The TRUTH about why I overeat

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Why I OVEREAT

New member
Hi all,

I have had weight issues since I was a teen. I'm in my 40's and am still struggling. I am going to be painfully honest on this web page. What do I have to lose, except weight and pride?

I overeat because I am lazy. (I am not calling others lazy, just myself.) X (food) is a habit. It is easier to eat a plate of X than call a friend. It is easier to eat x than get off the couch.

X is never tired. X is never busy. X never gets upset or offended. X is always there. X does not cost anything after I buy it. X never sleeps. X never calls at an inconvenient time.

X does not require extra energy, unless I have to go buy it. X does not reject.

This writing has provided me a great deal of insight. I need to stop eating X and pick up my phone. I need to get off my arse. This is pointing out to me why I isolate than do things....

Being honest is the only way for me to have freedom.


Current Weight: 151
Goal Weight: 140
 
Where I'm at

Hi,

I started weighing myself at 160 pounds, about a month ago, I'm 151 now.

The past 6 months, I have just eaten what I want, when I want, and as much as I want. I will eat watching tv, eat driving, eat snacks between snacks....

My food plan, this past month, is to keep my intake low enough that my appetite does not get stimulated. I know this is "bad" but I eat less than 1000 calories daily. I eat very small meals every 3 hours. I will eat an apple and cheese. I will have strawberries and yogurt. I will eat a piece of chicken. Almost all of my food is very nutritious.

On my current food plan, I am losing about 2 pounds weekly. If I lose less than this, I will not lose weight. It is very discouraging.

I am very knowledgeable about weight loss and nutrition and realize that my plan is not the best way, but it is the only way I can lose weight.

My goal is to get into size 32 pants in the next month. I'm in 34's now. I wear men's pants (I am female) because I am an "apple" body shape and they fit better than any women's pants.

I need to get off my A** of the couch. I need to set limits on how long I can watch tv and surf the web.

I hope my journaling will be helpful to others.

Sometimes I focus on the behavior of eating and forget to look at the why. If I fix the behavior only and not the why, then I will not truly resolve the problem.

Current weight: 151
Goal weight: 140
 
I used Alli to soak up some fat from dinner---the truth about Alli

Hi all,

I went to a very nice restaurant dinner this past Sunday. It was a huge deviation from my food plan.

When I got home I recalled I had some Alli, the fat absorption blocking drug. I took one and waited.,,,

I ended up having a lot of soft bowel movements (maybe 10) in 2 days. I ended up with some oily bowel movements where the fat was not absorbed.

Had a little abdominal cramping. Had a sensation of needing to go NOW!

All in all, the amount of anxiety I had regarding potential side effects, fat absorption, if it would help, worry about bowel movements, was not worth the few calories I excreted....just my two cents.

:reddevil::reddevil:

Trixie
 
Every day is a struggle. Each night I sit on my couch and ruminate over food. Keeping my eye on the long term goal is difficult at times, easy at some times.

I have been realizing that even if I cut 100 calories out of my diet every day, in a month, that is about a pound.

I feel like a miser except that it is calories that I a pinching instead of pennies.
 
Each night I sit on my couch and ruminate over food.
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My advice would be to get up off the couch and do something. Sitting there thinking about it only makes it harder and harder. Now is the time to take up a hobby you've always wanted to or read a new book or anything to take your mind off of food.

Get up and take a walk to the end of the block and back, if nothing else. Every time you think about food, get off the sofa and do 10 squats or 10 pushups or 10 crunches or 10 dips ... something like that.

Also, I'd suggest that dosing yourself with Alli to make yourself crap out excess food and fat is NOT a healthy choice. That's awfully close to eating disordered behavior. It's really no different from making yourself throw up or taking laxatives, both of which are forms of bulimia. The next time you overeat or eat bad food, you're better off drinking lots of water to offset the sodium and maybe taking a walk around the block.

The goal here is to be HEALTHY and fit, not to suffer and take meds to be skinny, right? :)

You need to eat more calories and EXERCISE. Lift weights and do body resistance exercises especially. You can do this.
 
Well, you say you know that under 1000kcal is bad, but you are doing it anyway.

Why?

Eating that little is going to slow down any efforts you make at weight loss, as the body goes into starvation mode.
Also, if I were you I would worry that such a restrictive diet is going to be ultimately unsustainable. Eventually you are going to start eating more again, and in many cases this leads to overeating, and subsequent weight gain.

I don't know your exact age, or height, but I'd guess you need about 1900kcal per day to maintain, more if you exercise. So let's say maybe 1400 per day and still lose a pound per week, which is a very reasonable rate of loss for someone your size.

Can you explain why you can only lose 2 pounds per week or zero? I don't understand.

It's good that you are looking at the psychology behind your eating, but maybe not so good to obsess over it quite so much.
Maybe this is splitting hairs, but I don't see it a laziness so much as substitution, using food to replace other things that are lacking?

Set a sensible caloric budget, eat healthy foods that fit within that budget, keep your macronutrients in a decent balance, and get some regular exercise.
How much exercise are you getting? You don't say.

I hope things work out well for you.
 
slow weight loss

Cord,

Thanks for your post.

You bring up a point that has perplexed me. How can I eat less than 1000 cal a day and only lose 2 pounds a week??

I finally did the math a few weeks ago and now I understand it.

I will probably maintain weight at 1600-1800 calories.

If I eat 800 fewer calories a day, in one week it will be about 5600. Fat is about 3500 calories per pound. So, if I stick to it religiously, then I go down less than 2 pounds a week.....it is not fair! :)

I have tried to eat 1200 or 1400, but at that rate I will only lose about one pound a week, or less, which feels like I am standing still. After dieting for a month and losing less than 4 pounds is so frustrating.

I noticed on your post that you eat 2000 calories often. I'm glad someone is eating because it's not me. :) What you eat for one meal, is often what I eat in an entire day.

The only good thing about my calorie restriction is that when I eat about 800-1000 cal a day, my appetite shuts off after a while. So if I suffer and starve a few days then the food drive reduces significantly.

It is a constant full time job to lose weight. I used to be a very thin arrogant person who did not understand why people are overweight. It has finally caught up with me and now I am overweight (in my eyes).

Such is life.

Good luck to you on your journey.

PS. How can you gain 5 pounds over a weekend? That does not seem possible.

M
 
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thats great that you are honest to yourself, now you know what you are doing and what you can counterattack it.

it takes dedication and patience..
 
I am very knowledgeable about weight loss and nutrition and realize that my plan is not the best way, but it is the only way I can lose weight.
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I have to disagree with you that the ONLY way you can lose weight is to eat less than 1,000 calories a day.



Use this link to calculate the calories you should be consuming daily to safely lose 1-2 pounds a week.

If you honestly think you can't lose weight any other way, you're wrong. It's called exercise. Get up and do something! The weight isn't just going to go away by itself. Yeah, maybe it is right now but that's because you're pretty much starving yourself.

If you want to do this the healthy way and if you want the weight to stay off then you need to incorporate exercise. If you can sit on the couch for a half hour and think about food, you can walk outside or run on the treadmill for a half hour and think about it!

You faced the truth of why you overeat - now DO something about it the RIGHT way. Don't sell yourself short... if you put towards the right kind of effort, you WILL meet your goal! Not to mention you'll probably meet it sooner with exercise and it will stay off longer.

Good luck.
 
Cravings!! Ahhhh! HELP! My strategies to keep from overeating.

So I'm having major cravings. At this point, anything sounds good, except food from Fear Factor and carrots.

Cereal with soy milk sounds heavenly. I would trade my family for a box of cookies. I have food here, but nothing too bad. So it's keeping out of the cabinets. I differentiate between hunger and appetite. Hunger is easy to take care of. Appetite is not.

I already had a whole bag of popcorn, which was appropriate given my caloric intake. I've had strawberries and peaches too. All which are appropriate. There are carrots here but they do not appeal to me.

One thing that helps is that since I'm losing about 2 pounds a week, that is about 4 ounces a day. Every day I envision a piece of chicken or hamburger that is four ounces in size and imagine it being taken off my belly or butt or legs. It almost always keeps me on track.

Many years ago Oprah Winfrey lost about 50 pounds or 80 lbs, I don't remember how much but a lot. She went on stage one day with a child's red wagon full of fat, which was huge. I also envision that also.

I have also book marked pictures on line, of people who have had success. Looking at b4 and after pics help motivation.

It's not my knowledge about weight loss, that is the problem, it's my behavior!!!
 
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There are carrots here but they do not appeal to me.
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Then you're not really hungry. :)

My rule for cravings is that if I'm really struggling, I have an apple first. If I'm still craving AFTER I eat the apple, I can have a serving of what I'm craving. If I really don't want the apple, then I'm not hungry enough to justify eating anything else.

Don't confuse cravings with real hunger.
 
Time to eat --- helps keep munchies away

Hi,

Last night I had the munchies.

I decided that at 5 pm I could eat something (a cup of soup or strawberries or cheese). After I ate, I looked at the clock, and realized that I did not physically need to eat anything until 7. My hunger was satisified (not my appetite mind you.)

Then I would think about how my stomach is really a "gas tank" and that having more "energy" was not necessary at that time.

I also focused on the thought that the eating lasts a minute but the calories are "forever" in my fat.

Last night this made good sense and it worked. It does not always work.

Sometimes my appetite is like a 2 year old child. :reddevil: The broken record technique sometimes work. "You can eat at 7:00. What do you want to eat? Strawberries or soup?" Then I repeat the same thing.

Please post any techniques or ideas that work for you.

Thank you.

Trixie
 
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