I'm addicted to food

[Illjustblendinhere]

I've had lifelong issues with food and my weight, been on/off diets since I was 16. Ranged between a normal BMI to overweight, only ever been classed as obese after 2 pregnancies briefly before losing some weight.

Excuse this time around is lockdown but truth is my excuse is food obsession. I think about it all day long like what I'm going to eat next, what I can have for dinner/dessert, what I want to buy from the shops etc. I can't regulate a normal healthy diet, I am either on a diet or eating everything in sight and I alternate between the 2.

Right now I am about a stone and a half away from the top end of a healthy BMI so not massively terrible but still not good.

I feel like food is the only thing I have to enjoy in life. Over 15 years this has been going on, how do I stop it!?

The above was aimed at everyone. You Equals everyone who struggles. 😊

@LaurieFairyCake I read it as that OP is 1.5 stone above the max weight for a healthy bmi for her, so in the overweight category

OP to be honest if your weight is stable and not increasing just hovering in the lower part of the overweight category then I wouldn’t be too unhappy with that!

But, I can relate and that feeling of seeing your weight just increase and increase is so awful.
For me like others on here, the only thing that has changed my relationship with food is low carb/Keto - I started with BIWI’s low carb bootcamp on here. It’s so strange how I can now not be tempted by things like chocolates and sweets which before had no chance if they were in the house.
It’s so freeing to live without cravings and hunger
I’m still overweight as i think I’m still eating a bit too much but my mental health is so much better now I’m not binging and my weight is at least stable rather than increasing

I have spent most of my adult life struggling with food, and morbidly obese. I would say I had a bingeing problem. I tried Weight Watchers, low carb, Slimming World and IF with no permanent success. The most successful was WW but I was completely unable to make it work a second time.

Over the last 18 months I have finally managed to get some control over my eating. This is how I did it, and I accept it's not for everyone:

18 months ago - started therapy to look at the causes of my anxiety and bingeing.

Just under a year ago: cut out all added sugar. No cakes, biscuits, chocolate or sweets. Restricted myself to 3 meals a day at which I ate whatever I wanted other than sweet things.

July: started calorie counting using MFP and tracking exercise on my Fitbit - mostly just brisk (for me) walking. One uncounted meal a week with one portion of pudding. Otherwise no sugar rule continues.

October: added a session of weights a week.

This really works for me. I've lost just over 3 stone since July at an average rate of just over 2lb a week. I'm at my lowest weight for about 15 years and fitter than I have ever been. The therapy has been key as it has forced me to look at what I am feeling and why instead of just eating to numb myself. What also worked, and I needed therapy to get my head round this too, was realising that my reaction to some foods is addiction-like and I cannot eat them freely. What is also really interesting is that I find it much easier to eat filling and tasty food on 1500 cals a day without trying to shoehorn a pudding or sweet snack into the day. I don't generally eat low fat food, unless you count semi skimmed milk. I have also radically reduced the amount of fat I was eating (eg I no longer have butter on toast if I am having peanut butter). I think what has worked is introducing new habits one at a time and giving them a lot of time to settle - if I had tried to calorie count and cut out sweet stuff at the same time I think I would have found it too much.

Oh also if I have done a lot of exercise I will sometimes eat a bit more than 1500 calories - generally I try to have at least 500 cal deficit and that is obviously going to get harder as I lose weight. I have about another 3 stone to go at least, I think, but even if I never lost another lb from here I would still be fitter and healthier than I have been for years and years.

I have been so up and down in
weight in my life . I think I have finally found something that works for me . Intermittent fasting. Have a look at Dr Jason Fung on you tube he is amazing.

@Igmum

Blerg yes yes totally recommend Overeaters Anonymous oa.org/. This is an addiction. I used to eat and eat and eat. Insane amounts. Then eat some more. I'd tell myself I wouldn't do it. Then would do it again. Couldn't control it until I joined OA. Now I've been abstinent since January - even with the pandemic. Cannot describe the relief

@Igmum really interested in your OA experience. Have considered it but not sure how it works - what happens when you’re there?

You have an eating disorder you are not greedy. Food addiction is one of the hardest addictions to overcome because unlike drugs or alcohol you can’t go cold turkey.
What worked for me was reading around the subject and understanding that the binging of carbs was self medication. I tried to find comfort in other things and avoid the triggers to binge ( sugar and carbs). I then just got into a happier phase in my life and the binging stopped. I have been a healthily BMI but always at the top end and I cannot diet or fast because it triggers the binge / food obsession in me.

Thanks for posting this OP.
I wish I could help you find the off switch.
I’ve always been an eater but it’s just getting worse and worse. I’m now at the stage where even if I feel completely full, almost sick full I’ll still eat just because I want the thing. And obviously it’s never fruit or veg.

I have undiagnosed ADHD so I do think there must be a link there between my dopamine levels and needing a fix of chocolate or crisps.

The OP has posted once and seemingly everyone knows what’s going on 🤷‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

I think those of us who also think we have an addiction to food are sharing our experiences of that and how we have tried to address it.

@Mandalalorianna

I've read this thread so far with interest. I have an awful relationship with food. I eat until I can't move, or even breathe! I've spent most of my life on a diet of on variety or another, the first one at age 10. I am mostly a size 16/18, but have got down to a 14 (almost a 12) and as high as a 20. At my lowest 11stone 7lbs, I was scrawny and bony. I looked terrible (I'm 5ft6). I can't work it out. I actually think I'm made of anvils or something, I'm hugely heavy but not necessarily fat! I don't eat sugar laden foods (not had chocolate, cake or biscuits for three years- it's made no difference) I'm large, wide and solid. In order to lose weight I have to eat no more that 1200 calories a day, lots of veg, few carbs. But I have no off button and can just keep going. Sorry of that sounds confused and jumbled, it is, I've been doing this for 40 years!

I’m similarly anvil-based, if it makes you feel better

I’m 5’ 5 and wear a comfortable size 12 (from every shop, not just vanity sizing!) when I’m 12 stone. My BMI is 27.9 at that weight but I truly don’t look fat.

I’m currently a size 16 after gaining a bit of weight over the past couple of months and I’m slowly trying to chip my way back down to 12/14 but in a very relaxed way. I’ve been dieting since I was 12 and I just can’t live with that pressure anymore.

@Queenoftheashes well at the moment most Overeaters Anonymous meetings are virtual - loads of UK ones on Zoom and I have friends who go to meetings in Oz and the US. You can find a meeting here (hope this works) www.oagb.org.uk/find-a-meeting/. Bits are very scripted (it follows the AA 12 Step Meeting format) and it seems really weird at first but it works. My very first meeting I kicked sugar which was a miracle because I was TOTALLY hooked. Took me a lot longer to get abstinent and start actually eating sensibly. Try it. They always say try 6 meetings before making up your mind. The first is always free after that it's donations and we'd always rather have people there than their money so you'll spend far less on it than any weight loss profit making organisation but the best bit is that it works and it works long term.

Oooo long post sorry

I’m not trying to downplay food addiction but this argument really grates on me.

If you go cold turkey from alcoholism then you can die! If you go cold turkey from a drug addiction then you won’t die but it can be physically excruciatingly painful.

Alcohol is a physical addiction with very dangerous affects if you suddenly withdraw. Food is a psychological addiction, doesn’t make it any less real but doesn’t mean it’s ‘easier’ to get off drugs and especially not alcohol!

Foxyloxxy true but there is nothing to say that you can only get addicted to things that kill you when you withdraw. I don't think anyone would say that withdrawing from an addiction to video games would kill you. That doesn't mean that people don't get addicted to video games.

Yes there's a psychological addiction but it really is also physical. I know from experience there are foods I absolutely cannot eat in moderation. I really can't. And these may be different to the foods other recovering compulsive overeaters can eat. Of course it isn't like an addiction to alcohol/heroin/crack/whatever but seeing it as an addiction really, really helps recovery and explains s lot of the utterly irrational parts of the disease.

Thanks @Igmum I’m looking into it. I have done ww and slimming world but I dislike the fact that they are profiting from my problems!

Absolutely - see my reference to psychological and physical addiction. You can become psychologically addicted to absolutely anything. But alcohol (and a few other things) actually changes your physiology and you become physically addicted.

Even if you’re addicted to food your body physiology doesn’t change in the same way as it does with alcohol.

I’m not saying that either is better or worse than another. All addiction is life changing. I’ve been very fortunate in my life to never battle with addiction. But saying ‘you can go cold turkey from alcohol’ is just not true!

(Plus you don’t change anything you just follow rules and end up fighting over porky lites down Asda)

And if you eat the good kinda foods you wouldnt be obese.

As someone who has been obese, and who cut all refined sugars for 6 months. I can confirm that you CAN eat "the good kinda food" and remain obese. If you eat too much food, whatever it is, you will gain weight. Large quantities of homemade curry (no rice, naan or poppadoms, low oil) will cause weight gain!

@Queenoftheashes fab and hope it helps. I know it really helped me (and is still helping) - if you want to message me please feel free

I used to be a terrible binge eater. I would get home from work, have a cup of tea and reach for something sweet to go with it. After that, there was no stopping my eating. I would eat and eat until dinner, then eat a full meal and then feel disgusted with myself.

I still have days like that, but not to that extent.

I bought a book on overeating and the one thing I remember that really helped was, if you are craving something unhealthy, say to yourself, "I am in control. I am free to eat whatever I want, whenever I want". I know it sounds crazy but the minute you tell yourself you can't have something, you want it even more. If you give yourself permission you will probably find you don't want it quite as much.

Works for me anyway - worth a try

It’s possible that it’s your blood sugar. I was like this. I thought I had no will power, was greedy, obsessed with food etc etc.
Actually my blood sugar was going up and down.
I did a Programme called metabolic balance. The other option is a book The Human Being Diet.
It was hard at first but the foods you eat level out your blood sugar and stop the highs and lows.
I have lost 1.5 stone but better than this is that I don’t think about food in between meals. Once a week I can have whatever I want for a meal.
Well worth a try. Get through the first two weeks a day at a time and it levels our your blood sugar swings and you do not obsess about food anymore. DH and other friends have had the same results.

I was trapped in the binge - restrict cycle for absolutely years.

I read the Brain Over Binge book (which is also a podcast) about 4 years ago and it totally changed my life. I now feel like eat like "a normal person" who doesn't have all the urges around food that I used to have.

I have crisps and chocolate in the cupboard, ice cream in the freezer. If I fancy some, I'll have it. But I never binge on it in the way I would have done in the past.

I feel free around food. I'm a healthy weight.

Omg are you me? 😂😂 I’m the same, except not having the food in the house doesn’t work because when the ‘food fog’ descents I WILL just order it, head to the corner shop or even drive out to get it if I want it - I don’t have the willpower to stop myself. Occasionally going to bed will work 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️