Sick of being fat and hungry

[ruthonfire]

I am overweight. I eat too much of the wrong stuff. I binge on snacks. But I'm hungry always. Everyday I swear I'll try and improve my diet and eat more healthily but then I feel hungry and can't control my behaviours around food. I crave stodge and I just binge on it.

I need to seriously change my habits but how?

Can you really be addicted to salt? Since covid i dislike chocolate and sweets like wine gums but my goodness I'm absolutely feral for hoola hoops. And I mean bags, not bag, most evenings, I can't seem to stop. Evenings and those crisps get me every single time. Even tried drinking lots of water instead at that time too. No change.

Also interested in this. No sweet food in the house, can’t stand it. Just had to get DH to hide the crisps. Can’t help myself.

Also given up alcohol for 40 days and zero movement on anything. 😤

One drink and I could easily inhale five slices of bread. It gives you an empty feeling.

It's ok. You go again tomorrow.

Don't eat bread. Just cut it out completely and see if you stop feeling hungry all the time. Make this one change & see how it goes.

Half your wine intake by having a spritzer instead, half wine/half fizzy water. Tastes similar to prosecco, half the calories.

There really is no other way than weaning yourself off UPF and sugar. Both are highly addictive, and UPF are chemically designed to make you crave more.

some people go cold turkey, others do it gradually. It’s tough but it can be done.

there is a film or a book - I think it’s called Ultraprocessed People - that explains it all.

I hear you OP. I am always hungry. I can eat a massive meal and the be hungry an hour or 2 after. I have learned the mantra “hunger is my friend” and I just put up with being hungry. Also pick your hard… as in it’s hard being over weight and it’s hard being hungry… pick your hard.Also I have a fridge locker that all the other family have the code to but not me… and all the goodies go in there..

Stop buying wine and chocolates. Make popcorn instead. Get a smart watch and aim for 10,000 steps per day.

Drink a glass of water before you snack. You might have just been thirsty.

It doesn't help that I don't have much going on in life and use food as a comfort and something to look forward too.

This.
You’re using food to meet an emotional/ psychological need, just like any addict does. Whether it’s drugs, alcohol, shopping, cutting, gambling, starving, binging. It’s all the same thing, behaviour to fill an emotional hole. It won’t change until you tackle this.

Psychotherapy/ counselling is one useful thing.

Peer support is important. Can you join a slimming club? Reaching out and making connections with people in a similar position in real life is so valuable. It can be life changing.

I’m a hideous emotional eater. Also have constant food noise. Got my first appointment on Monday with a counsellor who specialises in binge eating and eating disorders.

I did have some success with slimming world but I couldn’t cope with the amount of
processed food they recommended and it was difficult to get non/low UPF advice.

🤦🏻‍♀️

That’s brilliant good luck.

Yes I get that re UPFs. It’s the peer support that’s valuable as well.
For some people I guess the priority is losing weight no matter how. Then they can focus on moving gradually to healthier food bit by bit once things are improving mentally as well as physically.

I’d start by setting yourself a smaller target than ‘no snacks at all during the week’. Try to establish a small daily change.

Maybe - this week I’ll only eat nutritious breakfasts and each will include some fruit. (Yours with fruit and yoghurt sounds very light btw and not filling, so no wonder you get hungry later in the morning.)

Next week, I’ll continue with the nutritious breakfasts and I’ll also change my mid-morning snack to something from a healthier list. (Not Skips - just don’t buy them and don’t have them in the house. It’s pointless as you’ll then have them as a snack option).

And eventually you’ll get to something like an 80:20 rule. Eat well 80% of the time and allow yourself treats…just not more than 20% of the time.

I have looked at Noom but I don’t understand it. What does it involve ? There is also OMO which seems similar. (Having looked at Noom I am now being bombarded with weight loss plans on Instagram ).

@Worriedmum159 I think it must depend on your SW consultant - mine advocates cooking from scratch (which I always did anyway, I just didn't realise that sugar and flour were such huge triggers for me). You can eat lots of UPF on SW for sure, but IMO you don't have to. It may be that some consultants talk a lot about processed foods because that makes the plan more accessible or seem more "normal" if that's what their clients normally eat?

Anyway - just wanted to give a shout out to SW not being all Muller lights and Mug Shots or whatever. It's basically healthy eating with a counted/sensible amount of stuff that you can choose. I use a lot of my "syns" (HATE that terminology!) on olive oil, nuts, butter etc but you can choose to use them on other things if you prefer.

And I might modify my earlier point to say I have minimised the amount of flour and sugar I'm eating, and avoid UPF as far as possible (which kind-of happens automatically if you avoid flour and sugar as many UPF products are full of them...)

The van Tulleken book is brilliant.

Thanks @Ralphiesaurus i had a great consultant then i moved and not found one like her! It’s a good point though. The tipping point most recently was comparing subs on seasoning when it’s cheaper and just as easy to make it yourself with no syns and getting almost shouted down for suggesting it! She just seemed to want to push the SW meals, hi-Fi bars etc.

I never heard a muller light mentioned!!

It varies a lot by consultant as it’s not a job you need qualifications for. It varies across an individual consultant’s groups too. I switched to a Saturday as it had more cooking from scratch minded people.
No one ever talks about muller light at ours but there’s a trade in isey baked apple skyr (high protein yoghurt M & S)
As with anything it’s what you make it.