I wanna EAT!

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  • Evelyn_22
    Evelyn_22 Posts: 70 Member
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    Yes you can be addicted to food. Foods high in carbs and sugar are what most people get addicted to. It' the feel good factor. Carbs make you feel good so you crave them. It doesn't help that we consume so many artificial foods, god knows what's actually in those things. There is no way to hate food and you shouldn't. you should enjoy food but you just have to enjoy the right kind. Unhealthy foods are like drugs, you can slowly take your self off them by cutting down a little at a time or you can go cold turkey. I'm the type that has to go cold turkey, I can't just have 1 pop tart or 1/2c ice cream. It's all or nothing with me. So i just try to avoid it all together.

    You'll find after you don't eat something for a while that you don't like it as much. Like i used to love the canned spegetti and meat balls, pop tarts, most ice creams, all little Debbie cakes, hostess. Now I don't like any of that. I just stopped buying it.

    I still like some ice creams but i buy the little containers,(single serving skinny cow) not the pint. My biggest issue is my guy bringing crap into the house. Like chips, crackers and other junk.
  • swulski
    swulski Posts: 16
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    When I want to eat, I think about the reason and I decide whether I really hungry. Sometimes we fall into the trap and eat because we are bored or because we are watching tv ect..I also remind myself that I will need to log anything I eat and that usually helps curbing the desire to overeat! Also, eating more protein really helps! Good luck!
  • azwildcatfan94
    azwildcatfan94 Posts: 314 Member
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    For me, the key was to get off sugar. It is like an addiction for me. When I eat it, my appetite and desire to eat more goes up. When I don't eat it, it is easier for me to make healthy food choices. Now, when I'm hungry, I eat. But, I eat something healthy.
  • KelliReppert
    KelliReppert Posts: 3
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    This is great advice! and I want to know where to get bacon salt!!
  • laccy40
    laccy40 Posts: 136
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    Log everything you eat on MFP so you can keep track of your calories. If you really want to eat something 'naughty' then enjoy it! But don't lie to yourself about it. Have less calories at your next meal to stay within your daily allowance. Or do some more exercise to give yourself a bigger calorie allowance.
  • Umeboshi
    Umeboshi Posts: 1,637 Member
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    How much are you eating? I LOVE TO EAT too! Seriously! I'm going to give some general advice:

    There is a definite possibility you're addicted to food, and maybe your cravings are triggered by emotions. A LOT of people have trouble with emotional eating and compulsive eating. You don't need to stop liking food! You do need to develop a healthier relationship with food though if it gets to be a big issue. Try to identify triggers for your cravings and substitute exercise or something else healthy for eating, unless you're truly hungry.

    If you're having trouble eating smaller portions and you're just starting out, just stick with it and your stomach capacity will shrink with time, and it'll get easier. You can also eat a bunch of low calorie foods and feel more full. Try spaghetti squash, salad, etc.

    If you're having trouble because you're ALWAYS hungry, maybe your calories are too low? Are you eating your exercise calories? Odds are you need to eat them, especially if you're really hungry and working out.

    I can't see your food diary so I'll say this just in case. You need to net at least 1200 calories a day, and definitely don't eat less than 1200.

    If you're still having trouble even doing these things, I'd suggest upping your calories and aiming for 1lbs a week loss, or even 1.5 if you're at a 2lb a week goal right now. I was going for a 2lb a week loss for quite a while, and as I lost weight I ended up being able to eat only 1290 calories and got super frustrated, so I made my goal 1.5 pounds a week and I can eat MUCH more freely. I'm still going at a great pace towards my goals, but now I don't feel SO restricted.

    Hope some of this advice will help. :D
  • eodell86
    eodell86 Posts: 4 Member
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    That is why this website exists! It's a way to balance your love for food and still lose weight! I also LOVE food. And I am a binge eater and food addict as well (yes that does exist). This website has helped me so much in the past month. It's always better to eat healthier, but I understand that sometimes you rrrrreally want a slice of pizza. I love this website because it taught me how much of a workout I need to do in order to eat that slice of pizza. I do not limit what I eat. I just balance it with exercise. So if you want to continue eating the amounts that you do, you're going to need to do a lot more than 30 mins a day of cardio. Use this website to track EXACTLY what you eat and simply balance it with your cardio. If you want a slice of pizza (usually like 650 calories) you know you need to do at least that much more cardio so that you stay under your calorie limit and still lose weight. I eat pizza, rice, cereal, ice cream, everything. I eat whatever I want. I just eat less of it because I don't like working out as much. I've been doing it for about a month and a half now, and my whole life has changed. Now I don't want to eat as much as I used to. I just get full faster, and I know what portions to serve myself too by measuring out my food. And you should definitely measure out everything you eat so you know how many calories you're eating. It really, and I mean REALLY helps. But if you're not ready, then you're not ready. But I would definitely give it a try!
  • dedarlin
    dedarlin Posts: 41 Member
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    i am addicted to sweets! i must have them, and if i dont make them healthfully then i KNOW i will indulge on the stuff that's super bad for me. so, i do my best to make healthful alternatives, protein pancakes with sugar free syrup, frozen fruit/protein shakes (with greek yogurt to make it thick like a shake), cottage cheese/oatmeal cookies (my first cottage cheese experience EVER), chocolate low carb protein bars, etc. swapping out these items has saved me from feeling deprived! of course, there are a ton of icky recipes that i have tried as well, but finding what works is part of the fun :) i love blogilates.com and bodyforlife.com for recipes!
  • SunshineT83
    SunshineT83 Posts: 158 Member
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    Use loving food to your advantage. Take it as an opportunity to try new foods/recipes that are fantastic a lower in fat/calories. That's basically what I had to do. I absolutely LOVE food too, it's all I ever think about.. Seriously :embarassed: So what I did was decide to create a challenge for myself. To cook new meals and to bring home more veggies and fruits that I don't regularly work with and create meals that would be filling, nutritious, easy on the pockets, as well as easy on the scale. I made it a point to build my meals around the veggies rather than around a meat or even a starch (pasta, rice, bread, etc) So far I've been getting good results. The food is still amazing and the scale is moving in the right direction. I don't feel deprived, and once Lent is over I will still allow myself one day a week to have my naughty foods. Which for me = just about anything with cheese :laugh:
  • jem33199
    jem33199 Posts: 80 Member
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    When I'm drinking water, grazing and eating high quality food, I have fewer cravings. People at work were teasing me today that I eat like a rabbit and often...today I brought grapes, hummus, carrots, celery, multigrain chips, string cheese and I was munching on something every half hour to an hour. It works for me. I don't feel deprived but I'm not eating crappy things that make me crave more crap, y'know?
  • chartowne
    chartowne Posts: 4
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    I as the same way. I even looked into food addiction. That is real but most of us are just missing nutrients. I started a nutrition program (www.charlottetowne.myvi.net) and found that once I was getting everything I needed I didnt have nearly as many craving. If you are getting all the good fat you need (i am taking an omega vital) you wont crave the bad fat. Make sure your body is getting what it needs!
  • MoooveOverFluffy
    MoooveOverFluffy Posts: 398 Member
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    It's my opinion that most of us who are overweight have a food addiction of some sort. So yes, there is such a thing. The problem is, you have to refrain from eating everything but the refrigerator if you want to lose weight. WILLPOWER. It sucks, but it is what it is.
  • Wisemomoffour
    Wisemomoffour Posts: 125 Member
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    Your appetite will shrink so that will help---you'll be full on less. I love to have a full plate and have seconds so I have little tricks to fool myself. I always use a salad plate so it looks full. I buy zero calorie dressing and usually have a salad with most meals. I pick foods I can have a lot of for few calories--watermelon, Special K chips, Starkist Seasations fish, etc. When we have pizza I try to choose thin crust (cause I can have more!) and then I cut each piece in two. Hope this helps! Good luck!!!
  • msudaisy28
    msudaisy28 Posts: 267 Member
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    I love food too! I used to play a mental game with myself. I would plan out my meals and snacks for the day, then figure out how often I could eat something if I wanted to eat at regular intervals throughout the day. So if I had breakfast, lunch, dinner, and 4 snacks I would plan to eat breakfast at 8 and then I could eat something every 2 hours and that would mean my last food would be at 8pm. I would challenge myself to see if I could wait longer than 2 hours to eat the next thing and then adjust the remaining food times based on how much of my day was left.

    Often I would get to the end of the day and I only ate 3 of my 4 snacks because I was able to stretch myself longer between snacks/meals!
  • gsager
    gsager Posts: 977 Member
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    I know just how you feel, I guess the answer is try to do 35 minutes of cardio and gradually work your way up. I work out for about 2 hours a day on the weekends so that I can have pizza. I love french toast sticks and have 3 every morning with my egg whites.....I try to work things so that I can have hot chocolate every night. I think the great thing about this site is that I can manipulate things I eat extremely clean so I have room for some not so good for me stuff. You can look at my diary if you would like.

    I have a HRM so that I know exactly how many calories I burn, translated that means how many I can eat back.

    Good Luck.
  • angiemartin78
    angiemartin78 Posts: 475 Member
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    Willpower. I know that's a sh*tty answer, but it's what 90% of us here are using to control our love of food.

    That said, protein, healthy fats, and fiber will help keep you feeling fuller longer, but as far as the mental/emotional side of the cravings, it boils down to working on willpower and telling yourself "no" when you want to eat something you know you shouldn't.

    Good luck in your journey!

    ^^^^What she said :flowerforyou:
  • JessG11
    JessG11 Posts: 345 Member
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    I've been reading Made to Crave by Lysa Terkeurst. It's been an amazing resource with my food cravings/addictions. It's helping me understand so much and change the way I view it. It's Christian based which is what I was really wanting. Good luck to you! Food is hard because we are constantly surrounded by it!
  • Donnacoach
    Donnacoach Posts: 540 Member
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    I know exactly what you are talking about. I try to keep the low fat animal crackers close by cause I need the crunch.
    Popcorn, almonds, and hard candy may also help deter you from the foods you don't want to eat. Just a thought.
  • softballsharie
    softballsharie Posts: 176 Member
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    Low calorie alternatives, and slowly integrating them are what got me through it! I'll give you a nice long post, comparing things, and how long it took me.

    Coffee:
    Start: Med. latte w/ whole milk & extra sug.
    1 week later: w/ whole milk & reg. sug.
    2 weeks later: w/ skim milk & reg. sug.
    3 weeks later: w/ skim milk & 2 sug.
    4 weeks later: w/ skim milk & 1 sug.

    Start of my diet:
    Chocolate, chips, anything salty/chessey, cookies, carbs, (these were all of my favorite foods)

    Every week of my diet, I replaced one of my cravings with a lower calorie (not necessarily healthier) food
    Chocolate got replaced with fiber one 90 calorie brownies
    Pizza got replaced with Lean Cuisine French Bread Pizza
    Fried eggs got replaced with boiled
    Bacon got replaced with canadian bacon
    Chips got replaced with Cheddar Special K Cracker chips
    Satly/cheesey got replaced with Ritz Crackerfuls
    Cookies got replaced with various versions of snackwells, or nutri grain bars
    Carbs got replaced with whole wheat carbs, for example white bread got replaced with whole wheat bread.\
    The list goes on and on and on haha!

    After I had replaced all of my cravings with lower calorie alternatives, I started replacing one lower calorie alternative per day with a fruit or vegetable serving. Once I got down to only having 2 craving snacks a day, I was satisfied with the way that I was eating, and now I'm steadily losing. In fact, I don't think I would have been on a diet for more than a week if I had not slowly replaced everything. You really start to get used to it! If you want to add me, I can try and help motivate you through if you feel like giving this method a shot. :]
  • ohsweetcalamity
    ohsweetcalamity Posts: 78 Member
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    This is great advice! and I want to know where to get bacon salt!!

    BACON SALT!!!

    c4e9_bacon_salt.jpg

    find it here:
    http://www.thinkgeek.com/caffeine/wacky-edibles/c4e9/?srp=1

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