Silly Food Craving Question

hi, so this may seem like a silly trivila q, but still sort of wondering...

I've been craving peanut butter and fruit+nut trail mix.  yesterday i had about 1/5 cups worth of trail mix and about 5tbspns of PB, through out the day.  im STILL wanting these foods.  i dont restrict them normally and they r a routine part of my daily diet.

does this mean anything or am i just simply wanting these foods.  suffering+trying to recover from an ED for so many yrs got me in the habit of ignoring food+hunger craavings, im just curious if this is just a normal food craving, or if it actually has some sort of meaning.

thanks!

When it started getting darker earlier what was strange was that my appetite restimulated and it really was as if during daylight I was starving and at dark I wanted to sleep. I feel like a bear!

hmm, my sleeping is the same. 

maybe im still starving? idk maybe 2500 isnt enough, enough at my weight.  maybe i need to be at at least a bmi of 20 and if higher, so be it but, i think ill be a ble to then maintain on only a few hundred under what i gain on, which isnt too shabby!

Original Post by agruskin:

ugh, dont even get me started on raisins! my entire life, i ate them till my head started pounding, all dried fruit, idk what it is.

I think dried fruit has preservatives in it, maybe it was an overload of preservatives making your head pound?

I think it's natural to go through more hungry and less hungry phases. If you were used to calorie counting before you wouldn't have really let yourself experience this, but maybe you're just going through a "hungry" phase and it will level out after a while.

Also, if your pb is sweetened and there is dried fruit in the trail mix, maybe it's all the sugar making you hungry... But honestly, I'm not sure it really needs to be looked into as you need to gain anyway so might as well take your hunger as a good thing.

Original Post by merylwhite1:

Original Post by agruskin:

ugh, dont even get me started on raisins! my entire life, i ate them till my head started pounding, all dried fruit, idk what it is.

I think dried fruit has preservatives in it, maybe it was an overload of preservatives making your head pound?

I think it's natural to go through more hungry and less hungry phases. If you were used to calorie counting before you wouldn't have really let yourself experience this, but maybe you're just going through a "hungry" phase and it will level out after a while.

Also, if your pb is sweetened and there is dried fruit in the trail mix, maybe it's all the sugar making you hungry... But honestly, I'm not sure it really needs to be looked into as you need to gain anyway so might as well take your hunger as a good thing.

 I know this wasn't directed at me.. but I'm wondering.. Is it natural while maintaining to go through hungry and less hungry phases? Because I've found sometimes where I feel as though I can eat 3500+ calories. And other times, I can barely cross the 2500 mark. Right now I'm in one of those 'hungry' phases, and it's kinda freaking me out.. I'm eating more now than I did to gain!! >.<

MERYL-hi, idk if the PB is sweetened, it is not natural, i dont have any "natural" foods, its just regualr-not reduced fat or anything.  the trail mix i have no clue, no chocolate but im sure its loaded w/preservatives, its a mix of fruit+nuts.  yes, hovering at the bmi 19 mark (as of last week) and have been eating 2600-2850 since then.  im also not feeling the gym as of late, i still go but im not enjoying it as much and therefore not pushing nearly as hard. the hunger IS scarey, like this amount of food is working for me now, how to decrease in the future, yada yada...??!!

GOOBY-yea, it IS scarey.  i think the flux in apetite is normal and that ur body evens itself out, like 1 day 2500 then next 3000 so all in all, u get an ave, sound rt?  im w u tho, ive been completely insatiable!!?

I am not a doctor but I do think it's natural to have appetite fluctuations. For one thing we don't use exactly the same amount of energy each day and for another we don't know exactly how many calories we are burning either. So if we are eating a little more than we need our appetite might slowly taper down and if we are eating a little less than we need our appetite might increase, while we are still basically maintaining the same weight.

Plus, you never know what your body is doing on the inside - it might be undergoing a lot of repairs/growth or using energy because you're stressed, sick, cold or a thousand other reasons which can cause a change in appetite.

If you trust your body and eat when you are hungry, you won't become overweight. People simply do not become overweight by eating mostly healthily when they are hungry - our bodies just do not send out signals for more food than they require. People become overweight for many reasons including eating beyond hunger, eating from boredom or eating a lot of calorie-dense foods, but not from listening to their hunger signals.

MERYL-yes, hunger deff fluctuates day to day and i think for the most part, the body can regualte.  i do eat a lot of cal dense foods tho (trail mix!! lol)  thing is, im in such a routine that when i eat more at a certain time, like a snack time or something, then im so used to eating dinner, a certain amount or whatever, that i dont know how to proceed after the larger than planned snack or whatever.

amy...why don't you just adjust your dinner to either accommodate the snack or if you can stand to eat whatever was planned in addition to what you already had then just go for it, just make sure to still eat something at dinner time despite having the larger than planned snack.

CHRISSY-yes, i have been, ive been eating tubs of trail mix and will still eat dinner, and another snack, hence some days recently at 3000 cals! i do eat a bit less after but its still plenty. idk, trail mix is just so damn good, i mean i NEVER tire of nuts+dried fruit, its scarey, my mough always wants itttt!! ahh lol

what brand is it? is it a special flavor or just that you love nuts and dried fruit?? i know there's like vanilla almond and special blends sometimes. 

i actually just get whatever store i happen to go to has, i just dont get the ones w chocolate in them, i dont care for those, but the chocolate almonds that r sold seperately, blue diamon brand maybe-those r amazing and i do eat those. 

agruskin: My body doesn't really balance out like I would've expected it to. It keeps asking for 3500+, every day, even if I reach that amount!

merylwhite: What I'm worried about is confusing my hunger cues with emotions or boredom. I listen to my body for the most part, but I'm not entirely sure if it's true hunger.. I'm kinda worried about giving in completely to it all the time, because it asks for such a huge amount! Ughhhhh

GOOBY-so ive been eating relatively the same amount each day, regardless of my hunger, its like, yes, i just ate a huge unplaneed snack but im SOOO used to the structure of having all meas, and having them all be a good size, that regardless of hunger, ill continue on w the plan.  like i listenend to my hunger cues to eat a larger than planned snack or wahtever but the ni ignore or dont hear my apetite and continue on as if nothing happened.  so im scared about what will happen if i continue that, im so regimented into the schedule. 

I can relate to being “ regimented into a schedule”

I figure, that if I eat decent sized meals regularly through out the day,than there is no need for me to be paranoid or to over think if I have eaten enough... because if I am truly hungry, my body should tell me after my dinner, or last snack, and I can simply eat more.

I also craved peanut butter at one stage. And I went through a nut and dried fruit stage too lol. The cravings passed, as I am sure yours will too.

The thing is, brands that sweeten their trail mixes and peanut butter with additional sugar and additives can make the food TASTE realllllly good -  therefore, it is very easy to crave it…. Even after eating large amounts!

Good luck with the gaining,  keep up the good work!

PERSONAL-hi, so i never eewally annalyzed the trail mix, i just buy whatever the store has but u mean i should look at one where the ingredients would just list the actual nuts+fruit contained?

thing is, ill have a loose plan of what im eating, very loose but it always turns out to be around the same cals, so ill eat a certain snack after work but its only afterwards that i get into the trail mix and go on and on.  THEN, when it comes to dinner im stuck as to how to proceed, i could have had an additional 500 unplanned cals so its like, well i still have a routined dinner and snack ahead of me, what to do??

I think, just go with it even though it is hard not to worry when you've had an ED in the past. People without EDs go in to food fixes sometimes too and as someone trying to recover/gain, it'll be more harmful in the long run to obsess over the fixes and try to make up for it than to just 'get it out of your system' , if that makes any sense!

You will eventually get bored with the trail mix and eat it in normal amounts again. I'm on and off with things like PB and certain fruits/cereals/snacks too, and I don't have any eating disorders. However, I am underweight and my body clearly knows this and I concluded that I get more enjoyment/satiation/satisfaction from the high energy, naturally sweet and high protein foods at the moment because it needs them to gain strength.

I know cravings often have little to do with deficiencies or individual requirements, but in the context of illness I think they do. I have increase sodium requirements due to losing loads in my sweat (sorry if TMI) and I've always liked strongly salted foods, presumeably because they make me feel better when I am needing a dose of salt!

I know I've rambled at you a bit about it, but I can see that it's stressing you out more than it would someone who hadn't suffered an ED previously, and I really think that part of moving on is to accept our crazy bodies and their funny little addictions sometimes. xx

Also I should add, if you feel that it's getting in the way of your planned meals (as in, filling you up too much), then perhaps you could just limit yourself to a certain volume of it each day and then if you are hungry, try something else. If you eat all your meals no problem and still want trail mix, eat more. But maybe only allow a certain amount untill after you have covered all your other food groups.

SMASH-hi, yea, im sort of over it, just bought like a bulk tup of it at the store!

allow a certain volume, well i dont weigh anything, i dont have scale or anything.  and allowing it, well thats the thing, i dont plan on having it in the 1st place and dont have a certain amount set in my mind that ill be having, i just robotically walk to the cabinet, open the container, and then its all over!

Part of getting over disordered eating, in my opinion, is to learn how to handle normal situations, for example, such as when people eat an extra 500 calories of trail mix before dinner, and have a later or smaller dinner as a result. However, if you are gaining, you still need to make sure that you do not restrict your over all calories as a result of a delayed, or smaller dinner. If you eat an extra 500 calorie worth of train mix before dinner, on top of your normal pre dinner foods for the whole day, than your aim could be to try not to over think your dinner as the result of the train mix. Just eat your usual dinner, at the usual time if you feel like it; but try not to think too much about it. Once you learn how to shut off the over analyzing, you will be able to do different things, such as eating your dinner later due to the trail mix, or etc…. the point is to be able to just do whatever it is you need to do, without thinking too much.

yea, ive done the rt thing when these situationa have come up, i ended up having a smaller dinner, still having a snack after even, my total calories ended up being higher than normal, but i also realize the apetites fluctuate day to day and that after eating the unplanned larger snack, i was, at least a bit less hungry at dinner and perhaps in the future might prefer or just crave something else, something smaller, but i dont think id skip dinner altogether ever, i think that could be disordered eating, just be in the mood for something smaller, i think at least!