this post was submitted on 17 May 2025
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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.