David Attenborough voice: “Observe this 32 year old male, that has somehow convinced everyone he’s a functioning adult, not being able to get up from the sofa and put his damn phone away.”
It’s worth remembering the full elimination dieting doesn’t work for almost anyone because of exactly this. Sure ADHD makes it harder/different, but everyone has a dopamine dependency and food is a huge part of that.
Dieting is mostly mental, and about all of your habits around eating. Look at things like overall portion sizes, and trucking your brain into realizing you’ve had enough. It’s okay to have some chips, but put them in a small bowl and then put the bag away. Eat dinner on smaller snack plates and not full dinner plates so it looks like you have way more food available. Eat slower, and don’t eat while doing other things like watching TV or reading as that distracts you from the signals your stomach gives that your full. And give yourself a reward sometimes, it’s important to enjoy life and food is part of that. Finally, is your dieting strategy sustainable long term (like “the rest of your life” long term)? If you cut out chocolate you may lose the weight you want, but if you go back to eating it again in a year, or two, or three you’ll likely gain much of it back.
You 100% can do it, but be sure to set yourself up for long term success! You’re not just trying to lose weight/be healthier, you’re working on lifelong habits to be happier as well.
The main reason “dieting” doesn’t work is because people think it’s a temporary change rather than a lifelong change.
(You did address this, but it was quite far down, so I wanted to point it out more clearly.)
You typically do have a more restricted calorie intake for faster results, but yeah the goal is to reach an equilibrium and that WILL be less calories than you’re currently eating by definition.
Mass takes calories to maintain, a lot of calories, really.
Only way out of that is to put on and keep muscle mass.
good luck with the diet! if you’re only trying to avoid specific foods like snacks or desserts, something that’s surprisingly worked for me is to eat more. if i am full after eating my meals, i’m less likely to snack constantly between meals. if i eat more fruit, i’m less likely to crave other desserts. if i plan an afternoon snack of cheese and crackers, i’m less likely to grab potato chips when i’m feeling peckish. keep in mind you still need to eat mindfully to not overeat so this approach might not be for everyone, but framing the process as “what can i add” has made me naturally reduce a lot of things i wanted to cut without feeling restricted.
Love the alt text, because without it I was sure the smiley was fucking high and on munchies mode lol
It always helped me to think of hunger as winning. Hunger is the goal. Hunger is weight loss. If I’m hungry, it’s not a thing to be fixed. It’s what I want! I win! I’m hungry? Hell yeah.
Get your dopamine from hunger instead.
Yeah this ended in me having a full on eating disorder through my 20s. Please be very careful doing that.
This may work in the short term, but I advise against it. This kind of thinking/mentality could lends itself to developing an eating disorder.
If you’re dieting, you should be looking for ɑ long term lifestyle change to avoid gaining weight in the future. For each person, this might be a little different. 𝖡est of luck, it is difficult to make ɑ lifestyle change.
I was mostly avoiding writing a 12 paragraph comment. Any diet or self image issue taken to the extreme is an eating disorder. The most important lesson there is don’t take it to extremes. For people who struggle to diet in the first place, it’s not impossible but also not likely for the pendulum to swing that far in the opposite direction.
But if It ever did get to that point, no matter how or why, it’s not shameful or embarrassing and you can ask for help. Everybody just wants to see you healthy.
I’m only a sample size of one, but I lost half my weight and have kept it off for over a decade. I’m still borderline overweight, but healthy. There was no single trick, but the biggest thing was just sticking to it long enough. Once my body got used to being a lower weight, I was way less tempted to eat such large portions. The reframing I posted was taught to me by my therapist and helped me get to that point.
You gotta be in it for the long haul, but it’s long and difficult so take anything you can get to ease the journey. The easier it is, the more likely you will make it to the end.
I’m glad for the reply and 𝖼larification, ɑnd glad it worked for you with the help of your therapist.
I shouldn’t discard something might work/help, ᑲecause you can ɑlwɑys ɑdjust. If someone ⲥhooses to reframe their mind with this dopamine mentality, they should be aware of the pendulum in the extreme.
And you can and should ask for help and support, in all aspects of life. As TheBluePillock mentioned, everybody just wants to see you healthy.
I’m really proud of you! I started a diet two years ago and it was really rough at first. Eventually it gets easier and becomes second nature.
I had a lot of self esteem issues at the time because I felt like I had no control over myself. I realized that every time I was tempted to eat and didn’t I was proving that I was actually in control. It made a sort of motivational spiral or feedback loop.
So stick with it and recognize every small victory as proof you are capable of doing this. If you’re lucky that moment of pride can give you a tiny dopamine hit to make up for not eating that snack.
In addition to dieting you can try replacing fork reps with barbell reps. This gives a source of dopamine and increases your resting metabolic rate, making the dieting a bit easier.
Plus being stronger just makes day to day life easier.
Good luck, you got this!
this is why i don’t diet and I just instead smoke so much weed my brain breaks and I force myself to exercise way too much through the endocannabinoid haze
the only discipline necessary is the discipline to get riggety ripped
this is also why i don’t worry about being a functioning adult, nobody is a functioning adult, everybody is just fakin it
You’ve got this! We’re all gonna make it brah.
holy shit thats real
“yes brain im only doing this to torture you my singular motivation for this is cruelty to myself and totally not trying to do this, allegedly very simple, task that eventually will result in a big dopamine hit if only you could hang in there for just a little bit”
do you have meds? because they do help somewhat
Yes fortunately I do have meds, and have opted to take some today despite it being the weekend. I just don’t want to waste another day in ADHD paralysis^^
Yesterday was pretty fucked though. Didn’t even manage to get up to go to work, let alone call in sick…buuut I guess that’s a problem for Monday
i know if exec function is non functioning I’m asking the impossible buut if you try going for a walk for a bit you will feel better, get that dopamine. you can even promise yourself a treat if you like, as the extra exercise means you can have a lil snack. i use treats to trick my “internal demon child” into action all the time, basically the only way i ever get anything done
There’s a big ol pot of dopamine at the end of this. Your new hot bod will give you lots and lots of dopamine
