Laxatives

[Hotpinkangel19]

Hi, I'm 33 years old and secretly using laxatives to help me lose weight. If I go over my kcal allowance I take up to 5 laxatives to 'get rid of it'. I'm starting to think I maybe have a problem I'm 5'6 and weigh 14st 2. I've never spoken to anyone about this before.

It does sound like a problem. Why are you counting calories? Xx

Hi

I just wanted to say you're not alone. I do the same. I hate my size and I'm desperate to lose weight but can't seem to stick to anything. I'm exhausted from worrying about it and I feel so guilty when I eat something 'bad' so I take laxatives but I'm not even sure they make much difference but I can't seem to stop I'm 11st 3lbs which is huge for my height and I hate feeling like this.

xx

Taking laxatives will not help you and can cause real damage. You need to sort your head out not your body. I'm really not sure what the answer is but putting food into good and bad categories will not help. I'm stuck in a eating situation myself, I've put on some weight and feel shit and I'm looking at food as good and bad. But we need to stop doing this. I'm guessing you are both (Bebe and Hot) on a diet? If I were you I'd stop the diet and stop obsessing. Have either of you lost weight on the diet? I doubt you have. Why don't you try to eat normally the foods you enjoy, try to stop when your full, if you want chocolate have it but don't binge. Think of your body as your friend instead of hating it. All I know is the more I tell myself I'll be good and diet tomorrow the more I'll eat today. Tomorrow never happens. Deprivation isn't the answer but changing the way you feel about food is.

By the way I used to abuse laxatives. Sometimes a packet a day. It's not good. I'd rather be plump then go back down that road!

Thank you, that's really good advice. That's what I'd love to be able to do -stop obsessing! I just feel constant guilt about food, I hate the way I look but can't seem to find a middle ground, I'm either starving myself or bingeing and I hate it. I'd love to be able just to feel ok and stop worrying about it but I've never been able to do it.

I know Bebe it's so hard. The times I've not worried about food are the times I've looked my best and my body has been its idea size. You need to ditch the laxatives though. Sometimes if you tell yourself I'll eat that chocolate bar later or tomorrow it can work. I'm not happy with myself at the moment and I know why, I'm unhappy in my life, I'm bored, I've got no close friends near me so I eat. I'm eating too much but I'm moving next year near my friends again and I'm hoping that I'll go back to my old habits and become slim again, well slim for me! You need to try and get yourself happy. Do not ever compare yourself to anyone else. What would your best friend say to you about yourself? Try to be kind to yourself. X

Thanks BusterGonad, like you I think my biggest problem at the moment is actually something else in my life. Last year I was the slimmest I'd been for ages and felt really good. This year I started a new job and I am miserable and stressed and all I've done is put weight on. I feel like such a failure to have put the weight back on. I wish I could leave my job and then I know things would start to get better but I can't find another job and stress and constant worry it causes is having a bad effect in my health.

I'm glad you're going to be moving, that sounds like a really positive step!

xx

Thanks Bebe I moved from England to the Middle East. I'm not working, I never go out drinking with friends, I don't wear my nice clothes and I do t bother much with makeup as I'm not going out, so I've kind off let myself go! I've only put on a stone but it feels like a zillion. When I look in the mirror I see a fat middle aged woman, last year I felt great. I know I can be that person again but like you I feel weighed down with life. Maybe if we try to help each other. I feel a million time better but just wearing a nice dress and make up but I've lost all ethasusum for that. You defiantly need a new job, and please don't think your sole worth is in anyway related to your weight. I'm sure you are a lovely and attractive woman you're just feeling shit at the moment.

Can you let work know about how pressured you feel? Or is it not the done thing?

Also diets are designed to make you feel like a failure otherwise it wouldn't be such a million dollar industry!

Work know but are not interested in doing anything about it. To be honest everyone in the team is incredibly stressed, it's not a good atmosphere. I think that I realised early on that this job is not for me which makes it worse - most of the rest of the team like the nature of the work but just not the incredible stress and the way things are being done at the moment, whereas even if we weren't under the particular stress that is happening as a result of bad management etc it would still not be for me so I just feel anxious and miserable all the time. I really wanted to get a new job for the new year so I could make a fresh start but I haven't been able to find anything, hate the thought of starting the new year still feel like this, it's dragging me down and affecting everything..including my weight.

xx

I know. Sometimes life is so shit. Have you tried meditation? My husband does a stressful job and swears by it. Also get Paul McKennas I can make you thin, I had it and it may not make you thin but some of his facts on the diet world are interesting and the mediation cd is very relaxing and gives your brain a break from worrying about food.

I'll offer some advice but I've been through ED's and know that often, no matter how logical the advice, I really doesn't help when you're in the grip of a horrible disease.

Laxatives honestly do not help you to lose weight. By the time food has digested, all of the calories have already been absorbed by your body. All this will do is cause you serious health problems, it can be to the point where you end up on medication because you're unable to naturally go to the toilet anymore.

You can beat this. This is doing nothing good for you and everything bad for you. If you need help, please confide in someone, anyone. The biggest vice of these diseases is that they love secrecy and the best thing you can do is to deny it that secrecy! Good luck

Hi

I haven't been on here for a while but I just wanted to say thank you for the advice and see how everyone was getting on? I feel huge after Christmas and really want to get healthy and lose weight but I seem to be in a cycle of starving myself, binging and using laxatives and actually I just seem to be getting bigger and bigger so its not working anyway.

How is everyone else doing?

xx

Hi, thank you for all of your replies, I haven't spoken to anyone about this, it's done in secret 🙁 I feel guilty about what I eat so take laxatives to counteract that feeling. X

@Hotpinkangel19 I know how you feel. I used to weigh 13st 10lbs. I used laxatives to lose weight, up to 60 a day for almost 3 years and oh my goodness!! Every single day of being tired because I'd been up during the night, the embarrassment, the constant pain, the calling sick for work! It's a slippery slope and I ended up 7stone 6lbs I was so ill!
I obviously had other issues, starving myself, making myself sick and was diagnosed with anorexia. I stopped taking laxatives when I got back up to 8 stone 10lbs and I now weight 9 stone 6lbs (im 5ft 9") and it's so hard not to go back but please please please stop taking them, I ended up in hospital after fainting on a busy road, they literally could have killed me.