[erin9598]

It seems so wrong to feel this full when you are on a diet. I have used Atkins before, but I often found myself slipping into not eating near enough calories because after the second or third day I am not very hungry anymore. Of course, then I quit. When I eat I feel so full that I feel guilt for perceived overeating. I need to figure out how to convince my brain that a sense of fullness does not mean I overate. How do you convince yourself that the scale is not going to jump up tomorrow just because a meal made you feel full? I somehow want to equate fullness to failure.

I did Atkins years ago after my second child and it worked amazingly. Over the last two or three years I have tried it several times and failed miserably by day three or four. I think it is because I have not gone strict induction ever again after that first time. I wind up starving myself because of the above reason but also eating the wrong things, or I wind up not wanting to eat those foods because my cravings for other things are so strong. I have spent too much time "cheating" on induction and doing things like eating banned foods because I don't eat enough to go over my carbs. Or at least this is what I convince myself by not counting the carbs in my veggies, or in my cheeses. It only sets me up for failure and makes the cravings worse. This time it is strict induction. I don't want to fail at even getting started again. Over the next few days the biggest challenge is going to be not letting my mind get the best of me because of things like feeling full. Please tell me I am not alone here, lol.

[fatmad]

Yes, it is hard. I find it best to write down a menu plan for the week to stick to. I give myself lots of variety from the food plan, but it changes depending on what food is in season at the time I am doing induction. (mostly veggie changes of course). I seldom feel "full" or overfed with atkins, but we are all made differently, and certainly people who are used to low fat find they react quite differently to a higher fat meal.
Good luck, hope you can manage to stick it and get moving!

[kaplods]

Originally Posted by erin9598

It seems so wrong to feel this full when you are on a diet. I have used Atkins before, but I often found myself slipping into not eating near enough calories because after the second or third day I am not very hungry anymore. Of course, then I quit. When I eat I feel so full that I feel guilt for perceived overeating. I need to figure out how to convince my brain that a sense of fullness does not mean I overate.

I think the biggest problem is associating guilt with eating in the first place.

One of the ways, "this time" has been different for me, is to declare my eating, exercise and weight loss a guilt-free, frustration-free, deprivation-free, regret-free zone.

I started working at viewing myself objectively - as scientist, lab rat, and flawed human being with the "job" of finding what worked, and doing more of the successful things and less of the unsuccessful things.

I don't have to feel "bad" to learn and make choices based on what I learn.

I learned that for me, what I thought of as "fullness" was actually overfullness. Even on low-carb, fullness did mean that I'd overeaten, but that wasn't a case for piling on guilt, it was just a case for portion control even while reducing carbs.

I'm not saying that's true for you, only that it was for me - but I only learned that (not by guilt) but by seeing the results on the scale. My weight loss was stalling, even on Atkins induction. That's how I knew I was overeating (not by the guilt).

I had to learn that only the scale could tell me if my changes weren't working, not my feelings.

I ended up choosing a low-carb exchange plan, so I could control calories/portions as well as carbs - but it was the scale and my food journals that led me there, not guilt.

If you keep a good food journal, you can spot potential problems. It was how I learned that I really can eat more calories of low-carb to lose weight (about 1500 calories of high-carb seems to be roughly equivalent to 1800 calories of low-carb).

I also learned that I don't get "rabid hunger" on low-carb (what I mean by rabid hunger, is that out-of control hunger that can make you feel half-starved and food obsessed even when your stomach is already hurting from eating too much).

For me, giving up guilt was a practical matter (I proved in my food journals - which were also emotion journalsm that guilt did not work for me). I could see in my journals (and I already knew from experience) that guilt was counterproductive - not only did it not work, it usually led to to a binge.

So I'm committed to doing what works (and if I'm not doing what I know does work, guilt isn't going to help, so I have to find a way other than guilt to inspire me to do what I know will work).