Not hungry, just wanting to eat

I love reading everyone's answers - its so true - important to ask why you're eating - keep your hands busy go for a walk...I'm really loving the ideas and how supportive everyone is.

I think this, at least for me, was done out of habit. I realize it helps to alleviate bordem or stress. I chew gum, I occupy my time in other ways, I drink tea, etc. I also snack a lot, especially at night. I have been making healthier choices, though and staying within my daily allotted calories.

Make sure you are eating enough calories, acording to your MFP recommendations, and properly hydrate. The experts recommend 1/2 your body weight, in ounces, of water a day. (so if you weigh 150 pounds, drink 75 oz of water).

Look at your sleeping patterns. Poor sleep habits and/or quality can dramatically impact weight loss efforts.

One more suggestion, if you are under a lot of stress you may feel more hungry thank usual. Your body releases cortisol, a stress hormone, which can increase appetite. If you are under a lot of stress try to reduce it by meditation, yoga, Pilates, etc.

Also, just keep in mind that perhaps you have lost enough weight. There is a theory called the "set point" theory... I often wonder if this theory isn't true!

You need to see it as a habit that you need to break, much like giving up smoking. These are just a couple of things I had to do when I stopped smoking in 2007 but they have helped me on my MFP journey too...

There will no doubt be times that you are used to eating - say if you someone who, when you have a coffee, always have a biscuit or piece of cake with it. You need to make the consious effort of changing the mindset of "I'm not allowed to eat cake with coffee any more", to "I don't eat cake when I have coffee". The first is a very negative thought based on denial, the second is just a fact, plain and simple, neither positive nor negative. To equate that to smoking I changed "I've given up smoking" to "I don't smoke".

The other thing I found very helpful was to take it one day at a time. Tell yourself that you can have whatever you are craving the next day, if you waken the next morning still longing for it tell yourself once again that you can have it tomorrow. That way you're not saying you AREN'T allowed it, just that you choose to delay it for a short while. 24 hours, that's not long to wait for something, is it? You'll find that 24hrs soon roll into a week, then a month, then..... etc.!

Anyway, I hope this helps, it is very difficult to break a habit, I've heard it say that it takes 3 weeks for something to become a habit so all you've got to do it say no for 3 weeks :flowerforyou:


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This is not a new thing for me... i just had a crazy craving for late night snacking and i mean eat everything i see!

So what i did...got out 3 large carrots, and chopped em up into little strips so they seem more. THen i got 3 celery sticks and cut them up also into strips, i got out 2 tablespoons of hummus (80calories), half an apple and a teaspoon of natural peanut butter... and a large glass of diet coke.
I sat there watching TV and ate the intire thing... guess what... cravings gone! why?? cause im soo freaking full from allt that veggie fiber.

When I feel this way (which is often), I try to step back and think "Am I really hungry?" Usually, the answer is no. I do things like remove myself from the kitchen area to another part of the house, go for a walk, find something to do to take my mind off of food, brush my teeth to signal I'm done eating, or just plain old going to bed. Some days it's harder than others, and I'm still looking for ideas myself. Hope these help!!

Great tips!

For now...I think this is my favourite thread! So true