cant stop eating

ktdun97

I want to loose weight but i cant stop eating.

I joined a gym a while back, bought all the gear and everything. i would say i went about 10-15 times and gave up as i could see any results (i know you cant see results for a few months!)
i downloaded my fitness pal and that was very helpful but i just couldnt stay full!

i started an online prgramme with meal plans, exercises etc and i failed at that too.
i joined SW and lasted probably a month!

i binge eat - crisps, jellies, chocolate all the sweet fatty food.
chinese 2+ times a week.

im 22, 5f11 maybe and just over 12.5 stone.

i need to get rid of my belly!! BUT I HATE THE GYM and i dont have that much money to sign up to any online courses lol

any advice please?

bladespin

You don't need an on-line course, you don't need a gym (though it helps), you will need to work hard and you do need to learn to manage your calories - FACT.

MFP is an awesome tool and if you use it and educate yourself about food then there's no reason you won't feel full, it's the rubbish that fails to fill us, the healthy stuff makes you feel full - meat, vegetables etc.

Get the calculator out, work out your maintenance and stay about 20% below that, don't starve or make it any harder than it has to be on yourself and you'll see results within a few weeks.

ktdun97

bladespin wrote: »

You don't need an on-line course, you don't need a gym (though it helps), you will need to work hard and you do need to learn to manage your calories - FACT.

MFP is an awesome tool and if you use it and educate yourself about food then there's no reason you won't feel full, it's the rubbish that fails to fill us, the healthy stuff makes you feel full - meat, vegetables etc.

Get the calculator out, work out your maintenance and stay about 20% below that, don't starve or make it any harder than it has to be on yourself and you'll see results within a few weeks.

See i dont know how many cals a day i should be eating! When i was using it i was allowing myself 1800, is that correct?
I snack, especially at night or on my days off i pick at crisps, buscuits etc. or when im in work ill go to the shop and buy a bar and crisps for the bus ride home. its pure boredum eating i think.

Penn

Hi ktdun97,

It can definitely be hard, no question about it. But there are a few tips we could give that might help. Ultimately though, it's going to have to come down to willpower.

In terms of your calories, this is a good calculator to use:
https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html

I inputted your info (guessing you're female and estimated your weight in pounds as 175lb (which is 12.5 stone)), and your Basal Metabolic Rate with little to no exercise (therefore how many calories you burn a day just doing normal routine, office job etc) is 1,980 calories per day.

To lose 1lb per week, you need to eat 500 calories fewer than that per day.
To lose 2lb per week, you need to eat 1,000 calories fewer than that per day.

If you go onto MyFitnessPal, you can select you want your calorie limit to be. I would suggest setting it at maybe 1,500 calories to start off with.

Stick to MFP as much as possible. Weigh yourself at the same time every week (eg. for me it was every Sunday morning) for consistency. But like I said, ultimately it's going to come down to willpower and getting out of bad habits.

Do as much of your own shopping as you can and don't buy crisps/chocolates etc. Try and find some healthy snacks you can enjoy and that will still fit in with your calorie limit. Plan in advance as much as you can.

Cook for yourself as much as possible and plan your meals for the week before you go shopping. That way you know what to buy, won't need to buy anything extra, and therefore won't have bad foods in the house. It'll also mean you'll be less likely to get takeaways as you've already bought food to have on each evening. Even have some healthy ready-meals stocked up if you don't feel like cooking. Anything below 500calories (my favourites were the Cully & Sully Chicken or Fish pies, or the WeightWatchers Chicken Tikka Masala) should help you keep on target.

Find lower-calorie ingredients or substitutes for meals you do enjoy. That way you can still cook meals you like, but the lower-calorie ingredients will help keep the calories down.

Make your own lunches in advance so you're not going to the shop for lunch, and therefore won't be tempted to pick up sweets/crisps.

Exercise and gym, if you don't like them, don't do them. Diet trumps exercise, and any exercise you do should be a bonus to your diet, not a replacement for it. You need to focus on getting the diet right.

Make sure you're still enjoying what you eat. Don't eat things just because they're healthy. If you don't like them, you need to find something healthy that you do like. It'll make things much easier to stick to.

The numbers won't lie. If you eat fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight. There are some decent enough low calorie crisps and jellies for the occasional treat, but if you eat it, you need to count it on MFP. Be as accurate as you can.

You can do it, but it's going to take a while for the new habits to kick in and old habits to subside. You just need to push through that and let it happen. The more you do, the more weight you'll lose and the easier it'll be to stick to.

Good luck!

ktdun97

Penn wrote: »

Hi ktdun97,

It can definitely be hard, no question about it. But there are a few tips we could give that might help. Ultimately though, it's going to have to come down to willpower.

In terms of your calories, this is a good calculator to use:
https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html

I inputted your info (guessing you're female and estimated your weight in pounds as 175lb (which is 12.5 stone)), and your Basal Metabolic Rate with little to no exercise (therefore how many calories you burn a day just doing normal routine, office job etc) is 1,980 calories per day.

To lose 1lb per week, you need to eat 500 calories fewer than that per day.
To lose 2lb per week, you need to eat 1,000 calories fewer than that per day.

If you go onto MyFitnessPal, you can select you want your calorie limit to be. I would suggest setting it at maybe 1,500 calories to start off with.

Stick to MFP as much as possible. Weigh yourself at the same time every week (eg. for me it was every Sunday morning) for consistency. But like I said, ultimately it's going to come down to willpower and getting out of bad habits.

Do as much of your own shopping as you can and don't buy crisps/chocolates etc. Try and find some healthy snacks you can enjoy and that will still fit in with your calorie limit. Plan in advance as much as you can.

Cook for yourself as much as possible and plan your meals for the week before you go shopping. That way you know what to buy, won't need to buy anything extra, and therefore won't have bad foods in the house. It'll also mean you'll be less likely to get takeaways as you've already bought food to have on each evening. Even have some healthy ready-meals stocked up if you don't feel like cooking. Anything below 500calories (my favourites were the Cully & Sully Chicken or Fish pies, or the WeightWatchers Chicken Tikka Masala) should help you keep on target.

Find lower-calorie ingredients or substitutes for meals you do enjoy. That way you can still cook meals you like, but the lower-calorie ingredients will help keep the calories down.

Make your own lunches in advance so you're not going to the shop for lunch, and therefore won't be tempted to pick up sweets/crisps.

Exercise and gym, if you don't like them, don't do them. Diet trumps exercise, and any exercise you do should be a bonus to your diet, not a replacement for it. You need to focus on getting the diet right.

Make sure you're still enjoying what you eat. Don't eat things just because they're healthy. If you don't like them, you need to find something healthy that you do like. It'll make things much easier to stick to.

The numbers won't lie. If you eat fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight. There are some decent enough low calorie crisps and jellies for the occasional treat, but if you eat it, you need to count it on MFP. Be as accurate as you can.

You can do it, but it's going to take a while for the new habits to kick in and old habits to subside. You just need to push through that and let it happen. The more you do, the more weight you'll lose and the easier it'll be to stick to.

Good luck!

Wow thank you so much for your time and effort! i really do appreciate all of what you just said and will take it on board

Sabre0001

I'm trying to break away from the easy and sweet treats myself. Definitely have a weakness for them, but don't find them particularly filling. An apple and two carrots in the bag has been much better for keeping me topped up than choc and sweets, I've found.

Penn

ktdun97 wrote: »

Wow thank you so much for your time and effort! i really do appreciate all of what you just said and will take it on board

No problem. One small but important thing I forgot to say, start off slowly. Even if you only start off on 1,600 calories rather than 1,500, start off for the first few weeks just reducing portion sizes and going for a few lower calorie options. Changing everything and going too hard straight off the bat can make it hard to stick to. Ease into it. Make small changes as you go, and once you get used to them, make a few more changes.

Taking it slow can help you feel like you're not on a diet at all, you're just making some good and healthier changes to what you're eating.

ktdun97

Sabre0001 wrote: »

I'm trying to break away from the easy and sweet treats myself. Definitely have a weakness for them, but don't find them particularly filling. An apple and two carrots in the bag has been much better for keeping me topped up than choc and sweets, I've found.

Im going to start bringing fruit to work instead of going and buying a bar of chocolate or crisps... ease myself in lol!

ktdun97

Penn wrote: »

No problem. One small but important thing I forgot to say, start off slowly. Even if you only start off on 1,600 calories rather than 1,500, start off for the first few weeks just reducing portion sizes and going for a few lower calorie options. Changing everything and going too hard straight off the bat can make it hard to stick to. Ease into it. Make small changes as you go, and once you get used to them, make a few more changes.

Taking it slow can help you feel like you're not on a diet at all, you're just making some good and healthier changes to what you're eating.

You say reduce portion size, would that no make me feel less full? .
Have you any tips on what to snack on?

Penn

ktdun97 wrote: »

You say reduce portion size, would that no make me feel less full? .
Have you any tips on what to snack on?

It depends on the meal, but I should probably amend my statement a bit that you could reduce portion size of carbs like rice or potatoes, while increasing portions of veg or meat. Maybe reduce how much sauce might be on a meal so its not dry, but your meal isn't also swimming in a rich sauce. Or the likes of brown rice or wholewheat pasta can help you feel fuller for longer than the white version.

But also it depends on the size of meals you have and how often you eat. For some people it can be better to go with smaller meals and have snacks in between, so you might not always be full, but you'll never be hungry either. I used to have pretty small meals, but I'd have a small snack in between meals. Once you fall into a routine, it becomes easy to stick to.

So again, it comes down to calories. For example having a curry and going for less rice but having some veg with it can fill you just as much but at fewer calories, or making the sauce with lower calorie ingredients. I learnt to make a prawn korma making the sauce with just korma paste, ground almonds and water, meaning no coconut milk/cream. It's all about finding different healthier versions of things you like, certainly at the start. Makes it easier to make healthy changes first without completely changing your entire diet and lifestyle.

In terms of what snacks to have, it depends on your own tastes. I mostly stuck to low calorie yoghurts, or a handful of nuts, a banana, I even grew to enjoy cans of tuna. I tried a few different things, the ones I didn't like I stopped having and tried to find something else. I think at the start, so long as it fits in your calorie limits, go for it. As you get further into the diet it can become harder to lose more weight, that's when it becomes important to focus on the macros of what you're eating (carbs, proteins, fats, sugars). But at the start, focus on the calories, and count everything.

ktdun97

Penn wrote: »

It depends on the meal, but I should probably amend my statement a bit that you could reduce portion size of carbs like rice or potatoes, while increasing portions of veg or meat. Maybe reduce how much sauce might be on a meal so its not dry, but your meal isn't also swimming in a rich sauce. Or the likes of brown rice or wholewheat pasta can help you feel fuller for longer than the white version.

But also it depends on the size of meals you have and how often you eat. For some people it can be better to go with smaller meals and have snacks in between, so you might not always be full, but you'll never be hungry either. I used to have pretty small meals, but I'd have a small snack in between meals. Once you fall into a routine, it becomes easy to stick to.

So again, it comes down to calories. For example having a curry and going for less rice but having some veg with it can fill you just as much but at fewer calories, or making the sauce with lower calorie ingredients. I learnt to make a prawn korma making the sauce with just korma paste, ground almonds and water, meaning no coconut milk/cream. It's all about finding different healthier versions of things you like, certainly at the start. Makes it easier to make healthy changes first without completely changing your entire diet and lifestyle.

In terms of what snacks to have, it depends on your own tastes. I mostly stuck to low calorie yoghurts, or a handful of nuts, a banana, I even grew to enjoy cans of tuna. I tried a few different things, the ones I didn't like I stopped having and tried to find something else. I think at the start, so long as it fits in your calorie limits, go for it. As you get further into the diet it can become harder to lose more weight, that's when it becomes important to focus on the macros of what you're eating (carbs, proteins, fats, sugars). But at the start, focus on the calories, and count everything.

Wow! You are so helpful, thank you so much!
I'm deffo going to take all this advice on board! Hopefully i dont fall off track, need to get some willpower lol!
Ill start using websites to help me find some meals for breakfast and lunch as my dinners are normally healthy (apart from the 2+ chineses each week, which i will be stopping to maybe just one every 2 weeks)

Penn

If you do fall off track, don't panic and don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. We all have our slips and falls. The important thing is to get back on track and keep going. One bad day won't completely ruin 6 good ones, and not hitting your target one week doesn't mean the whole diet is ruined or isn't working.

There's unfortunately no quick fix when it comes to losing weight, and it can take a while to properly set into a good routine and let good habits form. There'll also be the occasional family/friend event or night out or just whatever throws you off track. Just pick yourself up, dust yourself off and try get back into good habits. It'll all balance itself out over time.

The BBC GoodFood website is great for recipes. You can filter to have meals under a certain calorie amount, or how long something takes to make etc, as well as by breakfast/lunch/dinner.

eoinob50

ktdun97 wrote: »

You say reduce portion size, would that no make me feel less full? .
Have you any tips on what to snack on?

Thing is with trying to lose weight, you will feel hungry/ not full. at the end of the day is just depends on how much you want it.

things to help are like eat big salads, sugar free jelly, zero cal drinks, coffee etc

If you don't like the gym try and be as active as possible, walk everywhere when possible etc find some kind of exercise you like.

Regarding snacks, I'd stay clear of nuts etc as they have a lot of cals even if 'healthy'.

eoinob50

Penn wrote: »

If you do fall off track, don't panic and don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. We all have our slips and falls. The important thing is to get back on track and keep going. One bad day won't completely ruin 6 good ones, and not hitting your target one week doesn't mean the whole diet is ruined or isn't working.

There's unfortunately no quick fix when it comes to losing weight, and it can take a while to properly set into a good routine and let good habits form. There'll also be the occasional family/friend event or night out or just whatever throws you off track. Just pick yourself up, dust yourself off and try get back into good habits. It'll all balance itself out over time.

The BBC GoodFood website is great for recipes. You can filter to have meals under a certain calorie amount, or how long something takes to make etc, as well as by breakfast/lunch/dinner.

Disagree with this statement. If you are in a slight deficit of say 300 cals a day over 6 days = 1800 cals. On the 7th day you binge on crisps, biscuits and have a Chinese... thats your weeks work ruined.

Penn

eoinob50 wrote: »

Disagree with this statement. If you are in a slight deficit of say 300 cals a day over 6 days = 1800 cals. On the 7th day you binge on crisps, biscuits and have a Chinese... thats your weeks work ruined.

The point I'm trying to make is that even if a person did binge one day and was 1,800 cals over, that's balanced out by 6 good days of 300 cals fewer. So yes, it might mean there's no weightloss that week, but at the very least the effort you put in over those 6 days hasn't gone completely to waste either. Your weeks work isn't ruined, but the binge day won't have completely ruined your diet either.

Yes, if it was happening every week then you're going to be at a standstill. But events or occasions where people binge can and does happen. It's a big part of why people need to lose weight in the first place. The important thing is to not be too disheartened by the occasional slip-up. Just keep going forward, keep working on an overall deficit and even though it might take you longer to reach your goal, you'll get there.

Mellor

One blowout day isnt the end of the world. But saying it doesn’t ruin/undo your hard work for the week isn’t a good way to phrase it. That’s exactly where a lot of people fall down

Penn

Mellor wrote: »

One blowout day isnt the end of the world. But saying it doesn’t ruin/undo your hard work for the week isn’t a good way to phrase it. That’s exactly where a lot of people fall down

My phrasing might be off, but all I'm trying to say is not to beat yourself up about it (or use the good days as an excuse to give yourself a bad day), but rather pick yourself up from it and get back on track. Being too hard on yourself over it can make you feel like you've completely ruined things, and therefore see the diet as a failure and quitting it.

Slips happen. Blowout days can often be somewhat outside your control too (eg. a family event, wedding, night out etc). They'll slow your progress or negate the work you've done that week, sure. But what's most important is just getting back into the swing of things right away and not dwelling on it.

bladespin

Oh, best not to weigh in after a blow-out (yes, we all have them), often this is a 'false' weight IMO, leave it 2-3 days. My 2c.