I've tried Weight Watchers, and I just can't seem to do it. I'm always hungry. I've done CORE too, but that doesn't work out either. I did Atkins with my DH for 1.5 days. He's been on it for weeks now.
Today I was so hungry, I just binged on junk food. I know what caused it, I was stressed and didn't find an outlet that I could have used in place.
What is a good diet that I can stick to? Or just maybe some good ol' advice!
Have you tried making sure to get more protien and fiber and less carbs? If you have tried atkins, i know you have, but sometimes telling me i cant have something makes me want it all the more. that is why atkins would never work for me. But i do try to incorporate more protien and fiber. I dont eat a carb unless i have a protien with it. If i dont get enough fiber or if i start my day with carbs, i will eat ALL DAY.
You might also want to get your blood checked, when i was at my worst with hunger i had extremily high insulin. I am now on Byetta and it has cut my hunger by more than half. High insulin level can make you really hungry and is also a sign of prediabetes.
Try the Change One theory (don't know anything about their diet): Change one habit at a time. When you start to understand or incorporate it without a ton of struggle, add another habit and so forth. Write down all the foods you will eat that are considered healthy (there is a lot more out there than we think and you may feel less deprived when you see it on paper). Write down your obstacles and try to find strategies to overcome it. Aim for progress, not perfection!
I'm not on a specific diet. I do watch my calories (so I guess I fit that one). Mostly work on reducing portions, drinking water, making healthier choices, and celebrate when you DO make a better choice than you would have before.
I made it a point to never be hungry when I was losing weight. I ate at least 6 times a day, every 2 hours. I don't like being hungry, I make really bad food decisions when I'm hungry so preventing hunger was one of the keys to my success. I ate large volumes of lower calorie foods - concentrating on foods with high nutritional value over foods with low nutritional value.
I wanted to eat things I liked, things I could eat forever. I needed a plan for the rest of my life in order to lose weight and keep it off. I had to accept that I personally ate terribly and I had to give up the foods with little to no nutritional value and eat lots of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, lean protein, low fat dairy and healthy fats.
Typical day (when I was losing weight, just for example purposes):
B - 1/4 cup eggbeaters, microwaved, wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla with spinach leaves and tons of salsa (sometimes I chopped up a morning star farms veggie sausage or added chopped turkey for more protein oomph)
S - horizons non fat plain yogurt mixed with fresh berries, I also like low fat cottage cheese with mandarin oranges
L - half turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread (spinach, tomato, onions, spicy mustard), cup of bean soup (like vegetarian chili or lentil), I also love big spinach salads with grilled chicken, some seeds/nuts, dried cranberries, grape tomatoes and low fat balsamic vinaigrette
S - fruit
S - cut up veggies (carrot sticks, sugar snap peas, grape tomatoes, pepper strips) with dip (like home made hummus)
D - I always picture dividing the plate into fourths - 1/2 veggies, 1/2 whole grain carb, 1/2 lean protein (little bit of healthy fat, like sauteeing in olive oil) and most of the stuff I make for dinner follows this "formula" like...
stir fry with shrimp and lots of vegetables over brown rice
Chicken and spinach/mushroom quesadilla with whole wheat tortillas
home made pasta sauce with turkey-chicken sausage over whole wheat pasta
grilled salmon with a baked sweet potato and steamed broccoli
home made soup with chickpeas, spinach, tomatoes, leeks with a piece of whole wheat bread
S - fruit (I really liked to warm up a couple of tablespoons of apple butter and dip a banana in it or a baked apple with blueberries and a few walnuts)
18 months of maintenance - I still eat just like this, just allow more calories everyday. Which is great, now I can fit whole wheat toast with natural peanut butter easily into my calorie total for the day!
I pig out on veggies....you can eat piles of stuff like zucchini or eggplant or lettuce (just to name a few) as long as you don't use a bunch of oil to prepare them. Being hungry sucks...drinking lots of water helps me as well.
Another idea - don't have junk food available...or at least make it easier to get to healthy snacks first.
I just wanted to agree with the Chick in the Hat, not having junk food around made it much easier.
I also wanted to say, that I dieted a lot in the last 20 years, "fake" diet food never satisfied me. I always felt deprived and unhappy and couldn't wait until the diet was over and I could eat nachos and cheese danishes again. I was amazed at how happy whole foods make me. I thought I needed Snackwell cookies to "diet" - I was so wrong. My tastebuds changed completely when I quit eating junk, I love the taste of plain old "normal" whole foods now, I find baked sweet potatoes as sweet as candy.
LOL to the "Being hungry sucks." It really does suck...that just made me laugh a little.
But it's so true, don't have junk around the house, because you know that's the first thing you'll eat and you're bound to eat more of it than you should. Case in Point...I bought a box of those 100 calorie packs and ate the whole box in a day. I knew buying that was a bad idea...as well as these Teddy Grahams I have sitting by my desk....NEVER BUY JUNK! It sucks too.
Count me in on the binging when ANY junk food is around. I bought those 100 cal packs too and I ate two packs consecutively!!! Geez. Now that it's done, I don't care about them anymore. No craving, nothing. When I see it, I'm like "hmmm...I'd like a pack." Crazy.
I've never tried Weight Watchers Points, but from my calculations, they put on a pretty low amount to start with. It sounds like a lot of points, but a Point is basically 50 calories (give or take a little depending on fat and fiber), and my mother and sister both seemed to be at a very low number of Points for their weights, even though they were following the plan correctly. It does work for some people, but for me, just plain old counting calories works MUCH better. When you count calories, you can still have some junk food, just not ALL junk food. There's no reason not to have a cup of ice cream or a chocolate bar once in a while, so long as you fit it into your calories for the day.
I also agree that being hungry sucks (and love love love how Chick in the Hat is so direct about such things!). Like Glory said, you don't have to starve yourself. Eating every 2-3 hours all day long is actually good for your metabolism...keeps your inner fire burning all day long, if you will. It just can't be a whole bag of potato chips every 2-3 hours
For me, drastic change helped best rather than gradual changes, but it sounds like you might do better with gradual since the drastic attempts you've made haven't worked out for you. So, as suggested, take it one step at a time. Maybe before you change anything else, you could get used to drinking 8+ servings of water a day. After you've got a handle on that and feel you could continue without much effort, maybe try tracking your calories. You don't have to reduce or limit them right away, but if you have an idea of how much you're already taking in, that will give you an idea of how much you should take in in order to lose or maintain rather than gain. Then maybe you could work on getting in 5+ servings of fruits and veggies a day, and so on.
We all want the weight gone yesterday, but the truth is, the longer you work at it, the better the new habits will stick with you. And that's what it is--not a diet, but new habits for life.
I started at just over 310 pounds, and as of this morning am 283. It's not a big difference in numbers, but it is a HUGE difference in how i feel and how I deal with food
I am at a loss.
It really does suck...that just made me laugh a little.
