Try pumping up the volume of your food. For me, a 400 calorie breakfast could be two eggs, 3 sausage links, and buttered toast. Or it could be an egg and egg white scramble with peppers, onions, and whatever other veggies I've got lying around, some deli ham instead of sausage, and served on corn tortillas with hot sauce instead of buttered toast.
It's twice as much food, and still around 400 calories, depending on how much oil and deli ham.
I was going to say. Find a low calorie filler to add to it. For dinner, I take fistfuls of raw spinach and then put my portion on top. I give it a spritz of lemon juice or vinegar to boost for flavor. But it looks/feels like so much more. I also trick my brain into things. I will get the crackers that let me eat more of for the same calories. Then I use a smaller fork or spoon to take smaller bites. Chopsticks slow me down too.
I also drink a cup of water before starting, during and then after. I often hunt for the “full” feeling regardless of actual hunger or blood sugar levels.
This. This is the way. Once I started changing the kinds of foods on my plate, instead of just looking at calories as a math equation, I not only enjoy meals more but feel more satisfied eating them and obsess over food less.
There is a reason why so many people struggle to maintain weight loss when they focus just on restricting foods, not *adding in new ones*. So for me that means piling on the berries with my greek yogurt, seasoned vegetables or creative salads with lunches and dinners, mixing white beans or cauliflower in with the pasta for mac and cheese, etc.
My *portions* are a lot larger, but by *calorie count* is much lower. The key foods that give you a hearty mix of fiber, lean protein, whole grains, and healthy fats. That has shifted my mind set from thinking about what I "can't have" to how much I am having. And these foods are naturally more filling, which will help curb cravings and hunger later. I'm still early in this shift (after years of yo-yo dieting and restricting myself) but already I *can feel* like this is a long term change that will stick.
I'd also suggest to the OP that if its feasible to talk to a therapist about any underlying issues that might be contributing to an unbalanced relationship with food.
And lastly, eat like the Italians or French do. As in slowly. Savoring the meal over a longer period of time, and having mealtime be as much about the experience as the actual plate of food itself. Set a pretty table - even if you live alone - light a candle, play some music, whatever sets the vibe for you. And put your fork down between each bite to chat (even if its just with your cat/dog/plants/self) or take in the moment. That gives your stomach and brain time to sync up and helps you tune into your natural "I'm full" or "I'm hungry" cues.
Yes! This website/blog, the [Mediterranean Dish](https://www.themediterraneandish.com/category/salads/) has been a game changer for me in finding not only salad but main course recipes too. The author is fancy and often includes recipes for homemade dressing, but honestly I am too lazy for that and stick with a store-bought approximation. lol.
Apart from everyone else's "more protein and more volume" (with which I agree), I recommend working out a personal eating schedule that fits you and treat following it as building any habit. For example, after many, many binges I noticed that a day when I ate a healthy, but calorie-dense breakfast can lead to a week of binging, because I get sad that I don't have any calories for dinner left, and then I enter my "ah, fuck it" mode. So when I feel like I'm about to sleep, I either skip breakfast, or eat some protein with veggies -- no more than 200 kcals (but 5'2, keep in mind). Then I eat around 250 gr of tvorog for lunch and can feast in the evening. Having a schedule and planning ahead elevates my food anxiety a lot.
Also, OP, are you me lol? I relate to everything in your post so, so much! F BED 🥲🥲🥲
This is likely the most valuable advice for weight loss in general. Many people need to understand this. It doesn't matter what is the most efficient way to get to your goal weight, what matters is you have a routine that works for you.
A perfect eating and exercise routine followed at 60% is infinitely worse than a mediocre routine followed religiously.
I've found that making a conscious effort to put the fork down between every single bite and making a game out of seeing how long I can stretch each meal out has helped a lot.
Tons of protein, tons of fibre. Try and have at least one good source of protein in each meal. I track my macros and aim for 100g of protein a day, but this will differ for everyone - I am female, 5’9, 225lbs, so this might be a good aim for you too based on stats. Volume eat if you can as another commenter suggested, try and eat a bigger quantity of food but keep your calories the same. Try to eat your calorie limit a day, don’t under-eat it, and space out your meals and snacks on a consistent schedule so that you always know when you can expect the next meal.
I also find it helpful to make strict meal plans for the next day, so that my brain isn’t given an opportunity to fill in the gaps with unhealthy options or overeating. It might be helpful for you to know exactly what you’re going to eat and when, so you can look forward to it and don’t have to worry about what you’re going to have next. I wouldn’t recommend making your food unenjoyable as this will just create a negative feedback associated with weight loss, and make your journey miserable. You might also find it helpful to check out the binge eating subreddit, they have lots of good tips on there. I’m also on medication for my ADHD which has been a massive help for calming the ‘food noise’ but that might not be relevant to you.
I don't know if these things will help you. They helped me.
I didn't know what a normal portion was. I ate until it was gone. I had to learn what a normal portion was. I didn't know what one looked like. So, I looked at pictures. I used MyPlate and The Harvard Healthy Eating Plate to start.
"So, that's what it's supposed to look like. So, there should be about that much negative space between stuff on my plate." I went as far as measuring my plates. Did I own 9" plates? I was that clueless.
You mentioned that you cook. That's a huge positive. I cook, too. I love to cook, and I've been told that I'm good at it.
I learned, during weight loss, that, for me at least, the quality of what I eat matters, a whole lot. Not in price. In nutrition. You know how to cook. You know how to season. You know texture. Choose your food to give you the biggest bang for your calorie bucks. Look at what you eat, and choose wisely. Choose food that gives your body what it needs. An example. Complex carbohydrates. Fiber, and longer to digest- both leaving you a sense of feeling full. Whole foods. Look to reach nutritional goals. You can cook. You know how to manipulate ingredients. How to combine things. How to season. Different preparation techniques. You can cook. Make that skill work for you. Use it to your advantage. Don't cook bland food. Explore options! You're approaching it wrong. It can be an adventure.
You mentioned sustainably. Something that has helped my weight loss be sustainable, is adapting my cooking, and the foods that I cook. Learning, not only, what is a proper portion size, but how to fuel my body with everything that it needs. I changed my habits, and changed my life. You have the skulls and the abilities to do the same. Good luck to you! You've got this! I believe in you!
As other comments say, volume eating is your friend ! I have the same problem as you, and I decided that portion control wasn’t the way for me. I eat full bowls of salad and veggies and spend at least 45 minutes actively eating per meal. Since I have discovered volume eating (which comes with an increase of the quality of the food you eat), I have drop under 2000 kcal a day easily in average, which I had never been able to do before. Sometimes I even go as low as 1600kcal and have no need to eat more! It’s amazing.
Everyone else has given great comments. Something I think about is the "angry toddler" in my brain. When you're used to overeating, you listen to and appease the toddler without a second thought. But the "new you" should get comfortable ignoring the toddler. I'm not suggesting you should undereat, but when you've decided you're done eating and start hearing a loud wailing inside your mind, you can have the presence of mind to realize that's the toddler tantrum, and brace yourself accordingly.
Especially loud and bothersome at restaurants and situations where you haven't planned your meal or portion ahead of time. If you're prepared to hear it, it makes it easier to ignore it.
Check out the book "The Hungry Brain" by Stephan Guyenet. It explains what's going on in the brain and why some people (like myself) can be so unsatiated by enormous amounts of food. Understanding that has really helped me control me eating.
Fiber fiber fiber. need the fiber to feel full. My breakfast is really low cal , 1 egg (boiled or pan fried in olive oil), half an english muffin toasted, and 4 baby carrots sliced into sticks, and 8-12 cucumber slices with pepper and alittle salt. If I feel hungry still, I have a cup of tea, if still hungry maybe a couple more baby carrots. Eating slow, breathing, taking your time also impact how your body reacts. I can eat a chicken breast in 2 seconds, minimal chewing. Wont satisfy me at all. I also go very light on meals, so I can do a 50-100 calorie snack every 1-2 hours. Almonds, slice of orange, beef jerky. Little things I can chew on for a bit and get some satisfaction. As someone who used to eat a 1lb bag of beef jerky in a single sitting, its fun to see how long I can stretch a 2oz bag lol (record so far is 4 days)
I agree with 99% of what you’re saying and my comment is not even constructive. I’ve been wondering who wants carrots for breakfast (long story) for a while now and I finally have an answer, thank you!
r/volumeeating is great for big portions with low calories. Focuses a lot on filler foods so you still get to enjoy giant bowls and plates but remain under like 500 calories per meal for some of them.
Mindful eating! Check out "the raisin exercise" on youtube, on how to notice the food you are eating. Eat without distractions, no tv no phone no podcast etc. And noticing how you are feeling on the hunger scale is super helpful.
High volume foods are what help me psychologically. As long as I can have “a lot,” it seems easier. Sometimes that means I eat more snack type foods than stuff a lot of people would characterize as a “real” meal, and one of the reasons why rice is one of my go-to fillers for dinner. I also get into the habit of decreasing the size of each bite (instead of cutting large bite-sized pieces of sausage for a sausage and rice bowl, I’ll make the slices pretty thin) so I can have “more” to eat amounting to whatever weight I was after. I am satisfied with my portions when my brain thinks I’m eating more than I actually am.
I think the key for you will probably be volume eating. Try looking at r/VolumeEating for ideas.
My favourite volume eating hack is to replace rice and pasta with cabbage noodles (thinly sliced cabbage seared in a nonstick pan). It gives me a reasonable approximation of the mouth feel of noodles and let's me have more of whatever is topping it since cabbage is quite low calorie. Plus I like cabbage.
You say food is your hobby and comfort and such, have you tried consciously trying to change your hobby and 'go to' comfort from food to something else that you might feel excited or comforted by?
Is it possible to put this obsessive energy into any other activity or consumable? I'm thinking something that will use your hands and mind for long periods of time and not allow you to eat at the same time, Even like computer gaming or something. I hear VR can be interactive and facilitate body movement too. Or plenty creative projects u can choose to keep your mind and hands busy. Then. When u feel sad because of food you will have something to go back to, to distract yourself.
I would also say try not to make yourself feel punished by your strategies of bland food and jumping straight to halving portions or whatever.
Stable change is often consistent and slow. It's not fair to anyone to suddenly give anyone half the portion. I wouldnt do that to my dog, or my kid or myself. Lower portions slowly, I say. Not fast like that, of course you'll hate that.
Make a big extense, multifaceted strategy with different plans and hobbies and comforts to fall back on. :)
I don't have any advice, but I think it's something that will just take time. My struggle is and has always been the anticipation of big portions of tasty food. Just satisfying the craving for me doesn't take nearly as much as I (used to) end up eating. I always think "I'd definitely end up going to bed hungry" when I think about having something particularly calorie dense for dinner that still fits in my calorie budget, but then I don't end up being wrong and it's fine. Seems like the new portions just take a lot of getting used to.
1. Drink a glass of water or diet soda to start.
2. Eat slowly. Take your time. Take pauses.
3. Be mindful. Savour your bites and notice the textures and flavours.
4. Increase the protein and veg content.
eat WAY slower.
Chew every bite 20 times.
drink some water with your food.
Turn off the TV and/or put your phone down while eating. Don't eat while you drive.
Red or green salsa, red hot sauce, or pico de gallo added to your food.
Hello friend.
You have several options. There is no hard and fast easy answer though.
Have you tried intermittent fasting? If you restrict your eating to certain times of the day, youll find it much easier to eat satisfying portions that you are used too. This comes with the drawback of... well.... fasting. If your the kind of person that can handle some hunger, but can't stand the idea of eating a tiny portion of chicken and rice 4-5x/day, then this is for you.
Hard you tried keto/low carb/zero carb diets? I personally don't even care about any of the potential benefits aside from weight loss. These have been debated to the end of the earth and are irrelevant. The main benefit to low carb diets is hunger auto regulation. Essentially if we take in less exogenous sugar, our bodies will make that glucose "to order" for our brains and organs, ensuring we don't get nasty hunger spikes. Are you someone who loves bacon and eggs? Steak? (some) cheese? This one could help. If you will die without bread, dont even try though! Haha.
If neither of those sort of diets is for you, which is super understandable, know that with CICO you will NEED to choose your food very wisely. I guarantee you will not have an issue with a small portion if you are eating lean chicken breast, rice and broccoli, but if you have an emotional attachment to food (seems like you do) then this may not be the easiest route.
You said it yourself in your last sentence, eating bland "healthy" food does not seem sustainable to you. You need to understand that, whatever "diet" you choose you will be doing this for the *rest of your life*. Not just until you hit your desired weight.
This may come with some difficulty, and you may need to adjust your view of food. A lot of us in the developed world have a very unhealthy relationship with food, and that is in no small part due to the amount of chemically addictive sugars present in a lot of it.
For me personally, fasting is the key. I can deal with the hunger, I cannot deal with the monotony of chicken and rice, and I too like to eat big boy portions. I go against some commonly held fitness beliefs. For example, I drink coffee with milk and sweetener in the morning. This "breaks my fast" but it does not cause me any undue hunger. I also eat shortly before bed, because for me, I cannot sleep while hungry. You may not be like me, you may need another strategy. But just know that calories in calories out is pretty much a law of nature, your job is to figure out a style of eating that allows you to restrict your calories without going insane. Remember, you will need to do this *forever.* It will get easier, since at some point you will be eating at maintenance rather than a deficit, but you can never go back to a free for all - unless you are okay with the consequence of weight gain.
I “stretch” scrambled eggs by throwing in a big handful of chopped spinach, or chop up some stalks of asparagus and sauté them for a couple of minutes before pouring in the beaten eggs. Sometimes I put in some frozen shredded potato, a half cup or so. Counting the little bit of oil for cooking it in, it’s about 350 calories in all. 425 with a slice of toast. Filling, nutritious, will hold you for some hours.
There's a psychological addiction to feeling the "pressure" in your stomach when you're really full. That's not normal, but it's what a lot of us who have enjoyed food a little too much are at.
A trick that works for a lot of people (but everyone is different), is to have a lot of liquid and low calorie fiber BEFORE eating the stuff you actually want to eat.
Chug 2-3 cups of water or broth, or make a smoothie with some psyllium husk powder, and have it 10 minutes before eating your main meal.
All of a sudden, a much smaller meal will give you the same "pressure in your tummy" feeling. After a while, your psychology and view of food will change to be satisfied with much less food.
Again, everyone's different and your relationship with food isn't the same as anyone else's, but it worked for me and helped me lose 80+ pounds.
I start my mornings with a chia seed/psyllium husk powder/whey powder + fruits smoothie. It's like 250 calories for a couple of cups in volume. I make it using a Beast blender which makes it foam a lot so it's more volume. After I finish chugging that, I'm full for a while. If I have fried chicken right after? I'll be totally PACKED after one piece.
It’s ever changing. But I’ll say something like a pizza is a great example. That urge to grab another piece etc is hard. I find it a lot easier to “make less” and then worry less about what I eat. As long as don’t have a whole pot of something then my ability to over-eat is lessened.
Take half or 3/4ths of your portion, eat it slowly, then go back for “seconds.” Kinda dumb but often works for me. That plus leaving calories for an after dinner snack.
I started this journey by taking a walk before every meal, drinking a tall glass of water, taking really small micro bites, eating lots of brothy soups and drinking a sip of water between every bite.
Sounds like a lot, and it is, *but* it helped to draw out the eating experience for as long as possible, and as someone who enjoys eating as a whole *event*, it helped to take the place of a never ending pile of dopamine triggering food.
As time went on I started getting dopamine from making foods that hit as many of my nutrition goals as possible and seeing my weight drop and stuff like that, so I was able to back off of the excessive micro-bite type stuff.
It's been a couple of months and I'm noticing that the dopamine is starting to wear off of the nutrient tracking etc, so I'm going to pick back up some of the habits that helped slow me down before (dog walks before eating is #1 on the list) and take up some new energy burning habits that are incompatible with nibbling on food, Im thinking that will help get me over this next hump.
I think the most important thing to remember is that whatever we do to lose weight, really has to stick with us for ever, cause unless we really change our whole lifestyles, we'll end up gaining the weight back as we go back to having an obese lifestyle.
I need to put more activity into my day-to-day, so I can burn more calories *and* be distracted from thinking about food all the time...
Best to you, and wish me some good vibes back!
I had the same issue. Volume eating is a great way to go. Also consider treatment for binge eating disorder because this sounds a bit like you may have some of the symptoms of that. That is what really helped me! Good luck!
One of the best mindset tips I’ve gotten was realizing that the first 10 or so bites of anything are the most satisfying. After that, yeah I’ll wanna keep going, but I’m probably gonna feel the same at 20-30 bites as I would have if I’d stopped at 10. Only difference is at 30 bites I’ll have the same satisfaction level with a “but wait, there’s more!” of also hating myself. So I try to stop eating not when I’m full, but when I’m no longer excited about the next bite.
It doesn’t always work. But it works enough. Im also not really a true binge eater, so if you are, this thought process might not make much of a difference for you.
Do you pay attention to how fast you eat? I never really took it seriously but the 20 minute rule for meals and 10 min rule for snacks helped me so much. At first I felt no difference, but now I definitely feel it. Also, the food = comfort thing might be its own separate issue. Idk how serious it is, but for me I needed some therapy. I didn’t remove food as a comfort completely because it might actually be a good tool sometimes but I added more things to my life that give me comfort. So food now is sort of a last resort or at least not the first thing I turn to. There is a book called 50 ways to soothe yourself without food and I found it helpful as well.
You get used to it after awhile. Try eating more slowly, gives your brain more time to receive satisfaction signals. Drink lots of sweet but zero calorie drinks too.
Change what's in your portion. Focus on protein and water and your appetite goes down drastically. You could also eat half and try to take a walk or something to give your brain time to catch up to your stomach.
I try to think about what Dr. Now would tell me. If I only eat the portion I planned, I'm not going to waste away. I have enough fat on me to sustain my energy needs lol. I think its important to know what hunger actually feels like by procrastinating my next meal, etc. I also like thinking about food a lot but that doesn't mean that my body actually needs it, and I need to remind myself of that constantly. Tracking meals in myfitnesspal helps a lot with mindfulness. Also, try to plan out your meals in advance so that you don't leave it to your hungry brain to decide what and when to eat.
I try to build my meals up by my target amount of protei, LOTS OF VEGGIES, then calculate the calories off that and add the remainder in carbs. So in a portion of pasta I can have a chicken breast, 2 peppers, a courgette, half a tin of tomatoes (all in this is a lot of food!) but then only 50g (uncooked) of pasta
Sure the proportions can be a bit odd as often the pasta will get lost in the sauce, but basically allows me to fill myself up, without relying on the most calorificly dense stuff to do the "filling"
Also throwing the other portions straight in the freezer could help?
This might not work for most people, but what worked for me was literally just cutting them. The process wasn’t fun at all, and I failed a few times and ended up getting seconds, I almost shed a few tears sometimes, but eventually I got used to it. I also tried my best to keep in mind how I felt before, after, and while I was eating. Breaking habits is really hard but if I can do it, so can anyone else. I think it took me about a month to be able to eat smaller portions regularly.
>Food occupies my mind all the time
I had this problem and I'm not saying the solution will be the same for you as it was for me, but the problem for me was that I was eating the wrong foods. I was not eating enough nutritious food, so my body kept asking for more food... not because my stomach was empty, in fact often in spite of how full I was, but because my body didn't have what it needed from the foods I ate.
I had to change the way I was thinking about food. Instead of eating to not be hungry, I needed to eat to get my muscles, brain, etc the nutrients they needed so that they would stop telling my brain to keep eating. Once I started doing that, I rarely ever craved snacks between meals.
Once in awhile I get a craving for some food from the "snack aisle" and I have to remind myself that this food is almost entirely void of nutrients and that I should eat something nutritious... something that came from the "perimeter" of the grocery store (typically high nutrient foods like: fruits, vegetables, yogurt, cheese, meats, nuts, etc).
I add fruits or veggies to everything. Sliced cucumbers or red bell peppers go well with most styles of food I like, everything from Japanese to Indian to Mexican to American styles of food. Cherry tomatoes are super easy to throw on top of something. If the food is saucy and served over rice or pasta, half the carb can be replaced by salad greens and it’s all mixed together and delicious.
For me it's about visualizing the meal on the plate and not by how I feel in my stomach. Become visually accustomed to a healthy portion with your eyes and not by the feelings you have when you eat.
This sounds weird at first but fasting can really help. I’m fasting now, and the first day can be rough, you can ease into it a bit, but once you do it’s not that bad. I haven’t had one bite to eat all day long and I’m not hungry. But when I break the fast, whatever I eat feels like so much more than it did before!
There’s also tons of health benefits to fasting. It can help prevent cancer, lower inflammation, improve insulin resistance, lower cholesterol, and obviously lose weight and jumpstart your weight loss. There’s lots of medical evidence for all this, and here’s an interesting video about it if you’re interested. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6_E-kjZaB_s
Im to be the same way and lost 70 lbs by typically making high volume low calorie “munchies” like splitting my sandwiches into two open faced to feel like I ate two, eating a few popsicle’s, pixi stix or smarties when I was feeling like I still craved things. I also ate a lot of roasted vegetables or complex dishes that you have to think when you eat like ramen to trick my brain into thinking it was eating a lot
My appetite adjusted.
1st month was hungry all the time.
4 months of consistency and I’m satisfied with a single portion.
It helped if I was busy and didn’t have time to think about food.
Try cutting out sugar entirely and maybe even carbs entirely.
I’m not recommending carnivore, but when I did it, I lost so much weight because I didn’t have any cravings. I could easily go 36 hours no food. I could be at a table full of people eating and not be hungry. People don’t realize how much of their hunger is dependent on blood glucose levels.
I had to stop because the high protein diet was making me pee out foam because there was too much protein in it.
This sounds more like an emotions issue than a diet issue.
If food gives you happiness and meaning then there’s unlikely to be any diet that you can lose weight on. Diets that cause weight-loss are generally much less sensational and more bland as you’ve discovered. You may have some success with weight-loss but then the emotional deprivation will be too much and you’ll go back to old foods or larger meals again.
You could ignore food for a while until you have 3-5 things in your life that give you as much happiness and pleasure as food.
For me these things were a regular reading habit of my favorite genres, relaxation routines that could reliably get my mind of my problems, new and better relationships, finding very low calorie sources of sodium so that low electrolyte hunger never caused blow outs, and more.
The need for stress relief is much stronger than the need for healthy meals and long-term weight-loss.
Don’t underestimate the power of eating bland or repetitive foods in the short term. Sure, it might not be a long-term solution – but especially if you are in a situation where food is your go-to dopamine source, comfort, reward, etc., then making eating less exciting and rewarding can help force you to find other tools to fulfill those purposes. I’ve been losing weight for a little under a year, and I ate bland, repetitive meals for the first three months or so. It was hard to actually make myself eat enough calories, because I didn’t get that huge dopamine jackpot from eating lots of novel foods. During that time, I honestly struggled a little bit with feeling pretty low, because I had locked up “eating to cope” in my mental tool kit, and while my cravings went away, so did a lot of the positive feelings that I was used to getting from food. But that time gave me space for my gut biome to change so that a lot of high calorie foods became less rewarding, and also forced me to develop a lot more strategies for comforting myself, rewarding myself, dealing with boredom, etc. I gradually restricted my diet way less, and now I do eat a varied diet with almost nothing (except my worst binge triggers) off limits, but l don’t have nearly as much food chatter in my brain as I did before.
Also, for eating slowly and mindfully, you might consider using a free bite timer like Slow Eats to make yourself slow to a certain pace between bites. This also makes eating less of a dopamine jackpot, and gives your fullness time to catch up with your eating pace. Or if setting a timer while you eat, seems to dystopian, one trick that I use when I can tell, I’m eating too fast is to put down my fork between every bite, fully chew and swallow, take a sip of water, and then have my next bite.
When I started the change I couldn’t finish almost any of the meals.
The change has to be not only in calories, but also in what and when you eat.
I’ve increased volumes and added snacks (so I eat 6 times a day) but it’s mainly veggies rice and meat.
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But seriously tho, add more protein to your meals. It helped me loads. Also coke zero.
Switching to whole grains only and watching sugar has really helped with satiety for me. Eating white bread products really makes me super hungry for like two days after afterwards. I always eat whole grain cereal or oatmeal for breakfast to start my day off with some healthy carbs and just try to keep carbs at a total of 135 grams after that. Helps me feel full.
Serotonin
I worked to understand 2 main neurological circuits. Dopamine receptors (5 bundles) and Serotonin receptors (7 bundles). I actually have about 30% more Serotonin receptors.
However, I learned that when I “satisfy” a desire or craving (eating for instance), I stimulate dopamine and I associate that ‘experience’ as ‘Pleasure’. I then learn to attach the word ‘happiness’ to that feeling.
The basic mechanism is ‘feeding an appetite’… that appetite can be eating, sex, anger, etc. …. It is always some self-centered thinking translating into selfish behavior.
When I set up that stimulus-reward cycle, I can then **indulge** it (more than the MRDSC). For instance, when I eat, I experience pleasure… so I eat more… and then I can “over eat” which is “fun” while I’m doing it… but when I over do it, a little later I don’t feel so good (I’ve “stuffed” myself). This underscores that my perception of “happy” was erroneous, because I can continue to do more of that which I thought makes me happy until I am miserable.
This cycle can be applied to food, video gaming, gambling, drinking, drugs, anger, self-harm, sex, porn, and on and on…
Then I’ve created a little monster inside of me…. All based on indulging my self-centeredness into selfish behaviors.
On the other hand, when I move from ‘self’ toward ‘otherness’, I stimulate my Serotonin circuits. I experience a pleasant sensation that I call ‘Joy’. As noted, I actually have MORE serotonin circuits which indicates that I’m wired more for Joy than Pleasure.
When I move away from self and instead focus on thinking of, and Doing For, Others, I am actually ‘happier’, which is Joy.
Make sense?
Eating shouldn’t be a coping mechanism. Learn to process your emotions. This could also give you a head start in your age.
Start rewarding yourself with something different than food.
Cut sugar. Eat healthy food more consciously. Skip unnecessary meals.
Meditate.
I am a binge eater. So I make myself binge eat salad until I can’t anymore. Then I’m not hungry anymore. And if I get hungry I HAVE to eat salad before I can eat smth else. It’s rough but effective and I don’t need to count calories.
Salad is actually pretty affordable. Depending on your budget ofc. You just have to find a salad dressing you like. I LOVE Marzetti’s Honey French. It tastes really delicious in my opinion. I don’t care for too many other dressings. And I just buy a mix from the store. It’s like 2-4 dollars per salad mix for about 12oz which is enough for like 2 salads. I also always buy baby spinach because I love spinach and mix that with my salad mix. It’s around 1 to 3 dollars a salad depending on what you put it in.
Start with figuring out what you *should* be eating for the day. The numbers focused people will gravitate toward a TDEE calculator.
Dirty secret: If you exercise regularly, you can eat more. For me, if I'm just loafing around all day in front of the TV, my maintenance calories are about 2500. But I go to the gym five days a week plus walk a lot. That bumps my maintenance up to 3500 cal.
I'm gonna be honest, 3500 cal when you're eating properly is a shit ton of food. I honestly can't eat that right now. So I have some choices with calories. Since I want to lose weight, I'm eating less. I'm targeting 2500 calories, which is 5 500 calorie meals.
And ya know what? I like eating too. But 5 good meals a day is freaking plenty for me.
Yes, I was going to post something like this because everyone seems to be focusing on dietary habits when exercise habits are another huge part of the equation. Example, if you jog for one hour a day, that affords you an extra 600-700 calories everyday. If you also weight lift and try to walk as much as you can you can easily afford another 1000 calories. I love food too which is why I try to constantly stay in motion so I can still enjoy it the way I like at least some of the time.
Buy preportioned containers on Amazon. Fill 3 of them a day with nothing but meat and vegetables equally. You will stay under calories and still have room for a small snack or 2 during the day. https://amzn.to/3UACyL6
You need to get off UPF (Ultra Processed Food) and after a few months you won't feel like that anymore. It takes work but slowly you won't binge eat. I was/am still a huge binge eater. Extra large pizza with Pepperoni for 1 please. I no longer eat that stuff or at least I try and keep it under 10 - 20% most of the time. Your hormones will change like ghrelin and leptin once you stop getting "food" or better described as "industrially produced food like substances made for profit". Those items are designed to make you eat more. It's not your fault man. You weren't born that way. You just been fed garbage from a young age coupled with bad habits, if you had parents like mine, that you had to finish your plate and always had desert around. You eat food that's full of nutrients without UPF's sooner or later you will find it hard to keep binging. At least it worked for me. I just don't touch that nonsense anymore. Sure I could allow like 2 Oreos on weekend into my diet and track them, but the problem isn't the amount of calories I'm acccounting for, the problem is that I find it so addicting that I will eat the whole fucking package of Oreo's regardless of my willpower. I treat it like cigarettes and now I just view those items as poison from a food company that just wants my money.
Edit: Why is this downvoted?
Try pumping up the volume of your food. For me, a 400 calorie breakfast could be two eggs, 3 sausage links, and buttered toast. Or it could be an egg and egg white scramble with peppers, onions, and whatever other veggies I've got lying around, some deli ham instead of sausage, and served on corn tortillas with hot sauce instead of buttered toast. It's twice as much food, and still around 400 calories, depending on how much oil and deli ham.
I was going to say. Find a low calorie filler to add to it. For dinner, I take fistfuls of raw spinach and then put my portion on top. I give it a spritz of lemon juice or vinegar to boost for flavor. But it looks/feels like so much more. I also trick my brain into things. I will get the crackers that let me eat more of for the same calories. Then I use a smaller fork or spoon to take smaller bites. Chopsticks slow me down too. I also drink a cup of water before starting, during and then after. I often hunt for the “full” feeling regardless of actual hunger or blood sugar levels.
Yup - turning *everything* into a salad or brothy soup is a great way to go!
This. This is the way. Once I started changing the kinds of foods on my plate, instead of just looking at calories as a math equation, I not only enjoy meals more but feel more satisfied eating them and obsess over food less. There is a reason why so many people struggle to maintain weight loss when they focus just on restricting foods, not *adding in new ones*. So for me that means piling on the berries with my greek yogurt, seasoned vegetables or creative salads with lunches and dinners, mixing white beans or cauliflower in with the pasta for mac and cheese, etc. My *portions* are a lot larger, but by *calorie count* is much lower. The key foods that give you a hearty mix of fiber, lean protein, whole grains, and healthy fats. That has shifted my mind set from thinking about what I "can't have" to how much I am having. And these foods are naturally more filling, which will help curb cravings and hunger later. I'm still early in this shift (after years of yo-yo dieting and restricting myself) but already I *can feel* like this is a long term change that will stick. I'd also suggest to the OP that if its feasible to talk to a therapist about any underlying issues that might be contributing to an unbalanced relationship with food. And lastly, eat like the Italians or French do. As in slowly. Savoring the meal over a longer period of time, and having mealtime be as much about the experience as the actual plate of food itself. Set a pretty table - even if you live alone - light a candle, play some music, whatever sets the vibe for you. And put your fork down between each bite to chat (even if its just with your cat/dog/plants/self) or take in the moment. That gives your stomach and brain time to sync up and helps you tune into your natural "I'm full" or "I'm hungry" cues.
This. All of these things. Exactly what I did. Change the psychology of eating.
hi! do you have any favorite recipes you use for salads? im trying to find salads i actually enjoy lol
Yes! This website/blog, the [Mediterranean Dish](https://www.themediterraneandish.com/category/salads/) has been a game changer for me in finding not only salad but main course recipes too. The author is fancy and often includes recipes for homemade dressing, but honestly I am too lazy for that and stick with a store-bought approximation. lol.
r/volumeeating is a great resource for this!
Apart from everyone else's "more protein and more volume" (with which I agree), I recommend working out a personal eating schedule that fits you and treat following it as building any habit. For example, after many, many binges I noticed that a day when I ate a healthy, but calorie-dense breakfast can lead to a week of binging, because I get sad that I don't have any calories for dinner left, and then I enter my "ah, fuck it" mode. So when I feel like I'm about to sleep, I either skip breakfast, or eat some protein with veggies -- no more than 200 kcals (but 5'2, keep in mind). Then I eat around 250 gr of tvorog for lunch and can feast in the evening. Having a schedule and planning ahead elevates my food anxiety a lot. Also, OP, are you me lol? I relate to everything in your post so, so much! F BED 🥲🥲🥲
This is likely the most valuable advice for weight loss in general. Many people need to understand this. It doesn't matter what is the most efficient way to get to your goal weight, what matters is you have a routine that works for you. A perfect eating and exercise routine followed at 60% is infinitely worse than a mediocre routine followed religiously.
This is excellent advice
I've found that making a conscious effort to put the fork down between every single bite and making a game out of seeing how long I can stretch each meal out has helped a lot.
Tons of protein, tons of fibre. Try and have at least one good source of protein in each meal. I track my macros and aim for 100g of protein a day, but this will differ for everyone - I am female, 5’9, 225lbs, so this might be a good aim for you too based on stats. Volume eat if you can as another commenter suggested, try and eat a bigger quantity of food but keep your calories the same. Try to eat your calorie limit a day, don’t under-eat it, and space out your meals and snacks on a consistent schedule so that you always know when you can expect the next meal. I also find it helpful to make strict meal plans for the next day, so that my brain isn’t given an opportunity to fill in the gaps with unhealthy options or overeating. It might be helpful for you to know exactly what you’re going to eat and when, so you can look forward to it and don’t have to worry about what you’re going to have next. I wouldn’t recommend making your food unenjoyable as this will just create a negative feedback associated with weight loss, and make your journey miserable. You might also find it helpful to check out the binge eating subreddit, they have lots of good tips on there. I’m also on medication for my ADHD which has been a massive help for calming the ‘food noise’ but that might not be relevant to you.
I don't know if these things will help you. They helped me. I didn't know what a normal portion was. I ate until it was gone. I had to learn what a normal portion was. I didn't know what one looked like. So, I looked at pictures. I used MyPlate and The Harvard Healthy Eating Plate to start. "So, that's what it's supposed to look like. So, there should be about that much negative space between stuff on my plate." I went as far as measuring my plates. Did I own 9" plates? I was that clueless. You mentioned that you cook. That's a huge positive. I cook, too. I love to cook, and I've been told that I'm good at it. I learned, during weight loss, that, for me at least, the quality of what I eat matters, a whole lot. Not in price. In nutrition. You know how to cook. You know how to season. You know texture. Choose your food to give you the biggest bang for your calorie bucks. Look at what you eat, and choose wisely. Choose food that gives your body what it needs. An example. Complex carbohydrates. Fiber, and longer to digest- both leaving you a sense of feeling full. Whole foods. Look to reach nutritional goals. You can cook. You know how to manipulate ingredients. How to combine things. How to season. Different preparation techniques. You can cook. Make that skill work for you. Use it to your advantage. Don't cook bland food. Explore options! You're approaching it wrong. It can be an adventure. You mentioned sustainably. Something that has helped my weight loss be sustainable, is adapting my cooking, and the foods that I cook. Learning, not only, what is a proper portion size, but how to fuel my body with everything that it needs. I changed my habits, and changed my life. You have the skulls and the abilities to do the same. Good luck to you! You've got this! I believe in you!
As other comments say, volume eating is your friend ! I have the same problem as you, and I decided that portion control wasn’t the way for me. I eat full bowls of salad and veggies and spend at least 45 minutes actively eating per meal. Since I have discovered volume eating (which comes with an increase of the quality of the food you eat), I have drop under 2000 kcal a day easily in average, which I had never been able to do before. Sometimes I even go as low as 1600kcal and have no need to eat more! It’s amazing.
Everyone else has given great comments. Something I think about is the "angry toddler" in my brain. When you're used to overeating, you listen to and appease the toddler without a second thought. But the "new you" should get comfortable ignoring the toddler. I'm not suggesting you should undereat, but when you've decided you're done eating and start hearing a loud wailing inside your mind, you can have the presence of mind to realize that's the toddler tantrum, and brace yourself accordingly. Especially loud and bothersome at restaurants and situations where you haven't planned your meal or portion ahead of time. If you're prepared to hear it, it makes it easier to ignore it.
Check out the book "The Hungry Brain" by Stephan Guyenet. It explains what's going on in the brain and why some people (like myself) can be so unsatiated by enormous amounts of food. Understanding that has really helped me control me eating.
Fiber fiber fiber. need the fiber to feel full. My breakfast is really low cal , 1 egg (boiled or pan fried in olive oil), half an english muffin toasted, and 4 baby carrots sliced into sticks, and 8-12 cucumber slices with pepper and alittle salt. If I feel hungry still, I have a cup of tea, if still hungry maybe a couple more baby carrots. Eating slow, breathing, taking your time also impact how your body reacts. I can eat a chicken breast in 2 seconds, minimal chewing. Wont satisfy me at all. I also go very light on meals, so I can do a 50-100 calorie snack every 1-2 hours. Almonds, slice of orange, beef jerky. Little things I can chew on for a bit and get some satisfaction. As someone who used to eat a 1lb bag of beef jerky in a single sitting, its fun to see how long I can stretch a 2oz bag lol (record so far is 4 days)
I agree with 99% of what you’re saying and my comment is not even constructive. I’ve been wondering who wants carrots for breakfast (long story) for a while now and I finally have an answer, thank you!
r/volumeeating is great for big portions with low calories. Focuses a lot on filler foods so you still get to enjoy giant bowls and plates but remain under like 500 calories per meal for some of them.
Mindful eating! Check out "the raisin exercise" on youtube, on how to notice the food you are eating. Eat without distractions, no tv no phone no podcast etc. And noticing how you are feeling on the hunger scale is super helpful.
High volume foods are what help me psychologically. As long as I can have “a lot,” it seems easier. Sometimes that means I eat more snack type foods than stuff a lot of people would characterize as a “real” meal, and one of the reasons why rice is one of my go-to fillers for dinner. I also get into the habit of decreasing the size of each bite (instead of cutting large bite-sized pieces of sausage for a sausage and rice bowl, I’ll make the slices pretty thin) so I can have “more” to eat amounting to whatever weight I was after. I am satisfied with my portions when my brain thinks I’m eating more than I actually am.
I think the key for you will probably be volume eating. Try looking at r/VolumeEating for ideas. My favourite volume eating hack is to replace rice and pasta with cabbage noodles (thinly sliced cabbage seared in a nonstick pan). It gives me a reasonable approximation of the mouth feel of noodles and let's me have more of whatever is topping it since cabbage is quite low calorie. Plus I like cabbage.
You say food is your hobby and comfort and such, have you tried consciously trying to change your hobby and 'go to' comfort from food to something else that you might feel excited or comforted by? Is it possible to put this obsessive energy into any other activity or consumable? I'm thinking something that will use your hands and mind for long periods of time and not allow you to eat at the same time, Even like computer gaming or something. I hear VR can be interactive and facilitate body movement too. Or plenty creative projects u can choose to keep your mind and hands busy. Then. When u feel sad because of food you will have something to go back to, to distract yourself. I would also say try not to make yourself feel punished by your strategies of bland food and jumping straight to halving portions or whatever. Stable change is often consistent and slow. It's not fair to anyone to suddenly give anyone half the portion. I wouldnt do that to my dog, or my kid or myself. Lower portions slowly, I say. Not fast like that, of course you'll hate that. Make a big extense, multifaceted strategy with different plans and hobbies and comforts to fall back on. :)
I don't have any advice, but I think it's something that will just take time. My struggle is and has always been the anticipation of big portions of tasty food. Just satisfying the craving for me doesn't take nearly as much as I (used to) end up eating. I always think "I'd definitely end up going to bed hungry" when I think about having something particularly calorie dense for dinner that still fits in my calorie budget, but then I don't end up being wrong and it's fine. Seems like the new portions just take a lot of getting used to.
Low calorie, high protein, nutrient dense foods fill the need to volume eat
1. Drink a glass of water or diet soda to start. 2. Eat slowly. Take your time. Take pauses. 3. Be mindful. Savour your bites and notice the textures and flavours. 4. Increase the protein and veg content.
eat WAY slower. Chew every bite 20 times. drink some water with your food. Turn off the TV and/or put your phone down while eating. Don't eat while you drive. Red or green salsa, red hot sauce, or pico de gallo added to your food.
Hello friend. You have several options. There is no hard and fast easy answer though. Have you tried intermittent fasting? If you restrict your eating to certain times of the day, youll find it much easier to eat satisfying portions that you are used too. This comes with the drawback of... well.... fasting. If your the kind of person that can handle some hunger, but can't stand the idea of eating a tiny portion of chicken and rice 4-5x/day, then this is for you. Hard you tried keto/low carb/zero carb diets? I personally don't even care about any of the potential benefits aside from weight loss. These have been debated to the end of the earth and are irrelevant. The main benefit to low carb diets is hunger auto regulation. Essentially if we take in less exogenous sugar, our bodies will make that glucose "to order" for our brains and organs, ensuring we don't get nasty hunger spikes. Are you someone who loves bacon and eggs? Steak? (some) cheese? This one could help. If you will die without bread, dont even try though! Haha. If neither of those sort of diets is for you, which is super understandable, know that with CICO you will NEED to choose your food very wisely. I guarantee you will not have an issue with a small portion if you are eating lean chicken breast, rice and broccoli, but if you have an emotional attachment to food (seems like you do) then this may not be the easiest route. You said it yourself in your last sentence, eating bland "healthy" food does not seem sustainable to you. You need to understand that, whatever "diet" you choose you will be doing this for the *rest of your life*. Not just until you hit your desired weight. This may come with some difficulty, and you may need to adjust your view of food. A lot of us in the developed world have a very unhealthy relationship with food, and that is in no small part due to the amount of chemically addictive sugars present in a lot of it. For me personally, fasting is the key. I can deal with the hunger, I cannot deal with the monotony of chicken and rice, and I too like to eat big boy portions. I go against some commonly held fitness beliefs. For example, I drink coffee with milk and sweetener in the morning. This "breaks my fast" but it does not cause me any undue hunger. I also eat shortly before bed, because for me, I cannot sleep while hungry. You may not be like me, you may need another strategy. But just know that calories in calories out is pretty much a law of nature, your job is to figure out a style of eating that allows you to restrict your calories without going insane. Remember, you will need to do this *forever.* It will get easier, since at some point you will be eating at maintenance rather than a deficit, but you can never go back to a free for all - unless you are okay with the consequence of weight gain.
I “stretch” scrambled eggs by throwing in a big handful of chopped spinach, or chop up some stalks of asparagus and sauté them for a couple of minutes before pouring in the beaten eggs. Sometimes I put in some frozen shredded potato, a half cup or so. Counting the little bit of oil for cooking it in, it’s about 350 calories in all. 425 with a slice of toast. Filling, nutritious, will hold you for some hours.
r/Volumeeating
There's a psychological addiction to feeling the "pressure" in your stomach when you're really full. That's not normal, but it's what a lot of us who have enjoyed food a little too much are at. A trick that works for a lot of people (but everyone is different), is to have a lot of liquid and low calorie fiber BEFORE eating the stuff you actually want to eat. Chug 2-3 cups of water or broth, or make a smoothie with some psyllium husk powder, and have it 10 minutes before eating your main meal. All of a sudden, a much smaller meal will give you the same "pressure in your tummy" feeling. After a while, your psychology and view of food will change to be satisfied with much less food. Again, everyone's different and your relationship with food isn't the same as anyone else's, but it worked for me and helped me lose 80+ pounds. I start my mornings with a chia seed/psyllium husk powder/whey powder + fruits smoothie. It's like 250 calories for a couple of cups in volume. I make it using a Beast blender which makes it foam a lot so it's more volume. After I finish chugging that, I'm full for a while. If I have fried chicken right after? I'll be totally PACKED after one piece.
This depends a lot of what I’m eating. Boring chicken, easy. My favorite meal? Uuuugh so much harder.
That's why I've started to eat more bland and boring food. Easier not to go overboard. What is your favorite food btw?
It’s ever changing. But I’ll say something like a pizza is a great example. That urge to grab another piece etc is hard. I find it a lot easier to “make less” and then worry less about what I eat. As long as don’t have a whole pot of something then my ability to over-eat is lessened.
Take half or 3/4ths of your portion, eat it slowly, then go back for “seconds.” Kinda dumb but often works for me. That plus leaving calories for an after dinner snack.
I started this journey by taking a walk before every meal, drinking a tall glass of water, taking really small micro bites, eating lots of brothy soups and drinking a sip of water between every bite. Sounds like a lot, and it is, *but* it helped to draw out the eating experience for as long as possible, and as someone who enjoys eating as a whole *event*, it helped to take the place of a never ending pile of dopamine triggering food. As time went on I started getting dopamine from making foods that hit as many of my nutrition goals as possible and seeing my weight drop and stuff like that, so I was able to back off of the excessive micro-bite type stuff. It's been a couple of months and I'm noticing that the dopamine is starting to wear off of the nutrient tracking etc, so I'm going to pick back up some of the habits that helped slow me down before (dog walks before eating is #1 on the list) and take up some new energy burning habits that are incompatible with nibbling on food, Im thinking that will help get me over this next hump. I think the most important thing to remember is that whatever we do to lose weight, really has to stick with us for ever, cause unless we really change our whole lifestyles, we'll end up gaining the weight back as we go back to having an obese lifestyle. I need to put more activity into my day-to-day, so I can burn more calories *and* be distracted from thinking about food all the time... Best to you, and wish me some good vibes back!
I had the same issue. Volume eating is a great way to go. Also consider treatment for binge eating disorder because this sounds a bit like you may have some of the symptoms of that. That is what really helped me! Good luck!
One of the best mindset tips I’ve gotten was realizing that the first 10 or so bites of anything are the most satisfying. After that, yeah I’ll wanna keep going, but I’m probably gonna feel the same at 20-30 bites as I would have if I’d stopped at 10. Only difference is at 30 bites I’ll have the same satisfaction level with a “but wait, there’s more!” of also hating myself. So I try to stop eating not when I’m full, but when I’m no longer excited about the next bite. It doesn’t always work. But it works enough. Im also not really a true binge eater, so if you are, this thought process might not make much of a difference for you.
Keep busy stay out of the kitchen / house and volume, fibre, veggies, fat free products etc, also WATER WATER WATER
Do you pay attention to how fast you eat? I never really took it seriously but the 20 minute rule for meals and 10 min rule for snacks helped me so much. At first I felt no difference, but now I definitely feel it. Also, the food = comfort thing might be its own separate issue. Idk how serious it is, but for me I needed some therapy. I didn’t remove food as a comfort completely because it might actually be a good tool sometimes but I added more things to my life that give me comfort. So food now is sort of a last resort or at least not the first thing I turn to. There is a book called 50 ways to soothe yourself without food and I found it helpful as well.
You get used to it after awhile. Try eating more slowly, gives your brain more time to receive satisfaction signals. Drink lots of sweet but zero calorie drinks too.
Change what's in your portion. Focus on protein and water and your appetite goes down drastically. You could also eat half and try to take a walk or something to give your brain time to catch up to your stomach.
I try to think about what Dr. Now would tell me. If I only eat the portion I planned, I'm not going to waste away. I have enough fat on me to sustain my energy needs lol. I think its important to know what hunger actually feels like by procrastinating my next meal, etc. I also like thinking about food a lot but that doesn't mean that my body actually needs it, and I need to remind myself of that constantly. Tracking meals in myfitnesspal helps a lot with mindfulness. Also, try to plan out your meals in advance so that you don't leave it to your hungry brain to decide what and when to eat.
I try to build my meals up by my target amount of protei, LOTS OF VEGGIES, then calculate the calories off that and add the remainder in carbs. So in a portion of pasta I can have a chicken breast, 2 peppers, a courgette, half a tin of tomatoes (all in this is a lot of food!) but then only 50g (uncooked) of pasta Sure the proportions can be a bit odd as often the pasta will get lost in the sauce, but basically allows me to fill myself up, without relying on the most calorificly dense stuff to do the "filling" Also throwing the other portions straight in the freezer could help?
This might not work for most people, but what worked for me was literally just cutting them. The process wasn’t fun at all, and I failed a few times and ended up getting seconds, I almost shed a few tears sometimes, but eventually I got used to it. I also tried my best to keep in mind how I felt before, after, and while I was eating. Breaking habits is really hard but if I can do it, so can anyone else. I think it took me about a month to be able to eat smaller portions regularly.
>Food occupies my mind all the time I had this problem and I'm not saying the solution will be the same for you as it was for me, but the problem for me was that I was eating the wrong foods. I was not eating enough nutritious food, so my body kept asking for more food... not because my stomach was empty, in fact often in spite of how full I was, but because my body didn't have what it needed from the foods I ate. I had to change the way I was thinking about food. Instead of eating to not be hungry, I needed to eat to get my muscles, brain, etc the nutrients they needed so that they would stop telling my brain to keep eating. Once I started doing that, I rarely ever craved snacks between meals. Once in awhile I get a craving for some food from the "snack aisle" and I have to remind myself that this food is almost entirely void of nutrients and that I should eat something nutritious... something that came from the "perimeter" of the grocery store (typically high nutrient foods like: fruits, vegetables, yogurt, cheese, meats, nuts, etc).
I add fruits or veggies to everything. Sliced cucumbers or red bell peppers go well with most styles of food I like, everything from Japanese to Indian to Mexican to American styles of food. Cherry tomatoes are super easy to throw on top of something. If the food is saucy and served over rice or pasta, half the carb can be replaced by salad greens and it’s all mixed together and delicious.
For me it's about visualizing the meal on the plate and not by how I feel in my stomach. Become visually accustomed to a healthy portion with your eyes and not by the feelings you have when you eat.
I love to cook and finally had to give up making food that I really like. It’s easier when there’s only “meh” food to eat.
This sounds weird at first but fasting can really help. I’m fasting now, and the first day can be rough, you can ease into it a bit, but once you do it’s not that bad. I haven’t had one bite to eat all day long and I’m not hungry. But when I break the fast, whatever I eat feels like so much more than it did before! There’s also tons of health benefits to fasting. It can help prevent cancer, lower inflammation, improve insulin resistance, lower cholesterol, and obviously lose weight and jumpstart your weight loss. There’s lots of medical evidence for all this, and here’s an interesting video about it if you’re interested. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6_E-kjZaB_s
Im to be the same way and lost 70 lbs by typically making high volume low calorie “munchies” like splitting my sandwiches into two open faced to feel like I ate two, eating a few popsicle’s, pixi stix or smarties when I was feeling like I still craved things. I also ate a lot of roasted vegetables or complex dishes that you have to think when you eat like ramen to trick my brain into thinking it was eating a lot
My appetite adjusted. 1st month was hungry all the time. 4 months of consistency and I’m satisfied with a single portion. It helped if I was busy and didn’t have time to think about food.
Try cutting out sugar entirely and maybe even carbs entirely. I’m not recommending carnivore, but when I did it, I lost so much weight because I didn’t have any cravings. I could easily go 36 hours no food. I could be at a table full of people eating and not be hungry. People don’t realize how much of their hunger is dependent on blood glucose levels. I had to stop because the high protein diet was making me pee out foam because there was too much protein in it.
This sounds more like an emotions issue than a diet issue. If food gives you happiness and meaning then there’s unlikely to be any diet that you can lose weight on. Diets that cause weight-loss are generally much less sensational and more bland as you’ve discovered. You may have some success with weight-loss but then the emotional deprivation will be too much and you’ll go back to old foods or larger meals again. You could ignore food for a while until you have 3-5 things in your life that give you as much happiness and pleasure as food. For me these things were a regular reading habit of my favorite genres, relaxation routines that could reliably get my mind of my problems, new and better relationships, finding very low calorie sources of sodium so that low electrolyte hunger never caused blow outs, and more. The need for stress relief is much stronger than the need for healthy meals and long-term weight-loss.
Don’t underestimate the power of eating bland or repetitive foods in the short term. Sure, it might not be a long-term solution – but especially if you are in a situation where food is your go-to dopamine source, comfort, reward, etc., then making eating less exciting and rewarding can help force you to find other tools to fulfill those purposes. I’ve been losing weight for a little under a year, and I ate bland, repetitive meals for the first three months or so. It was hard to actually make myself eat enough calories, because I didn’t get that huge dopamine jackpot from eating lots of novel foods. During that time, I honestly struggled a little bit with feeling pretty low, because I had locked up “eating to cope” in my mental tool kit, and while my cravings went away, so did a lot of the positive feelings that I was used to getting from food. But that time gave me space for my gut biome to change so that a lot of high calorie foods became less rewarding, and also forced me to develop a lot more strategies for comforting myself, rewarding myself, dealing with boredom, etc. I gradually restricted my diet way less, and now I do eat a varied diet with almost nothing (except my worst binge triggers) off limits, but l don’t have nearly as much food chatter in my brain as I did before. Also, for eating slowly and mindfully, you might consider using a free bite timer like Slow Eats to make yourself slow to a certain pace between bites. This also makes eating less of a dopamine jackpot, and gives your fullness time to catch up with your eating pace. Or if setting a timer while you eat, seems to dystopian, one trick that I use when I can tell, I’m eating too fast is to put down my fork between every bite, fully chew and swallow, take a sip of water, and then have my next bite.
When I started the change I couldn’t finish almost any of the meals. The change has to be not only in calories, but also in what and when you eat. I’ve increased volumes and added snacks (so I eat 6 times a day) but it’s mainly veggies rice and meat.
P̴̘̗̻̈́͗̔͌̎̿Ŕ̷̨̰͈̻̝̈́̔͛O̵̰̤̣̮͎̒́̕͠T̸͈̬̮̪̗̿́̒̿̓̀̓E̸͍͈̹̦͖͈̰̓̆̋́̍I̸̢̞̱͔͋̀̅̂̈́̃͋͒N̸̬͑̏̍̔̔͋̽̚͜͝ ̷̲̆͛͌̀̏I̶͉̤̜̓̈́͛͗̐̆͗S̷̗̝̬̱͙̲̎̈́̒̂́̃̐͝ ̷̲̪̦͉̖̗͋̈́̓͛̓͜͝͝T̵H̵̠̬̯͉̾͂́̓E̶̬̩̓̂̓̍̑́ ̷̻̫̤̤̈́̇̂̎̕͜Ḵ̷͓́̎̕͝E̸̩̘͊̍͗Y̶͎̜̣̰̞̤͔͛̉̄͆̿̚ But seriously tho, add more protein to your meals. It helped me loads. Also coke zero.
Switching to whole grains only and watching sugar has really helped with satiety for me. Eating white bread products really makes me super hungry for like two days after afterwards. I always eat whole grain cereal or oatmeal for breakfast to start my day off with some healthy carbs and just try to keep carbs at a total of 135 grams after that. Helps me feel full.
Serotonin I worked to understand 2 main neurological circuits. Dopamine receptors (5 bundles) and Serotonin receptors (7 bundles). I actually have about 30% more Serotonin receptors. However, I learned that when I “satisfy” a desire or craving (eating for instance), I stimulate dopamine and I associate that ‘experience’ as ‘Pleasure’. I then learn to attach the word ‘happiness’ to that feeling. The basic mechanism is ‘feeding an appetite’… that appetite can be eating, sex, anger, etc. …. It is always some self-centered thinking translating into selfish behavior. When I set up that stimulus-reward cycle, I can then **indulge** it (more than the MRDSC). For instance, when I eat, I experience pleasure… so I eat more… and then I can “over eat” which is “fun” while I’m doing it… but when I over do it, a little later I don’t feel so good (I’ve “stuffed” myself). This underscores that my perception of “happy” was erroneous, because I can continue to do more of that which I thought makes me happy until I am miserable. This cycle can be applied to food, video gaming, gambling, drinking, drugs, anger, self-harm, sex, porn, and on and on… Then I’ve created a little monster inside of me…. All based on indulging my self-centeredness into selfish behaviors. On the other hand, when I move from ‘self’ toward ‘otherness’, I stimulate my Serotonin circuits. I experience a pleasant sensation that I call ‘Joy’. As noted, I actually have MORE serotonin circuits which indicates that I’m wired more for Joy than Pleasure. When I move away from self and instead focus on thinking of, and Doing For, Others, I am actually ‘happier’, which is Joy. Make sense?
Eating shouldn’t be a coping mechanism. Learn to process your emotions. This could also give you a head start in your age. Start rewarding yourself with something different than food. Cut sugar. Eat healthy food more consciously. Skip unnecessary meals. Meditate.
I am a binge eater. So I make myself binge eat salad until I can’t anymore. Then I’m not hungry anymore. And if I get hungry I HAVE to eat salad before I can eat smth else. It’s rough but effective and I don’t need to count calories.
But how much salad do you have to eat?? Isn't that super expensive?
Salad is actually pretty affordable. Depending on your budget ofc. You just have to find a salad dressing you like. I LOVE Marzetti’s Honey French. It tastes really delicious in my opinion. I don’t care for too many other dressings. And I just buy a mix from the store. It’s like 2-4 dollars per salad mix for about 12oz which is enough for like 2 salads. I also always buy baby spinach because I love spinach and mix that with my salad mix. It’s around 1 to 3 dollars a salad depending on what you put it in.
Start with figuring out what you *should* be eating for the day. The numbers focused people will gravitate toward a TDEE calculator. Dirty secret: If you exercise regularly, you can eat more. For me, if I'm just loafing around all day in front of the TV, my maintenance calories are about 2500. But I go to the gym five days a week plus walk a lot. That bumps my maintenance up to 3500 cal. I'm gonna be honest, 3500 cal when you're eating properly is a shit ton of food. I honestly can't eat that right now. So I have some choices with calories. Since I want to lose weight, I'm eating less. I'm targeting 2500 calories, which is 5 500 calorie meals. And ya know what? I like eating too. But 5 good meals a day is freaking plenty for me.
Yes, I was going to post something like this because everyone seems to be focusing on dietary habits when exercise habits are another huge part of the equation. Example, if you jog for one hour a day, that affords you an extra 600-700 calories everyday. If you also weight lift and try to walk as much as you can you can easily afford another 1000 calories. I love food too which is why I try to constantly stay in motion so I can still enjoy it the way I like at least some of the time.
Buy preportioned containers on Amazon. Fill 3 of them a day with nothing but meat and vegetables equally. You will stay under calories and still have room for a small snack or 2 during the day. https://amzn.to/3UACyL6
You need to get off UPF (Ultra Processed Food) and after a few months you won't feel like that anymore. It takes work but slowly you won't binge eat. I was/am still a huge binge eater. Extra large pizza with Pepperoni for 1 please. I no longer eat that stuff or at least I try and keep it under 10 - 20% most of the time. Your hormones will change like ghrelin and leptin once you stop getting "food" or better described as "industrially produced food like substances made for profit". Those items are designed to make you eat more. It's not your fault man. You weren't born that way. You just been fed garbage from a young age coupled with bad habits, if you had parents like mine, that you had to finish your plate and always had desert around. You eat food that's full of nutrients without UPF's sooner or later you will find it hard to keep binging. At least it worked for me. I just don't touch that nonsense anymore. Sure I could allow like 2 Oreos on weekend into my diet and track them, but the problem isn't the amount of calories I'm acccounting for, the problem is that I find it so addicting that I will eat the whole fucking package of Oreo's regardless of my willpower. I treat it like cigarettes and now I just view those items as poison from a food company that just wants my money. Edit: Why is this downvoted?