help! cant stop eating

[xxx_dana_xxx]

i dont know what to do,

a while back i lost around 30 lbs and was doing cathe and the firm everyday and was maintaining and happy. i hurt my ankle and stopped working out for a while , but kept eating as much as i had been while working out all the time and started to gain

i now do cathe or the firm 1-1 1/2 hours a day with abs like 6 days a week and i cant stop eating and im gaining and gaining! i wake up ever day determined to control my food intake and fail by 6 pm.

i love working out and have no problem motivating myself to do it everyday but if im going to stay fat and keep eating whats the point!


argh!!



thanks for letting me vent


dana

 

[amyg]

my .02:
you can't gain by eating breakfast
you can't gain by eating lunch
(so eat a big breakfast and lunch)
remember to keep your workouts to an hour, 5-6 days a week or you run the risk of hurting yourself
don't take it all as a "pass/fail"--- do your best every day and forgive yourself if you don't make it every day

 

[JenL13]

Hey Dana -

Venting is the first step! If you don't mind me asking, what does your daily food intake look like? It could be that you are always hungry b/c you aren't eating the right foods. You need a mix of carbs, protein, fat, and fiber to keep yourself satisfied. I've never really followed any "program" but my mom does weight watchers so I've learned a lot from her and especially the importance of fiber when it comes to feeling full. You also need to make sure you are drinking enough water, a lot of times our bodies/minds tend to mistake being thirsty with being hungry.

Hang in there and don't let yourself get down- that is the worst thing you can do. Wake up each day thinking this is a new day and I can do with it what I want. If you fail that day with your eating, so be it, try a little harder each day and think positive. Eventually you will get there and remember, the main reason for working out is to be healthy and if you are working out for 1-1 1/2 hours each day you are doing something good for your body and more than a LOT of people do. Be proud and keep your head high!

 

[aintnosunshine]

Hello, I know how you feel, I have a trick that works for me I tell myself that ill be able to eat again in a few hours its not the last meal or anything. That sometimes works to make me stop eating, and sometimes it dosnt but life is to short to get stressed out about eating to much when everyday is another chance to turn it all around. Having an eating plan set out might also help, or write down everything you eat in the day and add up the calories before you consider having something else. Also your body could just be thirsty and you mistaken it for hungry, so i would try having a big glass of water and waiting a bit and if in 20 mins you still feel hungery then by all means eat! ( I didnt expect this to be so long but once i started i just keep thinking of more) Hope this is helpful. Michelle

 

[Flutterby]

I know how you feel, but my stomach gets so ticked off if I don't eat within a 5 hour period. This has to do with my fitness, and my body's metabolism. I'm pretty dang fit, and I have a fairly low body-fat percentage so I need the calories to keep myself from going too low in the weight department. I feel like I am constantly thinking about food, but at least I make good choices!

I know my opinion probably isn't the most valuable to you because I am a veggie (I don't know if you are or not), so my diet is usually pretty low in cals and fat because of this. But, I always eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, and usually one snack if not two throughout the day. Here's an idea of what I eat:

Breakfast:
Bowl of Bran Flakes & Honey Nut Cheerios w/ soymilk and one banana
Hot Decaf Tea

Snack:
8 ounces water mixed with one scoop soy protein powder

Lunch:
Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwich on whole wheat
Baby Carrots
Pretzals
Apple
Water

Dinner:
Whole Wheat Thin-Crust Pizza w/ artichokes, mushrooms, tomatoes, onions)
Side salad w/ dressing (don't like alot of dressing, just enough to flavor the lettuce a bit ;-))
Chocolate Pudding made with soymilk

I hope this helps you out! Don't push yourself too hard with the workouts. Stay motivated, but don't worry so much about what you put in your mouth...as long as your diet's balanced with whole grains, fruit, and veggies and you leave out all the 'empty calorie' things (or at least use them in moderation), then you'll see the scale move in the right direction! Take care...

 

[catwoman]

I am a firm believer that we are supposed to eat every 3 hours or so. We've gotten so used to making our bodies wait for food until the "proper time" that we are actually working against our bodies. I mean, we were raised to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We were told not to snack because it would ruin our dinner. In fact, we SHOULD have been snacking. But we should have been taught to snack on the right kinds of food.

I typically eat breakfast around 6:30 (Cheerios with milk and blueberries, a glass of OJ, and a cup of herbal tea). Then I eat a snack around 9:30 or 10:00 (semi-sweet morsels with my homemade almond trailmix, or a handful of pistachios in Activia yogurt, or a whole wheat or whole grain English muffin with either apple butter or deli turkey breast). Then I eat lunch around 12:30 (lately, lunch has consisted of a cup of homemade "Garden Harvest" soup and a salad with cranberries, toasted walnuts, Farmer cheese and homemade vinegar/oil/garlic dressing on Spring Greens). My afternoon snack is around 3:00 and is similar to my morning snack. Then I have dinner around 6:30-7:00 after my evening workout (dinner varies, but I try to keep it healthy and sugar-free and refined flour-free).

Here's another thing to remember when you're exercising a lot: Eat a good amount of protein. Chicken, fish, lean red meat, and unsalted nuts like almonds, peanuts, walnuts, etc. Make sure you're keeping your intake of sugar, sugar substitutes, and refined flour products to a minimum, too. Those products throw your body's chemistry out of whack so that you feel hungry more often (and often hungry to the point of over-eating). I'm reading "You on a Diet" and it explains this reaction much better than I can. I'm actually refining the way I eat as I read the book, and it's been a real eye-opener!

Good luck!

 

[nancy324]

Dana-
Have you tried eliminating simple carbs? I found that I was addicted to simple carbs, and if I eat one piece of bread, I have to have the whole loaf. But if I stay away from simple carbs, and stick to complex carbs instead, I'm just fine.
HTH,
Nancy

 

[xxx_dana_xxx]

hey everyone


happy new year and thanks for all the answers


i think it is the simple carbs nancy


i know i am really addicted to them and if you knew me youd know how much i dont believe in that usually and would even scoff at someone for saying it


i tried getting only whole grains and super high fiber carbs and shoved them down my throat too


i think its the taste, i think ill just feel deprived and unhappy for the rest of my life if i dont get to taste an adequate amount of yummy food


ill be really good all day, eat like 1350 cal. and then right at the end of the night ill shove another 4-500 cal in real quick of something bad.

oh well, ive lost weight before and ill do it again, but its just really disheartening to gain 10 lbs while you are working out like every day and its fat, not muscle, its all in my belly

 

[allwildgirl]

Here's a thought - if you're working out 1 1/2 hours a day, 1350 calories isn't nearly enough. You likely NEED those extra 4-500 calories to fuel your body. I suggest you just make sure that the 4-500 extra calories are quality. Fruits, veggies, lean proteins, complex carbs/whole grains. You're gaining weight because you're not feeding your body enough. True story

 

[nancy324]

You are working out 1.5 hrs. per day and only eating 1350 calories??? Please listen to Shelley!

As for the simple sugars, try cutting back gradually. And when you eat a simple carb, combine it with protein. That will decrease the spike in your blood sugar and cause you to feel more satisfied.

I used to have the tendency to eat right at the end of the day too. I would keep the fridge filled with these little 90-calorie yogurts that had 11 grams of sugars. Sweet enough to satisfy my sweet tooth, but they also have a lot of protein which cuts the craving effect. If I felt like it, I'd eat two or even three of them. Filling and sweet, with minimal calorie damage.

HTH,
Nancy