Mind Game

#1

So I need some help. When you are on kept and you are doing good but your brain always wants to eat. I guess I am learning that I am a stress eater. I am noticing that I am obviously eating out of habit. I am trying to be mindful. HELP how do you shut your brain down when your body is not hungry and your brain thinks you need to eat?

(Katie the Quiche Scoffing Stick Ninja ) #2

You just need to keep reminding yourself that you are not actually hungry.
It’s simply Ghrelin.

Ghrelin is a hormone that is produced and released mainly by the stomach with small amounts also released by the small intestine, pancreas and brain.Ghrelin has numerous functions. It is termed the ‘hunger hormone’ because it stimulates appetite, increases food intake and promotes fat storage.

I have a notepad that I have written reaffirming thoughts in, that I can’t seem to remind myself of during the clutches of a carb crave, I always refer back to it and it helps settle my mind. Just small mantras to myself on why I’d prefer to burn the fat off my thighs than eat another donut.

(Carpe salata!) #4

Drink more water.

#5

Very same - unless I’m walking out in the street or working, my brain is telling me I need to eat and won’t shut up. I don’t even think it’s stress eating in my case, it’s more assurance and comfort eating, telling myself “why not”? With bad consequences.

(Carl Keller) #6

For me the question is “Do i want to eat or do I need to eat?”. Listen to what your stomach tells you. We become so accustomed to eating at certain times, whether it’s a snack or a meal, that the body knows when that time has arrived. It takes time to break habits. What helped me during the early stages was eating a fatty snack: a cheese stick, 4-5 pork rinds, 5 almonds or macadamians. Eating 0-2 carbs isn’t going to kill your quota and it taught me that I wasn’t really hungry, because the urge went away after eating so very little (fat).

(John) #7

Same here. I started my keto diet when I was on a one-week stay-home vacation so I could just ride out the carb withdrawal issues and no time pressure when cooking and preparing foods. I found it easy to control my eating and eat only when actually hungry.

When back at work, I found myself wanting to get up and go to the snack machine when I was dealing with multiple conflicting requests at the same time, and realized that a lot of my non-hunger eating was in fact stress relief.

Armed with that self-knowledge, I just replaced eating with something else. I either get up and take a short walk, or drink water, (black) coffee, or plain tea. I am still doing something as a stress reliever/avoidance behavior, but at least it’s a healthy alternative.

So my approach is to replace a bad habit with neutral or positive habits.

#8

Thanks everyone. I will keep on trying and drink more water and keep myself busy with other things. Everyone says that with keto you don’t really need to snack but then they are also always talking about the snacks they do eat. What do you think about that? Should stay away from eating anything at all in between meals or is it fine to snack between meals?

(John) #9

By “everyone” what you are saying is that some people say one thing, and others say a completely opposite thing. That’s not everyone, that is different people taking different approaches. They may be at vastly different stages in their journey, or have different metabolic challenges (or lack thereof).

My approach is to avoid snacking if at all possible, though I do have some “emergency snack-type food” in my desk at work - small amount of raw walnuts/pecans/almonds, some canned sardines - more as a meal replacement if for some reason I didn’t plan ahead to bring lunch, or have time to go out, or have to work late.

I do occasionally have a snack/small meal if I am just really hungry, so I don’t follow it all the time.

I’ve read enough on intermittent fasting to understand the benefits of letting your body cycle all the way from the fed state (when you have just eaten something) all the way down to the fasting state (when your body has digested and processed all of the food you ate) to allow insulin to fully cycle.

Eating small amounts frequently keeps you in the fed state and insulin levels relatively high because you are always digesting food. If you are metabolically healthy and at a maintenance weight, that might work fine. For weight loss I think bigger but less frequent meals are a better approach.