@anon103 Good points! I think that is the heart of the problem. I am eating at a calorie deficit (about it 400 breakfast, 400 lunch, 500 dinner, 300 milk for coffee/tea and a snack) and then alternating running 5k and the strength training.
If work is light - I can cope. I am sluggish, a bit foggier, but I can cope. The problem is when I have a busy period, deadlines, complicated pieces of work, etc. I struggle. That is when I reach for something surgery to get through it.
@divinity3 Ohh yeah, that's only like 1600 which is not a lot for the amount of activity you do. Try adding more food to your meals and I bet you'll have a ton more energy and be more successful in your weight loss overall.
@anon103 The problem is... when I eat more... my weight loss just stops or even worse... I gain weight.
But you are probably right. Rather than resorting to surgery snacks it would be better to just eat at maintenance and keep exercising and see if that helps. I might not lose weight - but at least keeping good habits.
@divinity3 You'll definitely be healthier overall.
But tell me, what results have you gotten from your current approach of undereating at meals and then having lots of sugary snacks? Is that working for you?
@anon103 Unfortunately, it does for work purposes, but not for fitness goals. I work a lot better, etc... but I also start regaining a bit more weight.
That would be fine for the odd day/week... but the issue is when I have multiple weeks/full month of harder work.
So I have got through this week with sugery snacks and not exercising (due to time as I was waking up 5.30am and getting home at 7pm).
Today I am eating healthier as I am just catching up on emails, cracking through my to do list, etc.
But next week I need to write a bunch of new strategies, plans, etc. that can be hard to focus on without a sugery energy burst. So will try without... and see how it goes.
@divinity3 So if undereating makes you crave sugary snacks, and undereating + sugary snacks makes you gain rather than lose weight, it sounds like what you're doing currently is not working.
What other approaches to dieting have you tried before, and have any of them worked well for you?
@divinity3 Caffeine. But not excessive. Fruits are a great source of fructose but you'll get fiber and vitamins from them. Drink lots of water. The craving and dependence will fade and you'll have less and less cravings for sugar.
@calvinabume Already drink 2/3 coffees a day, which doesn't help as much as it would have done 10 years ago.
Unfortunately, it's not just a craving. I actually just work better with surgery snacks and feel a lot more sluggish, slower, foggier, etc. when I don't.
It's terrible - it's got to the point where I know I am not craving suger/hungry... but I will have jam on toast or chocolate biscuits if I have loads of work to do and need to buckle down and get it done.
@divinity3 Its like you didnt even read what they suggested. Former sugar addict here. I felt the same as you but I did exactly the thing the person you replied to suggested and its helped tremendously.
Maybe too personal but what are your BMs like? I noticed an uptick in energy when I increased my fiber and had solid clean BMs.
@divinity3 It sounds like an addiction that you have mentally turned into a crutch. You don't need it you want it and your brain is telling you lies to achieve what it wants. No different then opioids or smoking.
@torie I was addicted to opiates and I was addicted to smoking I no longer use opiates and I no longer smoke but for some reason I constantly go back to sugar it's in everything sneaking into my life whether I go out to a restaurant or find it in prepackaged food.
@torie I think the point that I'm trying to make is that when you look at MRI scans of the brain or CT scans of the brain sugar does the same thing as opiates or smoking or other hard drugs. People don't realize that they're addicted to it because they accidentally consume it every day and they don't have withdrawal symptoms. I have tried to stop consuming sugar and it's damn near impossible.
There is no mechanism by which one can become addicted to simple sugars. There is nothing
You also can't stop consuming sugar because your brain quite literally runs off it. What do you think other carbs are made of? It's just longer strands of sugar.
@betaninja Hi addiction researcher, I was wondering if you could explain your statement a bit? Seems like half the people in this thread think you can totally get addicted to sugar and that it’s “one of the most addictive substances on the planet.” So I figured I’d ask the expert. What do you mean when you say you can’t get addicted? Why do many people beliehe you can get addicted to it?
