PMS sabotaging my diet.

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TaminaShock
TaminaShock Posts: 191 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I need some tips on combating my cravings a week before aunt flow comes for a visit. I am wonderful 3 weeks before she arrives. However, the days leading up to her arrival the cravings over take my willpower and control. For example, one month i would craving nothing but asparagus and broccoli. ( I actually burnt the family out on that for a while.) Or one month it could be sweets.Last night i dreamt of a peanut butter and jelly ice cream sandwich with a side of popcorn. Without thinking i got up made it then chased it down with a juicy orange and it was Delicious. :p But that wasn't all....... After aunt flow leaves i am left with a few extra pounds. I have no problems getting back on track. Any tips on getting rid of pms cravings? Thank you for any advice.

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  • TaminaShock
    TaminaShock Posts: 191 Member
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    @ladyreva78 LOL LOL
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
    edited April 2019
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    I eat at maintenance calories on those days, @taminashock. It's usually only 1-2 days. I allow the foods I am craving in moderation.

    If I try to replace the craving food with something else, it never works. I just end up eating the craving food after trying two or three other things and eat more calories total than if I would have just had the craving food in the first place.

    I always gain 3-4 pounds right before TOM and it comes right back off afterwards. Just water weight. The article I linked below helped me a lot to not freak out when the scale jumped up.

    http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/
  • ladyreva78
    ladyreva78 Posts: 4,080 Member
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    Makes soooo much more sense!

    More seriously. I tend to eat at maintenance during 3-4 days out of the months. I generally feel horrible during TOM (curled up in a little heap of misery and not even considering getting up, let alone working out) and there's no trying to stay at a deficit.

    Fighting the cravings tends to just make them worse for me. So I spend those 500 extra kcals on whatever it is I'm craving and usually I'm done with it.

    The extra pounds in my case are usually water weight. My current craving is salted peanuts and salted popcorn.

    The struggle is real!
  • TaminaShock
    TaminaShock Posts: 191 Member
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    Whew! Well i'm glad i'm not the only one! @quiksylver296 or ladyreva78 how did you calculate out your maintenance calories?
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
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    You can use a TDEE calculator. scoobysworkshop.com or sailrabbit.com have good ones.
  • ladyreva78
    ladyreva78 Posts: 4,080 Member
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    When I first started, I simply used the MFP calories as a guide. I knew that my deficit was 500kcal, so I just ate over by that much, making sure to weigh out my additional servings on a food scale. It's so easy to over eat when the cravings hit.

    Now that I have my own data (how much I eat and how much I lose/gain in a given time) I can figure out my calories based on that.

    To start with, it's really more important to just pick a number and stick with it and the see what happened. Thing is, due to our hormones, us ladies have to think in terms of 4-6 weeks to evaluate any changes we make.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
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    Yep, I ate maintenance calories for 2-3 days and make sure to fit in a reasonable (or slightly more!) portion of whatever I'm craving regardless of it it makes my macro numbers look wonky or not. Now that I'm in maintenance, I'll give myself an extra 100 calories or so, and try to save those calories from the couple of days before or after to even everything out!

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