I need real help and ideas for getting my ravenous appetite in check
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Anonymous
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Have you started any medications recently? That is what did it to me -- it changed my metabolism and caused me to eat constantly.
The only thing that has counteracted it is Wegovy. |
Anonymous
| It would help to find a distraction: find a new job or really absorbing hobby. |
Anonymous
| It could be a reaction to low dopamine as food is known to stimulate dopamine release. |
Anonymous
| Get a full physical work up. Many different possible,causes. When I started craving sweet and salty foods all of a sudden, and being incredibly hungry all day, it was actually sleep apnea. I got my cpap and I am back to a normal appetite, never snacking between meals. Like I was before. Poor sleep messes with your hunger hormones. But there are so many possible other explanations. |
Anonymous
Eat more protein and drink more water |
Anonymous
| Keto and/or fast. It really works. |
Anonymous
| Welcome to perimenopause. Wegovy helped me immensely with this exact issue. |
Anonymous
Yes, it’s clearly your cortisol. Protein will fix it. 200 grams a day minimum! |
Anonymous
| How old are you? This describes me the moment I hit menopause. My appetite went through the roof. |
Anonymous
| I have the same problem, OP. I think about food all the time. It's a miracle I'm not overweight...yet. I'm 44 and it's catching up with me. The only thing that helps me curb my appetite is when I'm eating high protein and low carbs, and no sweets. After about 2-3 days of eating that way, all my cravings go away. Sugar is the biggest culprit for me. |
Anonymous
Stupid question, but if it is diabetes (or prediabetes) they'll just put her on a diabetic diet which is (ta-da) not easy to stick to precisely because of all these mad bad cravings? |
Anonymous
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Get sleep
Try a CGM like Levels to monitor blood spikes High protein high fiber No to processed foods |
Anonymous
| Eat whole food plant based and eliminate highly processed, hyper palatable foods. You can eat a large volume of filling food and once you detox from sugar and salt, you won't crave them. |
Anonymous
Hi OP, I recently lost a decent amount of weight mainly from cutting out snacking & most junk food (plus adding a very small amount of exercise). I just wanted to encourage you because it is really hard especially at first. From what you have described I would recommend starting by talking to your doctor if at all possible. You probably want baseline blood work to rule out diabetes, thyroid issues, or any moderate or worse vitamin deficiencies -- any of which could cause this sort of huge appetite and cannot be addressed safely by just not eating. If you are able to rule out underlying issues, try making a food log for a week or two. The key is to commit to being completely honest and writing everything on it that you eat and drink. It's not about shaming yourself. You don't even have to show it to anyone else. But it is important to gather information because you need to know what is happening before you can notice trends that show you what you need to change. Based on this log you will probably notice things that stand out, and you can make a goal to start/stop/change things a little bit at a time. If I had to guess, many people don't actually get enough hydration so this could be one thing you see. Water and herbal teas are best for hydration. Fruit juice sort of counts but isn't great because you don't get all the nutrients of the whole fruit but you do get calories and sugar so it is better to limit juice. Sports drinks like gatorade sort of count but tend to have more sugar and weird filler ingredients so these often make sense only after moderate to intense exercise or when sick (both are times when people's electrolytes tend to get weird). The first change I made (have lost 34 pounds this year, I started out short and obese) was to commit to drinking at least 64 ounces of water a day. This seemed to both give me more energy (useful when I eventually added exercise) and slightly reduced my appetite. Then you might notice on your food log that you snack on certain foods way more often or in larger quantities than you intended to eat or thought you were eating. My next change was to get rid of most "junk" snack food and instead get some things like roasted almonds & plain popcorn (NOT the microwave stuff that is really good but only tastes good because of weird chemical ingredients. My popcorn is literally just popcorn and a little salt now). At first I didn't try to reduce the times that I would snack, I just forced myself to only be eating slightly healthier snacks because that is all I had available. Then you probably want to look at your 3 main meals of the day to see if they are healthy and satisfying. Make sure there is protein, COMPLEX carbs with fiber (store-bought white bread is the enemy of healthy eating and weight loss, sorry), and some sort of bean or vegetable. Yeah even for breakfast. No I don't know why, but I know it works. If I eat like that for breakfast, I want way fewer snacks between then and lunch. From there, next is probably to start trying to identify if there are any psychological/emotional patterns to your snacking. I discovered that I often nibbled on snacks to satisfy emotional needs more than out of a true physical need for nutrients, so I had to start trying to tackle that. Try your best to keep your doctor in the loop throughout this journey. It will be hard. You will need sanity checks, probably nutrition advice, maybe even someone to stop you from getting too extreme and veering into disordered eating patterns. The doctor is more likely to notice any emerging problems than you are when you're in the thick of your diet-reform & weight loss fight. If you can't imagine talking to your current Dr about this stuff, you might want to consider whether you can add a weight loss/nutrition specialist provider to your care team or even find a primary care provider you connect with better. Good luck OP! |
Anonymous
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A few things that have helped me reform my eating habits and lose a few pounds recently are not having as many snacks in the house (for me, chips and cheeze-its and some desserts), eating protein for breakfast (cottage cheese or yogurt with fruit for me, and a good amount of 4% cottage cheese and yogurt not the 0 or 2), and big salads for lunch with things that keep me full (for me that is volume + some combination of chick peas, beans, cheeses, dressings, and I aim for a 450-600 calorie salad). I used to not take lunch to work and when I left around 3 I had eaten snacks but was still hungry so I got home and ate lunch close to dinner or many many snacks. Taking a big salad really helps me manage not snacking or to have a small reasonable snack.
If I get hungry between meals I try to go for a small bowl of cottage cheese, string cheese, an apple or fruit, or rice crackers. I try to limit drinks with calories and drink mainly water, seltzer, spindrift, tea, coffee with only milk, and sometimes a glass of wine or cranberry or grapefruit juice (often diluted own seltzer). I am not huge on dessert so moderation works for me, but I also have a few go-to 150 calorie dessert options so that if I "want a little something" but it isn't huge craving level, I can do that. I feel like I am satisfied and eat what I want, but I don't crave a lot of unhealthy. I am not afraid of fast food (I actually like the kale salad and 5 piece nuggets from CFA, or a bean and guac salad from Chipotle), and eating this way makes me feel like when I do splurge it's accounted for. |