Yeah, there's "grazing" and then there's "free-for-all" I can't snack. I just feel yucky all day. Part of maintenance for me was learning how to let go of ideas that work in theory, but don't work all that well for me.

It's reasonable to expect changing your life to give you some gut check moments, but if your quality of life has decreased instead of increased, that's smething to think about.

Oh yes, I also found 3 meals a day to be wonderfully freeing. YMMV.

I've always heard that grazing, or mini-meals, is the best way to lose weight, but maybe its different for maintenance.

I'm constantly focused on food as well - mostly because I just like eating - but it doesn't worry me (yet).

My suggestion is to store snacks in your office that are roughly 100 calories. Know you can have 2 when you want them, but don't plan them :-) I keep fruit, veggies, individual packs of raisins, peanuts, granola bars, etc around for an easy snack. Cheesesticks could work, too, or yogurt. If they're not planned more than "I can eat up to two" you may be less likely to obsess over wanting to eat it.

And on the bright side...without having to buy stuff for snacks, I won't spend as much money on groceries either...

It may very well be the best way, but it just doesn't work for me. It's sort of like me and food journaling. So many people have been helped by it, but I don't benefit from it at all.

I didn't mean to imply that small meals become ineffective once you hit maintenance. On the contrary. My point was that my maintenance benefited from embracing a practice that works great for me, but not necessarily others.

And I didn't mean to imply that there's a right way and a wrong way I didn't take what you said as implication that small meals don't work in maintenance.

It was just me thinking out loud - that's the one thing that seems to be constant in all of the weight loss articles I read - eat small meals, every 3 hours, however I know plenty of people who hate it and can't do it - and these articles never say what you should do when you get to your goal, which (it seems) is where many of you (not me yet) struggle. I'd be curious to see what the same authors recommend for that.

I've always been one to constantly graze throughout the day. I'm going to blame it on my oral fixation, but I also say that if I only eat 3 times a day, my metabolism slows down - everyone's different, and different things work for different people.

me too. I absolutely HATE thinking about food so much and it makes me sad to realize that this will always be an issue in my head. I just need to find a hobby or learn to focus on things I used to love.

Ugh! I know how this is!! I'm in the very same boat.

As we SPEAK I want a popsicle that's in the fridge that I know I get to eat today. I want it NOW though. I want to eat my next meal NOW even though I'm not hungry. Just to get it out of the way so that I can stop looking at the clock and figuring out when I can eat next.

I've been trying to find stupid things to do to distract myself. Like, I've gotten a hold of a whole season's worth of episodes of the Biggest Loser and I'll just watch them until it's time to eat. It keeps my mind off it a bit. That's the only advice I can give... find distractions.

When I'm at home distractions are easy. I work out in the morning, so I can watch some show that recorded during the day, or play a video game or read. At work though...it's hard. There's a lot of downtime with my job, and time at the computer which just SCREAMS for snack food...

Oh it's so good to know I'm not alone! I OBSESS about food! I love it that's why I'm fat it seems when I'm counting calories i think about every little thing and that's the biggest reason i give up my diet so much because it becomes an obsession for me. I'm trying to find ways to just accept healthy eating and not obsess about it so much.

I wish someone could find a magic cure for the obsession with food. For me, it has gotten worse and worse to where it has seriously crippled me. I am either obsessing over food, schedules, exercise, my weight, etc. for pretty much every second of every day. The things I used to enjoy doing can't hold my interest. I don't enjoy anything but eating anymore. I no longer have friends, because I no longer enjoy or am able to handle social situations well, and also I freak out if I am going to be stuck somewhere or with somebody when it is supposed to be time for my next meal, which I savor and stretch out as long as humanly possible.

It is pathetic and it makes me want to crawl into a hole. And eat, of course. I started seeing a therapist and so far she is having me NOT weigh myself in the mornings and NOT write down calories for any foods, as those are part of my obsessive behaviors. I still need to find something out there that I can actually focus on and enjoy... I can't even read a book or watch TV or a movie, I am every minute looking at the clock and agonizing over it, thinking it's going to be forever before I get to eat again (no matter how often I actually do eat). I'm terrified of spending the rest of my life being tortured by these food thoughts all the time. I hope this doesn't happen to the rest of you <3

Just an update....over the past week, since the original post, I've been cutting back on snacks. I'll have a larger breakfast and lunch, ONE apple in the afternoon, and dinner...rather than more and more snacks. I tried to go without an afternoon snack, but couldn't do it...I inhaled everything in sight when I got home! It's also helped that work has been busy recently - not a lot of down time to think about it.

So until the down time comes back, I'm making myself work on WAITING for that snack, instead of eating it right away. I think I can make this work...

I have been overly obsessed with food since I was 13. I actually have boxes and BOXES of those black composition books where I have written down everything I've eaten since I was about 14. The ONLY time I don't record what I eat is during pregnancy, hence my hefty weight gains during that time. Everybody has a hobby, I guess obsessing is just mine! So yes, I can SOOOOOOO relate!!!