Craving bad food

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  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,996 Member
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    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. See also http://www.nutrition.org.uk/healthyliving/fuller/understanding-satiety-feeling-full-after-a-meal.html
    4. Eat moderate amounts of fruit. This makes me less interested in higher calorie sweets.
    5. Take a magnesium supplement. This can be especially helpful for women premenstrually.
    6. Save foods like chocolate for after dinner, in small amounts
    7. Stay hydrated
    8. Have a calorie deficit that is appropriate for the amount of weight I need to lose. An overly aggressive goal can definitely lead to cravings.
    9. Eat at maintenance when my appetite goes up premenstrually. I take this opportunity to eat "bad food."
  • hkjones22
    hkjones22 Posts: 8 Member
    edited May 2017
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    Ugh oh girl I TOTALLY know the feeling!! I struggle with some sort of mix of binge eating and food addiction myself. I recently had a chat with my mom and she asked me something I had never been asked: "Are you filling a void with food? Do you feel lonely or unloved?" and while I've never had any trauma in my life and generally have a pretty great life... I totally resonated with that, I suddenly realized that I DO feel lonely and I do feel unloved... and that's when I decided to work on my self love.

    I just bought a book from amazon which is supposed to be like a therapy workbook to help identify what's contributing to the source of the problem. It's called "Love yourself, heal your life": http://amzn.to/2qAeTvv

    I'm hoping that can help me get to the root of the cause here and stop my binge eating/food addiction so I can have a normal life of balance and not hate my relationship with food.

    Positive vibes girl, we got this :) Good luck on your journey!

    [edited by MFP Mods]
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    I'm tired. I thought your title was about craving cat food. That would be a problem.

    My advice about craving "bad food" is stop and think about why you are limiting or avoiding these foods.
    Drop the labels good or bad on individual foods and just look at specific nutrients and your whole diet. Are you meeting your nutritional needs? Will it really be harmful to eat some of whatever less nutritious food you are avoiding if the bulk of your diet is nutrient packed?

    You want to eat in a way you can sustain long term. If you are having intense cravings and struggling to stick to your plan to me that says you have restricted too much either type of food or calories for you to sustain.
    1. Make smaller changes to your diet over time rather than a huge change all at once. Buy smaller amounts of your problem foods to help you learn to moderate.
    2. Have a smaller calorie deficit. Lose slower but more comfortably. Along the way learn to reduce portion sizes.

    If you have problems with emotional eating or drinking work on developing different coping tools that are not food. Therapy, art, music, journaling, exercise, meditation, change your environment, etc.
  • fitmom4lifemfp
    fitmom4lifemfp Posts: 1,575 Member
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    georgiamaxine1 wrote: »
    How do I get out of this? Craving bad food so bad, but I've done so well so far I don't want to go back to my old eating ways!

    Lowing weight is all about breaking bad habits. You have to want to do this, and have the discipline to overcome the desire to overeat. If it's just "bad food" you want, that's okay, as long as it fits into your calorie budget.
  • Ironandwine69
    Ironandwine69 Posts: 2,432 Member
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    That's different.
    I crave kale.
  • fitmom4lifemfp
    fitmom4lifemfp Posts: 1,575 Member
    edited May 2017
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    Tacklewasher wrote: »
    I'm going to make a comment I fear is not helpful to you, but might be to others reading here.

    I like potato chips. No issue eating a family sized bag while watching tv. Did it on a regular basis. Part of the reason I hit 330 lbs. So I'm not doing that anymore. But I still have a box of small bags of chips, ~30g each, and will have one every second or third night. Same for Mars bites, Rolo's and Aero minis. I can have a half portion of them and am good for a couple nights.

    This works far better for me than to say I can't have them. Having smaller portions available keeps me from eating the family sized bag.

    But it sounds like you would not be able to stop at a few, or a small bag. If that's the case, then you just don't have them in the house. Unfortunate if that is the case, but you've got to figure out what works for yourself with this. Maybe a substitute will work, maybe allowing something one day a week. It all comes down to what works for you and what you can handle.

    Good luck.

    I agree with this. I can stop at a couple of rolos. I can eat just a handful of pretzels. But put a bag of potato chips in my house and they disappear faster than a twinkie at a weight watcher's meeting. No chips in my house now...EVER. I know my limits.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
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    georgiamaxine1 wrote: »
    Some days I want to eat McDonald's, pizza, chocolate, crisps, sweets and binge eat. That's what I class as bad food lol. I can't just have a small piece of chocolate, once I start I can't stop so it's either don't eat any at all or have a binge day, I've always had a bad relationship with food and saw a psychiatrist but still can't get over it!

    Happy meal, individual pizza, single serving candies and crisps...etc. There are other ways, you know. Buying a bunch of goodies and expecting yourself to just take a bite and have perfect self control around the rest is not the only way.

    Do you see yourself not eating any of these foods 10 years from now? And I don't mean the motivation fueled inspirational poster image you have in your head of the need to be strong and that you can do it and so on and so forth. Really, honestly and deep inside, do you believe you can give up these foods or would want to give them up? Do you think it's a viable sacrifice and step to take? If the answer is yes, tough it out for a little while longer. When something is not an option (and you need to be stern that it's NOT an option) your brain gets used to the idea and you stop thinking about it as often.

    If the answer is no, it's time to learn how to moderate. You do that slowly and gradually. You don't expect to be perfect all the time. You give up the idea that foods are "bad" and try to start treating them just like any other foods. You don't expose yourself to temptations that you know you can't tackle yet, and make it less likely to overindulge by not having indulgent quantities around, if at all possible. Gradually get used to the act of fitting something small into your calorie budget. Another form of moderation would be to plan larger indulgences but less often.

    Whichever route you choose, you need to know that it takes time, patience, experimentation with different strategies, and being kind to yourself when you aren't being perfect.
  • lucypstacy
    lucypstacy Posts: 178 Member
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    I made this same mistake in the past. I was trying to do better, so I thought I had to avoid all the foods I labeled as bad. While the cravings were bad, I thought it was worth it. In my mind, I just had to learn to go through life and never have a piece of pizza or McDonalds ever again. For some time, I did okay. I lost weight, but the cravings got worse and worse.

    I think I stuck to it for about 3 months before I caved. Those 'forbidden' foods tasted even better than before, and soon I had slipped completely off the track. I regained every pound plus some. I felt miserable.

    That's why I'm doing things different. No food is bad, although some are better in the long run than others. I've learned to substitute certain things which helps. However if I really want something, I fit it into my diet. I'm happier, and I'm actually losing weight at a better rate when I felt like I was depriving myself.

    Be good to yourself. Try to make better choices for your body, but trying to completely cut something out that you like can make you miserable. It's all about finding a balance.

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