Eating like a girl

[Jupiter]

I'm suddenly bingeing on chocolate and carbs (especially museli), making bad choices then regretting them half an hour later when I'm hungry again, and generally letting my emotions take over. I have a good eating plan that has worked for me for the last six months, but I'm having a hard time with it now.

Is there anyone out who's overcome a similar problem? I'm wondering whether I need more calories now my muscle mass is increasing, but the calculators I've tried don't help because I haven't gained weight just lost a little fat (but even then I'm only 1% down on 6 months ago)

[LongboardLuLu]

My first question to you would be this: are you cutting certain foods out of your eating plan completely? If you are, this is a bad idea simply because you will binge on them later. You need to have cheat meals (or cheat snacks) every now and then so you don't binge later. This was tremendously helpful for me when I was starting out, and know many other women who feel the same way.

If you currently do allow yourself certain foods here and there, then my next guess would just be that your body has gotten used to the eating plan you have been using for the past 6 months. Your eating plan needs to be switched up just like your exercise regime otherwise your body just plateaus. A lot of times when we binge on certain things, or crave certain things, it's because our body is telling us it needs those things and it's not getting them. This is another reason to revamp your eating plan. See what's missing and fix it. And on top of that, if you are gaining muscle mass, then yes you more than likely do need more calories, which again, means revamping your plan.

If you don't do it already, keep a food journal. Write down what you eat, when you eat it, and how much. It'll help you see what changes need to be made.

[mitchcumstein]

It probably is hormone related from 6 months of dieting. you should take a couple weeks to refeed but you need to control yourself and eat lots of good carbs, not bad ones and those cravings will subside.

[Jupiter]

Thanks for the replies, guys - I'd almost forgotten about this post. The timing is quite good, though, as I've just eaten dinner (homemade chicken casserole with rice and salad, BTW) then was hungry half hour later, so got myself through basically another snack.

To reply to some of your suggestions, I don't diet (apart from eating low sugar where possible, due to some diabetic factors), and I don't miss out any food groups. But I will definitely try keeping a food diary. And I might take up pottery as it's hard to overeat chocolate with clay-covered hands!