Any experience of CBT for weight loss?

[RadioDorothy]

Has anyone sought counselling or CBT for weight issues or binge eating disorder - and had some success?

I've dieted on and off for the last 20 years and have occasionally lost 2-3 stone, only to put it back on again slowly. I know what to do, what to eat, what to avoid, what exercise works for me etc etc...but what I cannot seem to do (hence currently being 4 stone overweight) is directly connect my eating behaviours, with my size.

Feeling ugly and hopeless and longing to be slim is a millstone around my neck, yet I can be looking enviously at a slim person and wondering what it's like, just as I'm shopping for the very foods that make me fatter. It's a temporary release and a kind of freedom from myself - everything goes blank for as long as the food lasts.

I know why I'm fat but I just can't stop. I know what to do but the urge to hide away and gorge for comforting numbness overrides my desire to lose the weight.

Just wondering if sharing some ideas or going the CBT route might bring about a eureka moment around my dysfunctional relationship with food. How can you replace the comfort that binge eating brings?

[ShortBook]

I've indirectly sought counselling for my weight issues. The main focus definitely wasn't my weight though - it was resolving the issues that may have lead to the behaviours that caused it to become so high.

Whilst I've made a lot of progress and I can see the positive effects of it in many aspects of my life it has been slow (there was a lot of stuff to wade through and I was pretty resistant to delving into the really deep dark places). I go in fits and starts. I'm on a long break/finished with it now as I think I had gone as far as I could with it.

I've stopped gaining weight when I'm not actively dieting - that's all. I think that is more down to changing some (but not enough) of my normal eating habits though rather than the counselling though.

I've thought about CBT (my counsellor doesn't offer it) and even a life coach. Maybe I need even more counselling or to go to a different counsellor (despite the fact that I really like the one I have been seeing)...I know that I still 'give power' to some issues and think about them too much and I am also aware that that leads to comfort eating.

Counselling was expensive, and I don't regret doing it at all, but it hasn't solved my weight issues (at least yet). I've tried hypnotherapy in the past too (my weight went up during the ten weeks I was doing it).

Last week I downloaded 'Eat less: say goodbye to overeating' on to my kindle. I haven't even picked up the kindle since let alone started it! I vow to at least read the first chapter today.

Have your tried any CBT type books?