Health and Weight Loss

alvaronueesch767 · January 23

I have a question about losing weight. I always tried to lose weight but i just can’t resist the fast food. Any advice on how to stop the cravings? + What is the fastest way to lose weight?

PAV8888 · January 23

The fastest way to lose weight is the same way you intent to keep it lost.

Even then you're far from guaranteed not to regain. But at least you'll have increased your chances.

I used to drive to the McDonald's drive-thru 2 to 3 times a day if not ordering in, eating out, or having "low calories meals" consisting of cans of chunky soup, salads (with the olive oil poured liberally to the tune of buying a bottle a month by myself) and a little bit of bread (like a loaf) or half (or more) of a family bag of tortilla chips. At McD's I would usually order two sandwiches and a large fry plus a full-sugar pop (upsized combo). I'm fairly sure it won't surprise you to know that I was pushing the high 290s (I'll never know if I did or did not hit 300 cause the analogue scale was neither my friend nor capable of measuring past zero.

I still go to McDonald's. Not as often because if I'm going to spend calories on a burger I prefer an A&W teen burger to a mcdouble or big Mac. And because I prefer to make my own stuff. But sometimes McD's is there and convenient. And I can get something to keep me going till I'm back home or at my destination. I still get the occasional small fry though I prefer to splurge on the 500 Cal A&W onion rings and quite often, especially in the summer, I get a vanilla cone.

Quite a few times actually I will go to a Starbucks and get a spinach feta and egg white wrap and then cross the street to get a vanilla cone from McD's. With or without a black coffee from either place. The two together hit around the 600Cal mark which for me, at maintenance, hits the point of moving from "starting to think about food" to "should be good to keep going for a few hours"

They are items I like well enough and have a caloric cost to satiation+satisfaction ratio I am good with. And I've selected them after trial and error and filtering through logging and determining what is worthwhile and what is not worthwhile caloric spending for me. I would much rather suck on a Lindt ball than have mayo or thousand Island sauce on my burger. So my house has Lindt balls and Ghirardelli squares and my burgers have ketchup and mustard 🤷‍♂️

And. Franky. I find the stuff I cook at home a much better value for the calories.

Are you eating you 5 to 10 portions of vegetables and fruits a day?

When you get in your car (if you're driving to fast food) try eating a bag of carrots or an apple (log it first too). Then order but order smaller sizes. Remove or exchange condiments that are not worth it to you. Ask yourself if you really want the large fries with the meal.

Eat that apple or an orange or a ??? or that one 250-300 Cal vanilla cone in Canada (given my car food scale was specifically chosen to measure vanilla cones, trust me when I say that the calories for the cones are closer to 300 on average regardless of the official position). Eat the apple or the cone and continue home. Then eat another apple while you warm up and log your food. Or skip the meal for a few hours if you're no longer that hungry and eat it later!

Work the problem to find solutions that will work for you. You're not powerless and you're not destined to forever order the supersize combo any time you walk into a fast food place 👍

LindsayGii · January 24

Fast food has been designed to be addictive. You find it hard to resist because they worked hard to get you hooked. The advice above is very good - make it so you are definitely not at all hungry going past the place that calls to you the most. This is a start.

Cook really tasty stuff from scratch at home, which will break the habit and start to change your taste buds and expectation of food.

Exercise till you sweat, then have a lovely smelling shower, then eat healthy - it's easier to resist polluting a body you just purified with all that hard work.

Keep making these changes and you will suddenly realise one day that you broke the addiction and the fast food has stopped appealing to you.

I still find it calls to me, but mostly it pretty much disgusts me. Sometimes I crack and eat junky fast food, but I don't usually enjoy it much and I'm always annoyed with myself after. You'll get there too

J72FIT · January 24

alvaronueesch767 wrote: »

What is the fastest way to lose weight?

This is the inherent issue with your question. You have to accept that it's a marathon, not a sprint...

AnnPT77 · January 24

alvaronueesch767 wrote: »

I have a question about losing weight. I always tried to lose weight but i just can’t resist the fast food. Any advice on how to stop the cravings? + What is the fastest way to lose weight?

The fastest way to lose weight isn't the most effective way to lose weight, generally.

One way to stop the cravings is to lose weight slower. Sometimes slow loss can get a person to goal weight in less calendar time - and help them stay there long term - compared to an aggressive approach that causes deprivation-triggered over-eating, breaks in the action, or even giving up altogether.

Make an easier plan?

As PAV suggests, fast food isn't Pure Evil. Sure, some people can't moderate it, so they need to turn away from it completely, and rely on sheer willpower to do that for at least a while. Others can eat it, just less often or in smaller portions, like PAV is talking about: The small fries, the junior cheeseburger, 3 times a week instead of daily, etc.

Personally, I didn't change the range of foods I ate to lose weight. I changed the frequency or portion size of some high-calorie things, sure. Something had to change, right?

An advantage I had - I guess - was that I was already eating lots of nutritious foods, just way too much of them. A personal feeling, from that history, is that fast food can be very craveable: It pushes the "fat sugar salt" buttons that human evolution has installed in us through hundreds of generations of frequent deprivation and famine. But hedonistically speaking . . . it's really not that great: No sublety, not much variety, too simple.

If you decide to do it, maybe you can learn to enjoy a wider variety of more nutrient-dense foods. Certainly, there have been people here on MFP who've changed their eating habits, then gone for an expected-to-be treat meal of those previously preferred foods . . . and found them not very tasty, not very satisfying. Maybe future you could find that to be true, too? Being willing to consider that possibility might be part of the solution?

For sure, quite a few people seem to find that eating mostly meat, fish, veggies, fruits, whole grains and that sort of thing keeps them more full than eating mostly fast foods and highly-processed food products. Feeling more full more often is another way to avoid cravings. It doesn't mean putting treats off limits entirely . . . more like shifting the main portion of one's eating in a more filling, nutritious direction.

Weight loss doesn't need to be a punishment. Being overweight isn't a sin we need to expiate by suffering.

scottydewwannalosewt · January 26

Believe it or not the fastest way to.lose weight is to eat every four hours without exceeding your daily caloric intake. Eat whole foods and increase your fiber. Junk food is full of bad carbs that aren't healthy for you to help your metabolism

totameafox · January 26

When I go out to eat, I generally let that be my meal for the day. Usually I will have 2 to 3 meals a day. But if i know I am going out, like tomorrow. I may eat a little cottage cheese in the morning and then lunch will be whatever I want. Tomorrow will be a bacon double cheeseburger with mayo, cheese and chili and onionrings dipped in ranch.

I would log but this restaurant doesn't have the nutrition breakdown. Most fast food restaurants do have the nutrition breakdown so you can put it in your day and still be under your goals.

However learning to prepare meals at home and take them with you when you go, will not only help you stay out of a drive through but also be lighter on your wallet.

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/147555-speak-friend-and-enter

papple227 · January 29

I used to be a fast foodie. Stopping those cravings is so hard, but it can be done. I’d start by stopping getting any fast food breakfast and just make every meal for breakfast at home. Your body will get used to it and it’ll become a habit. You’ll probably still eat out other meals of the day so I’d check the calories and only get things you can fit in daily calorie allotment. Eventually you’ll want to toy around with skipping eating out for lunch, too. Once these things start being a habit you can start getting used to eat dinner at home. In my early days of logging I’d eat out once a day, but would only get one thing that I could fit. A burger from McDonald’s with no fries or a 6in from subway with no chips and always water. The small consistent changes will help the most because giving up fast food cold turkey isn’t doable for most.

csplatt · January 30

This might be cruel but maybe a book or documentary or two about how fast food is made / what’s in it can do the trick 😉

ridiculous59 · January 30

Fast food has not been a very good friend to you, so why do you keep hanging out with her? She has made you overweight, unhealthy, and dispondent. What kind of a true friend does that? Make some new friends. Friends who will lift you up, nourish you, and help you to meet your goals.

Let's me honest, once in a while it's still fun to hang out with that friend who you know will turn the evening into a gong show. The drama! The alcohol!! But do you hang out with that person all the time? Of course not. Because you know they aren't good for you, your ability to make good decisions when you're with them disappears, and they just don't share the same values as you do.

Fast food is like that bad friend. Food that you make at home, using REAL ingredients, is the new friend you want to hang out with. That friend has your best interests at heart and actually cares about you ❤️

yirara · January 30

Have you considered making your own fastfood with fresh ingredients and an amount of calories that works for you? I don't think I've seen where you're from, but there are British take-away cookbooks focusing on Asian or Indian food, a burger with good quality meat, pickles, avocado, onion or whatever you like, and a sauce you either make yourself, or a properly measured amount of a ready-made one can totally fit into a calorie allowance. Heck, I do this quite often. Buy a pizza base and put things on it that fit your calories. have a hot-dog every now and then. Yeah, it's not totally fast, but also not super slow, and so yummy.

RuatyShackelford · January 30

When I get cravings, for ANY of my "devil foods" (cake, pies, fast food) I make ot a point to grab fresh fruit (apple, pear, peach, whatever) and water.

That seems to do the trick for me.

Seffell · January 31

"I always tried to lose weight but i just can’t resist the fast food."

Learn to resist it. It's not something set in stone for you. People change.

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