I've started to experience this myself in the last few months and it's a very strange feeling. I've never been able to eat intuitively before. I don't really know what it's due to or if it will even last.
OT, but I'm glad for you that your fiance is home safely from Iraq!
Not having the "I'm full" is my biggest issue. If its there I will eat it. Dinner is done when my plate is empty or I feel like I'm gonna bust. If I bring a healthy lunch to work and bring a yogurt for dessert I have to have the yogurt - I can't wait an hour even if I know I am not truly hungry. I want to smack myself for my lack of willpower, its truly ridiculous. I will even over eat healthy things - I can't bring "emergency" snacks to work becuase I will eat them just becuase I know they are there. I keep 100 calorie bags of micro popcorn for my emergency snack becuase I am not a popcorn lover so I would actually have to be starving to go there. Even when I was really gung ho in the beginning and sticking to my plan perfectly I still was a plate cleaner. I'm telling you I am like a dog.... if I am not eating food I am thinking about food, its insane. I don't know if it has anything to do with the fact that I have obsessive compulsive disorder - maybe I am obsessing over the food. But I take prozac & wellbutrin and that keeps the OCD well controlled so you'd think it would control the food thoughts as well.
I admire those of you who have found your full reflex!!!!
You described me to a T. I am exactly like you... the only thing different from you is that I LOVE pop corn and your trick would not work for me
I wonder if we would ever get any better about eating...
Oh, I can tell when I'm full, all right, but that doesn't necessarily stop me from eating more. I recognize the feeling of satiety - of having had enough food. But if the eating experience is pleasurable (and it usually is) I have to will myself to stop when I have had enough.
So I guess I'm somewhere in between - it's not that I have no feedback at all, nor is it that I lose interest in food when I have had enough. I know what it's like to have eaten the right amount of food, but it still takes an exercise of discipline to stop at that point.
One of my problems before was that I always assumed that there was a full 'feeling' that I was just missing or overlooking, when in fact I've learned that it more a lack of feeling. When I'm full, its like my stomach disappears, and I can't really physically recognize that the organ is in my abdomen anymore. When I'm hungry, there is a hole there, or a feeling of emptiness, where as when I overate, I would feel a pressure pushing my abdomen out. So now when I eat, I just wait until my stomach 'disappears' and stop there.
It took calorie counting for a while and realizing that I was alway satisfied with the my smaller ~400 calorie meals and really listening to my body for me to get a hold of what that felt like (not to mention hating what being very overfull felt like), and it been liberating.
In response to the question posed in the title of this thread, yes, finally.
I was always, always, always hungry. Always hungry. When I counted calories, I would eat every little bit and still be hungry. It was awful. I gave up trying to lose weight because I hated being constantly hungry.
After a recent diagnosis of pre-diabetes, I took a long, hard look at what I was eating and decided to eliminate grains. They were the main part of my diet. Doing so, I added more fat. For the first time that I can ever remember, my "I am satisfied and I can stop eating" mechanism seems to be working. And I am not hungry all the time. And I am eating healthy foods, am happy, and finally losing weight.
No "I'm full" trigger here, either. I seem to be a bottomless pit, and I would simply keep eating constantly if given the option.
I finish ALL my daily allotted healthy food with great joy! No way am I skipping a meal. Food is yummy!
Planning and portion control will be a permanent part of my life, and I don't know that I'll ever really be able to do "splurge meals". I know for a fact I couldn't in the past.
Last edited by My Michelle; 10-18-2010 at 02:57 PM.
I used to have this problem but a few years ago I did the program that's in the book 'Overcoming Overeating.' Basically, they teach you intutive eating. You eat when YOU'RE hungry, not at the time everyone else is hungry, and you always have food with you. There are also no 'bad' foods, you can have as much as you want of anything. The point is... eventually you learn to trust yourself and stop binging. It's very hard, but it works and I maintained my weight for 5+ years (still 'obese' but no gains and basically healthy). Maybe not the best approach for many people, but , if you approach it with the idea that your body knows what it needs, you may be able to start trusting your satiety signals more frequently. Just my experience...
My brain only seems to want to tell my I am full when I am sick. So whether I am full or not I just, like...stop eating after the small meal and go by time. Its hard?? But eh.
But anyways, those of you who are prone to overeating just because there is food in front of you, were you ever able to develop some normal intuition when it came to when to stop eating?
I sure do hope so.
I am a really good cook. Nobody ever turns down a dinner invitation. I grow much of my own, I make my own bacon and sausage, I can, dry and otherwise preserve foods in season... and have never, ever been able to stop eating something that tasted good until it was ALL gone. I'm learning how to adapt my recipes where necessary, cook more sensible quantities, but without calorie counting I would still overeat. Now if there are leftovers I promptly put them away, knowing that if I eat them now I'll have no lunch tomorrow. It's getting easier, and I am definitely full on less food these days. However, I'm still not confident that I'll ever lose my gustatory prowess; somehow I wonder if the "size 10 gal who could eat a 16-oz Porterhouse AND the huge baker AND the salad w/roquefort AND the bread AND wine AND dessert because the restaurant owner bet me that I couldn't possibly eat all that" will ever, truly be gone. I think I'll be watching out for HER the rest of my life.
There kind of two questions here. Not eating things in the house (candy, etc.) and stopping when your full during a meal.
Not eating candy or whatever that is in the house I can do. My DH regularly buys himself candy and I used to binge on it regularly. Now that stuff just doesn't appeal to me and I forget it's even there.
Stopping when I'm full, well that I haven't conquered yet. If it's a planned meal, I absolutly eat every bite. When I go to a restaurant I have the best intentions to only eat 1/2 to 2/3 because I KNOW they are over portioned and I will be satisfied with 1/2, but I always seem to eat it all, unless I'm uncomfortable full.
This post has actually inspired me to really really start to pay attention when I'm eating, stop after every bite and think how do I feel. AND, especially in restaurant, ALWAYS try to leave at least a couple bites on my plate, unless I am truely truely hungry. Thanks for the inspiration - I really need some right now.
The "full" switch in me does exist, but like some others it doesn't kick in for a little while. It also kicks in differently for different kinds of foods. If there's a healthy dollop of protein in the meal and I'm careful about processed foods I will lose interest a lot sooner.
I don't deal well with highly processed foods and sugars. They'll send me right off the deep end.
I have got the same issue: I could eat, eat, eat and would still want to find something to eat.
So, almost every diet attempt in the past ended in a disaster, because I would restrict myself from eating that much, that food cravings came up. And, I was not eating enough, actually. Because I thought I need to eat only half of what I would normally eat, I did not realize that I did actually not get enough to keep my metabolism going. And I think this was always the reason for not being able to shed off more than 3 - 5 kilograms, but afterwards putting on another 5, 6, 7 kg.. so the jo-jo- effect...
Now I use a calorie counting tool and I am surprised how easy it is to stick to my diet.
I eat until I run out of food or am excused from the table. I completely use my plan as a crutch. I know what I can eat and I eat it--all of it, everyday. I hope as I reach each weight goal that my gherelin gets on track.
