Self-sabotaging

  • I've been doing incredibly well, for me- after being overweight all my life, I managed to lose forty pounds in about two and a half months. But the past week I've gotten really far off track. The weird thing is, it's not even really a desire to eat. I found myself today wanting to eat even though I felt a little sick, and heading towards the highest calorie things I could find, and eating them far faster than was necessary, as if the point of this was to cram as many calories into myself as fast as possible. Has anyone else had this sort of weird impulse, and do you have any suggestions for how to deal with it?
  • Log in to 3FC and start reading....divulge yourself in learning what is working for others....just get away from your kitchen and come online....keeps me distracted from thinking about FOOD!
  • Hey ImpalaHoarder,

    I have a hunch that you have been eating pretty strictly in order to lose that 40 pounds that fast. That's an average rate of over 3 pounds a week. Do you know what your average calories per day would come out to?

    I think that if you've been on too low a food intake, you could simply be lacking in nutrition. Your body may be needing some nutrients that you've been keeping in short supply. But, you'd have to tell us what you're eating on an average day before we could see about that.

    Jay
  • I've been eating generally pretty healthily, although not very much. On a typical day I'll have cereal and milk for breakfast (special k= yum), a fruit juice and what's listed as "low calorie dairy base" smoothie for lunch, and broccoli, rice, and some sort of meat for dinner. Usually what I lack is protein, and I'm still working on fitting it in better. Overall, this doesn't come out to much calorie-wise, but I never felt all that deprived until thanksgiving, when I made an allowance for the meal, and then never got back on track. Mostly I was having trouble with food cravings when I was eating the most, though, so I feel like it might not be nutrition-linked.
  • I have this same problem. This summer I was at 128 pounds, very happy with how I looked and wanted to lose just another couple. Then I just started eating junk and it wasn't even, like you said, because I was hungry or because I was craving it. Just because. I got up to 138 and then lost again down to 133 and then gained up to 141 again. Now I'm working on getting down from there. I don't know if it's because I feel like I don't have a "project" any more when I've made my goal and I'm scared to be out of a diet mindset. I have no clue. Here's hoping someone has an answer for us because I sure can't afford a psychiatrist!

    Kara
  • Yeah, Impala, that doesn't sound like enough food. You really do need to track it more carefully. Not just calories, but also pay attention to serving sizes. Do you know what a serving size of Special K is? Is that the amount you eat?

    Go to fitday.com and enter what you eat in a day--say, tomorrow--and see what it adds up to. And then tell us.

    Jay
  • It seems to be... 800-ish calories (I'm not sure I have the right food item for the type of hamburger I ate.)

    I didn't realize I was eating so little. The thing is, I've never really had issues with being hungry or tired- it's spaced pretty well throughout the day. I had cereal for breakfast, crackers two hours later, my smoothie for lunch two hours after that, and then a hamburger for dinner. The only time gap greater than three hours was between lunch and dinner, and that's not all that typical.

    I also don't know precisely how much I absolutely need to be eating. I know the usual rule is not to go under 1200 calories, but I don't know how to adjust that for height (I'm pretty darn short).
  • Try FitDay. I believe you can get an estimate, based on your age, activity level, and current weight, of how many cals a day you need to maintain your weight. From that, the rule of thumb is, subtract 500 cals a day to lose 1 pound per week.

    Or, you can read about it here:

    http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=120806

    I don't think height is part of the equation for this--age and weight are more important.

    I'm 5 foot 3 also.

    Jay