Why do i always think more about food when i go on a diet

[maz1984]

I always find myself thinkingabout food when i am on a diet more than when i am not need to find other things that will distract me away from food

[pinkymoo]

I think it's probably psycological.

If I said to you don't blink

then you've probably just blinked instictively because you saw the instruction. Or if you buy a new car and then suddenly spot loads of cars on the road just like yours,

It's only natural that if you're thinking consciously about what you're eating that you'll think about wanting to eat. What you have to do is separate what is a random wim from actual hunger. Like you said you need something to distract you. Take up a hobby that keeps your hands busy, go for a walk or have a drink. Sometimes hunger is bot hunger, sometimes it's thirst.

I read a poster on pinterest that said:

Loosing weight is

70% changing what you eat

30% exercise

100% motivation.

[GRUMPYA]

Some of the best things to do are occupations where it's hard to eat while doing them. Here are a few if they don't suit I'm sure you can come up with your own

knitting

swimming

painting

making fiddly things like jewellery

model making

gardening

spinning

working on cars or motorbikes

crochet

what these have in common is that you use hands and brain and you would either get the work or the food ruined if you did them at the same time as eating.

One of the reasons why people regain weight after rapid weight loss it has been shown by research is because if you have been deprived severely of food for some time you finish up with quite an obsession with it after. It is a basic survival instinct that if food is in short supply then you are programmed to become a bit obsessed with it so you can find enough.

Make sure you are eating enough food. If you are very overweight you might do better checking your calorie intake on the nhs bmi calculator and following that. For me that is part of the answer i am very overweight and according to the bmi calc i should be on 1800 calories a day. I am losing weight well on that. If you are only slightly overweight then that won't apply as much so try drinking water whenever you want food, keep busy, and make sure you get enough sleep as tiredness makes our bodies crave sugar.

[nataliefruit]

I think we tend to think about it more because loosing weight takes more planning so we're always looking a couple of meals ahead. Great suggestions from Grumpya, you could try painting your nails too because that stops me reaching into the biscuit tin!

Good luck

[Windswept1]

No harm in thinking about food. It is eating it you need to worry about. Seriously though, as Natalie said, following the healthy eating 12 week plan (not diet) does involve planning so you are checking your calories and working out meals ahead. This stops you getting too hungry and eating the wrong things.

[maz1984]

Thanks guys you have given me lenty to think about. I am really grateful for all the support on here

[Hidden]

Hi folks

Actually, I'd rather go with Windswept on this one. I reckon that it IS better to be thinking about food.

It's so much better to be thinking about the food you're putting into your mouth, i.e. noticing / "mentally registering" what you'e actually eating as opposed to "mindlessly munching" on autopilot in front of the TV, or face buried in the laptop.

Let me turn the idea on its head - if you had been in the habit of really thinking about everything you ate, would you actually be overweight now and trying to lose the excess?

My guess is probably not.

So, I'd say DO think about food.

Think about it's nutrition value for you.

Think about how calorific it is.

Think about how much of it you're eating (is that a 'portion', or is it two or three portions? Truthfully now!).

Think about how often you eat (erhh, well I guess you could call that my second breakfast).

Think about how quickly you eat your food (do you give your body time to notice you've eaten?)

Think about what you're eating and why (are you hungry, or just bored? Or are you comfort eating?)

Good luck with your weight loss journeys.

[GRUMPYA]

There is a huge difference between being mindful of what and how and why you eat and being able to think about little else. It is never helpful when you cannot get food out of your head and research studies have shown that deprivation causes people to fixate on food which is the main reason weight is regained.

Sure if you have just grabbed food and never thought about it all your life then you need to educate yourself but it is not helpful or healthy to think about little else all day.

It's the difference between living to eat and eating to live. I know what maz means and the answer is to distract yourself and keep busy. Far too many people put on weight due to eating whenbored and to sayit's helpful or healthy to fixate on food is bonkers!

[Hidden]

Hi GRUMPYA,

Of course I'm not saying it's helpful to fixate on food or indeed anything else.

What I am saying is that a lot of overweight people get to that state through not actually thinking about the important and relevant parts of their eating.

We're flooded with both very obvious and very subtle advertising and other cultural and social influences that promote over-eating, eating the wrong stuff, eating to feel 'good', food as a status symbol, food promoted as glamourous or high-class or special, sublimating eating for human relationships, food as reward for certain behaviours, etc., etc.

It's really easy to eat for all the wrong reasons and that usually leads to people becoming overweight.

But habits can be changed. Behaviours can be re-learned. For most people when starting on their weight loss journey, they do pay lots of attention to everything about it all. However, as the new ways become more familiar, they usually spend less attention on it all and do more and more (in good and healthy ways) out of habit, or on (semi) autopilot.

I don't have to 'think' any more about not tucking into a pile of chocolate bars, or half a loaf of freshly cooked bread, or double sausage in batter and chips, or any of lots of things I would have done a couple of years ago.

I don't have to think about weighing out the breakfast cereal, or pasta, or rice. I now do it virtually "automatically".

And, just like giving up smoking, or indeed a hundred and one other life changes, as time goes on and your new ways become your habits, your wariness / doubts / anxieties about the changes subside.

There is however, a possibility that some people are leaving themselves hungry, which if it is really hunger and not thirst, and if not addressed through approaches like healthy snacking, can be distracting. In which case they probably need to get themselves into an appropriate eating regime so that they don't go completely without food for more than about 4 hours at a stretch. (E.g. a meal-snack-meal-snack-meal-snack regime, if that works for their life demands.)

In the main though, I'd suggest that the best tack to take is one of "feel the fear .... and do it anyhow". (Substitute hunger for fear in that one!)

Good luck with your weight loss journey.