Hi suffti
Welcome to the forum, I think this is your first post?
Many of us have had this problem, and there will be a number of topics with discussion on this. “Sabotaged!” covers this to some extent, particularly in its earlier posts.
Are you in your early days of this Way Of Eating? Giving in to cravings tends to be more of a problem when we first try to change what are often habits of a lifetime.
Have you calculated your TDEE, so you know about how many calories you can eat on non-fast days? You can then work out what you can eat on non-fast days, and then will be mindful of what you are eating. Lots of people advocate writing down everything you eat, as it does seem to help limit what you eat.
Remove all the tempting food from your house, if you can.
Drink water, tea, coffee, etc whenever you get a craving.
Do some exercise instead of eating the craved food.
Make a list of 10 things you can do instead of eating the craved food.
Try 16:8 or 18:6 – ie only eat within a 8 or 6 hour window each day.
Work out when you are most vulnerable to give in to cravings, and work out strategies in advance for how you will deal with it.
I am sure others will have other ideas, and do have a look around in other topics.
Let us know if you find a strategy that works for you.
Good luck 😀
Sassy

You know, it really does get easier but you can still fall off the waggon and hit every drumstick, starburst and jellybaby on the way down even a year or so down the line. My weigh in day for the month was this last Saturday and I’d been doing fine up until last week and then the time change and Halloween hit and I don’t know quite what happened to me but if I managed to squeeze in just under 2000 calories on just one of my non-fastdays I’d be very surprised. And so, it came to Saturday and I’d lost precisely nothing since last month. I think I actually probably lost my usual 2lb in the run up to last week and then utterly sabotaged myself with half a ton of ‘left over’ halloween sweets dumped in the office ‘snack bowl’ on Friday. Oh well, note to self: we all have bad weeks and at least I didn’t put any weight ON 😉

Keep on truckin’ everyone.

Hi suffti, I empathise with you. Posters have also given some good advice which I can relate to. For me over eating seems to happen in the same location – my home. Last night, Monday, was a fast day, I had been for a sauna, returned home about 9.30 pm and was desperate for alcohol and crisps etc. Similar cravings to my non fast days. I simply removed myself from the location where I usually succumb, ie my favourite seat in the lounge and went to bed. Result – another successful fast day.
This is a simplistic explanation for me. A friend of mine cured her nightly 2 glasses of wine at home by simply moving from her favourite chair where she settled with her wine to another in her lounge. A great deal of our cravings are simply psychological and we need to find triggers to combat these cravings.
Please take on board the good advice given by the posters who have replied to your concerns and try to work out some positive actions that will help you.
Good luck.

@couscous
” I simply removed myself from the location where I usually succumb, ie my favourite seat in the lounge and went to bed. Result – another successful fast day.”

Great move and strategy.

You interrupted the association that you have with the seat and consuming.

➰

To be honest I used to keep fast at least a day in a week but when I used to eat the very next day then believe me its really like UN-controllable for me,, I used to go on eating,, go on eating,, unless n until I used to feel that my stomach is full and its a must that there should a sweet stuff in it.,, Hahaha
Can’t control myself 🙂
Navigate here

“Socializing over fasting, otherwise people get nervous.”

I don’t do it because it makes people nervous. Socializing is to me very healthy, having a laugh with friends or family. So I do choose that over fasting simply for my mental health.
Especially here in China where my social life is practically non-existent, the times I do get the chance to eat out with a colleague I savour and even skip my evening workout for it.

Thought I’d also post about wheat here too as it explains why just having a taste of some foods leads to bingeing.

Yesterday I innocently started watching an online video featuring American cardiologist Dr William Davis. I stumbled on it as I’m interested in low-carb eating.

He reveals what’s been done to wheat over the past 30 – 40 years and why it’s contributing to rising obesity, food allergies, diabetes, blood pressure, dementia, balance problems, addictions, IBS, reflux, arthritis, crohn’s disease, asthma and possibly autism, migraines and more.

He explains that the protein gliaden is the problem in the wheat grain, not so much gluten. Gliaden is apparently an opiate that causes appetite stimulation. And explains why wheat is now included in commercial foods that previously never had wheat, eg soup. He also reveals the dangers of gluten-free products.

I had no idea about this secret manipulation of our food, let alone the extent of it. While I’ve cut down since following 5:2, I can’t see myself cutting all starches and sugars, especially with Christmas on the way. However, it’s very disturbing to think about some the possible ramifications.

Urge you to watch. It runs 55 minutes and pre-dates his book. The message is SO revealing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47QlothkpsE

Heather

Hi Nika,

I just thought that rather than start a new post I’d add the information about wheat where it was relevant, so that those who’d commented before would see it.

BTW, I’m not promoting any books. I haven’t read the one the doc wrote. It was the detail in the YouTube that I thought would be of interest to others. I added it here as it explains why having just a little of some foods can lead to binging.

Heather

Hi Heather,
Thanks for the link. A timely post for me, as I have been gluten free this month, and then had a non gf cookie last night, and then probably ten more (with cream cheese and jam!!). I have read his book and find it very interesting – particularly as I have long been aware of my inability to stop once I start with certain foods, and because I have always had a bit of a pot belly, even when I was Ironman fit. In my first month of 5:2, the last two weeks of which were wheat free, I lost 4.5 cm off my belly but much less from everywhere else. The video is a good reminder for me to keep doing what I believe is healthy (and what works!!). Funny to see him pre bestselling book ;p

HeatherFast

we will always repeat articles/thoughts/posts/links on this forum

because u r right about timing

things do get lost in this forum & also r worth

repeating ad infinitum

so please continue posting ur very important links

we do appreciate ur postings

i do discuss this dr & his reviews of his book

we also talk about the grain brain author dr permuletter

if u click on my name u will c many topics concerning ur concerns or might just like

thanks 4 ur input

looking 4ward 2 ur future postings

i’m finding out that even when i thought i would get binge on a lowcarbhighfat day i don’t want 2 so that really helps 2 😀

take care
usa

Maybe you should stick your link onto some of wiltldnr’s threads 🙂

@wiltldnr by the way. Could you perhaps lay off the Enter key a bit? And perhaps replace it with typing out words a bit more instead of writing your posts like you’re texting someone? 2 = to, 4 = for, c = see, r = are, stuff like that. It makes your post very tedious to read. And you constantly keep speaking in the “we” form, like your opinion reflects that of everyone else. Well, it doesn’t reflect mine, because I come here for encouragement and chit chatting with other forum members, not to be spammed with links, so I’d appreciate it if they’d be stuck in a few places, not all over the site.
So sure, create a thread with links and stuff, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that because I’m sure there are people who enjoy them!

Again, my opinion. And I’m sorry this discussion started on your thread Suffti! Didn’t mean to hijack! 🙂

Hey Suffti, how’s the not-binging going? 😉

Yeah that works for me as well, only Sunday is my “whatever” day. I also cut carbs during the week, so my Yummy Sunday usually includes bread or a few cookies, not really chocolate that often… I’m not that much of a sugar junkie (thankfully!)

Fatbasterd, looking back over this thread I located the post by Nika to USA which prompted your remark. I think the post in question was harsh. I very much value USAs knowledgeable contributions to the forum. If others want something lighter-hearted they
should ignore this type of post, not lay into the poster. Your post about Mila however was downright rude and meant to achieve what, exactly? There is a lack of manners on this site at the moment

To avoid overeating on non-fast days, I think you need to use a similar approach that you use on fast days. When hungry, try drinking some water, coffee or tea before succumbing to solid food. This works for me on fast days and should be easier on non-fast days.

This has been a big problem for me.

I’ve been doing a solid block of three days. Sometimes on the third day I cave and binge, or the day after I’ll binge.

What I have found, when I consume artificial sweetener say pepsi max; that seems to promote hunger a lot, making it harder not to binge.

On days where I’ve had interrupted sleep (kids) or I’ve stayed up past my bed time, I have much larger hunger pangs and less self-control.

Lastly, on my fasting days I normally skip all meals except dinner without too much problem. I find eating a meal promotes hunger and can often open the flood gates. I’m not sure how to deal with this, I’ve tried to fill up on lentils but that doesn’t seem to help. I think starchy or sugary foods definitely make the after dinner cravings worse. I think eating right before bed may help, since any cravings will be while i’m sleeping, but that’s not an option since we eat as a family).

Before doing any fasting I was mostly trying to do portion control and exercise. I suffered with hunger a lot. Then I cut most of the added refined sugar in my diet (from ~60g/day to less than 20g/day) and most of my hunger vanished. That is the primary reason I felt I could give fasting a try. Over the months I experimented and I found that if I had a high sugar day I would feel extra hunger that day and some into the next. When I had two high sugar days in a row the hunger was much worse for more than a day. So for me avoiding sugar most of the time avoids the worst of the binging. I still tend to overeat on peanuts.

Probably different people have different triggers, I just seem to have a low tolerance for sugar and the impact is I have a harder time with hunger if I have too much of it.