: »Who cares?? I am too. But, I only let myself have it about once a week. Just like eating one salad won't make you fit, eating one BigMac won't make you fat. To me, this is a lifestyle not a diet and that means I'm not going to eliminate anything I enjoy, I'll simply be balanced. Alcohol? Check. Burgers? Check. Pizza? Check. Fast Food? Check. Try to take it from me and you'll get cut.
Saying, "eat just eat a little", while truthful, its not so easy to do to do for those of us that have trouble controlling our eating habits from time to time. Also, if you eat a little pizza every week, a burger or two, a few beers, some fast food, at some point a significant portion of your calories is going to be coming from these foods. At what point does your individual series of "balanced" choices make your overall diet "unbalanced" in favour of convenience foods?
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Actually, the turning point for me was recognizing that I didn't want to cut out eating in restaurants, occasional indulgences, etc. It was when I started telling myself that a treat didn't have to be a cheat. Because
1) If I could make it fit my totals, it wasn't forbidden
2) If it wasn't forbidden, then I could get my pizza or my cupcake without the side of guilt and negativity that usually got thrown in at no extra charge.
Now, I don't go out to eat all the time. And I do plan by looking at menus in advance. I've emailed the restaurant with questions, being up-front about looking for healthy and/or low calorie options and gotten back replies like "This meal comes in a hollowed out bun, but we can leave that off for you" or "This one comes with tahina drizzled on it, but we can serve that on the side." (I know to ask for dressing on the side with salads, but this was a grilled eggplant main dish and I wouldn't have thought about whether it came in a sauce the first time I ordered it.)
I feel like for the first time, I'm developing a healthier relationship with food, and it starts with not demonizing the stuff I like. It's not that I have it all the time, but if I know the calories and I plan before it's in front of me, then I can ask myself ahead of time, "Is X worth Y amount of calories?" And sometimes the answer is yes and sometimes it's no... pick something else. But what I don't do is tell myself that I can't lose weight unless I give up eating X.5 -
I love fast food. It's my kryptonite, though. I remember several days of having breakfast/lunch/dinner at the drive through, plus soda and candy and chips for snack. That's how I got fat. Really fat.
One day, I got tired of being fat and that meant changing how many calories I could eat each day. Unfortunately, most fast food doesn't fit that mold, so I made an effort to plan my meals rather than rely on the quick fix because I was too tired, too busy, too lazy, etc.
Sometimes I still eat fast food (Chick Fil A grilled nuggets and the superfood side make a pretty awesome meal) and I definitely eat at a lot of "fast casual" type places. I just do it less often and make different choices in my order so I can stay within my calorie goals.
It's not an addiction, it's a choice. You just have to decide if it's a choice you are ready to make.2 -
If you like burgers, you can make bigger/juicier burgers at home that are healthy and tastier.1
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livingleanlivingclean wrote: »You're not addicted to it, you just choose it over something else. Make different choices - plan meals, make a shopping list and stock your fridge and pantry with other options.
To me, planning is key. I like fast food, but the ease and speed of getting the food is what is attractive in the end. With a little planning, I make quick meals from home. For the price of a Big Mac value meal, I can buy a 10 ounce T-Bone from the grocery store. With some garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, and seasoned salt, throw it on a foreman grill, and I can have one heck of a lunch in 5 minutes.
I will say I still eat fast food from time to time. Honestly, I quit ordering "Value Meals" to save on calories. I will usually order a sandwich (a Big Mac is around 500 to 600 calories, not terrible on its own) and a diet soda. I will skip the fries as the fries will turn it from a somewhat reasonable lunch at 600 calories to a 1000 calorie meal that is hard to recover from.
If you don't want to cut it out completely, look at nutrition menus for your favorite places and cut calories where you can.
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I'll never understand the whole fast food thing...most of it barely qualifies as food. I can make anything at home that I can get in a fast food restaurant and it will be both cheaper and infinitely better tasting. What qualifies as a burger at a fast food restaurant is ridiculous.
The only thing I guess that would be similar to eating fast food regularly is Friday night pizza nights...but it's pretty high quality pizza from a local pizzeria.2 -
The big book is available free online. Read the first 163 pages and see if you identify with the authors issues.0
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You can't be addicted to fast food. You might just really like it, or be really lazy (like me) and not want to cook. I eat fast food regularly and I lost 70 pounds. You can fit fast food into your calorie goal and lose weight. You might find that cooking at home is more satiating and better financially, but if you really want or need to eat out, it can be done.2
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You should go to your bookstore or library and check out "Eat This! Not that!" or "Cook this! Not that"... same author. Healthier versions of fast food to cook at home and swap out at the grocery store.1
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Anything can be an addiction. Some are stronger, some are not so strong, all are hard to overcome. It might not by physically addictive, but it can be psychologically addictive. I used to crave soda, and still crave sugar in general. I honestly don't crave fast food that much anymore, mostly because I quit eating it because I couldn't afford it. Now I don't like cheap fast food, and I can't handle too much greasy food. When I do have it I really enjoy it, but don't really crave it afterwards anymore. It's just a matter of will power and reconditioning. Most of the time when I get hungry for it, I think how much cheaper I could make it at home, and don't get it. I'm planning on making a taco pizza at home tonight.
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I've found the only way to curb my cravings for fast food is to fill up on healthy protein....then just distract yourself for long enough for your brain to register that you are full/satisfied.
It works. But then there is still the danger you will want to eat for emotional reasons, in that case, try to do something that you enjoy that will distract you from eating....call a friend, go out for a walk etc.0
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