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!?

Like with any addiction real help is needed to regulate self control.
OA is similar to NA & AA for support like a drug addiction you need to fight it every day as time goes on it is easier to achieve as your stomach will shrink.

I've also been stuck in a binge-restrict cycle for all of my adult life (went to first ww meeting as a teenager and am now 45). Was so fed up of constantly thinking about food and had totally lost control of my eating during lockdown until I found the Slimpod programme. I joined in August and the sense of freedom I feel now around food is amazing. I have been losing weight slowly but the most important thing for me is the change of mindset - I can eat whatever I want without guilt and stop when full.
The programme includes a self-hypnosis track you listen to everyday and a series of videos to watch which nudge you towards healthy eating and breaking out of the diet mentality. It has really worked for me and I feel much more positive in all areas of my life.

I'm not too bad with food overall. I don't have massive portions, eat fruit and veg etc.

But I have a real problem with chocolate. I can't have it in the house or I will eat it all in one go, even if it's stuff I've bought for the kids. I end up buying it and eating it in secret sometimes too, and can literally eat until I'm sick. I'm not actually very overweight but I worry I'm going to end up diabetic.

Binge/restrict is circumnavigated by Keto. I used to do the same. Our bodies are hungry. They want protein and fat. Give them protein and fat and they stop giving a shit about carbs.

My breakfast/lunch was leafy salad greens. Half an avocado. Some cottage cheese. A stack of chicken breast and leg and a sprinkling of pumpkin seeds. I’m stuffed. I’ll have a cup of tea and I’m done. Couldn't eat another thing if I tried. My body understands the nutrition of protein and fat. It registers it as food, will eat a certain amount of it and then tells you to stop eating.

Try and overeat protein. Get a whole chicken and see how much you can eat until your body says no. Same with broccoli. Cook up a huge saucepan full and see if you can binge on it. Now try it with chocolate, cake, pringles. There’s no stop on that stuff. You’re body doesn’t register it as food. It’s hyper palatable and processed, there’s no coincidence that this is the produce we binge on.

Sorry all, work has been manic since I posted this and havent had chance to read through replies properly but will do when I have chance, have skim read the replies though!

I can relate to what many of you are saying and I do believe it is a proper addiction, I've never been a smoker or a drinker etc but I believe I feel the way they do constantly craving a cigarette or a drink.

I set out a plan of what I want to eat in a day and I will make sure I eat it all regardless of whether I am hungry or not. I go to bed stuffed every night. Being uncomfortably full is what I have to achieve, if I've eaten dinner and dessert and feel comfortably full then that's not enough, I will then snack to achieve that uncomfortable feeling.

But if I focus on being on a diet, have done Sw and Ww over the years then i can fully follow it for several month before i crack and go back to the way i was. I'm due to go back to SW after christmas again and everytime I tell myself this is the time I will get to target and stay there.

Never happens

@amusedbush it's crazy isn't it? I have a HUGE ribcage, no one knew I was pregnant until 7months, the baby just shoved my organs up into the ribcage, there was plenty of space for a baby in there. At my lightest, I went for a bra fitting, I thought she made up my size when she said I was a 40a!! Huge ribs, broad back, big blokey shoulders with bee sting boobs!!

[quote Mandalalorianna]@amusedbush it's crazy isn't it? I have a HUGE ribcage, no one knew I was pregnant until 7months, the baby just shoved my organs up into the ribcage, there was plenty of space for a baby in there. At my lightest, I went for a bra fitting, I thought she made up my size when she said I was a 40a!! Huge ribs, broad back, big blokey shoulders with bee sting boobs!![/quote]
Ah, sadly I'm a 34GG - maybe that's why I'm so heavy

It's weird though: I can fit my fingers around my wrists, I have size 5 feet so I can buy kids' shoes, my hands are small and I'm in proportion. I don't look outwardly "sturdy" but people have a hard time believing my weight. Currently I'm in Topshop size 16 jeans at 15 stone, yet I have friends the same height as me who wear a 16 at 50lbs lighter. I'm medically Category II obese but just look a bit chunky.

Maybe it's the weight of all my regrets

@Foxyloxxy7 my point is you can’t avoid food. Once you are over the initial period with drugs abs booze you can make lifestyle changes to avoid contact with these substances. Food addiction is more complicated and nuanced

"the weight of all my regrets"

Totally relate to a lot of this. I think about doing keto but can't stand avocado or cottage cheese, and can't face cooking eggs first thing.

I have mild IBS and can't have too much fibre. Cruciferous veg, onions, beans, lentils etc do horrible things to my stomach/bowels (so do the iron tablets I'm on for anaemia).

My hunger wakes me up at 7am and if I don't eat toast or cereal at 10pm ish I wake up starving in the night and can't sleep again til I eat...

I always seem to have an excuse not to try low-carb/keto / fasting

@SatsumaFan

"the weight of all my regrets"

Totally relate to a lot of this. I think about doing keto but can't stand avocado or cottage cheese, and can't face cooking eggs first thing.

I have mild IBS and can't have too much fibre. Cruciferous veg, onions, beans, lentils etc do horrible things to my stomach/bowels (so do the iron tablets I'm on for anaemia).

My hunger wakes me up at 7am and if I don't eat toast or cereal at 10pm ish I wake up starving in the night and can't sleep again til I eat...

I always seem to have an excuse not to try low-carb/keto / fasting

Your getting strong hunger cycles because you are eating carbs. Once you become fat adapted you no longer get a grumbly tummy. It’s used to wake up STARVING, now my body will start to communicate hunger close to lunchtime.

To be Keto you don’t have to eat avocado or cottage cheese or eggs for breakfast. I enjoy avocado so I eat it. DP can’t stand it so he doesn’t. Yesterday he ate egg mayo sandwich on low carb bread for lunch with a selection of cheeses and berries. His dinner was slow cooked short ribs with sweet potato mash, green beans and gravy. That’s Keto.

*You’re

Thanks @justanotherneighinparadise I think you're right about waking up hungry at 2am due to too much carbs and sugar. I have waaay too much.

Did you gradually cut down or go cold turkey? What do you have for breakfast? When I've looked at Keto before it's full of people eating eggs and avocado (yuck) and drinking coffee (also yuck). I also can't imagine living without bread, cakes, biscuits and Haribo I have two children so always have biscuits and sweet stuff in the house. I have a massive sweet tooth and can't resist it.

Hope OP is ok as she hadn't been back for a while?

@farfallarocks it’s not more complicated and nuanced. All addictions are complicated in their own way. You don’t have degrade other addictions to make your point about food addiction. Food addiction is awful but so is adduction to other things. Why can’t all addictions be difficult and complicated? Because that’s the reality.

@Foxyloxxy7 where have I denigrated other addictions??? I think you are projecting. Food addictions are often not taken as seriously as other addictions as they are not as obvious and not seen as being as harmful. They are also not recognised in the same as a BERKIN addiction is clearly A Problem. My point was that they are abs just because we are surrounded by food all the time it’s hard to avoid triggers.

Heroine addiction!

I’m the same and counselling has changed my life! She helped me understand my feelings around food, break the thought pathways and create new ones. I can’t recommend it enough. I feel for you- you’re not alone. Everyone has something xxx

@farfallarocksim not projecting, as I’ve said before I’m lucky enough to have never suffered with any kind of addiction in my life. Thankfully neither have any of my close family (extended family have though). I work with people who have all forms of addiction.

I just don’t agree with you. And your incorrect comments about other addictions being able to go ‘cold turkey’ and ‘easily avoid triggers’ aren’t correct. How easy do you think it is to avoid alcohol, for example, in our society if you don’t lock yourself away in your own home and never look at any form of media? Alcohol is everywhere, just like food is everywhere. Or the constant onslaught of gambling adverts in some prime time tv slots.

I think your flippant comments about other forms of addiction make it seem like these addictions are easier to get over. Saying food addiction is misunderstood/downplayed (which I agree with btw) doesn’t mean you have to also then suggest it’s ‘easier’ to get over other forms of addiction.

I agree that there are everyday triggers around for people with food addiction. I disagree that everyday triggers are exclusive to food addiction.

I think what people are trying to say is with a food addiction you have to face your demon 3 times a day in a controlled manner. An alcoholic doesn’t have to have a single shot (and no more) three times a day.

I think it might help to think about your life as a whole and put more things into it that you enjoy doing.