I can't get my mind off of all of the food that I want to be eating!!! It is everything in me right now to not walk a half mile to 7/11 at 1am to get chips, candy, soda and frozen pizza!!

I keep reminding myself that that is what a drug addict would be doing for some drugs, or an alcoholic for some alcohol - that normal people DO NOT do this for food! (At least, I don't think that they do!)

Part of it, I think, is related to sheer boredom. I work night shifts, so when I am not working - there is nothing for me to do. The gym is closed, no one is awake to talk to, stores are all closed, tv gets old - eating and cooking NEVER gets old.

I'm certainly fighting it and ate some grilled chicken to try to stave off the cravings.

Anyone else feel like an addict??

I definitely, DEFINITELY know where you are coming from, as I bet a lot of others here have at one point or another. Amazingly to me, though, it has almost virtually gone away after getting my sleep problem fixed and stopping night shift. I truly believe that sleep deprivation was at the root of my uncontrollable cravings. Add with that being awake at 3am with nothing to do but get comfy in the recliner and binge! I gained 80lbs the last 2 years out of 3 that I worked night shift.

Night shifts and swing shifts are actually associated with obesity and other health problems from cancer to fibromyalgia. A rheumatologist told our local fibro support group that she's never had a fibromyalgia patient improve symptoms while on swing shift. There are a lot of hormonal impacts.

I worked more than half my working life on swing shifts and double shifts (and self-imposed swing/double shifts while studying/working through college and grad school), and I do suspect they played a role in the health issues that eventually landed me on disability. Sleep apnea also contributed (and was resolved with only about 35 lbs lost).

Sleep apnea, shiftwork and sleep deprivation did not cause my obesity, as I was obese at an early age. However, sleep deprivation did contribute somewhat (as after being put on the cpap for apnea, I lost 20 lbs without dieting - the first and only time I ever lost weight "accidentally").

For years (decades, really) I thought I was a food addict, but after trying low-carb diets, I realize I am a carbohydrate addict. Even sweeter fruits and starchy vegetables can trigger addiction-like symptoms, though to use a drug analogy fruit and whole grains are like marijuana or low-dose codeine, and refined carbs such as wheat flour and sugar are more like crack or meth. Be clear, that I am not equating carb addiction to drug addiction, just noting there are some similarities.

If I eat low-carb enough, most of the "addiction-like" symptoms disappear. I can even "forget" to eat (which never, ever has happened to me before low-carb dieting). The problem is that you can no more go without carbs than you can go without food in general, so there's still a tight-rope you've got to walk between "enough" and "too-much." And of course, there's all the food-pushing that goes on from friends and family and from all corners of the culture. For most other addictive substances/behaviors, even the legal ones like smoking, drinking, and gambling there's not the same level of 24/7 bombardment of pressure to indulge. It makes escaping the addiction that much more difficult.

Eating low-carb hasn't been a cure (especially since I have difficulty eating low enough to control symptoms as well as I need to), but even so the difference in my life is profound. For the first time in my life I feel like I can work at weight loss and still have a life. In the past, whenever I dieted, to lose weight I had to obsess about weight loss even more intensely than I obsessed about food - I had to put in such herculean effort, it usually had to be accomplished by giving up almost everything else of value in my life.

I think most of us know what your going through. I have gone through a phase where I had to try to stop myself from making potatoes or pasta with cheese on it. That's my weakness. I used to eat pasta or potatoes with cheese a lot and it is still my weakness. Just substitute something instead to keep your mind off it. Read, play games, etc... If you need something salty, eat tuna in the can or bag. If you need something sweet, get yogurt. I hope my advice helps.

This is me 100%!!! It's almost like cutting out most carbs is essential for me to function properly. Weight loss is a nice side effect . I get all kinds of comments like "How do you do it?" Uhmmm I can't not do it! I eat one starchy roll and I've literally gained an instant 8 lbs of water weight and want to sleep all day! It's obvious that my body doesn't want or need the starch!

It's something to consider... Sugar and starch CAN be seriously addictive. When I'm under my threshold (which is honestly pretty much none unless they're from veggies) I feel great and am rarely hungry or crave things. It's very freeing .

For me, constant food cravings mean that I am just not eating enough. For years--decades--I'd eat 900-1200 calories a day and spend the whole day daydreaming about cakes and cheeseburgers. I thought I was craving the taste of junk food--because I wasn't having stomach pangs, I didn't really realize I was hungry. (I also think women are conditioned to deny hunger--emotional overeating is feminine, appetite-based overeating is being a fat-lazy-slob).

So anyway, once I started eating a moderate amount of healthy calories, the cravings for cheeseburgers went away. It's much better to eat 200 more healthy calories a day than to snap and eat a pizza on Friday night. Not only is the pizza more calories, it makes you feel out of control and sets you up to keep going off plan.

Full disclosure: I also find moderating my carbs/eating more complex carbs has helped a great deal. But I think eating just a little more actual food helped the most.

I pretty much agree with what everyone else has said. I think it's true for most people that eating too little can trigger cravings and binges. For me, it's also true that eating too many refined carbs will make me hungry. I will indulge occasionally in some sort of treat that I know might trigger the hunger pangs, but it has to be *really* worth it because I count it in my calories, and I know that I'll be fighting the hunger for probably 24 hours.

I laugh at the thought of rice cakes being a "diet food". I actually *like* rice cakes, but they might as well be negative food for me--they're not filling, and I'm hungrier after I ate them than I was before.

Me too! I cannot stop eating them because they are nothing but carb-laced air biscuits to me. Crunchy *crack*ers. Plus, they are "diet food" so it was easier for my pea brain to justify scarfing the lot. NOT worth it to me now, so I don't buy them at all.

Carbs and I just don't get along... but I do SO miss fresh homemade pasta with some sort of butter-laced sauce..... which I probably wouldn't like so much now.

I am a sugar addict. I was thinking today, that if I had been addicted to a non-food type drug, I might be dead right now. I am trying to come back from being off the wagon. Like others have mentioned, if I eat low carb, then the cravings do lessen. But for me they lessen in a general way, like a closer to the surface way, but they persist in a larger deeper way. I'm not really sure I can really describe it. But even after what would normally be considered enough time to create new habits, I can fall off the wagon and go on what I think drug addicts/alcoholics call benders. And that's where I've been lately, and have been thinking that I likely would have overdosed and died in recent weeks if the drug I was addicted to was something other than sugar. This may sound extreme, but it is honest. And it makes me really sad to think about that.

I don't think this sounds extreme - I think it shows a deep sense of self-awareness and a total lack of denial. I'll bet that this awareness will prove to be the beginning of an entirely new you!

Hugs,
Robin

Yes, after three years of hard work, the craving to eat something -- always something bad, and a lot of it -- still returns sometimes when I'm really not hungry.

At those times, I feel like I'm starring in one of those B movies where the person is capable of turning into a rampaging, hungry zombie, and knows it, and while she's still normal, asks friends & loved ones to strap her down to a table or tie her up in a chair, to save her from herself when the urge overcomes her. Only I'm also the friend, trying to talk the rampaging zombie out of eating. This is what I've learned:

1) For me, it's never really about the food. Food alone never calls that insistently to me. Not unless my state of mind is fragile. It happens when I'm anxious about something, and I'm trying not to think, to distract myself. I'm particularly prone to it if I find time is passing slowly, and mealtime is far away. Or a deadline is approaching, and I've been procrastinating it. Or if I'm in a state of profound indecision & none of my choices look good.

2) It passes, if I hold on through it. I have to white knuckle it through sometimes.

3) The best thing to do, while waiting it out, is to become deeply absorbed in something, whether it's a conversation with a friend, or a project, or house cleaning. Whatever.

4) But No. 3 is still a form of running away from whatever conflict has me so agitated or paralyzed, and it's like throwing obstacles in the way of something that just keeps coming after me relentlessly. Soon or later I have to become decisive or face whatever is making me anxious.

That's my pattern. Sometimes unfortunately knowing the pattern doesn't actually help.

Thank you, Robin.

I've had the same thought/vision, which I find interesting. Thanks for posting this. It helps to know that others have dealt with the same kind of thing, got through it, and made it to goal/maintenance. And thanks for the suggestions you posted on dealing with it too. Very helpful. You are an inspiration.

Reading kaplods and ValRock's responses, I was nodding my head a lot! Except for me, it seems to be less about the carbs and more about eating "Clean". I am whittling away the processed foods from my diet and the cleaner I eat (whole grains, fruits, veggies, etc.) the better I feel, the more stable my moods become, the better I sleep, the less I crave "crap". This week, I was able to wean myself off of my evening snack! whoo hoo!

Labor Day weekend and the week after, I ate a lot of processed foods and it took me an additional week to get over them. This week has been all better. I don't even miss or crave the junk.

I think once you find what works best for you and the longer you stick to it, the less you will crave other "stuff".

This happens to many people...you need not worry...Just do not be idle..do some or the other thing ..Most of the ppl start eating because of the boredom..

What a thoughtful thread this is! Good reading. There is a lot here with which I also identify. Only addition I would make is that as I get closer to goal and maintenance I'm just terrified that I'll not successfully manage the zombie (right now the zombie is rearing its head because I'm home convalescing and not my usual busy self, while things pile up that need to be done).