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Can't Stop Eating

This isn't as big a problem as it sounds as I don't wake up in the morning and start eating until bedtime.

The problem I have is that I find it hard to stop eating once I've begun.  I can go hours and hours after waking up without eating and I don't really get very hungry.  Once I have breakfast or lunch though I just crave more food.  Nothing huge, I'll occasionally just have a couple of oreos or something similarly sweet but small (occasionally I'll throw caution to the wind and have a proper dessert)

Today for instance - I woke up late (last day of freedom before new semester of law school), did some work, bathed, tidied and went to the grocery store.  Got back about 2.30.  Hadn't eaten anything all day because I honestly was not hungry.  Made a ham sandwich and ate it.  Then suddenly I was craving something else.

I resisted and came here to satisfy my curiousity instead - Anyone else have a similar 'problem' or have any idea why my desires for food work in such ways?  It's like there's a little kid inside my head that, once I taste some food, say "that was good, I want more!"

Most days I don't put off eating until so late by the way so it's not like it's just a normal response to being hungry and I don't eat rabbit size portions or anything.  If I ate that sandwich at 9/10 this morning I would have had the same response and I'll probably have the same response when I eat dinner later this evening.

Not seeking major diet advice as I'm a decent size but the snacking maybe adds 10-15 pounds I wouldn't mind seeing the back of.  If I could understand how my apetite works I might be better able to control what I eat more.

- A dessert person

Sometimes I experience this too. Usually I will just try to find something else to occupy my mind with, like going for a walk, doing homework, reading a book, getting online, etc. 

I would try eating something earlier, like within 30 min - 1 hour of waking up.  Your body is hungry even if you don't feel like you are.  You haven't eaten in the 6-8 hours you slept and then you don't eat for another 3 - 4 hours after you wake up.  So when you do finally eat, your body really, really wants food.

Yes, I have the identical problem. Really annoyingly so. I'll find myself going out for lunch, then wanting to stop off somewhere to pick up more food. (I also have the same impending Law School problem, but that's another ball of wax).

The only fix I've found is to focus on the high fibre as much as possible. Wholegrain stuff, beans, soy, the right sort of vegitables - these sorts of things make me hit sated, whereas high just about anything else doesn't.

It might be psychological. "Doesn't stop for breakfast" bespeaks "busy." Busy bespeaks stress. (In the great substance abuse factory that is law school? Never). If "eating" becomes associated in your mind with "take a break for a meal," your mind might start pinging "Hungry! Hungry!" when it's really trying to say "chill! chill!"

The bad thing is that it's easy to train the brain like that. The good thing is that it's easy to train the brain like that.

i'm usually not hungry in the morning, either.  i guess that's why breakfast is so important.  you really should have something, anything, earlier in the day...  just to get your metabolism going.

then you wouldn't be so hungry when you start eating later.  i get like that, though!  LOL  it's like i'm not even hungry...  'til i eat!

I prefer to eat a couple of meals throughout the day.  When I skip meals I tend to be much hungrier at later meals and tend to end up eating more than I do when I just eat my regular meals.

your body is probably not used to eating until later in the day, sometimes if  dont eat for a while, im not very hungry anymore, and dont think im hungry, but i really am, so once i eat, i just want everything. so try and regulate your eating a little bit more so you eat every couple of hours even in the morning and you shouldn't feel like you have to eat EVERYTHING when you finally do eat.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I think I gave the wrong impression in my initial post though - I certainly don't usually wait until the afternoon to eat my first thing but it seemed like the perfect way to illustrate the fact that I don't seem to want food until I've actually eaten something, regardless of whether it's 30 minutes after I wake up or 30 minutes before I go to bed.  It's not even hunger that follows such late meals anyway, it's just a desire for something more, something sweet usually.

Perhaps it just is a willpower and mental thing though.  Early on in life we're always told that we have to eat all our food before we can have something sweet like dessert or chocolate etc.

I guess my mind just got adjusted to that sort of pattern and has come to expect it to follow any meal.  I do love to throw dinner parties and very frequently make dessert as a matter of routine.

Perhaps I should make it a rule that unless I'm out at dinner or hosting a dinner party I shouldn't eat for 30 minutes after dinner.  That way I'm not actually satisfying a subconscious craving, I'm actually eating something I want (which will hopefully occur less frequently than the cravings ;) )

It sounds like you are not nourishing your body properly and if you don't you will be hungry. You don't want to go all day without eating. Waiting until 2 and then just eating a ham sandwich is not balanced of course you will be hungry after that. Where is your dairy, fruit, veggie?

You need complex carbs, some simple carbs, healthy fats, lowfat dairy, lean meats and other proteins, fresh fruits and veggies. Lookup balanced/clean eating and come up with a proper eating plan.

Eat a balanced breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch and dinner. Drink a lot of water. Don't keep junk in the house and you will not have it thee to eat.

Oh lord not again.

I just updated the topic to reiterate what I said in my first post.  Yesterday's example of waiting a long time to eat something was a bad example that gave the wrong impression.  I don't wait that long to eat something, and I do eat a balance diet starting with a decent breakfast.

My dairy fruit and veggies come with the meals I eat in a day.  I registered on the forum to ask a simple question about my sweet tooth which occurs only after I eat a normal meal, not to be told I'm not nourishing my body like some anorexic person.  MY BMI is on in the area of 26, not 17.

Thank you to mars_0112 and freedomfrom for understanding what I was saying and giving me something to think about.

Is there a mod who reads topics regularly who could close this for me?  I think I've gotten enough "eat breakfast" advice already.

do you eat a wide variety of foods or do you mainly stick to the same staples over and over?  i find that when i eat, i am not satisfied with eating just 1 type of food.  i like to eat buffet style and have to eat lots of different types of foods in order to feel satisfied, including desserts.  so i eat a few bites of one thing and a few bites of another.  i don't know if that would help you.  i usually mix up having fruit, dried fruit, cake/pie or expensive chocolate when i'm having a sweet tooth.  but i don't find packaged cookies like oreos, savory enough.

I have the same problem. And If I'm not careful I'll eat until I'm sick. My solution has been to stick to lots of low calorie, healthy, tasty foods that fill me up (even if only for a little while). The time between me getting hungry on a 1500 calorie meal versus a 200 calorie snack is the same. Because of this I try to avoid large or calorie dense portions and just keep something in my stomach all day.

High fiber foods really help me and dairy is like inviting hunger. I'm slowly discovering foods that really curb my hunger cravings for a long period of time. And since I honestly can't tell the difference between diet food and normal food when I make it myself I substitute a lot of things in for healthier options.