Male, 34, went from 83kg down to 65kg last year and I am kind of holding in there quite proud. Last months (maybe starting Christmas) I’ve been struggling to keep my cravings on line, and now it is almost impossible to last a week without falling for this or that junk or sweet food or overeating. I still do 16:8 all week, but I feel I need help controlling my hunger. I even considered going to a professional… How do you do once you reach the GW?
Have you had a blood test done recently to check your hormone and vitamin levels? It could be worth it, as an annual check up, to see if there’s something you’re missing that causes this medically.
Congrats on the weight, it’s an amazing achievement and you’re smart to be thinking about maintaining it.
First of all, congrats on reaching your goal - as for the cravings and controlling them, I would just listen to my body but not giving in completely - moderation is key, so maybe a sweet treat here and there will do the trick without throwing you off completely. Best of luck!
If you’ve reached your GW, why not have a treat night? If its only once a week it shouldn’t derail your gains.
I have a packet of my absolute favourite crisps once a week with a glass of red wine and it makes aaaaaalllll the psychological difference for me, and I’m still losing because I do a lot of OMAD the rest of the time.
The important thing is to not let it creep into other days, but I find that my weeks fly past so fast that it doesn’t feel long in between.
I went through something very similar, ended up in alternating binge + restriction cycles, and slowly regaining weight. I ended up talking to a professional, which helped a LOT. The general process was to take a diet break, forget the scale, give your body what it wants until you retrain that it’s always going to have what it needs. Then, after a nice break, gradually scale back into a slow loss mode, with a small deficit. And honestly it’s working really well. It’s a process, like everything else.
I had to rebuild my relationship with food in order to lose weight. Then I found that I had to rebuild my relationship with food all over again to maintain, and it was actually harder to maintain. When losing, I had all that fat around to provide energy, even when running significant deficits. Now, if I’m not fueling properly, it throws things off. I ended up eating a LOT more after restricting, which became the pattern.
Talking to a professional as soon as the warning signs appeared was the 2nd best thing I’ve done in years (after losing the weight initially). Yes, taking a diet break is hard, seeing the weight climb slightly is hard. But it was necessary for me. And it wasn’t that bad, I put on like 10lbs total in the whole “break” process, and it’s already 80% back off again, but MUCH more sustainably this time, and feeling a lot better.
For reference, I’m also a 35M, so like you I’m not exactly in the high risk categories for disordered eating. But it still happened. Don’t be afraid to talk to people about it, it can really help, even if you’re not in a worrying place it can be helpful to get that reassurance.