I live a relatively active life but I struggle with eating too much. I feel like there is no diminishing returns when I eat something. Each chip tastes just as good as the last one. So I will be craving food but know it’s not healthy for me to eat more. I’m trying to find ways to ignore that feeling or dismiss it.
Are there any tips or methods you use to help with that? Impulse control is the hardest thing to work on sometimes.
I've started OMAD (One Meal A Day) for past month. It seems to work well. It's basically intermittent fasting - 22-23 hour fast, 1-2 hour eating. You can drink coffee, water and zero sugar drinks during the fasting period but only eat for one period a day.
It's been working well for me - I realise I don't feel hungry during the day, I was just bored and habitually eating. I've lost weight (which was my main aim) but I find my day no longer revolves around the other mealtimes, and also I actually value my main meal now so I've been eating better quality and trying to actually cook. It's also saved me money not needing to buy breakfast or lunch foods, and no snacks, and my food budget is concentrated into one good meal a day.
It's been surprisingly easy to stick to.
Obviously it won't be for everyone and you need to consider the health benefits and potential drawbacks first, but it's working well for me.
I agree that omad is one of the best diets out there, however it only partly helps with overeating. My personal experience is that I started to develop crazy binge urges a few weeks / months into it to a point that I felt sick ever night and still managed to gain lots of weight. Especially when combined with regular exercise.
Binge eating unfortunately is a different beast caused by numerous other issues so I think they need to be addressed by something other than a diet
What I mean is: while I was making bank in tech I was on the road to getting married and establish myself as a tech expert, which means dating, networking, getting to know people (I’m an introvert, so it’s rough). I’d spend time on a date with people and not necessarily starve myself, but food took a back seat to taking a walk, starting a chat, just getting to know people. As someone who has always battled his weight I was finally starting to look like I WANTED to look.
But then when I hit a financial snag (a string of bad clients/employers–would NOT recommend this career move) I was basically financially constrained to my house. No going out, not even to a coffee shop. Without the privilege of going out and finding friends/love/acceptance can you guess how I have to find comfort? You guessed it! Even though I stay active I’ve found it’s very hard to keep weight down.
I only say this to make the point: if you can afford it, distract yourself from food.
While there’s some good advice from others, there are moments you want to have a cheat day like once a week.
When you allow it to treat yourself and eat chips, you can choose for some very hot chips. Put it in a small bowl (to limit the snack), take one at the time (to slow yourself down) and suck on each part when you eat it. Before you know you it you’ll drink more and the hotness will slow you down or even lets you stop eating more.
Drink a glass of water during your meals. And make sure you eat enough proteins. High protein diets are very effective.
If you’re craving chips, your body is telling you you need carbs. So get them from healthy sources of food instead. If you’re craving something like cheese or meat, your body is telling you you need proteins, so make sure you get them from healthy sources of food as well.
Avoid high carb food that doesn’t have a lot of nutrients. You will probably still feel hungry afterwards. Go for healthy food that makes you feel full and gives your body a good amount of nutrients.
And remember that healthy food can taste just as good. :)
I've found this has been one of the most helpful areas for medication but I was undiagnosed for years so, here's some things which I didn't see:
Use small plates. Tell yourself you can go back for seconds if you need to, but after you finish plate 1 (or after 15mins minimum), honestly reevaluate if you're still hungry or just want flavour/texture. 15mins is enough time for your hormones which respond to eating, like ghrelin and insulin, to have kicked in. Never underestimate the impact of hormones.
This might be due to another condition I have, but the more sugars I eat, the more I can't stop myself from eating more. I try for the smallest amount of added sugar possible, and I lean on saccharin to take the edge off things which need some sweetness. Also, if you've never checked your blood sugars or been tested for diabetes, this might be worth looking into as polyphagia.
Make sure you're eating protein and a little fat when you eat. Also prioritise water and dietary fibre in those meals. If you have all 4 in your food, then you're going to spend more time full from one meal, which helps stop some of the thoughts around food from occurring.
In situations where you are going to binge, eat one mouthful of whatever it is you're craving, and put everything away. Savour that mouthful. Wait 15mins minimum. Afterwards assess how badly you need and want this flavour/texture now that you've had some of it.
Some of my cravings tend to reveal I'm not getting enough of a mineral or other micronutrient. Log the food you're eating, and try to figure out how often you hit all the recommended daily targets. Supplement or tweak your diet as necessary to get more of those things. If I start craving potatoes, I know it might be potassium. If I start craving fries, I look at if I've had enough calories, because i'm craving carbs, fat, salt AND potassium.
Don't undereat to try to "make up" for a binge. It's harder to make the right decisions when you're too hungry, it perpetuates the cycle.
Snack on something that takes a long time to chew, but is lower in calories, while you cook. Jerky, almonds, a carrot, whatever. Helps with impulsive decisions about adding delicious but unhealthy things.
Basically, eat nutritional food, and make it harder for yourself to binge by increasing the workload necessary to do it. I call it leveraging laziness, it has been surprisingly helpful.
Why are you attacking me on overeating vegetables?
Seriously though, this is a struggle for me because i love “healthy” stuff and have truly managed to overeat stuff like carrots and corn. I am not sure how to control that one
Try replacing unhealthy snacks with healthier ones. Eg. Nuts/seeds instead of chips, fruit instead of candy. hummus + veggies, homemade veggie chips/baked veggie “fries” (avoid starchy veggies)
Dont go to the store/order when youre hungry. Its easier to control what you buy than it is to say no to the unhealthy snacks in the cupboard that you already bought. i.e put a barrier between yourself and unhealthy snacks.
Make a hobby out of finding creative ways to make that comfort food healthier. eg. Sneak veggies into things, replace less healthy ingredients with healthier ones. eg. Replace butter with olive oil, replace beef with turkey, switch to lite salt (slowly) instead of table salt etc.
One thing I do to limit my intake of a single type of snack is to pour a serving or two into a bowl and allow myself to eat the whole bowl without thinking about the restraint. I may go back for a second serving but I usually find myself not eating a whole family bag of chips in one sitting that way.
Same, if I have a family bag of chips in front of me, I’ll eat the whole bag. If I serve an enormous bowl of pasta, I’ll eat the whole bowl.
The only way I can not overeat is to not have it in arms reach. So yeah, pour a sensible serve of chips into a bowl and then eat that. Leave some pasta in the pot, or put it straight in the fridge for lunch tomorrow.
By the time I sit down to eat, the battle is already over, whether I’ve won or lost.
My therapist told to try this thing recently where you suck on a candy or snack that you really like, don’t allow yourself to crunch it. Suck it until it dissolves.
Resisting giving into the frustration but of not being able to crunchit helps you with emotional regulation, feeling the emotion but not immediately reacting to it
Resisting crunching it because you want to taste that explosion of flavor helps you increase your ability to not only resist temptation but also to increase your ability to have the will to do the things you want to do.
It also interacts with that same oral fixation as eating, so you’re helping qualm some of those binging urges.
I do it with sugar free werther’s originals, it works surprisingly well
Coffee. I drink it black with no sugar and therefore it has minimal calories. Caffeine is an appetite suppressant, although I switch to decaf after my first 2. Probably the smarter answer is water. I find having the flavour though helps with the psychological trick of novelty that I’m often seeking from food.
This. Diets help only temporarily. In order to beat binge eating it’s necessary to find the cause for the binge urges (boredom, depression, stress,…) and tackle them first.
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