*Red Flag*
okay the reason for the title is because I know that this following question is not going to be approved by some...
k here it goes...
I have a problem with snacking at night, and sometimes during the day due to boredness... I usually am never physically hungry, just emotionally (bored, sad, stressed) I love when I work because it keeps my mind off of the kitchen cupboard... right now I am at a healthier weight, and I am happy where I am, I want to maintain and not gain due to stupid random snacking...
I know, I know, the answer is obvious: FIND SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE TO DO.. but let's face it, we are human, sometimes all we want to do is just be lazy... like don't get me wrong, most of the time i am pretty active with work or just running errands, but on my off days my head goes straight for the food (an annoying side effect caused by ED)
and if this makes a difference, I always try to eat a certain amount of calories a day to maintain my weight (about 1400-1500) so when I end up randomly snacking a red flag goes up and I realize that this is bad and I start chewing and spitting the food! which is even worse...
here is what I am trying to get at: since most diet pills mainly just surpress appetite, would those work as a 'back up' to help prevent unnessary snacking, and the wastage associated with it?
I am not trying to lose weight, I just NEED to get other things done in life, surely my life cannot revolve around unnessary eating... I want to be able to think about other things besides food and calories... and I cant keep wasting food like this, its a horrible disgusting habit :(
*please only reply if it's helpful*
Diet pills really don't work so I wouldn't encourage you to try that route. Eat larger meals the rest of the day, eat regularly and make sure that what you eat is as nutritious, filling and as wholesome as possible... i.e mostly vegetables, fruit, wholegrains etc., and not ready meals, 'diet' foods and energy bars.
And if you need a snack in the evening, it's not the end of the world either. But make it easier for yourself to snack well than to snack badly. A banana or an oatcake with some peanut butter might be more satisfying than some alternatives.
I don't want to sound judgmental here because I'm not trying to be. I looked on your profile and it said you had a problem with diet pills in the past. I wouldn't recommend using diet pills now if that was a trigger in the past for your eating disorder.
It sounds so easy to just keep yourself "distracted," but that is a lot harder in practice. I just don't buy the snack foods, so there is no temptation to go to the cupboard and snack.
I would agree with the previous post that you probably are not taking in enough calories to begin with. I think that even a person who lives a sedentary lifestyle requires a minimum of 1700. Since it seems you are active by your description, you probably do need closer to 2000. Maybe you could try to eat that many calories for a week and see if it helps with your snacking.
Otherwise, I would keep healthy snacks available at all times. I like to cut up veggies and "prepackage" them into the serving sizes I like. Obviously this won't stop the snacking, but veggies are usually pretty low in calories, so it won't throw off your calorie totals.
Hope this helps and good luck!
I usually end up giving sucky advice even though I don't try too, so this is probably going to be sucky advice... But what I do when i get hungry is chug a giant bottle/cup of water :-D By the time I am done putting the water down to my belly, I am so full of water I don't want any food :-P The side effect to this is 15 min later I have to pee SOOO bad and am hungry again haha. Also the eat whole and healthy and filling foods is good too. And deffinatly increase your cal. per day, that is way to low. If food is readily avalible for ya... You have to get into a routine of your lifestyle change, diet pills scream "Hey this is me, on a diet..."
Man, I do suck at giving advice :-O
You definitely do not want to turn to pills that surpres the appetite, because then what? I mean honestly, would you plan on using them for the rest of your life?? And why?? Most of them do not do anything...and who would want to put that stuff inside of them?
But on another note, I feel for you. I have a bad snacking problem when I am at home too, which I know stems from restriction for long periods of time. Maybe you could decide to snack on veggies or oatmeal or pretzels or something that creates that extra full feeling. Chewing and spitting is STILL an eating disorder!!
Honestly the reason why we run to the kitchen when we are bored is because we are subconciously thinking about food even when we are not hungry. When ever I find myself doing this I try to get out of the house, or maybe just come on this site to get my mind away from snack attacking!
I think if I were you I would just include my snacks in my daily intake, and maybe up that a bit, like a few hundred and see where it takes you.
Good Luck!
I've always been this kind of snacker, mostly from boredom and just because I like food. But with the ED its gotten so much worse because it's like food is the #1 thought ALL the time unless I'm super preoccupied with something else, and even then, it jumps to what will I eat when I'm done with this. I hate it because if I'm not busy I can't think of anything else to do but eat or look up recipes for things I can make to eat,when I know there are a million things I could do, my mind just wont stop revolving around food. Anyone know how to stop this obsession?!
Back to your question: Definitely DO NOT take the diet pills. They don't work, plus most probably are filled with all kinds of bad chemicals and have bad side effects that you don't want. I also agree that you need more cals than that. I promise your body will adjust to it and you shouldn't gain weight.
I would just focus on eating healthy snacks, whole grains and proteins to keep you full longer. Another thing I do when I know i've eaten enough is drink water, or chew gum. If I'm home I go brush my teeth after I'm done eating so I don't keep going. I especially have to do this when I feel a binge coming on, like after certain trigger foods. Yesterday I had eaten a ton of peanut butter (slices of apple with pb, celery with pb, and crackers with more pb, plus some spoonfuls on the side) and I just want more and more and I started thinking I'd just grab one more spoonful when I went to put my plate away, but realized that would just lead to more spoonfuls so I started chewing gum instead.
I use lemon water. Like the guy said above about chugging water... that really helps me, too. Yeah it seems temporary (15 minutes or so), but then you chug more water. And you know you're barely taking in any cals (lemon).... and the lemon helps to not dilute yourself completely.
I don't think diet pills are the way to go.
Here are some things that have worked for me as I work in an office and get bored and used to find myself eating a lot of unhealthy snacks.
try planning some healthy snacks into your calories for the day. I got some of those snack size baggies and I measure and pack things like baby carrots, nuts, celery, dried fruit, etc. Then I carry them w/me in my purse so they're available when I get the munchies. I've found I don't always even eat all of them, I think just knowing I can if I want to is enough some days. And if I do eat them I don't feel bad cause they're healthy.
Also I've found when the munchies are really bad sugar-free gum helps for some reason. it's usually only about ten calories, and no it's not the most wonderful thing in the world for you but if it keeps you from chowing down on junk food it's a good alternative.
You say you're not really hungry, just bored/sad/stressed. Even IF the diet pills suppressed your appetite and weren't bad for you, how would suppressing your appetite keep you from this kind of snacking? Appetite=hunger right??? If you're eating because your bored, etc, then an appetite suppressant is not going to stop you at all.
carmenxox: Appetite suppressants can have all kinds of unknown side effects. There are a ton of class action law suits filed on behalf of dieters who have taken certain pill that later turned out to do many people physical damage.
You could try heading off the snacking by drinking tea with milk or coffee or a diluted fruit juice. If it's liquid you'll prevent yourself from spitting it out and if it's relatively low in calories then you don't need to fuss over it. Coffee (you can get decaffeinated) with unsweetened soy milk or almond breeze tastes good to me but has about 50 calories total for the two cups I drink and I like the warm feeling in my stomach.
keynan/e-runs-with-scissors: definitely drink that water, but if you're hungry again within the hour you probably need some food.
don't take diet pills, seriously. you'll never be able to give them up.
instead, go get some stevia and instant iced tea. whenever you find yourself wanting to eat out of boredom, make yourself some calorie-free sweet tea. it'll fill you up and stevia is a natural appetite suppressant so it's not like splenda or aspartame.
no, don't take diet pills, cause the root of the problem is more mental than physical. you say you're not hungry right now, so even if you took the pills you still wouldn't be hungry. i'm actually in the same situation right now. the ED side effects just make me "go" straight for the food. i'm not hungry and my jaw even gets tired of chewing food but still i feel compelled to eat. i can't offer a solution as i'm still struggling with it, but i try to analyze what i'm feeling before i eat. if i'm not actually hungry, i 1) just chew gum until my jaw gets tired 2) try to concentrate on homework or go on the internet and do something until i'm distracted by something else 3) take a nap 4) go for a run
i have some alternate suggestions:
(as mentioned) lemon water-either hot or frapped with ice for a cold drink.
hot tea. i make tea kind of like a ritual. when i sit and just savor my favorite flavors, it helps me not snack.
make a low calorie soup. even make it that night! have something broth based with veggies. it will really fill you up.
make a meal or snack for tomorrow. you might nibble on ingedients or take a few tastes, but it can be involved to make.
like pop corn. you can pop a bag of plain or light buttered in the microvave and veg out in front of a movie. then, you can sprinkle on some parmesean cheese and make cheese pop corn :) or have it plain. you can also get the 100 cal pop corn packets. i find that when i snack like that it keeps me occupied. thats key since im in recovery too.
frozen grapes. theyre great for snacking also.
frozen yogurt, fruit sorbet-good to have a small bowl and nurse for a while.
hope these help...in the long run diet pills are annoying because they might even make you dependant on them-or could just stop working. ive considered diet pills for evening snacking too. know what i have instead? a slim fast smoothie right before bed. i nurse it and relax. i get the high protein kind. yes, its more calories. i make mine with natural almond milk(from the powder) and wow i love it! you could make your own version too to avoid store bought brand items.
good luck!
thanks everyone.
well it seems this is pretty one sided... NO DIET PILLS
figured as much,
...
and fyi i already do drink a lot of water, lol
some of the other suggestions are helpful, but i guess what it just mainly comes down to is the stupid ED mentality that puts food as your top priority.. i dont know if that will ever be totally fixxed, but i guess just keeping myself distracted, and i probably should up my intake a little, but when i do snack i always estimate how much i just ate, so i am either over or under estimating my overall intake for the day which is frusterating because i very well could still be in 'starvation mode'
In my very limited experience, diet pills didn't do much for me. Oh, they may have suppressed my hunger- but I ate anyway, out of boredom, loneliness, sadness, anger, whatever.
Diet pills don't fix those things.
Well, i would try something else before trying diet pills. For example, I went to a Nutrition store and got powered protein for shakes. I only use one scoop with 8oz of milk (1 scoop is a snack, 2 is a meal) and that is enough to keep me feeling full for close to 4 hours! Ive also learned to snack on 100 cal packs,nuts, fruit and veggies and I get my chocolate fix from chocolate milk. Sometimes I dip fruit in a little bit of Nutella (i use half of the serving size for ONE apple) or Peanut Butter. So, before trying diet pills to suppress your hunger and then be starving once they wear off, try snacking on healthier foods and you dont have the guilt!
If you aren't snacking from hunger how would diet pills help? Maybe you could save some of your calories for nighttime. Have some popcorn or fruit. If nighttime is when you want to snack, have a snack scheduled for nighttime.
