Any diet tricks that you've recently uncovered or particularly dislike?

I don't like the apple test. Where they say that if you think you're hungry but the thought of an apple doesn't appeal to you then it means you're not really hungry. That's such a load of turnips. Apples are one of my least favorite fruits, why should I wait for that apple to appeal to me when I'm craving something else entirely?

I also don't think you can satisfy a craving with something so different than what you're craving. If I'm craving chocolate I can't fool myself with a carrot. I will still want the chocolate!

I think the test might make more sense for someone who likes (but doesn't necessarily love) apples. I agree with you that cravings can be specific, but my experience has also been that true hunger broadens the range of foods that appeal.

F.

The apple test (taken literally) doesn't work for me either, because I LOVE apples and they always appeal to me, even if I've just eaten three.

I do use the apple test (in spirit) to guage my hunger and to distinguish between hunger and the desire to eat for other reasons. I choose a borderline food. Something I will eat, but don't particularly like.


For example, several months ago, I bought two WW Smart One chicken oriental dinners to try, because they were on sale. Blegh, not very good. Very bland, and almost no flavor. Not bad enough to throw away, but not good enough to eat.

It has become my "apple test," a hunger litmus test. I ask myself, would I eat that dinner, if it was all there was. When I finally say yes, then I eat (but because there ARE other options, I eat something else).


I also use craving substitution (especially for binge trigger foods), but I wouldn't substitute carrots for chocolate. However, I will substitute dark chocolate. In a way, this is both a craving substitution and an "apple test" for me. I truly dislike dark chocolate and and while I like milk chocolate, I only love and crave it during pms/tom. Milk chocolate has WAY too much sugar and fat to be weight loss friendly, and it only makes me crave very unreasonable amounts of milk chocolate. Then I discovered that dark chocolate wasn't so terrible (if I was desperate enough to eat it, and I had to be desperate enough).

I now keep a package of Dove dark chocolate squares in my pantry. They're only appealing when there's no other option, and I won't overeat them, because I don't like them enough to eat more than one square. I also have reduced calorie hot cocoa mix for the same reason. I have to be craving chocolate pretty badly to be bothered with making hot cocoa, and I never crave a second cup.

For craving substitution to work, the substitute has to satisfy some aspect of the craving. What aspect of the craving is most important? If I want strawberry shortcake, will homemade strawberry sorbet satisfy (frozen strawberries and low-cal sweetener, blended in a magic bullet or food processor).

These both work for me, when I use them, but I don't use them often enough. Too often I decide that I have to have exactly what I want, when I want it, not acknowledging to myself that I can't live that way and lose weight.

I would say that I like them, but I don't love them. Rarely do I crave them and so I can't make sense of the whole litmus test. Other times I may be extremely hungry, but I'm still not willing to eat tripe for example, I don't like it and I won't eat it and I prefer to go hungry. Anyway, I was just saying that the apple thing does not apply to me in any way. I guess I'd rather be hungry than eat an apple. My mother would say this to me all the time "if you were really hungry you'd be eating this apple" and then I'd go out and binge.

Funny thing about the chocolate, nothing will do in its place. Because I need chocolate but I wouldn't say I love it, I'm fine with a little tiny piece of dark chocolate every day and that's all I need. I have no need for double fudge chocolate cake with chocolate mouse filling, drizzled with chocolate ganache and topped with chocolate shavings. I literally take one bite and I'm done. I don't go near milk chocolate. The other day I was out with friends and everyone ordered a molten lava chocolate cake - I had one bite and was so satisfied but I couldn't stomach anymore. People go buckwild for chocolate!

Boy do I wish I were that person!!! I'm the type who doesn't think there is such a thing as "too much chocolate!" Too much chocolate to me just means I need a cold glass of milk to go with it to cleanse my palate (and then on to more chocolate)!

Ditto for me on this. If I'm not really hungry but just craving something fattening, I automatically reject most of the foods in my fridge. If I'm really hungry, though, at least a few of those foods will appeal to me.

I can eat up to a half-pound of fine Belgian milk chocolate or Nutella in one sitting with no side effects except bliss (but haven't done it for a long time).

F.

Too tuned in to how my body and reptile brain work to be able to trick myself. I know what is physical and what is mental hunger and what is a hollow sugar crash after too many carbs.

It's will power and weighing pros and cons of given choices for me.

I wish I could always and easily distinguish between all the different variances and nuances of hunger, appetite, cravings.... they usually all feel like hunger to me.

On an entirely whole food, quite low (but not too low) carb, semi-paleo diet (there are a few non-paleo foods I won't give up such as cultured dairy), my willpower and experience of hunger is a lot more reliable, but still not foolproof. I can still easily overeat without hyper-vigilance and a structured plan. Weighing pros and cons in the moment, is rarely a good choice for me, because my judgement gets too easily clouded in the moment.

I really embody the adage that "failing to plan, is planning to fail," and yet I have great difficulty planning ahead, because I have a very spontaneous, in the moment personality.

I was complaining to hubby the other day that my diet ADHD was inhibiting my further weight loss success, and hubby reminded me that my distractibility and inability to plan and focus was inhibiting a lot more than just my weight loss.

He's absolutely right, I just don't know how or if it's even possible to change the fundamental way my mind works.

I do a similar hunger test with salad...I actually love salad but get burned out on it really fast....so if i'm not sure if i'm truly hungry i'll ask myself if I want to make a salad and if I do, I actually usually DO make salad....and if not, I try to hone in on what i'm needing - a craving, something to warm up like slippers, something to drink, a stress break....etc

I've found that most diet tips do work if they are applied correctly. Of course, instead of munching on veggies or salad, you could just as well not eat anything. However, you can avoid a binge by eating a lot of veggies or salad or something just by filling up your stomach with low calorie food.

Sometimes on this site (or others) I'll see an ad that says something like "Cut belly fat just by avoiding these five foods" or "Cut belly fat with this one weird trick." I've never clicked on these but I'd wager they aren't particularly effective diet tips.

The thing about diet tips is that any tip might work for some people (or at least help in a small way) but as we all know so well from reading each other's posts at 3FC, there is no such thing as a tip that will work for everyone.

Have you ever known someone who dropped 25 pounds just by cutting out sugar soda, without making any other changes? It's a great tip - for someone who drinks enough sugar soda that cutting it out without making any other changes will create a calorie deficit for them.

At no time in my life, not even when I was at my highest weight, did I drink sugar soda more than once or twice a year. This tip would never have worked for me.

By the same token, my number one most essential tactic without which I could not have lost the weight I lost, has been rejected outright by others on the board as something that absolutely in no way could possibly work for them.

Now I'm curious I gotta know, what's your tactic?

Yes I suppose bogus might not be the right word because people love to do what they do. I suppose no fruit works for me as a snack because all fruit makes me hungry. I must be sensitive to the fructose or something. If I do have fruit it must must must be accompanied by protein. Eating an apple makes my stomach churn in 10min flat. Eating an apple with peanut butter is quite satisfying.

A trick that has actually worked out for me is drinking tea in the late afternoon. I drink a very heavily spiced cinammon tea that is so gratifying that it literally qualms my late afternoon munchies. To someone else this will definitely not work.

I have a friend who's "trick" is to sit down at a restaurant and promptly divide her meal into 2 and box half of it right away.

Wannabeskinny - The tea thing works for me as well. Tea often does duty as a dessert, as a snack, as "something to do with my hands while watching a movie"... I was never a tea drinker before (too busy eating pretzels and brownies!), but now I really like it.

I know it's stupid, but that one makes me so mad! Even at my highest weight, around 200lb, I never drank anything but water. I get irrationally jealous of people who can lose weight just by cutting out drinks.

Cleanses are generally pretty bogus, IMO. You might lose a couple pounds, but it'll all come back as soon as you start eating again, and there's honestly no reason that any person with a functioning liver should have to "flush out toxins." Seriously, people, we have organs for that.