in not being able to stop eating, despite knowing I should lose weight

[Grinchywoo]

I am getting fatter by the day. My BMI is still in a healthy range, but i feel and look so lardy.

Despite this getting me seriously down, I can't stop eating shite! I actually dont know what to do (maybe joining to gym would be a start) The way I feel at the moment, I would rather be fat and happy.....but I am only 28 - I want to dress like my friends on nights out and feel good about it

I dont find healthy food bland at all.

There are so many things available now to replace the "bad" stuff that there is no need for any diet to be boring.

A quick diet isnt a cure, a complete lifestyle change of how you eat and how you appreciate food is the only long term fix.

It is no good cutting out all your favourite foods for a while, losing the weight and then just going right back to how you ate before. You just end up in a silly repetetive circle which isnt good for your long term health anyway.

There is also no need, unless it is a health issue, to completely stop eating everything that you enjoy. Just eat a lot less of it. Treats should be just that, occasional.

I know I sound patronising, but this is what I told myself in March. Since then I have lost nearly 3 stone, and I dont feel like I am on a "diet". I still love my food, and I have no intention of living on lettuce leaves and celery.

I'd rather do without than drink the watery shite that is options! Save myself 40 cals

Wow Squeaky, 3 stone off that's great! I agree that you need to make lifestyle changes rather than go on a fad diet. What are some of your favourite healthy foods that are not bland and don't involve lettuce (if you don't mind me asking)?

quietly, yep they do, and I am usually one to avoid aspartame, BUT, a tiny bit in a low calorie drink in the long term is better than obesity and all the proven related illnesses that accompany that.

They are not something that I personally drink, because of the aspartame, but I know that not everyone is worried about that.

I disagree that healthy low fat eating is bland!

I love cooking from scratch, and it is amazing the recipes you can find for delicious food that are low calorie and not "diet" - just use good healthy ingredients. One of my favourites at the moment is a version of carbonara (it does have one diet ingredient however :/)

Grab your bacon (I use smoked for flavour), cut the fat off, fry in a small amount of oil with onion & mushrooms until cooked, I also add some garlic, a few chilli flakes and herbs and sweat for a little bit. Whack in half a pot of very low fat cream cheese (like philly) bubble and heat through then serve up with some cooked spaghetti. Nom nom nom.

One of the best ways of learning to eat healthily is learning how to flavour your food properly using salt, pepper, herbs, chilli, ginger etc rather than fats and sugars.

I say this and I have just lost the best part of two stone. Good luck!

But OP I think I must be missing something here - you say your BMI is within the 'healthy' range. Surely that means you're not overweight?

If so why would you look and feel 'lardy'?

Are you really 'lardy' or is it just your opinion? Are you trying to be too thin when actually you are fine as you are.

Just a thought. If I'm way off, sorry!

ceebeegeebies yes i struggle with bland diets too.

i do however think that my bingeing om crap is partly down to my childhood. i went through the normal fussiness stage as a young child but my parents made a huge deal out of it and the label of 'fussy eater' stuck. my mum stressed herself out constantly over trying to get me to eat different things and the more she pushed, the more i wanted to stick to what i was comfortable with. as a result she used junk food as a treat/punishment thing. i could have the chocolate if i ate this new food she wanted me to try. but if i didn't eat it there would be "no more chocolate in this house", she started buying it for the family but hiding it so i couldn't have it. i knew it was somewhere in the house and sometimes i would find it, of course when i did i would binge, i was a child!! this carried on until i left home at 19 and i think the reason i dont excercise control over my junk eating is partly down to it being used as a way to control me for so long. a bit like, "well i'm in control now so i can eat as much as i want"

that and it all tastes so good.

I think that's the thing

At one time 'treats' really were 'treats' and not an everyday thing like they have become now.

But having said that, years ago people regularly cooked with lard and had beef dripping on toast etc...

The difference was, it was unusual to have more than one car per family...so people generally excercised more.

I also found a lovely recipe for minestrone soup, not a diet ingredient in sight. It's shocking if you LOOK at the calories and fat in what you are eating. If me and my DP were having pizza for example, we'd have one eat for tea (not huge ones, normal sized!) and I didn't realise it would be at least 1000 calories, let alone all the fat!

I could have written your post about a year ago.

And then I made a conscious decision to stop eating crap. I was incredibly careful about what I ate and I lost the weight that I had gained, and started to feel good about myself again. And bought myself lots of nice clothes and srarted really liking how I looked in them. Which gave me the incentive to keep the weight off.

Only you can find the strength to do it, and only you can find the strength to keep going.

But if you decide to, its worth it in the end. It is for me anyway.

I am pg now, and being careful about what I eat (I'm still eating well though, and enough) because I kow how hard it is to lose weight.

Good luck.

squeakytoy the problem is that even though its a low calorie drink, it gives you a sugar signal to the brain that makes you expect fuel, when you don't get that you crave other stuff. Thats why diet coke is SOOOO bad for diets. Several studies on how bad sspartame is really bad as part of a diet, as it completely negates the benefits of the low calorie products.

*each

squeekytoy, you seem to have found a place in your head that's a good attitude.

do you have any hints. for me it's finding that 'intention' and 'method' and sticking to it.

i like healthy foods, where can I start. also am veggie. do you have any books or sites that have helped you. well done on the 3 stone!!

I would be a size 12/14 if i lost a stone, and would be happy with that.

actualy i've just realised my mum is still doing this even though i moved out 6 years ago. she's doing it to my dcs now

But OP I think I must be missing something here - you say your BMI is within the 'healthy' range. Surely that means you're not overweight?

I know lots of people with their BMI in healthy range but they still grow a spare tyre if they over eat and don't exercise enough.

I hardly ever weigh myself but if I'm getting a belly on me, I can look down and see it.

However, it doesn't move my BMI out of healthy range IYSWIM

Well done Happy

I feel where you are comi g from and the best advice I could give is to get Paul mkennas I can make you thin it comes with a cd and it is great you can eat whatever you want but eat it slowly and only when you are hungry amd only eat things you really enjoy it does work and it is full of confidence boosting tips I never fell guilty about havi g a bit of chocolate or whatever I fancy I just think first do I really feel hungry or is it a co
fort thing it does take a week or two to get used to it but it does work and you will feel much better.
Do excercise you enjoy too, I do just dance it's fun and youare burning loads of calories dancing .
It's all about moderation and not forbidding anything when something is forbidden you want it more .

No-one can 'stop eating' because we eat to survive. :) But you can change what you eat so that it's less calorific, more satisfying and more nutritious very easily. The reason junk food is so fattening is because it's high calorie but non-nutritious, so even if you've downed 1000 calories, you're back for more 10 minutes later.

Clear out your cupboards, fridge and freezer of everything you'd rather not find yourself eating any more. Stock up on vegetables, fruit and other 'real' foods. Eat normally, make better choices, get moving....

At the start of my new regime, I would make up a huge salad for the day.. lettuce, peppers, celery, light feta cheese, olives, onions, and put a bit of olive oil, loads of pepper, and a little salt.. shake it all up, and when I was hungry, have a cup of that. Every hour or so. I love greek salad, and it was tasty, definately not bland.

I would have an ommelete for breakfast, with mushrooms, ham and a bit of grated half fat mature cheddar. Again, lots of herbs, bit of salt, loads of pepper.

I have pizza, but use those warburtons squarish things as the base, as they are only 100 calories, and then add my own toppings. Even my fussy husband really loves those.

I have the ben and jerrys frozen yoghurt to satisfy the cravings for chocolate.

I swapped full fat milk for skimmed milk.

I use olive oil for any cooking that I do. I still have fried foods, bacon and egg... and I will still eat bread, but just not as much.

I dont eat late at night (one of my downfalls in the past).. and I cut out cans of coke too.

I use the myfitnesspal app because then I can easily see how many calories I have left in a day, and most of the time I can "afford" to have that can of coke, or something else that is a "treat" food.

That app is also an eye opener as to how easy it is to eat too much. For example, a slice of cake is around 400 calories. A pizza made with the warburtons base is about 300 with the toppings I put on, is more filling, takes longer to eat, and is way more nutritious.

ThingsThatGoFlump you can be and feel overweight without a BMI calculator telling you you are obese. It's much easier to make small adjustments when you realise you are a few pounds over your normal weight than to have to make wholesale changes when you are several stone overweight and it is threatening your health. Personally, I feel uncomfortable way below the overweight BMI markers.

It's surely better to address an overeating problem before you get overweight, if things seem to be heading that way.

And yes the 'healthy range' is quite a wide range, the 'ideal' weight for a particular individual might be towards one end or the other. I definitely look and feel better when I'm at the lower end of the range. And stuffing yourself with junk food all the time is not good for your health even if you're still within the 'healthy' BMI category.

quietly, I completely agree with you, I dont drink diet drinks as I hate the taste of artificial sweeteners. I also think they are very dodgy in terms of their side effects. I do always read the labels on anything "low sugar".

I just appreciate that not everyone usually agrees with me on my additive soapbox

I have just completed a hypno-band course (gastric band hypnotherapy!!!). I bought it off Groupon for £99 and it's the best money I've ever ever spent. Having spent a lifetime dieting, struggling, packing it back on etc etc, I've done this course and it's completely changed the way I think. It honestly is as though my mind has been re-programmed.

It's not about dieting it's about portion control. You are only allowed to eat the food you love, it's about not wasting calories etc (although it's most definitely not calorie counting) by eating any old food. The main thing for me though is that for me the last 5 weeks since I started the course it has been a doddle. I no longer obsess over food and don't even think about it very much. I've lost 10lb in 5 weeks, about 98% of what I've eaten has been healthy food, or just normal food, barely any junk at all. I just don't want to eat rubbish now. I'm still enjoying food like steaks, peppercorn sauce, but I'll have it with salad instead of chips.

It's honestly been brilliant for me; I feel like I now have a healthy relationship with food.

my mum always used food as a treat or comfort to treat ourselves.

when i was growing up we had cakes, chocolate as treats. even now when i see mum, which isn't often as she lives far, she cannot stop talking about the next meal. when she's eating that meal she talks her way thru it! in a supermarket she's not looking for meals, she's looking for treats!

i know we all like a treat, for the evening, or on a friday, but those treats turn into a craving i guess. Then, with me i have days where i eat very little, and skip meals. This obviously isn't healthy, and is something i have to do myself.

Another thought... In someone who is a healthy weight, that 'flabbiness' that they're so conscious of is often fluid retention. The amount of salt and other rubbish in junk food makes water retention far more possible and some people can lose 7lbs just by switching to a more natural diet, without changing the amount they eat in the slightest. Tips to reduce water retention

• Drink 2 litres of water a day in preference to juices, fizz, coffee etc. Be well-hydrated
• Avoid alcohol
• Don't add salt to foods at the table.
• Cook fresh food whenever possible including plenty of fresh vegetables.
• Avoid ready-made foods, takeaways and things in cans or packets. They contain far too much salt, sugar and other nasties.