I continue to struggle — not terribly — but still struggle with compulsive eating. The forces in me that caused me to gain 100 pounds between 1982 and 1996 still exist in my personality. When I am stressed, I want to eat. I probably have gone about 35% tasteless in the last 2 years. I would like to get skinnier, to push my blood pressure down as much as within reason, and get rid of the fat on my belly; my waist is around 39 inches — I am 6 feet and of moderately large athletic build. I have the tendency, when I want to go mostly tasteless for a day to impulsively give in and overeat. I was misconceiving this as an issue of will.
What I’ve discovered lately is that I was confusing “willpower” with technique. Low blood sugar can manifest as depressed mood, lightheadedness, vague disquiet, and more obviously food fantasies. It can be subtle. If I attend carefully to my mood when I am trying to go tasteless, attend to my hunger levels and always have the mush and water available, I can manage my blood sugar levels and not have sudden attacks and fantasies of food. If I anticipate times when I may be experience such attacks I can preempt them. The conjunction of being around available food and having blood sugar drops leads me to eat compulsively. So now, I keep the mush next to my computer when I work, have it with me wherever I go and if I notice a sudden sign of blood sugar drop that may lead to compulsive eating, I consume a small bit of mush.
I would like to take this experiment as far as it will go but have not yet had the motivation to do the requisite work. I would like to see how thin I can become — within reason — using the method. It’s a matter of going predominantly tasteless for 3 months as I did in the summer of 2005, when I went from 210 to 177. I’m at 188 now. Time will tell whether I can pull it off…
Timothy:
Rather than losing more weight, being 6 feet and about 190 pounds, why not think about going from “skinny-fat” to “athletic”. Do you exercise much? Is it aerobic or weight-lifting or a mix? You seem to have a strong handle on diet, but diet only helps you lose weight, not gain lean body mass.
I’m developing the discipline of drinking 2T flavorless coconut oil when I start fantasizing about cookies. It always kills the craving, yet, perversely, there are times when I _want_ the craving, even though I know the cookies are bad for me.
Hi Tim,
Enjoying your guest blogging — I am unsure if it is low blood sugar per se that is causing your urges to overeat. Rather, I think, consuming a bit of your concoction that you described in your previous post ‘fruits and vegetables in a blender, added rice, bean, nut, soy, non-fat milk, flax, oat, and at times other powders to the liquified fruits and vegies,’ leads to an insulin spike. Your insulin sensitivity is then diminished, leading to cravings for more carbs.
My guess is that one could get far in weight loss and general health combining Seth’s appetite suppressant techniques with Art de Vany’s theories on evolutionary health and diet. (BTW Art’s theory, in a nutshell:
An interview with Art here, excuse the fact that it is on meathead bodybuilding site (apologies to any bodybuilders out there):
https://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1373291
Another interview here:
https://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=709484
I’m an Art fan as well. He and Seth are the only two health/diet blogs I visit on a regular basis. Here is another very good short summary of the basics, from a recent post:
https://www.arthurdevany.com/2007/04/dieters_gain_we.html
For more comprehensive information, I recommend this paper he’s written:
https://www.arthurdevany.com/webstuff/WhyWeGetFat.pdf
Good luck!
Thanks for all the thoughtful comments.
Hi Dave,
I walk an average of about 70 minutes a day, briskly — for 3 hours at least on Sunday. I agree with you; for health reasons I want to get rid of more fat from my belly. And I want to get my blood pressure under 115/75; above that is considered pre-hypertensive and begins to be risky, we now know.
Hi Brad,
There may be a difference bettween craving for taste and craving for calories; it’s not real clear to me. I agree that flavorless calories are the best way to go to get rid of unwanted eating impulses. I wonder if flavorless carbs would do better than flavorless fats — to make it simple, you could just cook quick oatmeal in a couple of minutes and then cool it a bit and float it down your throat with a big gulp of water — you could have it flavorless and that might be more powerful and effective. The more calories you get that are tasteless, the less general hunger you will have…
Hi RandomToad (great name!)
I don’t know about the insulin spike idea; you may be right. My assumption has been that consuming the mush tastelessly by floating it down my throat, means that I only get just enough calories to assuage hunger — and hunger is very weak. There is no incentive to consume more than that because there is no “active” pleasure in the consumption because no taste. So I only eat small amounts of the mush. Then suddenly I have weakness, or lightheadedness or something and that leads to food fantasies in the course of my day; if I have the mush available, I can intervene before that happens… There is plenty of protein and fat in the mush by the way; soy protein, garbanzo beans, almond meal etc…
I must check out Art Devany’s blog, thanks for the URLs and thanks CD as well. It’s great to participate in Seth’s blog; he is a hero of mine — his ideas have helped me enormously…
Thanks again.
Timothy Beneke
“What I’ve discovered lately is that I was confusing “willpower” with technique.”
That was brilliant.
I think it is one of the core problems with most weight loss efforts is that they do not understand the mental breakthrough you describe.
>What I’ve discovered lately is that I was confusing “willpower” with technique.
I loved that part too, but for some reason my comment didn´t show.
It is an excellent point from where to start changes and not fall in thougts like one is a weak person, etc.
Does this mean one needs the help of some “expert” or one can “sel experiment” with a new pattern. I think in some cases the help of other person is needed (identification, mitation, modelling).
Very interesting topic to develop further