To eat 5000 calories a day

[Evalineaa]

My eating is completely out of control.
I'm really lonely living where I am and I know I use food for comfort.

In one day I eat four slices of bread,beans,hotdogs,cheese
fruit salad.
Carrot cake muffin
Spaghetti bolognese for lunch
Whole packet of chocolate chip cookies (large chewy kind you find at supermarket bakery section)

Then I will come home and have a cooked dinner. Today it was a fish and chips with mushy peas.

Then I settl down for the evening with an entire tub of Ben and jerrys, packet of Jaffa cakes and a family sized bag of doritos with dip.

I don't eat after 8pm as i like to feel hungry before bed. I go to bed at midnight.

What I eat in a day changes but I reckon I eat 5000 calories a day and have done since my son was born four years ago.

I have tried almost everything but without food I'm so bored. I love my son but he's not much company.

I know it's wrong but I'd be so unhappy without food.

I've finally got a call to say I've got a job nearer family and I'm so pleased. I will be so much happier with a support network around me. When I visit family I eat normally and with friends food is the furthest thing from my mind.

Is there anyone else whose eating is out of control? If so how much do you eat?

Is it okay for me to eat like this while waiting to return back to my hometown in a few weeks?

I can't wait to go back! I've wasted so many years in what has practically been solitary confinement.

It's incredibly difficult. I don't think you should underestimate how difficult it can be though to break the association of food with comfort, even when you're back amongst friends and family. I don't have any advise just wanted to send you some virtual flowers.

The first thing you should do is stay eating the same amount but eat lower calorie options. Otherwise you will struggle to stick to the change. You could eat half the amount of calories with the same bulk and have tasty food (more protein and veg less carbs). Are you very overweight?

I think that the real answer is no, it is not really okay to eat like that day in day out rather than a rare treat. I also think that this is going to be pretty hard to stop.

I assume when you visit you stay with family and eat in front of them but unless you are permantly moving in with family you will still be on your own in the evenings a lot.

You have to cut do down on what you buy so you can't eat it. I wouldn't think about any sort of diet or major lifestyle change just now.

YANBU - it's your choice. But you have to accept any consequences.

Well, you're not setting your son a very good example.

And you're on a fast track to diabetes.

If it was just you then I'd say crack on. But think of your son.

No its noy ok, stop buying it and just eat a lot of vegetables and salad if you cant stop eating.
I think you need to go for therapy and see if you can change the way you think about food and about being alone.

It's hard to make the change, but well done for noticing that your eating has become out of control. I was doing similar to you op, would eat when bored/emotional comfort but when i saw my weight had sawed up to nearly 15st i knew i had to stop for my own health and that of my familys'
My legs started to hurt, i had zero energy and i had mood swings from the constant sugar rush. It wasn't easy and i'm only just started on the long road of changing my habits.
I have lost 13lb since January, doing slimming world from home and taking the odd brisk walk.

I have started to use different methods to ease me emotionally and out of boredom such as adult colouring in, making my house nice, going for low cal coffees etc with friends and treating myself to non food items such as lipstick, new tops etc.

Try to find something else that makes you happy and pinpoint what starts the process of over eating and find new ways of busying yourself. It's very hard though, take it one step at a time x

What is your weight at the moment?

Make small changes first and build on them

In a few weeks, eating like that, you could easily have put on a stone or more in weight. Do you want to start a new job a stone or two heavier than you are now?

All the processed snacks must be costing you a fortune, OP!

If you live alone you will know that the calories will all end up in you, whether it's over a day or a week. Combined with poor self-control, the answer is to just stop buying the Ben & Jerry's, Doritos etc.

Buy a bag of apples instead, your enthusiasm for snacking will soon sort itself out.

When i am bored at home I eat too. Get out and about and do something rather than eating - go see a friend, go for a walk, play badminton etc. Sitting at home all evening isnt doing you any good. Good Luck!!

I wouldn't pin your hopes on changing your eating habits, just because you're returning to your home town in a few weeks.

If it were that easy to stop, you would have stopped already.

i put up my hand as a life long over-eater - my advice is not to give yourself permission to postpone sorting your eating out until x because x always moves, and then when you are trying to restrict yourself the weight you have to lose is so large the progress seems slow. Plan your meals, and distract yourself between meals, those are the things that work for me. And avoiding sugar and white carbs because they feed my hunger. You know it's not OK, and you know that you are the only one that can change it.

No, it's not a good idea to wait until the "right time" to break bad habits. Because that is an unhealthy association with food: so, if you go home and things are good = eat healthy, so what if something goes bad? your brain will say "eat". Because eating will still be your default for when things aren't good.

Your risk factors for all sorts will be going through the roof and the sooner you start to reverse that the better. If you get struck down with something serious, 2 weeks time is too late.

It's hard though xx

As soon as I'm back with family I eat a fraction of what I eat when away from my support network. I only eat because I'm lonely here.

I'm a different person in my hometown. When I'm chatting to people, or even just in a house with people around I don't eat much at all. It's only when I'm alone that I eat. So I genuinely think my eating habits will return to normal once I'm back home.

Is your home town in Antarctica?
If not, then NO it is not sensible to live in denial and believe everything will be alright in a couple of weeks.
Eating probably 3X as much as you need is not sensible.
You're ready to acknowledge the problem, be ready to embrace a solution.
Good luck, but you need to kick yourself up the arse.

Can you look into counselling about this OP? I'm not trying to be negative but I'm not convinced your emotional eating issues are going to be fixed by this move alone, as there will always be various stressors in your life that could trigger this behaviour again.

I am super-greedy and a massive snacker - if I had it in the house, I would eat it. I am also pretty vain, and that wins out, as I don't want to go above my "fighting weight". My solution is that there is pretty much nothing treat-y in the house Monday - Thursday, then on weekends I will have biscuits, crisps etc. Could you try and dial it back on certain days, knowing there are treats just round the corner?

how long have you been living away? When you've gone home for visits, presumably you're on your best behaviour in front of family. I think the restraining has to start now because it sounds as though you've been relying on food for comfort as a pattern for a good length of time. Short trips home aren't representative. I hope you crack it though, I'm sure you're right that loneliness is a big reason for the over-eating, but you also have to accept that established patterns are hard to break and you should start sooner.

I'm going to be living with my parents. I hate being a single mum living alone. It's a truly soul destroying existence. I feel like I'm in prison.

I eat as that's all I can do. Can't go anywhere without my son. Don't know anyone in the area.

It's just me and him. I love him, but food keeps my mind stimulated.

I'm 5ft7 and weigh 12st 5lbs.

I understand- I comfort eat. Due to my circumstances, I spend every single evening in on my own after the children have gone to bed. So having something nice to eat is one of my few sources of pleasure.

Can you try to do something else absorbing with your time - knitting??? Batch cooking healthy meals for freezer? Beginners' yoga videos from YouTube?
Try to make your treats quality not quantity- a really nice but small bar of Belgian chocolate rather than a giant bar of cadburys.
Try to reward yourself with non- food pleasures- I love magazines.
You have created a good habit by not eating between 8pm and bedtime. Try and create more good habits like that e.g. resolve to have no snacks between breakfast and lunch, or something
Best wishes.

are your parents on-board with you getting your social life back? Do they understand that's what's getting you down? It does seem a fantastic decision to move back so that you can build a nice network around your family and they can help babysit whilst you build your network outside of it too. I had a friend that did this and she's never looked back. I sympathise - I never felt a moment's loneliness before I had kids and sometimes it feels like a hostage situation these days!

I'm a terrible snacker too so I'm not judging, but the days food you described comes to way more than 5000 calories.

Could you bear to look objectively at all that food and work out the actual calorie cost?

You must have the metabolism of an athlete to not be obese.

However I would get your blood pressure and cholesterol checked out.