Fighting the urges?!?!?!
Question: I'm trying to lose weight but I can't seem to stop my cravings/urges.
What are some ways to help fight them?
Answers: I'm trying to lose weight but I can't seem to stop my cravings/urges.
What are some ways to help fight them?
Do something else instead. Go for a walk to the shop, play a game on the computer, read a chapter of your book.. Or, have something, but have something good rather than the chocolate or buscuits you're craving. Mostly, get support! If you tell everyone then they can help you by encouraging you to choose the healthy option rather than something naughty. Also, if you tell everyone, then everyone will know if you fail, so embarrassment will be minimised because you'll be encouraged not to fail..
Plan a meal before going out. Do a lot of "window shopping" for hours on end with a friend or two who don't eat out to help pass the time. Make sure to "forget" your wallet at home so you can't eat out. Then when you come home drink about 1-2 glasses of water to cleanse your system 10-15 minutes before eating. I hope this will help.
Well i lost 80 pounds so far and i used will power and video games. Games can get ur mind off of food for awhile but what u could do is eat snacks like i do. What i like 2 do is if u have a sweet craving get a fat free yogourt or pudding and just eat it slowly and eat fruit as ur snacks when u get a craving.You will never lose ur cravings/urges it's up to u to control it.There r alot of snacks out there now in the grocery store that r healthy now find some that u like and always excercise that will get u off the cravings 4 awhile. Good luck on ur diet
It varies from person to person, but there are a few things you might try.
First, if you're craving something sweet, go for fruit. That sounds very hippy of me, I know, but the big difference is that while fruit will give you something sweet to munch on, it will also give you fiber and junk food tends to be loaded up with corn syrup, which gives you more calories and will probably just make you want more of it. The fiber will tend to keep you less hungry.
Second, I don't know the diet you're on. I tend to discount the "no carbs, ever" diets as fads, verging on harmful fads, given the things you miss out on from those foods. That said, protein rich foods, say chicken or fish, will tend to help you stay fuller, even though you get fewer calories per gram protein than fats or carbs. You'll notice that a lot of diet foods, say the frozen lean cuisine dinners, tend to be high in protein, this is one of the reasons why; it does work well. It might help to see how much you're getting with your current diet.
Third, a lot of this is psychological. You can address this with some self reinforcement... weigh yourself every morning before showering. Compare your results weekly, say every Sunday. One of the most motivating things I've found is watching the weekly trend go down: I don't want to eat things that will screw up the trend.
Fourth, lots of water. I mean that in the gallon a day sense. If you're craving something, have some water, whether or not you actually eat anything.
Fifth, it's much easier to stand the day if you have a couple light meals and some snacks between than a couple large meals. Try setting aside the day's snacks at the start of the day, taking them to work with you and using them to fill the space between meals. You control what you're going to eat before you get hungry and cravy, it will help you balance the need to eat with what you're willing to eat.
Lastly, make sure you are actually getting enough calories to make it through the day. In general, you shouldn't eat less than a thousand less than what you burn in a day, and you shouldn't ever eat less than 1500 or so. It's important that you figure out what you're burning, and what the deficit you're getting is... if you're starving yourself, the cravings are telling you something pretty important.
-- EDIT
One other thing I forgot to mention. I have a rule. It also helps me keep morale up when I'm trying to lose weight, and it might help you. If I'm going to remember a meal for more than two weeks, either because of the people I'm with, or because it's just going to be that good, then I enjoy the meal regardless of the diet. This doesn't mean "hey, I don't think I've had ice cream in a while" and ignoring the guilt trip, this means going to sushi bars with out of town friends I don't see often, it means not ordering a salad with no dressing on dates, and it means enjoying important social functions. Being able to handle the exceptional cases like this gives me a lot of leeway to act normally and have a good time, and remembering good times helps me get through the rest of the weight loss. If I'm not even going to remember lunch, why bother with something that won't forward my goals? If I'm going to think back on it a couple weeks from now, the memory is more important, and will probably help me stay on track longer. But you *must* be able to be honest with yourself... those memorable occasions are pretty rare.
Most food cravings come from low blood sugar which can be controlled to a large degree by eating correctly. Firstly avoid sugar laden foods and drinks like sodas that play havoc with your blood sugar levels. Also avoid starving yourself.
Then add fiber filled foods to your diet that stabilize your blood sugar levels and leave you feeling full for longer. Examples of these foods will be rolled oats for breakfast, which also has protein for energy, also helping to eliminate the cravings.
http://www.weight-loss-lab.com/oats.html
Brown rice is another excellent source of fiber with other health benefits.
http://www.weight-loss-lab.com/brown-ric...
These are just a couple of examples of fiber rich foods, there are many more. Keeping your blood sugar stable will definitely help on the physical level.