What made you FINALLY stop over eating?

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I am struggling to lose more than 5 stone.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

tia

I've just lost 10kgs - pregnancy and post-pregnancy weight. I struggle with the self control and urge to eat shite. I lost the weight by running (interval running anyway!) 2-3 nights a week, slowly building this up to increase running times. I've also swam for the last 2+ years (swam heap pre pregnancy too) but that does fuck all for weight loss (for me anyway).
I did an online weight loss challenge for 6 weeks and that helped - it made me join 'my fitness pal' and log everything that I eat. I lost 5 of that 10 kg over the last 6 weeks. MFP helped me tweak a few things here and there (less carbs, less sugar, less milk) however sadly when I look at my 'snack' frequent foods, there's just junk in there (and coffee. OMG coffee).

I reckon I could lose so much more if I was more disciplined, I have just eaten 4 frozen cookie dough balls straight from the freezer. I don't buy chocolate, cake, biscuits or sweets in the supermarket shop, and tend not to bake now unless there's an 'event'. I need to bake and give away the frozen dough, because whoever figured making 100 cookies in one batch was a good idea deserves shooting

A couple of months ago I made a conscious decision to not weigh myself daily or even weekly, to forgive myself for the lifetime of diet,lose weight, get fed up, eat everything in sight, cry a lot, starve, eat healthily, diet, and so on and so on. I just kept telling myself that I don't eat the 'bad things' any more unless I really want them and if I do feel that I want them, I can have them guilt free. I tell myself this will take at least a year (I had 7 stones to lose) and that when I go on holiday I WILL eat what I want to but stop again when I get home. I tell myself at each meal to think about what I am eating, to enjoy it or bin it, and to not think the starving in Africa will be even more starving if I do not finish every mouthful.
Since learning about the Kondo method of house tidying I have applied that thinking to food. Will it give me joy or will it give me guilt? It really seems to have worked for me.
I weighed myself last week for the first time in 6 weeks and I was 17lbs down.

I've lost 1 1/2 stone since the beginning of the year.

For me the trigger was buying this book in a charity shop. I read the first couple of pages and realised that I did not want to be the sort of person who spends their entire adult life moaning about being fat, instead of dieting and losing the weight.

Plus, DD3 was coming up to her 2nd birthday, and I'd been trying to pass off my cider belly as baby weight for too long already.

I've still got a way too go, but I have changed my mindset towards overrating, and the weight is coming off.

Good luck OP!!

I don't know but when you find out could you let me know? x

I did have periods of addiction to other things.. cigarettes and amphetamines (no issue with over eating then, clean house though!) to share but two.

With both of those I had a lightbulb moment where I just clicked and it felt like I could just draw a line under, throw away anything I had left and never pick them up again.

I wish the same would happen now with food but it's so much more complicated.
I feel like a dick saying that I get the same feeling of relief now from a bag of chinese chicken ball as I used to from cigarettes or speed but it is true.
I realise I need to sort my shit out, I have 7 stone to lose to be the weight I was before children but I would like to lose 3 by christmas so if you want a hand to hold I am here.

when i started getting a bit chubby, not massively obese. i started eating less and doing more. job done

Everytime I feel like eating something I don't need, like a biscuit, I write it down then don't eat it, I tell myself I can have it tomorrow but usually won't because the impact of seeing a big list of crap that I would have ate is quite powerful. It's a faff but it works.

When I realised that weight loss is 80% diet and 20 % exercise as a rule - I didn't know this and ate what I wanted expecting exercise to fix it .
This was ok when I was younger tho but not now .
So what I do is if I overeat I compensate the next day . Sw is really good for me as it teaches you to eat amounts you like of free food and restrict others - on this you can have a certain number of treats a day - I have chocolate and a small gin daily !

I've went from under 9st to over 10 1/2st in less than a year. I'm 5'5". I feel bloated and my stomach annoys me when I put on my seatbelt. My IBS is worse than it's ever been because of all the crap I eat. I never ever thought I'd be like this. I used to look at other women and think "did you not see the weight going on? Why didn't you do something about it before you got fat?" I'm sure thin women are looking at me and thinking the same.

I haven't seen my old friends, from work in nearly a year, and I'm now too embarrased to meet up. I know they would go back to work and talk about the fact I've got fat, as I was always the skinny one. Fuck this, I really need to do something so, thank you OP for asking that question as I'm going to start today, by throwing out the crap that I have kidded myself are treats. I ate SIX packets of crisps in one night, washed down with a bottle of wine! Holy fuck, how did it get like this?

The only thing that's worked for me is obsessively tracking everything that passes my lips on fitness pal.
I'm sly nibbler - a square of chocolate here, handful of nuts there... And I convince myself it doesn't count. Until I have to acknowledge it, document it and see the calorie damage in writing!!

I love that idea lastnerve

I agree, lastnerves idea is great. I eat slices and slices of bread during the day. I kid myself that I'll just have one slice as I'm hungry and it'll stave off the hunger until lunch/dinner. It ends up being three. I'm going to start writing it on the white board so it's in front of me when I go into the kitchen.

can i follow this thread please. im 10 and half stone and 5ft 1. i have no self control and feel i deserve treats but actually i deserve to look after my body and stop destroying it with crap. im a secret eater. i even have secret chocolate spread in the kitchen.

I also ask myself do I want to eat this or protect my weight more ? X

My overeating was firmly linked to avoiding past issues, with chocolate my comfort choice. I knew that yet still struggled everyday with food.

I'd started slowly to face these issues but it was accelerated dramatically when I developed a platonic relationship based on trust. I've never had that before (lots of trust ishoos for me). He listened without judgement and I told him things I've never told anyone before. Yet he accepted me as I am.

This enabled me to let go of a lot of the crap I'd been holding onto. I actually felt a weight lift off me. The consequence of this is that I now have zero compulsion to overeat. I've been losing 1-2lbs a week consistently through not overeating and have lost 26 lbs so far.

I found my self confidence and self worth too. If you know your overeating is linked to past issues then I would recommend sorting those out. I know I am incredibly lucky to have found my friend so would recommend CBT or other professional support to work on the root cause of the eating issue. Otherwise you're just putting a elastoplast over the top.

Best of luck ladies. I still have a way to go to my goal weight but I know I'll get there.

I like that lastnerve.

I also do a visual thing of writing down my weight loss on the calendar, so I can look at it any time I'm in the kitchen eyeing up the crisps or toaster for a bit of motivation for my new restrained eating habits.

Willpower and planning! (I lost 5 stone on WeightWatchers and have kept it off for over a year.)

The most important things that made it work for me:

• Looking at the week ahead and thinking right, if I want to go out for that meal at the weekend, or have some wine on Friday, I need to be good on the other days.
• Taking my own lunch and snacks to work.
• Doing a weekly shop with a list and buying what I need to make the meals I've planned, not wandering around picking up what I fancy.
• Weighing myself every week, same time, same circumstances, even if I thought I'd totally messed up - seeing the results was a big motivator, and even a bad result would make me want to turn it round.
• Not cutting anything out completely. Just leads to me craving that thing and going on a binge. Planning in ways to have the things I fancy works better for me.
• Take "before" photos now, so that when you feel you're getting nowhere you can do a comparison and hopefully see you've come further than you thought.
• Don't set yourself a goal to lose X amount by X weight - it's usually not realistic and will demotivate you if it looks like you're not going to make it. Just aim to be lighter each month than you were the last, and you'll get there.
• Don't let one bad day make you give up.

"Don't let one bad day make you give up."

Yes, deffo. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

But I'd also add not to let one cake or bag of crisps become a bad day in the first place.

It's normal and mentally healthy to have the odd treat at a social occasion or when watching a film on Saturday night at home.

I think it becomes a binge-eating problem when you take the black and white attitude of thinking that once you've had one standard size pack of crisps or a couple of biscuits and you think "Fuck it- the diet's ruined so I may as well eat the lot." But it wasn't ruined. No one gets to be 10st overweight eating one pack of Wotsits or one French Fancy.

I think when you can recognise in yourself that line between having a sensible sized treat, and going renegade and bingeing the lot, and can adjust your mentality to just having and enjoying one, then you can really start to get your eating under control.

woody I'm a secret eater too, I never do it in front of my husband and if he's at home I will sneak off. Ridiculous.
I try not to keep any of that stuff in the house. Maybe the secret spread needs to go binwards :s I have tried to make swaps too - I keep sugar free jelly pots in the freezer and have little bags on Pom bear crisps - I used to stiff handfuls of kettle chips in my gob instead

freezer fridge....

seeing a photo of myself when I was thin and hating the fact I have fat rolls now. Not being able to fit into a size 12 dress. Realising it was much worse then I thought, and that it was me getting bigger, not clothes getting smaller.

I've been calorie counting for a few weeks, cutting down on carbs and eating lots of fruit and veg. I tied it in with lent so a great excuse for no cake, puddings, chocolate etc. I'm bringing in snacks for work and making sure the treats I have are smaller portions (I handful of crisps instead of a bag) or a better choice (sweet potato chips instead of chip shop chips). I have also stopped drinking at home. SO far I have lots 3 pounds :-(

I've joined slimming world as I lost nearly 4st with it before. I like that it's flexible, you don't really have to cut anything out.

My main motivation now (put on weight after giving birth and Xmas close behind it) is to not be an embarrassment to my DS and to fit in to nice clothes. I'd like to be healthier too and not controlled by chocolate!

You need to understand why you overeat

I know why I over eat. My normal weight is @9st. While I was nursing my DH my weight dropped to near 8 1/2 st and I've been comfort eating since he died, last March. I know I eat to take my mind off my misery, but I also know it just gives me another stick to beat myself with. I know all these things but it doesn't help. I hope you don't feel I've hijacked your thread OP. It looks like you've inadvertently started a support group.

Lorelei yes, that should have been spinal twists. Tired. I am not sure it works the same when you do them when cooling down after a higher intensity workout as when part of your daily yoga practice. It might have to do with relaxation (stress being a trigger) and/or paying attention to what is going on in your body (and stop ignoring when it is telling you it does not need food anymore). Anyways, the best online course I have found so far is Yoga with Adrienne, the 30 days Camp is great and you do not need to be a gym rat to do it.

Intermittent fasting and telling myself that I want to be slim a hell of a lot more than I want that bar of chocolate.