Eating some carbs makes me want to eat more carbs!
It's like a riddle and a vicious cycle. Don't mind me, just feeling a little frustrated with my inability to regulate my carb intake. A little is a ok but a little makes me want more and then suddenly I just ate 800cal worth of potatoes.
Oh, I hear 'ya. Carbs mess with our bodies something fierce if we're highly sensitive to them. If you can figure out which carb laden foods trigger the "wants" for you, just put them on the once-in-a-blue-moon list. Also, I use the glycemic index and the carb counter on myfitnesspal. Since MFP says I can have 238 g of carbs a day and I try to keep it between 50-75 with 100 the absolute this-is-a-splurge-day maximum, the lower intake has helped with reducing the cravings.
Hang in there. Several people have posted that once you go several days on lower carb intake that your cravings will lessen.
Good luck -- there's enough to deal with each day without being driven over the edge by what we eat!
Carbs are tough. That why I've had to give up basically all but non-starchy veggies 6 days a week. Saturday is my diet plan's cheat day. On cheat day, the fact that carbs make me want to eat even more carbs is no big deal because I can have all I want all day long. Then I go to sleep that night, wake up the next day and go right back to no carbs except for non-starchy veggies until the next Saturday rolls around. This is so much better than what I used to do, which was pretty much eat carbs all day everyday.
Jacqui D..
May I ask what you average in loss per week? I have been eating no carbs except non-starch veggies for 3 months now. I started out by losing a lot then it slowed to about 2 lbs/week, now I am not losing at all. I was wondering about this cheat day process that I see alot of people on this site are doing. How hard is it to go back on plan after eating what ever you want that day? Do you think it helps the metabolism not get stuck in starve mode?
I know what you mean, by "carbs make me want more carbs!" I went out and ate cupcakes yesterday, and today, I just wanted SUGAR SUGAR SUGAR! Eating sugar just begets more sugar cravings!
It's seriously true for me that the key to curbing sugar cravings is keeping my blood sugar steady, which, ugh, means no sugary treats ever. I feel like I lose my momentum with this entire dieting thing whenever I eat really sugary food. Complex-carbs don't seem to have any negative effect on me, but if I eat cupcakes, watch out.
Catgoyle, in 17 weeks, I've lost 34 lbs, so that averages out to 2 lbs per week. From the research I've done, your body can only lose 2 lbs of fat per week. Anything more than that is just water. The idea behind cheat day is 1) not to feel deprived, so that you don't throw in the towel, and 2) to keep your metabolism burning efficiently by shaking things up each week. I can absolutely say that for me #1 is true. As for #2, I don't know the science well enough behind it to say if my metabolism is actually staying revved up, but that is one of the claims of the diet I'm on. For me, going right back to low-carb after cheat day has been easy. I think I'm just so grateful to be on a diet with a cheat day that it gives me a mental boost to stick to the plan. I always know I have a cheat day coming up. My mantra has become, "I can have it on cheat day," and the temptation to cheat on other days just isn't there. As I sit here right now, I have beside me a bag of York Peppermint Patty Pieces that I was munching on yesterday. I see it there, but I'm not tempted to eat candy today. Today, I'm back to the business of losing weight. I want to lose weight more than I want that candy, and I can easily make that choice because I know I can have all the candy I want on Saturday. It's no longer a forbidden fruit. It doesn't have the same power over me. Only once, when I was going through a very stressful, emotional time, did I struggle for a day, and that's because I have always been an emotional eater and I was feeling that pull. Saying "I can have it on cheat day," as well as coming on 3FC to get my feelings out about being an emotional eater, got me through it. Some people have told me that cheat days are a trigger for them, so obviously it doesn't work for everybody, but it does work for me.
Are you like this with all carby by foods? Brown rice? Bread? Sweet potatoes?
I can eat potatoes without going overboard and most carby things except nice, soft bread so that is really the only thing I don't keep in the house.
Not all carbs affect me the same way, you're right.
I can eat rice moderately and feel fine, full and relaxed.
Potatoes don't make me crazy after I eat them but I have a problem limiting my portions because I can't stop eating them.
Legumes I enjoy very much and can keep those under control.
Corn is fine I guess, I don't have any real cravings for it.
WHEAT makes me a stark raving lunatic. It makes me really full (content) and then turns around and makes me maniacally hungry. This is something I have been paying very close attention to, the difference between how different starches make me feel. I grew up in a culture and a house where bread was plentiful and accompanied every meal. Heck, bread was served with pasta. Bread is served with potatoes. I've always had a weakness for bread.
And then the worst thing happened. After my wonderful healthy pregnancy I started breastfeeding. Which is great and I did it for a year and a half and I'm really glad I did. But BF brought with it a hunger I had never experienced before. I went from not having a sweet tooth at all to waking up in the middle of the night thinking about cookies. Of course I allowed myself to eat because I was a new mommy, I was breastfeeding and burning lots of calories and I figured I'd just listen to my body. Well that whole business left me with a sugar/wheat addiction that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.
So now it's the sugar/wheat combo that is my achilles heel. Muffins, pancakes, waffles, cookies, cake, cinammon raisin bagels, doughnuts etc. So I'm working on my wheat and sugar thing, the combination of the 2 is lethal.
I'd say try cold turkey on the wheat, muffins, bagels, etc. for 3 weeks. I use to eat that stuff all the time. All the time. And yes I was on the carbs equals more carbs awful Ferris wheel.
I just stopped buying pasta and bread. Stopped. Stopped eating bagels. Stopped eating basically all baked goods. And candy. Cookies. The first few weeks I felt a little odd, like a low-grade flu kind of. I was not in ultra low carb Atkins 'flu' though. I never stopped fruit and veggies and cheese and nuts.
Now I just don't crave them anymore. I don't think I have had a bagel in months and they are available to me at various meetings. They are just there. I stay away.
If it is a specific thing I would try the cold turkey. What allowed me to do it was the thought of being free for the rest of my life. Of me having control. It was enough to get beyond those first few weeks. And it has worked. It was worth it a thousand times over.
Last edited by diamondgeog; 11-18-2013 at 12:27 PM.
I cut the starchy carbs after getting the news I was a T2 diabetic. I lost weight pretty regularly but nothing was touching my round middle. I couldn't go down a size in pants because even though the butt and legs were extremely loose the waist was still tight. I decided to go gluten free and I started losing around the waist. The side effect is that I've lost the cravings for carbs because of eliminating wheat and grains from my diet.
Cold turkey hasn't worked for me. I want it to work and I know that it is good to do so. But my eating disorder prevents me from simple decision making. I don't get derailed. I get deranged almost. For me a binge is not an afternoon of overeating it's downright dangerous. I do low carb, NOT no carb, it's just a matter if walking the fine line between indulging in a craving or turning into a werewolf.
WHEAT makes me a stark raving lunatic. It makes me really full (content) and then turns around and makes me maniacally hungry. This is something I have been paying very close attention to, the difference between how different starches make me feel. I grew up in a culture and a house where bread was plentiful and accompanied every meal. Heck, bread was served with pasta. Bread is served with potatoes. I've always had a weakness for bread.
I hear you! And it's definitely a fine line to stay low carb enough to lose weight without making yourself crazy!
Yeah, after so many years and pounds low carb gives me sanity and simplicity. The cravings and hunger on lower calorie, without watching carbs, is not worth it. Not to mention I have to restrict and track MUCH more carefully when I'm stimulating insul that much.
So anywhere between 10-40 net carbs has been my MO lately, I've been out of diet mojo and just working on staying on plan as much as possible (no crazy binges) instead of working at big deficits. Sometimes you just do the best you can and that's good enough. No grains, sugar, or starchy veggies for me. Atkins rung 4 is a good fit for lifetime maintenance with my particular sensitivities, and I've begun bouncing and gaining on too many calories so it seems that carb level paired with no more than 2200 calories (while breastfeeding) is what it's going to take to get down further.
Carbs vent!
