Crave

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Yakker04
Yakker04 Posts: 75 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Once a week I really go mad on food I crave badly I lost 45kg and have maintained my weight for months but know I can't keep going on doing this 1000 2000 calories over my calorie intake for day why am I doing this

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  • csplatt
    csplatt Posts: 1,021 Member
    edited April 2019
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    Well you don’t know for sure it will wreck your success. 1000 over per week, you would gain a pound a month, so why not just continue for a few months and see if it actually happens or not? Wouldn’t take too long to lose if you decide it’s not working. I went on a cruise last month and was terrified to weigh myself after so I waited two weeks. Turns out I lost another lb.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
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    Any big changes in your life recently? New relationships, new stress? New exercise program?

    Are the foods you're craving foods you don't allow yourself to eat anymore?

    Are you very lean right now?
  • Alexbuzzcut
    Alexbuzzcut Posts: 77 Member
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    I don’t worry about calories when a craving hits. I cook up a small amount of ground beef (~4oz) and a large dollop if bacon grease. The super high fat completely kills the craving. For me, if I don’t kill that there’s a risk of binging or going off plan.

    You need to eat over 3500 calories to gain a pound so 1-2000 shouldn’t really be a problem. I just exercise more and that allows for more calories too.
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,160 Member
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    Yakker04 wrote: »
    Once a week I really go mad on food I crave badly I lost 45kg and have maintained my weight for months but know I can't keep going on doing this 1000 2000 calories over my calorie intake for day why am I doing this

    @Yakker04 I can not tell you why in your case but I had similar issues back Oct 2014. Until about 30 days after I started eating all I wanted but without eating more than 50 grams of carbs daily the cravings would be over powering. The first year I did loss 50 pounds and have maintained that loss for nearly 4 years now on full food but it has to contain less than 50 grams of carbs daily in my case.

    Since we are somewhat or a lot different in time you will learn a Way Of Eating that may stop your cravings period I expect. In my case it happened that my macros over rode the number of total calories that I need to eat to maintain.
  • brenn24179
    brenn24179 Posts: 2,144 Member
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    I eat foods I crave but in moderation. I eat about half what I use to and surprisingly found out that is all I really need. I have little talks with myself also saying when you wake up in the morning you wont be disappointed and guilty when you weigh. It has helped me.
  • brenn24179
    brenn24179 Posts: 2,144 Member
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    for me I have to have what I want, just try to have a little of it, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, especially with nuts with me. I had to buy a small package because if I got a can, you know what happens.
  • jan110144
    jan110144 Posts: 1,274 Member
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    I have had a few craving/binge days since I started maintenance. I decided to start keeping a "cravings" journal so I can try to figure out why. (I am thinking it is related to sleep, eating too little, or not exercising.) Too soon to tell though (I have not had the problem since I started the journal.) I do think though that there IS an answer to be found, however
  • brenn24179
    brenn24179 Posts: 2,144 Member
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    I think you are right jan110144 and kimney also, great answers. I am also an emotional eater so I think a lot of this stuff is mental. I have got a mindset to be good to myself and not to do self destructive stuff, I like looking better and taking care of me.
  • eeanneli
    eeanneli Posts: 35 Member
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    Is there a reason you don't allow yourself these foods? You can have everything in moderation. You might find by not excluding food you are less likely to binge.

    Also keep weighing yourself regularly to make sure that you don't end up back in a deficit and lose more weight. Working out maintenance calories is more art than science so can take a while to find the right number.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,654 Member
    edited April 2019
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    You may want to read the thread in this section: "will my extreme hunger go away?" as it addresses the same question you asked.

    Your weight gain and loss depends on your caloric balance as compared to your maintenance level.

    All the numbers you see are estimates based on populations.

    Whether and how they apply to you personally depends on your body and on your logging abilities.

    The final verdict on whether the numbers you see on your screen reflect reality is how your long term weight trend reacts!

    I consider a 1lb / 1kg change to my long term weight trend to come about because of a 3500 / 7700 Calories imbalance from my true maintenance level.

    If I logged a 15,400 calorie inbalance over a 4+ week time period, but my body registered a 1lb change based on my long term weight trend level, then I know that my body's verdict was that my actual imbalance was around 3500 Calories because my weight trend changed by 1 instead of 2.2lbs.

    And that I probably need to make some adjustments to either my logging or to what I believe to be my maintenance level of calories.

    You may note that because of water weight changes and hormonal weight fluctuations these decisions depend on your weight level change over a 4+ week period that includes a full monthly cycle.

    So. Nobody can answer your question.

    The body is dynamic and up and down regulates a bit when you over and under feed it. Not everybody operates exactly as predicted by equations. And very few people, if any, are able to truly and absolutely accurately estimate and record both their calories in and out.

    But over the long term you can certainly evaluate what level of calories you need to be loging in order to maintain or gain slowly or lose slowly.

    And if you're in maintenance, this being the maintenance forum, you don't want to overreact to every small weight swing.

    A 250 calorie deficit from maintenance is more than enough to make changes over time... and I would argue that even half of that (aiming for a 125 Cal a day change), accurately counted, can be effective for corrections at maintenance.

    If you're not already using a weight trend app look into Libra for Android, happy scale for iPhone, trendweight.com and weightgrapher.com I am sure there are others too.

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