Why can't I seem to keep the weight off! I'll seem to be doing good for a few weeks but every month my period comes and I have horrible cravings for chocolate and I gain 5lbs and it takes forever to lose!

I will gain up to 5 pounds during my TOM, too, but it's just water weight and will go away in about a week afterwards.

I don't get chocolate cravings (I guess I'm lucky), and wouldn't eat it even if I did because I find that I get horrible cramps if I do eat chocolate before or during my TOM.

So, I'm not sure what advice to give about that. Maybe limit yourself to having just a few Hershey's kisses a day, having chocolate sorbet, putting some chocolate chips into yogurt, or drinking Ovaltine with skim milk?

Have you tried any substitutions for the chocolate cravings? I've heard avocado is a healthier substitute. (Actually for me it'd always be avocado > chocolate. )

Use something like no sugar added hot chocolate?
Limit the chocolate intake? (A couple of pcs after dinner... savoring them.)
Cut it out completely? (Cold turkey. Throw it out of the house.)

Ugg, I hear you. My cravings are unbearable, it makes me feel totally out of control. Although usually the weight gain is temporary. I fight all month and just when I think I can get through, bam. I try to be prepared. Food wise. Lots of healthy choices at easy access and I can usually talk myself out of the bad stuff. Although chocolate and I are another story. mmmm chocolate! I love the no sugar added hot coco. top it (or some sugar free jello) with some light or fat free cool whip and you've got yourself a fairly guilt free sweet fix.

Hang in there!

~betsy

Your best bet is to actually eat the chocolate when you crave it, and just make sure it's at least 70% cocoa. My cravings usually go away after only 1 or 2 blocks since it's so dark! The extra sugar in commercial milk chocolates will cause weight gain, but 70% cocoa or greater shouldn't have an effect on your weight. The rest is just water.

I know that keeping up with omega 3's can cut down on cravings and cramps. But when you crave chocolate just go ahead and eat the real thing- you'll recover quicker!

Most of it is probably water weight.

For most of my life (I started at 9 or 10, regular and with severe cramps and PMS from the very start). Just before and during TOM, I would have horrendous cravings, mostly for fat, salt, meat and chocolate. I'd also have increadibly bad mood swings.

I don't really like chocolate (I know, I'm a freak) or most fast food UNLESS I'm hormonal. My husband used to call it "meat week," and tease that he had to sneak out to get burgers, and toss the bag into the apartment and give me a few minutes before it was safe to come into the apartment - yes, unfortunately it was nearly that bad.

I went to a consultation for a weight loss program in our area, and while I couldn't afford the program (most insurances don't cover it), the doctor leading the clinic gave me some really great advice. The two things she suggested most for craving control were a low carb diet, and for PMS and PMDD (I'd never heard of PMDD, but I realized that it was a better fit for my extreme symptoms), was changing birth control, or the use of my birth control. I think it was progestin she said that often triggers cravings, and being put on bc, changing bc, or stacking bc (taking none or fewer of the placebo pills so that you shorten, or eliminate your period) could help.

I stack my bc, and combined with lower carb choices make a tremendous difference in my hunger. I still have so many years of habit to undo, but the raging, "starving-to-death-even-though-I-just-ate" hunger as well as the intense cravings have virtually disappeared (as long as I'm eating right, too many carbs or something sugary will trigger cravings).

Something to consider and talk over with your doctor, at any rate.