We've all heard what works? How about a thread where we talk about what didn't work?
I think it would be nice to see a compilation of pitfalls that we've all encountered. We hear about what did work for everyone but I think it would help some people to see that a lot of the gimmicks and trends they've seen and heard about legitimately don't work.
Things I tried that didn't work:
- Eating one meal every day that was 1500-1700 calories
- Eating 1200 calories a day
- Intermittent fasting
- Low carb diet
What I realized was that by not eating more regularly, I would propogate food cravings by rewarding them with food. If I waiting until I was hungry to eat, then i conditioned myself by rewarding hunger with food. My brain decides that if it signals HUNGRY FOOD PLEASE, it will work. So it sends the signal all the time. Because I didn't eat when I wasn't hungry, I would eat larger meals too, basically trained myself to binge eat at every meal. When I fell off the weight loss bandwagon, I would binge eat literally whenever I had cravings. When I climbed back on the bandwagon, I wanted to continue eating large meals because I was conditioned to believe that eating less wouldn't be as satisfying or as rewarding.
I broke this cycle by eating small meals regularly throughout the day, even when I'm not hungry. I have ADHD and my prescription coincidentally is also used to treat binge eating because it is an appetite suppressant. Funnily enough, at first I would still binge eat because I would wait all day (wasn't hungry) and then eat whatever I wanted when the meds wore off. It was like having the munchies every night. I didn't lose any weight for the first several weeks.
My physical trainer described it to me like a furnace. You wanna throw food in throughout the day instead of lighting the fire once every day. It's a simple matter of physics; that food has to go somewhere, you can only use so much of it at a time, the rest is stored as fat. If you eat a pizza two slices at a time every six hours you'll use way more of it than if you eat the whole thing at once. Edit: my physical trainer is wrong, though, so thanks for letting me know!
Side note: having ADHD makes it sorta impossible for me to ignore food cravings when I'm unmedicated. It takes up all of the little attention that I have so I have to condition myself to have as few food cravings as possible--that is what the core of my weight lost strategy is. My meds make it so I really REALLY don't want to eat, but I force myself to do it anyway. I've got a declicious avocado toast here and I have to close my eyes and chew fast. But when my meds wear off later? I'm not as hungry. No more munchies. I don't get food cravings as bad anymore because I haven't been rewarding them with food, my brain stops begging me for treats because it just doesn't work anymore. I don't binge eat anymore at all, actually sometimes I go out to eat and I'm mad because I ate the whole appetizer and I don't have room for dinner.
So what didn't work for you? Let's hear it!
Edit: have to go to work now, but what I'm seeing is basically that 'what works' is what is sustainable, and what is sustainable varies from person to person. Hopefully everyone can find a method employed by a person like them and this will help people. :)
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from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/2Jktd8o
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