advice on health and diet

penniesforme

I feel the need to eat continuously. its something that i cant control, as i feel really dizzy if i dont eat every 2 hourly.:o

my daily eating schedule:
9am breakfast: big bowl of cereals and a banana/orange, 2 pints of milk, and some rich tea biscuit.

11am: a cup of coffee and a couple of slices of bread, cakes and biscuits

1.30pm: a generous amount of pasta/ rice (carbs) with some bread. fresh fruits and a packet of crisps.

2.30pm: coffee/tea with more bread, nutella/pb/honey

4.30pm: cereal bars/ crisps/ nuts and two portions of fruits and more bread

7pm: vegetables with fish/meat/chicken. always with rice. normally have ice cream/ really rich cake for dessert.

9pm:
makes a ham and cheese toastie, or a sandwich. will treat myself to some pop corn if i am not too lazy to pop the corns. :rotfl:

permanent items in my weekly shopping basket::o
4 loaves of bread
2 packets of pasta
2 kilos of rice
loads of biscuits, cakes, rolls,
4 bags of crisps
loads of veg/fruits.

I am just wondering if this kind of appetite is normal?

I am a student and am very skint spend approx 40% of my weekly income on food alone.:eek: maybe if i somehow manage to suppress my appetite, i can save more money and invest it somewhere.

smileylunar

sometimes the need to eat may be physiological or phsycological, ie; your body may be really hungry for nutrition, or your brain tells you you need comforting by eating startchy comfort foods..so whilst some foods may satiate your appetite, your need for comfort may over-ride your body's needs.
sometimes we think we are hungry when in reality we are thirsty. drink more water.
but also i suggest you make an appointment to see your G.P and have a diabetes check...
think about eating less refined foods and trying more natural foods which take longer to digest and can therefore stabilise your blood sugar levels.
eg fresh fruit and veg, wholemeal carbs, proteins like cheese and fish,and check your alcohol intake.

all boring advice but maybe wirth a try?
HTH

liney

You are eating a huge amount of refined carbohydrate (white pasta, white bread, cake biscuits) which give you a sugar rush, then are digested quickly leaving you with a sugar low and feeling hungry again.

First thing to do is swap your pasta and bread for Wholemeal, which is not so refined and lower GI. Next thing is to increase your protein which will fill you up for longer and mean you dont eat as many carbs. I bet your cereal is a sugary type? Try porrige or unsweetened museli.

I would see your GP to get a diabeties check and also to ask for a menu plan which will give you an idea of what you actually should be eating.

Carbs arent bad, btw, just excessive amounts of refined carbs...

Justie

I'll repeat what's already been said... that's a lot of carbs and sugar and you're probably dizzy cos of the peaks and troughs that come about from so many carbs. However you must go and see your GP to rule out diabetes etc.

If you are free of diabetes and your GP can't find any other reason then you need to replace your refined carbs with complex carbs - eat porridge for breakfast have almonds and a yogurt for mid morning snack a protein based lunch an apple for mid afternoon snack and then a mix of protein and brown rice for your evening meal and if you still need it some more nuts or something in the evening. Drink water.

pinkshoes

some people do need to eat more than others (i eat alot, and constantly, but have a BMI of 18.5), so if you're a steady healthy weight, then i wouldn't worry about it. I find having to eat all the time tedious!!

you do eat a LOT of starchy carbs though, so as the others said, change anything white for wholemeal (bread, pasta). You also eat ALOT of sugar, so maybe try and cut down on the sugary snacks, and eat fruit instead.

replace your nutella/honey snacks with cheese on wholemeal toast, or a bowl of porridge, because both are far more filling!!

it could be boredom too!! try taking up a new hobby, or change your daily routine, because that'll help change your food routine.

penniesforme

thank you all for the advice. :beer:

forgot to say that i only eat wholemeal/multigrain bread. (they taste better and last longer than white bread). The only white bread i eat is the baguette.

I normally have the shreaded wheat cereals by nestle, or the alpen muesli with dried raisins. I did try to eat porridge, but gave up after two unseccessful attempts at cooking them. (the microwave was covered in porridge after it boiled over while it was cooking). :eek:

I dont normally have sweet sugary stuff as i have very sensitive teeth. But i've made it an exception when it comes to cakes and chocolates. Even then, i only eat chocolate cakes which are rich but not too sweet, or tiramisu. and the chocolates are normally dark bitter chocolates. They are my lifeline. :rotfl: biscuits are normally those bourbon cream biscuits or rich tea biscuits.

i eat an awful lot, despite them being healthy food. had a couple of visits to the GP over the last few weeks and she warned me about fluctuating weight. (i can be 67 kilos one week, and 62 kilos the next). Thankfully, no diabetes, no heart problems, bp normal, etc.

Myeating pattern is the same. so i really dont know the reason for the fluctuation in my weight

dress size is fluctuating as well. I have tops ranging from size 8 to 12. :eek:
some days, i just wont fit into a top, but on others, it will fit perfectly.

am just worried that i am suffering from some strange type of disease which the doctor failed to diagnose me with.:eek:

ktb

As I echo all the previous advice and will say again water water water!!!

Thirst is so often confused with hunger beacuse people are not hydrated enough... try keeping a small bottle with you all the time and sipping from it regularly. Gulping a whole bottle down doesn't rehydrate you... you have to drink small amounts steadily. If you are eating all the time then you will definitely require lots as water is required in the digestion process. Also drinking water before eating will help you feel fuller quicker and mean you dont actually need to eat as much.

liney

Water retention can be caused by too much salt, and dehydration strangely enough - amoungst other things. To gain and lose weight like that over a few days is bazaar. I would see the Dr again personally; and cut down on salt, and drink more water as ktb said.

nappentass

Great information from everyone - just thought I'd add a couple of things from my personal experience.
Eat protein at every meal - I've found this is what satisfies me, if I don't have a portion of protein I'm hungry again quickly, and my temperament is directly affected (for the worse) if I eat mostly carbs and miss the protein.
Learn to figure out when you're actually eating to fuel your body, or for other reasons - I journal for other reasons and have more understanding of myself now.
I could not take the pill - one of the problems was that I ballooned in size on the damn things... it could well be that you have a hormonal influence causing your fluctuations.
I found my doctors not so helpful, but there is a lot of information on net that can help you on what to ask your doctors about.
For me Chris Northrop books have been helpful about womens issues and along with Dr Phil's books (incl weightloss book) have helped me figure out what my body needs both for weight and emotional stability.
HTH
Jill

pinkshoes

my weight used to fluctuate from about 9.5 stone to 10 stone, but then dropped steadily over 12 months when i finished uni and got a job, despite me eating the same (lots!!), doing less exercise (no time!), and i now seem to have levelled at about 8 stone 10 (55kg??) which is not much for someone who is over 5'10 (1m76)!! It does seem strange that your weight fluctuates over such a short period of time though!!

Do you get lapses in energy where you feel very weak? maybe get a second opinion from another doctor, and maybe a female one who would me more likely to understand possibilities with change in weight!!

filigree_2

You might not be eating enough protein. I'm not advocating Atkins or any extreme low-carb diet, but you need to get a better balance of carbs vs protein. At the moment it looks like you have carbs all day and protein fairly late in the evening. Try swapping it round - have your protein meals during the day because protein makes you feel full for longer.

You could have a look at some of those books about low GI foods which explain this better than I can.