Picky eater help

[catizzy]

So I'm an extremely picky eater with a food aversion...I cannot tolerate certain tastes (herbs, spices) or food texture.  I'm NOT an over eater but am now over 45 and in the last 8 years I have gained 60 lbs without changing a thing (i actually eat healther that i used too 8 years ago).  Up until the last 8 years i was always under weight (according to doc) and now I am obese!  I have tried different weight loss methods and nothing works past 5 lbs.  I have BEGGED for help, giving a list of the foods i eat, only to be told "you have to try new things and stop eating what you eat now".  SO that will not happen - i need to know HOW to eat what i eat and make it work.  ANyone else out there struggling like me with a crazy food thing?  My foods:  potatoes (mashed, baked), cheese, roast beef po-boy (my fav - I'm from N'awlins!), french fries, eggs (scrambled only), pizza (cheese only - thin); tacos, hamburgers (homemade only), corn and carrots.  I eat lettuce but cannot tolerate any type of dressing or tomatoes so salad is out.  The only chicken i can eat is Cane's - if I cook it (chicken) I cannot eat it.   I sit all day at work and have no place to walk around - at all.  I dont really eat alot of sweets, just on rare occasions and never eat dessert after a meal.  Soft drinks - yes but only recently and not excessive (the weight was there long before).  I honestly do not over eat....I dont know what to do.  No thyroid trouble, no other medical issues......anyone like me out there who has succeeded without just flat out quit eating?  Im about to give up......TIA!

[Dominique]

It’s hard to gain 60 lbs without over-eating. It’s also hard to establish you are not over-eating if you don’t quantify what you eat and what you burn: your Fitbit should give you a ball-park idea of what you burn; now you’d also need to quantify what you eat, and compare that to what you burn. Over-eating is eating more than what you burn.

Do you own a kitchen scale that can weigh to the gram? If not, you should definitely invest in one (they’re not expensive). If you want to live on a diet of potatoes, pizzas with cheese, tacos and hamburgers, you will have to pay extra attention to portion size, because these are all high in calories. I don’t see a lot of green veggies in your diet, with the exception of lettuce. How about spinach, green beans, zucchini, brocoli etc.?

[OCDOC]

If your issue is food aversion, then the long-term answer for you MIGHT be eating zero now and then. This technique is called (sadly) 'Intermittent Fasting'..sounds awful.

However, the premise is simple. Instead of modifying what you eat to drop total calories, do so by skipping meals altogether; some people start by skipping breakfast every day or two, and keeping the other meals normal. If this works, then start skipping the occasional lunch as well.

There is zero evidence to suggest that 'cutting calories' this way is any worse than cutting a bit at each meal; in fact, some people propose it actually works better.

Just a suggestion and good luck!

[BadWolf]

Nope, you can't quit eating, that will make things worse as the poster below mentions fasting - you do not want to put your body in "starvation mode" because then your body will do everything possible to store fat.

Next,  I hate to be blunt but your food choice are not healty.  I see a lot of fast food, pizza etc.  A lot of hidden calories in things like Mashed Potatoes.  One of my favorites is baked potato (skin and all) with a little salt, pepper and instead of butter a drizzle of olive oil. (NOT gobs of butter or sour cream).

As the Dominque posted, you need to get a food scale and weight your portions.  Many places are putting calories on the menu – if they don’t go online and lookup how many calories and track in fitbit or any other program you choose.  Tracking is a pain BUT once you find a set of foods that work for a day without going over budget, stick to it.  I think it’s a myth to say eating the same thing daily is boring.  I tend to settle on one or two things for a breakfast and lunch, then my dinners can very some.  Once you get used to the right types and amounts of food you don't have to track so closly and eating becomes sort of automatic.

Also - (and this one is hard for me) start thinking of food as FUEL not as "good" or "delicious" - take away any emotion to food.  After a couple weeks, it really does work - you start not wanting to eat certian things because it's not clean FUEL (it might just be junk calories)

Keep your food as clean as possible and as close to nature as possible.  Clean meaning not covered in sauces or gravy or fried (baked, broiled or lightly sautéed) and close to nature meaning, cut the processed food.  A quick example is bread might be three steps from nature (wheat, flour, bread) where as a Twinkie?? Lol I couldn’t even guess.

Tacos? Are those homemade? And example of cleaning up tacos might be to make them homemade or a fresh place like salsaritas or chipotle where you can customize  We make tacos but I don’t eat the shell, I just eat some meat with veggies, maybe some black beans, NO CHEESE, salsa and a couple slices of avocado with a squeeze of lime and some cilantro.

Pizza – I might do this once per week and like you, thin crust.  Heck if I could get a pizza with NO cheese and roasted veggie, I would love it. Either way add some veg to your pizza for a few more nutrients.

Did I mention drop the cheese? yea, I know, that's tough for me too.

Drop the fries unless baked and on occasion.

Be careful when making scrambled eggs.. careful on how much butter you might be using.  Also you can try an egg separator to drop a yoke per every 3 eggs.

This is work, there is no doubt about it.  You might need to learn to eat more fruits and vegetables.

BUT if you are not fully comitted, it won't work.  I have been up and down the scale numourous times.  I have lost 50 lbs in 4 months - twice (each after having pregnancy). Both times I was comitted, like that switch went off in my head that said "ENOUGH"!!  Then when I got older (and I am over 50) - it's MUCH HARDER to lose and much easier to gain... ugh.   I think this is the same with men and women, our metabolisms just slow down with age so we have to work harder to keep burning calories.

A couple days ago the "ENOUGH" switch went off in my head again and I am comitted.  I think it might take a little more than 4 months to drop 50 but it's going to happen.

[JohnRi]

Ok Cat, you and I are were very similar.  I was an extremely picky eater.  Still am to some extent.

For me my diet was 60-70 cheeseburgers.  The rest was chicken, and other high cholestorol foods.  Lots of salt.  My vegetables were french fries, mash potatoes, corn, and carrots. 

I did like salads, but only lettuce.  No tomatos, onions, olives, etc.  With tons of blue cheese dressing.

And my weigth ballooned up to 281 lbs.

The fact is I was eating around 3000 calories a day.  I burned 2700-3300 calories a day.  And it I went from 225 in 2007 (40) years old to 281 in 2015 (48 years old).

Although I didn't change my diet much during this time my metabolism slowed down when I got older.  So now my old eating habits were now causing me to gain weight.

I suspect something similar happened to you.

Ok, brutally honest here, you do not have to change what you eat.  But you do have to reduce the amount you eat.  For me foot long subs became six inch subs.  Hamburgers went from 3/4, 2/3 or 1/2 lbs to 1/4 lbs.  If I eat french fries, I only half the order, and toss the rest.

So you can do just portion control to limit your calories you eat.  But the problem is without adding more vegetables to your diet with portion control you are going to probably end up hungry all the time.  And after a while of being hungry all the time...  Chances are you will cheat, or give up.

I bought the bullet and just gave in.  I now eat a ton of vegetables.  Have you every tried broccoli?  As it turns out I love broccoli.  I eat it just about every day.  For me it was textures too.  I hate squishy vegetables.  So I mainly eat vegetables that have crunch to them.  Califlower, carrots, corn, squash, cucumbers, bell peppers, etc.  I would never eaten any of them before. 

But now my dinner is 2/3 vegetables.  There are times I make so much at dinner time, that I'm stuffed and can't eat another bite.  And my whole meal was 800 calories. 

I find that when I cheat and have a burger and fries, that I'm hungry within a few hours.  Where as when I eat a ton of vegetables I'm never hungry.

As I said I was 3000+ calories a day.  I've been 1800 calories a day since February.  I've lost 62 lbs since October.

I'm afraid you're either going to have to be hungry, or change your diet, or maybe get gatric bypass.  I choose changing my diet.  And much to my surprise I'll try an vegetable or fruit now.  Still hate pickles, and onions, but I've tried them.  I even started eating berries.  First time I almost puked.  But I'm to the point that I can tolerate/slightly like them.

Was it easy?  Yes and no.  I'm surprised so many vegetables I've tried were not that bad. 

I loved cheetos, doritos, potato chips...  So I think that's why I love crunchy vegetables.

Good luck, I hope you find a way.

[Marcy]

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@BadWolf wrote:

Nope, you can't quit eating, that will make things worse as the poster below mentions fasting - you do not want to put your body in "starvation mode" because then your body will do everything possible to store fat.

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Intermittent fasting mentioned by @OCDOC is an effective technique for some people to control their daily eating habits, as well as other medical benefits. It is not starvation but a pattern of eating. I think you likely have a cultural prejudice towards three meals a day as a norm.   

[emili]

its all been said and bluntly. If you want to lose weight you have to try new things that are healthy. Or you need to change the way you prepare current food. You have to add vegetables to compensate for small portions because you will be hungry. You have to move. Of course there are places to walk. go back and forth to the bathroom 12 times. Or run out to your car every hour or two. If you really want to change your weight, you have to do the work and stop finding reasons of why you can't.. losing weight is 100% mindset. Your body is ready and willing- it has such a hard time digesting what you are feeding it- the weight gain is your body begging you to stop. Your brain is holding you back. That's what you need to work on and when you conquer it- magic happens.