Food Addiction? I think so..

[CreatineKasey]

Re: Food Addiction? I think so..

I really really disagree with their thought process.



This came from an email I got at work. Not going to say its accurate but the point is. Thirst can be mistake for hunger and just simply drinking water can help cravings. Im the reverse end of the issue. I cant eat enough. When I am at work but cant eat, getting a drink would get me by until lunch/dinner time came. Obviously dont start drinking a high calorie drink but water will help more than you think.

YES!!

You are correct sb24. I think fluid balance is such an under-valued aspect of nutrition. I take it pretty far. If I have a headache... what do I do? aspirin? nope. I chug a glass of water.

I consciously tally in my mind how much fluid I've consumed and estimate the amount of electrolytes I've consumed in a day also. From there, I adjust and consume either fluid with electrolytes (Emergen-C or a glass of water with a piece of fruit) or without electrolytes (Ice Water).

I'm a very strong believer in fluid balance being key to mood and health. What's the first thing I do when I wake up? Chug a 16 oz glass of water. It matters!

Drinking ice water as a substitute to everything else really seems to balance out my hunger and calorie intake. I'm only hungry when I'm truly hungry now.

Hate "flavor-less" water? First, drink it with ice if possible. I find that is far more refreshing. On top of that, chewing gum while drinking ice water seems to be a very satisfying combination for me.

My reasoning behind a lot of this is simple: you can live for 4-6 weeks without consuming any food. You can live only a couple days without drinking water. Fluid balance constantly happens, so you need to constantly rehydrate yourself. Electrolytes are important too. They help maintain proper osmotic pressure within and outside of your body's cells. It's a big deal.

Great post sb24.

[ODogg]

Re: Food Addiction? I think so..

You guys nailed it I think. I have found when I get "hungry" recently if I drink a glass of water suddenly I'm not hungry at all, sometimes for like another 3 hours. If I was truly hungry then there is no way that the glass of water would satisfy me for that long without having to eat food. And like I said earlier, I have found a great way to get away with eating less calories but still be nutritious is to drink a can of low sodium V8. I can drink one of those and it fills me up like a semi-large meal. It really sits "heavy" on your stomach.

I really finally feel like, for the first time in my adult life, I have a healthy relationship with food. I think my tendency to research the topic of health, food and exercise has caused me to try too many things and overanalyze my faults and what I do right (much like women in my other thread, overanalysis causes me a lot of grief).

This whole "eat 6 meals a day" and 'snack all the time-don't ever let yourself get really hungry" may work well for some folks but it doesn't work at ALL for me. I think snacking like that, even on healthy foods, actually makes you focus more on food. And when you're trying to lose weight, thinking about food all the time is not a good thing. Now I've found that in the past week since I've changed my process I'm actually able to do things for several hours and not focus on food, what my next meal will be, how long until I'm "allowed to eat"...what are my calories, etc.

So now the trick is just to keep up the way that I am doing things now. Much like going to the gym, now it just requires repetition until it becomes a way of life. Week 1 is in the books though and it was a great start to a new beginning on an age old battle with being fat for me.

[Jonesy]

Re: Food Addiction? I think so..

Great posts guys some good stuff there!

Totally agree about the hydration thing. Sometimes during the day i get really busy with work and totally forget to drink water. I start getting headaches and start getting very hungry. A few big glasses of water brings me back to normal in 20 mins or so.

I find a protein shake is a great filler as well.

[ODogg]

Re: Food Addiction? I think so..

I'm amazed at how I've ate so much less lately with this strategy! I think OS has figured out weight loss!!!!

[z Revis]

Re: Food Addiction? I think so..

WTF? I've been trying to lose weight lately. I've been running 30 minutes every day since Monday. Well, I just looked up how many calories I should have per day in order to reach my weight loss goal. It tells me, with my height, weight, and age, I should have 2890.9 calories per day to slowly reach my goal WITHOUT exercise. It also says, if I work out 30 minutes per day, I will be able to reach my goal weight with 3157 calories per day. Seriously? I don't even eat half that amount on a daily basis. I eat maybe 1600 calories a day which includes beverages. I'm quite skeptical about this "calorie calculator".

Here's the site: http://nutrition.about.com/library/b...ears=20&page=4

[ODogg]

Re: Food Addiction? I think so..

Dude, that stuff is messed up. I have the same issue with my current website sparkpeople.com - it tells me I should be eating about 2100 calories a day to lose weight. My doctor told me 1500. I think they put those numbers higher to encourage people or something. I'm shooting now for 1200 a day but I think since I don't know what some foods are I'm actually ending up with about 1500 (plus it's hard to judge portion sizes).

A better way for you to do it IMO is this. Eat normall for a week but log all of your calories. Figure out at the end of the week your average calorie intake. Then shave off about 300-400 calories a day from that number and that is your new number to shoot for each day.

[CreatineKasey]

Re: Food Addiction? I think so..

WTF? I've been trying to lose weight lately. I've been running 30 minutes every day since Monday. Well, I just looked up how many calories I should have per day in order to reach my weight loss goal. It tells me, with my height, weight, and age, I should have 2890.9 calories per day to slowly reach my goal WITHOUT exercise. It also says, if I work out 30 minutes per day, I will be able to reach my goal weight with 3157 calories per day. Seriously? I don't even eat half that amount on a daily basis. I eat maybe 1600 calories a day which includes beverages. I'm quite skeptical about this "calorie calculator".

Here's the site: http://nutrition.about.com/library/b...ears=20&page=4

That sounds about right. Of course, it doesn't know your individual metabolism.

I am 6' 200 lbs and bought a book by a nutritionist who specializes in pro athletes. That book suggested I eat around 3400 calories/day along with exercise to lose weight.

Keep in mind you're probably consuming more than 1600 calories. Serving sizes are pretty small. Also, for many foods, especially prepared ones who are not homogeneous, calories fluctuate (for example, think of chex mix. If you ate mostly M&M's in the mix, it's going to be more calories than if you ate the same volume of only chex or pretzels. It's usually an estimate). Unless you are using a food scale I'd assume you're consuming multiple servings and not expecting it. If I ate 1600 calories/day I'd look like a prisoner camp inmate.

Regardless, that sounds good to me. I don't know what kind of exercise you are up to or how active you are the remainder of your day, though. My plan was for intense weight lifting 3-4 times/week. Running doesn't burn as many calories in the long run as that so maybe if you're doing mild exercise only you'd want to cut a bit lower.

[ODogg]

Re: Food Addiction? I think so..

Just eat less each day