Once I start eating, I want to keep eating

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iowalinda
iowalinda Posts: 354 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Why does this happen? I am better off not to start eating because I feel compelled to keep eating. It's apparently the taste of the food, not hunger that is the driving force. Any tips to get this under control? Some days I feel like a food addict. Also, why, after having something salty do I crave something sweet? And vice versa.
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  • Magnum_Opus
    Magnum_Opus Posts: 23 Member
    edited December 2017
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    How often you think about food will make helping you a lot easier. If you don't think about food all that much then it could very well be you're in a sever deficit or your food selection is impacting your appetite negativity. Increase your cals or switch up your food choices to a more nutrionally dense variety respectively.

    If food does consumes your mind then the question you should ask yourself is why?
  • HellYeahItsKriss
    HellYeahItsKriss Posts: 906 Member
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    llfitzgerald3578 wrote: »
    I personally have labelled myself a food addict. I know not to touch the disallowed foods or else i will relapse, just like a drug, alcohol or substance addiction. i have also psyched myself into believing ive had a gastric bypass and cannot eat anything greater than 1 cup in any 2 hour period nor eat anything greater that 250 calories per 1 cup serving. its working and have lost 50# since early september

    How many calories are you consuming doing it this way tho? @llfitzgerald3578
  • ritzvin
    ritzvin Posts: 2,860 Member
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    Is it particular foods that tend to make you crave more? (If that's the case, it might be useful to not buy those particular items in more than a single serving for a while).
  • mandabeth34
    mandabeth34 Posts: 158 Member
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    I’m the same; I find it hard to stop eating and I’m a fast eater. I’ve struggled with binge eating in the past. Here’s a couple tricks I’ve developed: I love spice. So I add a lot of hot sauce/ Tabasco to my foods. It slows down my eating. Set out your meal away from your pantry/ fridge. Gum. I always have a piece of gum handy to start chewing as soon as I’m done. It signals to my stomach I’m done eating.
  • iowalinda
    iowalinda Posts: 354 Member
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    rybo wrote: »
    One of the main reasons I follow 16:8 is because eating breakfast early in the morning makes me hungrier than if I just wait to lunch.

    There have also been times where I wasn't hungry, but someone offered me a snack or whatever and eating that made me ravenous.

    That sounds a lot like me. Thank you for sharing that. May I ask what 16:8 means? I am new here.
  • iowalinda
    iowalinda Posts: 354 Member
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    janejellyroll wrote: »
    I'm the same way -- when I start eating, it's hard for me to stop without an artificial limit. What has worked for me is pre-logging my meals and not eating more than that. Since I know my meals are meeting my calorie goal and nutritional needs, I know I don't need more food. If I still feel hungry, I'll have some water, tea, or diet soda.

    Thanks for sharing those tips :) I probably should stay away from certain foods because I know I have trouble stopping when I eat them. I need to get in the mindset of viewing eating food for subsistence, not as a pleasurable activity LOL.
  • goldthistime
    goldthistime Posts: 3,214 Member
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    How about eating food for good health rather than subsistence? Subsistence just sounds overly strict, punishing even. I found viewing the process as treating myself well made this less of a gruelling or punishing and temporary process, and more of a pleasant new lifestyle.

    As to certain foods triggering you to overeat, I'm the same, although it's much less of a problem for me now than it once was. In the beginning it was easiest to just stay away from trigger foods. Even just pictures of certain foods caused me problems. But as time went by I found ways to have those foods occasionally. Mostly. I'm still imperfect in my ability to moderate certain foods but I'm at goal and holding so it's a lot easier to forgive myself.

    I didn't have to be perfect to get to goal weight. I just had to stick with it.

    Just in case, what is your calorie goal? "I am better off not to start eating" was something I might have said to myself back when I was a teenager and thought VLCDs were just fine.
  • blambo61
    blambo61 Posts: 4,372 Member
    edited December 2017
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    iowalinda wrote: »
    Why does this happen? I am better off not to start eating because I feel compelled to keep eating. It's apparently the taste of the food, not hunger that is the driving force. Any tips to get this under control? Some days I feel like a food addict. Also, why, after having something salty do I crave something sweet? And vice versa.

    This is why I do IF. It is much harder for me to eat small meals and stop before getting full than to just wait and then be able to eat tell full. Fortunately I can do a 16:8 IF and maintain eating ad libitium in the evenings (eat about a 600 cal lunch) and can do a 20:4 IF and eat ad libitum in the evenings and will lose weight. Eating tell full is important for me to be able to do IF the next day.

    I've never had a binging problem but on a couple of occasions where I have fasted about 20-hrs or so and didn't eat enough the day before and started eating before I got home from work, I would go on what people above described as a binge which was I'm eating about 1500 cals or so and I'm not stopping or even going to try before I feel like I can or am going to stop. I don't get that doing IF if I eat a reasonable amount the day before but that could happen if I eat too little.

    Weird how things change but as a teenager and in my 20's, I was very lean and prided myself on how much I could eat. I would occasionally have competitions with my little brother to see who could eat the most. Those days are gone for sure!

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