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Weight loss chat

A space to talk openly about weight loss journeys and challenges. Mumsnet hasn't checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. You may wish to speak to a medical professional before starting any diet.

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Original poster

Compulsive eating

29 replies

twainiac · 24/02/2014 10:18

Hi everyone,
Wondered if anyone had any tips to combat this?
Whenever I am on my own I just want to stuff my face - with anything. I know I should have willpower and just not eat but it truly is compulsive. I even long to be on my own so I can eat. I'm not depressed, stressed, lonely or anything.......
Any one any ideas?
Thanks x

OP posts:

confusedalways · 24/02/2014 10:45

I'm like this, I'll be really good all day then come about 7 I'll devour anything I can. I won't even be hungry I just get this urge to eat. I think it's partly boredom.

TheKettle · 24/02/2014 11:07

I have no advice but I'm so gald to see this post. I've just logged in to get some help for myself.

I've been unable to control my eating for decades and my weight has gone up and up, so I'm struggling with obesity as well now.

Hopefully someone can come along with some advice. Oh, and like you OP, I eat irrespective of whether I'm happy, sad etc etc.

SarahPatricia · 24/02/2014 21:38

I had that, the trick is to keep busy. Sex worked for me (and my man was very happy ) and it counts a cardio exercise!

forgetdieting · 25/02/2014 14:10

Hi, do you mind if I join in?
Are you all on a diet? Or just find you eat like this in general?

RebeccaJames · 25/02/2014 22:30

Me too, and I'm now at my biggest ever, with 3 stone to lose. Have joined SW but I don't know how i'll ever succeed while that burning need to stuff my face comes over me.

confusedalways · 26/02/2014 09:09

I'm not on a diet as such just trying to eat more healthily. But that seems to go out the window come 7pm. I can quite happily eat a huge portion of tea then look for a pudding type snack after then a few after be looking for more.
I found trying to limit the amount of snacks in helps but then it does feel like I'm dieting and is boring.

Partridge · 26/02/2014 09:17

I hope this link works. It may resonate. We were hoping to get an eating disorders topic up and running but I don't know what happened with that?

Sleepwhenidie is really helpful with these issues...

ThatBloodyWoman · 26/02/2014 09:20

I think it's a case of willpower till you shrink your stomach capacity.

forgetdieting · 26/02/2014 09:49

I used to eat like this, whether I was on a diet or not. confusedalways I found like a lot of people, the minute I started eating, I got the taste to carry on. It wasn't so much an eating disorder imo, although I'm sure it may have turned into one in time. I'm not a professional, and I'm sure there are many reasons behind this type of behaviour. But I did find a way out that suited me and have blogged about it for 3 years now. I suppose I changed my 'diet' mindset and gave myself something I could live with and lose the weight.

RebeccaJames · 26/02/2014 10:50

forgetdieting, what was your way out and where's the blog?!

forgetdieting · 26/02/2014 11:49

RebeccaJames - sorry about that, but my blog is called forgetdietingforever (on blogspot). My way out was to stop denying myself, and start eating what I really wanted. Most diets tell you what to do and eat, and I realised the food didn't fit into my real life.

Here's the link to the method which helped me change the way I thought about dieting and food. Dieting - and I've tried all of them - only seemed to make matters worse because my weight kept going up. The best part is this method is part-time and I could socialise! It was a sort of diary of food as well - so you'll see what I ate too.

forgetdietingforever.blogspot.co.uk/

confusedalways · 26/02/2014 13:15

I find days where I force myself to write down everything I eat are much better. As I don't want to have to write down the snack when I can see I don't need them and have eaten plenty.

forgetdieting · 27/02/2014 10:22

That's interesting. Writing things down reminds you what you've eaten. Writing down what I'd eaten over just one day taught me a lot - and started me thinking in a different way. It instigated the way I eat now. Do you look at what you've written for your main meals?

confusedalways · 27/02/2014 11:04

Yeah it definitely makes me think more about what I'm eating. I don't tend to worry about main meals to much it's just the snacking.

Though the main meals do tend to be healthier if I write them down and can't kid myself.

forgetdieting · 27/02/2014 11:28

After writing down what I ate over one day, I found I was snacking a lot and a lot more than I thought.
But, I also noticed my main meals weren't big enough. They were not filling me up enough. I was trying hard to be 'good' and not eating too much for my mains which left me hungry.
I guess I was kidding myself I could survive on a small amount. What helped me stop snacking so much was eating more for my main - believe it or not!

SeasonofTheWitch · 28/02/2014 15:10

Hello twainiac

I've just posted on the 'Think yourself thin' thread about the Three Principles which could be very helpful for you: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/weight_loss_chat/1962967-Paul-McKenna-Can-Make-Us-Thin-Thread-Number-14-A-Simple-Title-for-Simple-Weight-Loss-and-All-amongst-Friends?

I've just written a post about how the Three Principles relates to eating issues: threeprinciplesblog.com/can-we-think-ourselves-thin/

MillyBlods · 28/02/2014 15:21

Hi, Im on the thread that Season linked to and we have been going for years. We all have some form of disordered eating and the main reasons seem to be linked to Diets and Emotional Eating. We eat whatever we want as long as we are truly hungry for food and stop as soon as we are satisfied. Savouring each mouthful. Those are the only rules (if you can call them rules). Basically we are relearning to eat like a "normal" slim person with no eating issues at all. We support each other and follow mindful eating and Paul McKenna's hypnosis CDs which are great. If we overeat we just start again without making ourselves feel bad which only leads to more over eating. You are all welcome if you want.

MillyBlods · 28/02/2014 15:29

Forgetdietingforever sorry but am I missing something here? Looked at your blog and it is about counting calories and not going over your own daily calorie allowance isn't it? This to me is most definitely dieting and diets are the thing that cause all the disordered eating in the first place. Learning to listen to your body and eat when your truly hungry and stop when your satisfied is the best way I know of to eliminate the message that we have to be controlled by an external measurement ie calorie counting. If we follow our internal hunger signals and trust in them then eventually we no longer need to binge and overeat because we relearn how to respond to our body and love it again.

MillyBlods · 28/02/2014 15:41

But Forget a big big big congrats to you and your husband for maintaining the weight loss......that is brilliant. For a lot of people though disordered eating is caused by diets and counting calories, carbs etc and is not manageable for a lifetime. Sorry, didn't mean to sound so critical earlier just that I felt your name and you stating that diets don't work and then posting about your blog which is all about counting calories was counterproductive to binge and compulsive eaters.

forgetdieting · 28/02/2014 16:34

MillyBlods - the blog is a bit unwieldy at the mo. Over 1000 posts documenting the weight loss progress, thoughts and psychology over 3 years. Like you, if we ever overate, we just started again without making ourselves feel bad too. It was written as a diary - and as I mentioned I'm busy going through it to tie things up.

I know exactly what you mean, after 20 years dieting and emotional eating. There is more than one way to solve a problem though - and our blog shows how we managed to lose 100 lbs between us, eating whatever we fancied. This helped eliminate the cravings. Now the weight has gone, we just eat normally whenever we want.

Calories is just the human 'measure' - put very simplistically if you eat too much you put on weight - if you eat less you lose weight. It's hard to eat less especially when it's food you dislike, as most diets dictate. So we came up with an eat whatever you like, part-time solution. Great for socialising! The weight came off at a rate similar to most commercial diets out there. .

I've also got some lovely easy recipes on the blog too btw - and if you look, you'll find they are only ever roughly calorie counted to give some idea of where they fit into the bigger picture. Just search my labels and there are hundreds of recipes, most providing motivational tips which helped us lose the weight.

I'll pop over and see how things are on your thread - sounds great.

forgetdieting · 28/02/2014 16:45

I was only trying to help.

LittleBonnie · 28/02/2014 16:47

OP I'm just the same and I really don't know what the answer is. I find I'm much worse on the days when I'm a bit down or depressed, but I'm pretty bad on the days I'm not depressed too! I have zilch willpower and I've tried every diet going and none have worked. My logical morning brain says - eat healthy and only a small amount today, and you'll lose weight. My unhealthy mid-afternoon brain tells me I'm starving and I have to shovel a load of food in. I would make myself sick but I can't do it.

Cookiepants · 28/02/2014 17:03

This is me - all over. I have been using mfp and regularly find I'm using 3/4 of my calorie allowance after 6pm. I have dieted successfully before but all the weight I lost is back now + 3 stone and I just don't know how to get my mindset back

forgetdieting · 28/02/2014 17:53

forgetdietingforever is a blog about successful weight loss journey and an end to emotional eating.
A true story about how we lost weight and was only started because friends and family wanted to know what we were eating, we started the blog. They could not believe we were eating the TYPES of food we were (normal everyday food - non diet) and still losing so much weight.
We removed cravings by eating food we wanted to eat. Eg if I wanted a bag of chips, I would have them.
Along our journey we had to do a lot of research to find out why it worked so well, and also why sometimes things didn't go so well.
PS I tried everything before this - including Paul McKenna's hypnosis tapes - which did not work at all. In fact I spent £££s trying to lose weight - but not any more. The method we used to lose weight finally allowed us to literally forget dieting forever.
The information on the blog is there for free.

MillyBlods · 01/03/2014 00:06

Forget hats off to you for losing and keeping it off. Really well done. I have had a look at some of your recipies and they look lovely and there are a few I will be trying. Sorry if I got the wrong end of the stick with your blog, I should have read it a bit more. Amazing photos too. Well done you!!!

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