How can I get rid of my craving for fast food?

April 6, 2009 1:59 PM

How can I get rid of my craving for fast food?

In particular, I have a weakness for Nachos Bell Grande, even though I know they are terrible for me. Sometimes I want one so bad I can almost taste it.

posted by elder18 to health & fitness (40 answers total)

The most effective way for me to avoid giving into cravings is to make sure I don't let myself get that hungry in the first place. I do that by making sure I have food around the house that I enjoy cooking and eating. If I didn't have it nearby, I'd need to go out or order something and by that time I'm a lot more likely to give into the temptation to buy something quick, easy and probably horrible for me.
posted by empyrean at 2:09 PM on April 6, 2009

Having a pot brownie and then eating Cheetoes mostly cured me of craving those - the radical increase in sensation made the massive amount of grease really quite nasty, and now I can't *not* taste it. I still have them every once in a while, when I forget, but nothing like I used to.
posted by restless_nomad at 2:10 PM on April 6, 2009

I read Fast Food Nation. Seriously.
posted by sweetkid at 2:12 PM on April 6, 2009

You could try adding something that tastes bad into one the next time you have one, to ruin the memory.

Otherwise, second empyrean. If you are unsure of your own cooking abilities, there are healthier quick-prep pre-packaged meals and snacks.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:12 PM on April 6, 2009

Just eat the nachos whenever you want them. You'll probably eat A LOT of Nachos Bell Grande for a week or two, and then one day the novelty of letting yourself eat whatever you want will wear off and you'll stop craving them and probably find them a little gross.
posted by jennyb at 2:13 PM on April 6, 2009 [4 favorites]

Intuitive Eating
posted by decathecting at 2:16 PM on April 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

Seconding jennyb. Or, take the Clockwork Orange route - get you a thing of nachos, as well as some other foodstuff that is guaranteed to induce nausea (castor oil? two heaping spoons of straight mayonnaise?) and eat them together.
posted by jbickers at 2:25 PM on April 6, 2009

watch that movie about the guy who ate all McDonalds food. Not positive about the name...."Supersize Me" ???? That should cure anybody's fast food cravings.
posted by Taurid at 2:25 PM on April 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

I guess I'm not sure what's an excessive amount. Once a week? That's about how often I eat them now. The trouble is that I'm exercising and trying to watch my weight, even though I am pretty slim at 5'9 and 155lbs.
posted by elder18 at 2:27 PM on April 6, 2009

Seconding sweetkid. For me, reading Michael Pollan's books, In Defense of Food and The Omnivore's Dilemma, has significantly reduced my urges to eat that crap.

Peter Singer's new book The Life You Can Save also helped with my fast food (and Starbucks) urges since I feel so horribly guilty about spending money on (what are really) luxury items when other folks often have to choose between feeding themselves or their children. I now put that extra money into a jar for a Kiva.org loan FWIW.

Connecting myself to the real repercussions of seemingly insignificant purchases has helped me a lot.
posted by anthropoid at 2:30 PM on April 6, 2009 [4 favorites]

Life is short. Once a week won't kill you.

(said by a health conscious person with a weakness for Taco Bell's cheesy bean & rice burritos.....)
posted by kestrel251 at 2:37 PM on April 6, 2009

Nachos Bell Grande with chicken are about 740 calories, according to a couple of good calorie-counting sites out there. On my strictest 1500-calorie-a-day diet, I could scarf some of these for dinner, and be able to split out 760 for breakfast and lunch; not unreasonable.

Eat 'em, but make sure to skimp on the rest of your day.
posted by MrVisible at 2:44 PM on April 6, 2009

once a week = jesus, just eat the damn thing already. if you eat it that infrequently, it's not going to hurt you. having one dirty pleasure you let yourself indulge in every once in a while is great because it makes it easier say no to other things. don't be afraid of food! you really can eat anything you want as long as you do it in moderation.
posted by lia at 2:55 PM on April 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

Oh man, Nachos Bell Grande are awesome. You are correct to crave this.

Usually, though, when I'm feeling like I want to eat something as delicious as Nachos Bell Grande, it's because a certain kind of "ennui of the body" has taken over, usually as a result of not moving around for a while. The best way to get around that is to get the blood flowing through its vessels again. Drink at least 10 ounces of water, breathe deeply, and do about two to five minutes of stretches, holding each stretch for at least twenty seconds.
posted by Greg Nog at 2:58 PM on April 6, 2009

The problem with the Nachos Bell Grande isn't just the calories (790) it's the fat and sodium.

Total Fat 44g 68%
Saturated Fat 12g 60%
Cholesterol 35mg 12%
Sodium 1300mg 54%

Not saying that one a week will kill you, but what other guilty pleasure are you allowing yourself? Are you having a large soda with it? That's hundreds of more calories.

Also, is just one a week realistic? What's to stop you from doing two? Or three? The way I see if you're already "rewarding" yourself with something that you know is bad then there isn't much stopping you from "rewarding" yourself more than once a week...

Besides... 800 calories? Phft, that's four and half Sierra Nevada Pale Ales. I'd rather have the beer buzz than the fat and sodium.
posted by wfrgms at 3:04 PM on April 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

Reading Michael Pollan's book definitely reduced my urge to eat any good-tasting junky food. Also, Super Size Me and Fast Food Nation as others have suggested. I really can't put a commercial French Fry in my mouth any more.

Also (and this may be just me), meditation has had an impact. I, like everybody else, sometimes get a craving for a candy bar. Problem is, I usually feel totally crappy after eating one. Since I started meditating, I've been a lot better at saying to myself "hey, you probably don't want to eat that, because you know how bad it'll make you feel", and lately, that rationality has been more powerful than the sugar craving, which is usually fixable with frozen blueberries or something.

But honestly, junky food like nachos once a week really isn't a big deal. I understand that there are a number of valid reasons why you may be watching your weight even though you are already slim - but there are also a lot of not-so-good reasons, and I would just caution you that obsession with healthy eating can in fact be a problem. Not to be inflammatory - just keep that in mind.
posted by Cygnet at 3:19 PM on April 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

Ditto jennyb and jbickers-- just set aside a 2-3-day period and promise yourself you will have as many nachos(es?) as you want in that period, and precious little else. Even at ~800 calories apiece, you could eat 3-4 per day and not be in huge trouble weight-gain-wise; and I'm betting they won't seem nearly as appetizing by the end.
posted by Bardolph at 3:21 PM on April 6, 2009

OH, also:

learn to make your own nachos. Then you can control the ingredients and portion size. Here's how to make some good ones: get some blue corn chips (or another, kind but I think the blue ones are the most satisfying and I find I eat fewer of them because of that). Put them in a bowl. Add some black beans and some grated jalapeno cheddar (grate it yourself, you'll eat less of it when it's work to make). Microwave until the cheese bubbles a bit. Top off with a few slices of avocado (you could do guacamole, but that's usually mixed with sour cream, and plain avocado is just as satisfying), your favorite salsa (I think pineapple salsa is particularly great if you buy salsa, making your own is fun and easy!), and, if you must, a little sour cream. Yum!!

Oh, and I suppose you could add meat. Never crossed my mind because I've been vegetarain forever.
posted by Cygnet at 3:26 PM on April 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

I have found that learning to cook delicious meals for myself has lead me to be less satisfied with a junk food/fast food meal. I also have cravings for nachos -- from a local burrito place -- and I will get the chips on the side so I can reheat later for lunch the next day, etc. So if you decide not to fight it, maybe you can try this strategy instead. I have also made some delicious nachos at home -- black beans, onions and ground beef with spices, sprinkled over corn chips with some cheese, jalapenos, whatever. You can make these a little more healthy by using low-fat cheese or lean ground beef, it would probably be worth a try!

For all of my healthy eating and new found love of roasted veggies, I will admit to craving Wendy's Spicy Chicken sandwich. Yes, I know it's bad and unsustainable and not healthy blah blah blah, but so are lots of other bad habits that other people have ;)
posted by sararah at 3:39 PM on April 6, 2009

Oh and we usually bake our nachos, and broil for the last tiny bit (~1 min) to get the cheese a little brown and bubbly.
posted by sararah at 3:39 PM on April 6, 2009

Go surf the web for pictures of fat people naked. Print them out, along with a photo of the nachos, and hang the set where you can see them when you're thinking about going out for nachos. Or if there's a part of you that is a bit on the pudgy side, take a picture of _that_ area naked and do the same thing with it.
posted by Death by Ugabooga at 3:54 PM on April 6, 2009

One strategy: Try to eat them just a little less often, every 10 days, or every 2 weeks.

Or, long-term: really wean yourself off fast food, and you'll retrain your taste buds not to need gobs of salt and grease. They don't use high-quality ingredients. If you learn to eat healthier more home-made foods, Taco Bell will not taste so great.
posted by theora55 at 3:56 PM on April 6, 2009

Go surf the web for pictures of fat people naked. Print them out, along with a photo of the nachos, and hang the set where you can see them when you're thinking about going out for nachos. Or if there's a part of you that is a bit on the pudgy side, take a picture of _that_ area naked and do the same thing with it.

This is great advice for perpetuating sizeism or giving oneself an eating disorder. If you'd like to stop eating Nachos Bell Grande, however, the advice above about truly revealing to yourself the process by which they get to you is best. Read Pollan or Fast Food Nation or The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved. That type of food isn't terrible for you because they have a certain number of calories or a certain percentage of your recommended daily fat allowance and rationalizing along those lines is disingenuous at best. It's horrible for you because it isn't real food.
posted by youarenothere at 4:13 PM on April 6, 2009 [5 favorites]

I couldn't disagree more with Ugabooga. Teaching yourself to hate your body (or anyone else's) is a terrible idea. And making decisions based on shame doesn't work.
posted by Cygnet at 4:21 PM on April 6, 2009 [4 favorites]

I made a date to eat McDonald's once a month. After a few months, I found I didn't even want to eat it that often.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 4:28 PM on April 6, 2009 [2 favorites]

Become disciplined about DailyPlate / WeightWatchers style recording of what you eat and its nutritional content.

If there is anything you are trying to manage in your diet (total calories, total sodium, fat or carbs as a % of calories, protein as a % of calories) you will find your zeal for fast food fading fast. As tasty as it might be, fast food is just horribly "expensive" when it comes to meeting your goals. It is quite like -- exactly like, in fact -- the way that tallying up your daily receipts puts a break on spending on expensive but evanescent luxuries.

In my case, I absolutely love(d) McDonalds but in a year of food budgeting it has lost most of its appeal, despite not tasting any different.
posted by MattD at 4:42 PM on April 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

That's kinda funny -- I had the opposite experience to MattD with food budgeting & McDonalds -- I found I could have a very small something to feed the craving, and then resume as usual. (I ::heart:: McD's "ice cream" cones.) You may find that just accounting for the splurge is good enough.

The suggestions for retraining your taste buds, however, seem about on track from my experience. It's a happy day to have a craving for something that's actually good for you. (I'm currently daydreaming about homemade tacos with radishes!)
posted by epersonae at 5:25 PM on April 6, 2009

Life is short. Once a week won't kill you.

This is the correct answer.

Just chase it with a Diet Coke, not the regular. Diet Coke is 99% water.

During the span in which I lost the most weight ever in my life (going from 230 to 185 by running and diet) I was eating McDonald's once a week.
posted by Zambrano at 5:38 PM on April 6, 2009

Cygnet is spot-on. I enjoy a combination of baked chips, fat-free beans, fresh salsa, cayenne, and 0% fat greek yogurt. I found that after I got used to it, fatty Mexican junk food just tastes nasty.
posted by aquafortis at 7:43 PM on April 6, 2009

One moment, you have this intense craving for fast food. Accept it, and then let it go. Don't associate yourself with the craving - the craving is not you, it is not part of you, it is passing through you and will only stay if you hold on to it or try to stop thinking about it, therby placing even more significance on the craving.


A less wanky more practical answer would be: you don't really have a craving for fast food, but just a delicious-tasting food in general. Seriously, if you eat something else that you enjoy but is not 'fast-food', you'll be just as satisfied, and better off health-wise. Or, as other people have said, learn to make your own nachos.
posted by parjanya at 8:01 PM on April 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

I agree with everyone who has answered: just eat it. Nothing brings on a food craving like having denied yourself - this can easily morph into the classic binge-and-purge cycle that is so damaging when trying to have a normal relationship with food. From the information provided, you have a completely normal weight, so nachos once a week is hardly going to make you fat!

Bon appetite :-)
posted by Weng at 8:23 PM on April 6, 2009

I find that I only get cravings for foods that I've eaten within the last month - it seems like after only a few weeks, my body "forgets" the food, and the cravings move to whatever yummy stuff I've had more recently.
posted by -harlequin- at 10:00 PM on April 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

Don't do what Taurid suggests ... some friends were watching "Supersize me" at my house, but the scenes in it made me hungry and I left in the middle of the movie to get some In-N-Out.
posted by bsdfish at 5:00 AM on April 7, 2009 [2 favorites]

It's pretty good advice when you're working out and watching your health to give yourself a break once in awhile -- a reward day. If this is your reward then make it so. Once a week is not so bad. If you schedule it in and work extra diligently the rest of the week to eat very healthy then that should be a pretty good reward. Eventually, you may find that you grow out of this craving. I also have found that the older I get the less tolerance I have for super salty, fatty food and when I try to go back and have that amazing fast food that I so loved from my youth I find them to be very sub-par. Bland. More salt flavor than anything else. Fatty and starchy. Bleh.

I'm with the Sierra Nevada guy up there -- those are my rewards for good behavior -- delicious micro-brew and a night out with friends.
posted by amanda at 8:25 AM on April 7, 2009

Oh, man, I totally feel you. For me, it's the chalupas, abomination unto the Lord that they are.

I got hooked when I was a student, driving home past the Taco Bell, not having much cash or time. But once I moved to LA, I made a rule—No Taco Bell while I'm here, because there's so much great fucking Mexican everywhere. Even with the relative paucity of vegetarian options (nothing tempts me to turn omnivore like pastor and carnitas), I can find great stuff everywhere. The twin prongs of this relatively arbitrary rule and having that brief moment of disjunction where I think about what I really want means that even when I'm outside of LA, I rarely find myself actively wanting those chalupas anymore. And when I do, hell, I just have one.

I can't tell where you are, but I bet there's some local joint you can start going to when you get the craving for the NBG, and soon enough you'll be thinking how much you'd rather have, say, the enchilladas verde down at Tacos La Flama… Mmm.

Sorry, I think it's time for me to eat some enchilladas.
posted by klangklangston at 11:57 AM on April 7, 2009

My rule is: no fast food if I'm in my own zip code. Basically this means that if I'm still in my zip code, I'm close enough to home to just go there and eat something I already have (my goal is saving money, not necessarily for health reasons). This works for me b/c my home and work are in the same zip code, and during the week I usually never travel out of it.
posted by kidsleepy at 1:01 PM on April 7, 2009

Smaller and more frequent meals will help control your cravings; you won't be as hungry the next time you cruise past Taco Bell. Also, eating it once a week is not a big deal.
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:09 PM on April 7, 2009

It is entirely possible that when the craving comes on, you are really just dehydrated. Unless you are drinking 1/2 oz of water per pound of body weight each day, you are probably dehydrated. Next time you get a craving, try this: drink a large glass of water and wait 15 minutes. Then, do something you enjoy to distract yourself for those 15 minutes. If you still have the craving, then go for it. If not, then your body was just thirsty.

The other suggestion that has worked for me (my cravings were for sweets) is to order the item, eat it slowly savoring every bite and stop halfway through. If you take it one chip at a time and really experience the flavor, textures and temperatures in your mouth (close your eyes to really get into the experience), you'll find that you can feel completely satisfied by eating only half.

Try the water idea first, though. You'll be surprised how often it works.

Cheers.
posted by strosnider at 1:15 PM on April 7, 2009 [1 favorite]

bsdfish: my old roommate was planning on getting her boyfriend off fast food by making him watch that movie while eating fast food. Sadly, they never actually did it, because I really wanted to know how that went.
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:50 PM on April 7, 2009

The funny thing is that after I wrote this, I did eat Taco Bell, and sure enough, I got sick. It might not have been from the Taco Bell, but still, I don't really crave it anymore.

Now if I could just get rid of my occasional Big Mac craving...
posted by elder18 at 3:23 PM on April 9, 2009