@dawn16 Chiming in on the IF recommendation. I was exactly like you described. I'd eat just for the sake of eating or from boredom or stress and sugar/salt cravings. I started IF (16/8) in February and cravings have gone away.
If I start the day with breakfast, no matter how small or how healthy/satisfying, my day goes off the rails. I will get hungry about two hours after eating and then rinse/repeat for the rest of the day.
IF keeps my hunger in check all the way through my workout and then I can have a big packed and healthy dinner.
@123443215 Same, but in reverse. I eat during the day but I stop eating by 4pm. If I have too much food in my stomach when I go to bed, it interrupts my sleep (I have a tendency to get reflux and seem to have sluggish digestion).
Just throwing it out there to let people know the you don't have to focus on dinner to do IF!
@ziggy_zig I do IF same as you. Fill up from 8-4 and then sleep well on empty stomach. I’m not big on dinner anyway, so this timing works well for me. Same with sluggish digestion. How’s it working for you? I just started but I’m feeling hopeful.
@lostandtired Are you me? Pretty much same stats (but 5'7 and not alcohol/gluten free) and I feel the same way. Have you ever considered trying something like the Whole 30? It's not meant to help you lose weight necessarily, but it's supposed to help you fix/redefine your relationship with food. I tried it last year and quickly gave up due to the restrictions on sugar and alcohol, but it might be worth looking into. If you find anything that helps let me know D:
@lostandtired Whoops, totally suggested this and just read through all the comments and saw that it has already been suggested and you have tried it.
Honestly, it may be beneficial to try it again. The first time I did it, it helped but it didn't permanently stick, and the second time I did it, I still didn't feel quite like my sugar dragon had been tamed at the end of my second round, so I kept going a little longer.
I bet it would really help with the relationship you have with sugar/food in general.
@lostandtired This is a personal anecdote, but I just came off birth control pill and my appetite changed immediately. I have always struggled with my relationship with food, so it was especially difficult that I was thinking about it nonstop all the time, constantly feeling hungry. Now I feel hungry like a normal person. One thing I've learned is that literally everyone is different, so if this is a factor for you, you may have vastly different results. Maybe you are just super stressed out and that's how you're dealing with it. I dont know! Just throwing it out there in the event it might help.
@dawn16 Oh yes me too! The 2 years I was on yasmin was the time I put on most weight because I was craving sugary junk food all the time. Once I got off it, the cravings stop. On the other hand keto also help me get into a better state with foods and diet.
@dawn16 I had the exact same thing. I gained 30 pounds in 4 months. I would get so frustrated from always being hungry I would cry. I got off it and I went back to slightly above normal and curbed the rest with lowering my carbs.
@dawn16 Ah, along with some other reasons, I'm really considering going off birth control for this. But I have such bad periods, birth control is the only thing that's helped in that aspect. :/
@dawn16 Came here to say this - I also just stopped BC and my appetite has decreased. Apparently estrogen BC can cause an increase in appetite for some women!
@dawn16 Hmm. I’ve been recently always hungry, and didn’t realize it coincides more or less with when I went off the pill. Hopefully any hormonal changes start to even out!
@sharonrn I wouldn't even say it made me legitimately hungrier, but just having constant cravings for salty stuff, sweet stuff, greasy stuff, etc. I wouldn't say I felt like, "wow I am hungry, need to eat," as much as I noticed an insatiable desire for different things. I was on it for ten years, but in the past two unnoticed I had a lot of different side effects that I couldn't figure out (migraines, etc) so I ended up stopping it to see if it would help. Not wanting to eat all the time was a nice side effect, though
