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.

Please search Overeaters Anon online. You will be able to find a local group or can get help on their forums through their app. You are not alone. The good thing is you realise you need to make a change. Good luck

An excellent book that I found helpful is "Eating Less - Say goodbye to overeating" by Gillian Riley. No diet, no judging. Can highly recommend it.

You are not massively overweight. Do you purge?

Can you try to "fill up" with healthy stuff first?

So have a big pile of carrot sticks or cooked broccoli or other Veggies first and then you can eat what ever.

Or make yourself only take one biscuit at a time, then put pack back in the cupboard and go eat it in another room.

Or eat home made popcorn - but one piece at a time

Basically try to slow down the rate of eating? Distract yourself with other tasks?

Or try something totally different - have a read of the 5:2 threads - BigChocFrenzy is amazing and maybe trying out something like that could help start to get some control back?

You must have a tapeworm devouring those calories! Because if your average person ate 5000 calories per day, they'd be morbidly obese.

Op I do understand x

You have my sympathies as it isn't easy when you're stuck in a rut, but I think you are being very unrealistic to think it will stop when when you move in with your parents.

I probably do eat more than 5000. That was an estimate.

I grew up with parents who were very into the outdoors. I've kept that lifestyle.
So my son and I spend most of the day walking and exploring. I walk around 10 miles a day on average.

But even with that I'm still overeating.

I've never purged.

I'm a stone overweight and actually look pretty good as I have naturally wide hips and big boobs so I don't look fat at all.

But I eat way way way too much sugar and fat. Not being obese doesn't mean I'm healthy.

Time to take control.
Don't ask us to validate you eating, even for a few weeks. Don't expect your parents to solve it. Own yourself.

I think you know it's not ok to eat like that. Stop buying the biscuits!

I am a LP and eat too much during the evening..However I help things by not buying multi packs of crisps..My food indulgence..

If you don't buy stuff for evening to binge on you can't eat it as you can't get out without your DS..

Can you start doing the packing . Stuff to keep your hands busy in the evening.

I would try and address it to a degree as it will become your fall back coping mechanism

Good luck by the way

I'm a bit taller than you, if I eat like that I'd be 200+ pounds. You're very lucky, vanity-wise.

That said, health-wise, that can't be good health-wise.

I'm an over eater too (not quite to the same extent as you these days, but not far off), it's so hard to get out of the habit of comfort eating but if you can do it now you can break the association of being alone with food. For me, the longer I get into a comfort eating rut the harder it is to get out of.

Do you think you could start with cutting out the Ben & Jerry's, crisps and Jaffa Cakes in the evening and eating fruit and yogurt instead? Or just go to bed early?

The only way I can not overeat is to just not have the food in the house. At the moment I have no desserts, crisps, sweets, biscuits, chocolate etc - not even bread as I can eat toast like it's going out of fashion. Can you do that?

If you genuinely think you will eat properly when you get home, as you state, why are you asking here?
What are you feeding your son? Are you cooking separately for him or is he getting trapped in your food issues?

Oh and yes I weigh less than 9 stone but don't exercise either - classic skinny fat and I really worry about my health.

I am the same OP. Food must be my BFF coz when I'm actually WITH my BFF or any of my friends actually I can diet sooo easily. Sigh!!

I undertstand the trouble with having no company. I am much more relaxed when the holidays come and ds and dh are back in the house. Being alone at home is a very strange feeling. I'm not sure of the answer really. Have you tried doing epic amounts of housework? find that can be quite satisfying.

No it's not okay to eat like this. You know that.

This is not about food as such. It's about you filling a void and being unable to function as an adult on their own living away from their parents. You have a child of your own now. You are not a dependent child any more but you behave as if you are.

You need to learn to accept solitude and being on your own for some of the day without using food as comfort.

I think you need something like CBT to help you change your mindset and control your urge to eat.

My advice is to see your GP and ask for help. You are using food for a fix, like someone else uses drugs or alcohol. In time the outcome will be the same- ill health and an early death.

Well done hun, you know what to do. Do it in your way at your pace, or dont! Yes I said that, do what makes you happy, but do remember family need you they really do, some family are shit at saying it and appreciating it, so tell them how you feel(in a secret letter only you can see and re-read/or if you want let them see)
I feel awful lots and quite happily eat a huge sharing bag of crisps just before lunch and then have lots of sugar etc because I know I am there too, I'm grateful you posted this, my depression eating is because i too live away from everone i know and love, be strong and remember no ones perfect, and no one should be

1. Look on the bright side. You walk a lot every day. That is really really good for you. Lots of slimmer people will be less healthy who sit all day.
2. I'm 5ft7 and weigh 12st 5lbs. - that is not absolutely appalling - there will be plenty on MN who are 15 stone, some even 20 stone. So it's a bit more than you should be but can be sorted out. In fact it would be great to lose a stone at that level or ideally 2 if you can.
3. Yes 5000 calories a day is too much unless you're pulling an arctic sledge all day on an expedition when people there need I think 7000 calories a day due to the calories they expend. you probably need to halve what you eat for a start.

Most over eaters eat after dark but you don't eat between 8 and mid night. What about going to bed at 10am - lots of sleep helps and secondly perhaps not eating between your dinner and then lunch time - intermittent fasting works for some people.

Its not ok but you do sound very active. 10 Miles is a long way! i never ate anything near that much and was 15 stone now 14 stone about two months into a diet.

I have ditched the crap food and we now cook nice meals from scratch. i am enjoying my food so much more. Went out with friends last night, harvester, yuck. I would have devoured that crap before but ive broken the habit.

It takes 28 days to develop a habit. Could you set yourself a goal of cutting out shit food for 28 days? It doesn't sound like you need to loose much weight so you could probably eat loads but just change what you are eating rather than the amount.

I've gone through phases of comfort eating and i still snack too. No judgement from me, and ignore earlier poster who told you to just eat salad and fruit (a joke maybe??!). I think tiredness as well as boredom and loneliness can trigger it. A friend of mine had hypnotherapy to help her with her overeating and it really helped her to re-think her feelings about herself and food. Good luck, you must think it's time to deal with this, if you're sharing the issue here.

If I was as active as you I'd be bloody hungry too! Just eat slightly better stuff, OK? Eggs, crisp bread with cheese and ham, lots of lovely oven roasted veg. And drink more water, as obvious as it sounds.

Try eating low carb. It's really hard to overeat on low carb.

I have Type 1 diabetes. I have to be highly vigilant with what I eat, and test my blood sugar and inject several times a day. In no way is it fun.

It makes me so angry when someone with a healthy body abuses it.

OP, you'll probably develop Type 2 in a couple of years unless you change your relationship with food. Believe me, you don't want to. You have a choice.