Why so hunger???

[zzprometheuszz]

Have you ever look in the mirror, wanted to lose weight, but all you think about was that juicy steak or that yummy tender...cheese burger???

 

That's the story of my life. I have a belly....like a huge one that I find pretty gross. I wanted to lose it. so I did my research, know what I have to eat and how much I have to exercise.

 

But when time comes I just compulsively ate the most fattening and delicious food I can find. I mean my body just doesn't listen to my head anymore and went for that pizza....AGAIN!!!!!

 

As I looked at that juicy cheeseburger and it looked it me.....and I finally said..."you complete me"....(haha, just kidding)

 

I think I have an eating problem....I tend to eat more that I need.....I need help....anyone here ever successfully gone on a diet and stick to it?? Please, I love to hear your story.

[waveseer]

Exercise is the answer, expect the following:

 

1. you will alleviate your guilt and feel good about being responsible with your health

2. you will make better food choices because your body will want a higher nutrition-to-calorie ratio

3. you will lose weight, sleep better, improve your outlook, and acquire the desire to be your best in a long term way

[soul_soother]

Yes! Currently I've lost close to 30 lbs and improved my run time from something like a 13 minute mile to a 7 minute mile.

 

When it came to dieting this is how I learned to kick the old habits. For one you don't have to kick out your favorite foods. Your cheese burgers don't have to be from McDonalds and they dont have to be 5 layers of cheese and fat greesed. You know there was a study done that people who completely shut out their favorite foods or do 100% cut outs of sweets and what not are more likely to binge eat them. For the most part I'm guessing you didn't eat many veggies or fresh fruit. I read an article that said most men don't like eating veggies because the small portions.

 

What I personally did was I would still eat the steaks and burgers just had a large amount of veggies. I treated myself like a little child, if I wanted to eat the steak, I had to eat the veggies first. Before you eat , drink an entire glass of water first. It'll make you feel more full so you won't eat as much. Now you have to realize losing weight does take some level of discipline. You won't exactly lose weight without excersize, but you can at least start eating right. Once you make it past the first couple days / week it gets easier.

 

Exchange SOME of items for healthier, dont be one of those binge dieters...Where you go health nut crazy for like a week and can't do it so you buy like 500 gallons of ice cream and go to town. Slowly find food that works for you, some health food taste exactly the same once you get used to it.

[jillianiyp]

i feel your pain. I'm in the same boat. I have an elliptical, and i really want to work out on it, but i cant motivate myself either. And i sit here eating cheesies, cuz i cant help myself. Even though i really want to lose weight... i guess it'll never happen. I hope you have more self-discipline than i do.

[g84]

This caught my attention lol, i know how you feel.

I've been trying to return to what i think would be my ideal weight, but it's been going pretty slowly : [ - despite wanting to lose just under ten pounds.

I eat healthy on most days, but i occasionally give in to some cravings as well.

One thing that has helped me a little bit, is choosing a day of the week where i can have any meal that i like. It can be a typical fast food meal (although i tend to avoid McDonalds or pizza, etc.

This usually helps me feel a bit more in control of my diet, because i am then more motivated to continue eating healthy meals on the other days - knowing that i'm not really depriving myself in the end.

When it comes to healthy meals, i think it can be helpful to write out some meal/snack ideas for yourself, so that you can have a look at it ahead of time; it can help to prevent you from just randomly eating the most convenient thing at the moment.

If you normally drink any sodas, or anything with added sugar, i would recommend working on eliminating those. A lot of people feel and look much better after cutting those out.

Starting can be challenging, but once you begin to see some results due to the changes that you've made, i think this will motivate you a bit more as well.

[zzprometheuszz]

That's all very helpful.

 

But when it comes down to it, I guess i don't have the willpower to resist yummy food

 

I can down 2 lbs of steak in one meal and eat a large pizza by myself......

 

seriously, I think i must have starved myself to death in my past life or something...

 

I guess I will try the exercise and cutting down, let's see how it works.

[alvin]

I was much like you. I started keeping track of what I ate using the daily plate at link removed and then I started exercising.

 

8 months and 65 fewer lbs later I'm still at it.

 

I didn't eat healthy foods. I ate what I wanted. I looked for foods I could enjoy and eat in quantities that worked for me. For example, 18 totinos pizza rolls are only 630 total calories.

 

Thus for example I could have 2 Burger King Ham Croissanwiches (680 calories) for breakfast, 3 hot dogs on low calorie bread for lunch (620 calories) and 18 pizza rolls for dinner for a total of 1930 calories. link removed can calculate the number of calories you need for your weight/height/age to lose a certain number of lbs per week.

 

Right now I can eat just over 2000 calories per day to be on target to lose 2 lbs per week. Some weeks I lose more because I exercise, or cheat a bit on the food and exercise to compensate. As you update your weight, the calorie allowance will adjust (downward if you are losing weight) but I find the gradual weightloss to be most effective and helps avoid plateaus from your body growing used to a severe calorie restriction.

[ceez]

I would start by exercising and cutting back on the portions, also try to drink more water. I hated drinking water at first but now its the only thing I do drink. And I would definitely cut back on the fast food or at least stick to the chicken sandwiches, I used to be able to eat two whoppers and now I feel sick after eating one. I wouldn't cut back on everything completely right away though, I love ice cream and I allow myself a small cup full instead of the two full bowls I used to eat. one more thing is try to eat six small meals a day, its supposed to help speed up your metabolism.

[Ashley1640]

One thing I've learned is that if you CONSTANTLY think about what you eat or should eat, it'll literally drive you nuts and mess up your "diet." I do this ALLLLL the time. Practice what ya preach, yadda yadda...

 

So do what the people here are saying. Instead of cutting out the foods you love, look at the CALORIE intake of what you normally eat, and cut it back! By the sounds of it, you can eat a rather large serving each meal. How many meals a day do you eat.. 3 big ones? Do this: keep WATER, regular H20 with you at ALL times. Really, REALLY try on downing 8 glasses of 8oz a day. The water will not only keep your body hydrated, but help ease the tummy hunger. Eat breakfast, brunch, lunch, snack, and dinner. Your snacks should only be about 150-200 calories.. But if you eat how you say you do, don't starve yourself, that's the worse you could ever do mentally AND physically. However, you do have to make yourself have the will power.

 

When you eat, do you eat until you FEEL full (bloated, semi-sick, ready to unbutton your pants)? Or do you eat til the "hunger" is simply gone? Do not eat like the first scenario I gave. You simply want to eat (obviously a certain amount of calories depending on your BMI), but just until that hunger goes away.

 

Rearrange the diet so that it keeps YOU happy. Some people prefer a large breakfast and then snacks/lunch/dinner to be much smaller in porportion and calories. Find the calorie diet you need to be on to lose X amount of weight, then just play with the numbers. Say you are on a 2400 calorie diet: If you want to stuff your face and eat 2400 in one sitting, go for it. I would advise against it because you'll just be pissy at yourself later! But if you want to use up 1000 cals for breakfast for a McDonald's sausage biscuit, you obviously have 1400 cals to spend on 2 snacks, lunch, and dinner.

 

Do you like TV dinners? =) I've found that Lean Cuisine has some *very surprisingly* GREAT choices! They taste great.. AND they're good for you!

 

Try to stay away from soda. Look at the calories on it first of all, 180 cals! That's a snack right there, and it's not even food! It won't fill you up like water does, and it's FILLED with tons of sugar and even sodium(not good for losing weight.. it causes water retention). Look on the internet for what exactly water can do for you. It's amazing that something SO simple is SO important to our bodies. I know you're a guy and I'm sure not much into skin care... but if you don't hydrate your skin(aka drinking water), you will begin to look older than you really are!

 

But, I would suggest ONCE a week, ONE meal, to reward yourself. Appetizer, salad, dinner, and end with a yummy dessert! I would advise NOT to have an alcoholic beverage, since alcohol destroys your inhibitions. You want to LOSE weight, remember, and YOU want to be in control of yourself.. not the alcohol telling you to eat until it drives you mad!

[sidehop]

A lot of problem lies on what's inside the food you eat.

 

Our body is designed to eat food as close to raw as possible but when you start to substitute with artificial sweeteners (including high fructose corn syrup), and adding various chemicals and in the end let your body get used to the junk, your body is craving for real nutrition which you try to get more from other not-so-healthy food.

 

Classic example is people that think diet soda is good for them. Your body knows better. It starts to crave real sugar, not artificial sweeteners and even high fructose corn syrup. A lot of diet soda drinkers tend to eat more sweets for this reason because the body is not getting the real deal. Of course such cravings can be stopped by replacing the soda & sweets with fruits.

 

As for your eating habits, there are few things you can do that won't seem like you're restricting yourself.

 

Healthier doesn't mean it needs to taste bland. But healthier, the less food you're going to need to fill your stomach. With the steak you eat, add more vegetables, keep potatoes and carbs to a serving size.

 

EAT SLOW. I can't stress this enough. Chew at least 20~30 times, the more the better. Not only you're allowing your brain to process the amount of food you're eating but also it's less hard on your stomach. You'll notice a huge difference and you probably won't be able to eat as much. This is one of the best ways to really cut back on eating.

 

With that, eat slow but eat smaller meals 5~7 times a day. If you can't eat frequently, eat healthy snacks, vegies/fruits/healthy snack bars to keep your metabolism burning.

 

Exercise is important but 90% of your health comes from what you eat. Some say as much as 95% is really what you eat.

 

Don't buy sodas, diet or not, keep them away. Even juice, dilute it. When we make 100% juice, I always put extra water. Once you get used to somewhat diluted juice you won't crave a lot of sweets, no need if you're replenishing the sugar with fruits and other natural sources. You can always drink soda once in awhile. You'll just find it taste too sweet.

[ur02111222]

I think dieting leads to binging.

 

1. Cook your own food so you know exactly what is going into it.

 

2. Eat slowly and before you feel "full," stop.

 

3. Get out of the house and do something so you can't eat. Go on a walk in the park with you ipod and a podcast. Hang out with a friend. Go to the gym.

 

4. Don't ever let yourself get to the "famished" stage. Eat when you start to feel hungry.

 

5. If you really want to eat something, eat it, but keep in mind to do it slowly and stop when you aren't hungry.

 

6. Don't keep things in the house that you easily binge on. I love love love love pringles and these cookies called grasshoppers (taste just like girlscout's thin mints). I will eat every last one in sight...it's best just not to buy them.

 

 

 

I think the most important rule is to not totally beat yourself up when you slip up or to try to rigorously control your diet. You still need to enjoy food. Thinking too much about dieting leads to thinking about food all day.

 

I really try to think more about the quality of food instead of quantity. It sounds cliche, but you can control this a lot more when you make your food yourself. If you become a totally fabulous cook, you could make it fun and have a weekly dinner at your house with friends.

 

ETA: It sounds like your biggest problem you said is eating more than you need. A lot of the suggestions people gave you are great. I would say the best thing you can do is to eat slowly, and stop just before you get that "full" feeling. Think about a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being extremely hungry, and 10 being really really uncomfortable full. You probably want to aim at staying between 3 or 4 and 6ish. Don't go below the 3, and try not to go about a 6 or 7 either.

[blackribbon]

I have a good way of not snacking, its harsh (to me!) but it works (again, for me!)

 

Im at university, and this works because i dont need to really buy many things on a day to day basis. I go food shopping (when your full, as you make better choices) and dont buy any junk. I then give my debit card to someone who i trust isnt going to spend it! i dont really do this to loose weight, more to stop me overspending (but,.... what i overspend on is those little treats every day.... a 50p chocolate bar here, a £3 burger here, it all adds up, not only in calories but in cost).... i have found that if i FORCE myself not to have any money on me, i wont be buying any snacks!!!!!.... although i can see this is not practical for most people.

I eat slowly,... time yourself eating a meal how you usually would. You will be shocked to see that you spend about 5 mins wolfing it all now. Its not good for your digestive system. If you follow the guidelines of 12-20 chews, you will be SO surprised the texture of the food in your mouth. i realised i had been eating so quickly that i was basically swallowing my food whole,... i needs to almost turn to water in your mouth.

 

Eating until your full,.... this will take time because if you have been eating alot, your stomach will be sretched to accomidate all that food,... i have always found that ive been eating loads and i can feel my stomach has expanded (not actually feel it, but i feel like i need more food to be full) i have to try and "tighten it" back up,.... which meens feeling not so full & a little bit hungry after each meal until my body gets used to it.

Crash dieting, and "banning" foods isnt good.... what happens when someone tells you not to think about something? ITS ALL YOU THINK ABOUT!! ahaha, but really.... try not to ban. Technically you could still lose weight eating only chocolate! (although not healthy!)

 

Also remind yourself that we are humans, our will to survive supresses any other emotions by far. People are driven to kill by hunger, its a very very powerful emotion/feeling. Don't beat yourself up and then give up. keep trying.

 

oh and..... exercise (i hate that word!!) but it will make you feel so much better in so many ways x