I get a physical high from eating shit food

[Elephantina]

I have name changed because I’m about to share details that I have never spoken about out loud before.

I am 46 and class 2 obese with about 4 stone to lose. My story doesn’t really matter, although it is much the same as anyone else who has followed a binge-diet cycle for 30 years.

The fact is, I LIKE shit food. Sugar and carbs give me a deep-down purr of bliss, contentment and well-being that nothing can match. Without it life rumbles along fine, but I feel empty and irritable and gloomy and I get terrible IBS symptoms when I’m eating properly. It’s not even the act of eating it – eating it is good, yes, but the THOUGHT of eating it, of having the choice and space to eat it without judgement (i.e in secret), is even better. Like downing a glass of cool water when you’re desperately thirsty, in over 30 years I have found nothing that beats the absent pleasure of it.

I need to find something to replace the high that it gives me – that’s obvious to me without a £60 per hour therapist. Obviously I have lost weight through diet and exercise a hundred times before, but I haven’t dealt with the need to get lost in the comfort and the buzz of eating the food so it always comes back.

I don't enjoy being fat and it irks me that my problem is plastered all over me for everyone to see - I'd prefer to be slim and fit of course. But I quite like myself as a person, I'm all right I think, even if I am fat. I had a health check recently and all is well, I am not pre-diabetic and cholesterol and pressure is low. I don't have any joint or mobility issues, my only health problem is chronic migraine.

I can diet, I know what to do and the mechanics/biology of weight loss. But it won't work unless I can stamp down the yearning for a high.

Has anyone achieved it? None of the definitions I have read around "food addiction", binge-eating disorder, and so on, seem to fit what I do.

I could have written your post OP - down to the IBS and migraine.

I have no answers but hope you don't mind me parking my fat behind here to lurk.

Really, wow there's at least two of us then. No mate, you park away.

My DH thinks it's hilarious that eating a balanced meal sets my stomach off. Maybe we've wrecked our intestines with the perpetual sugar onslaught?

Although I had an oscopy a couple of years back and my colon is a thing of beauty.

After going virtually no carb for 10 days all the cravings go.
It's actually amazing.

Although I'm under 9stone I'm a total carb addict and the relief of not constantly craving is huge.

Interesting gardener. 10 days? What does one eat on NO carb if one does not eat eggs?

Low carb high fat mate.

Life changing.

I get you.

How about fitness, find something you really enjoy, get fit and then you can afford the calories.

Take up running, still eat some but not lots of shit. Lose weight.

Find the balance.

It sounds so straight forward doesn't it.

And enough protein is very important. With a decent amount of fat it's filling.

I am totes the same as you. I have no advice high fat low carb works great but hasnt been permanent for me, i wibble in and out

I get my high through exercise, not eating. May be worth a try?

It's good of you to share your experience although I am generally aware that it is possible to get a buzz out of 'junk' food
hence the addictive potential of hyper palatable foods!

Not carbs, but sugar. Ditch the sweets, cakes, chocolate and ice cream! Then eat whatever you want for your three meals - I bet you'll lose the cravings and a shit load of weight 👍🏻

Watch the movie That Sugar Film. Its more addictive than nicotine. Once you give up sugar and most carbs except veg. the cravings go. It was harder to give up sugar than nicotine but once its done then its fine. Lots of fat. I live on bacon, cheese and pesto etc. I'm now a size 10 mostly.

I have had some success with low carb high fat in the past, although I can't eat eggs which limits me a bit.

Did anyone find that the need for the buzz from the highly palatable foods faded? What happens when you start eating normally again, or is it a permanent lifestyle change?

I would dearly love to get a high from exercise, although the migraine issue has interfered with running many times. I've done C25k about 4 times but a shit migraine run puts me off for weeks.

My brother is a chunker but he took up running and has kept his 3 stone off for 10 years. I am being treated for plantar fasciitis, is running a good idea? Should maybe ask the physio that one.

Cross posted with a few, yes I wondered about going cold turkey on sugar. Thanks for the tip about the film.

Read “The Unexpexted Joy of being Sober” but instead of alcohol think of food... it’s fascinating all about learning how to live without that high you thought you needed. So many ways it resonates re addictive eating too.

Of course you can’t go “tea-total” with food, so the solution can’t be exactly the same; but it’s a really entertaining, helpful book about addition.

Wait Tipsey - bacon cheese and pesto?

Now you're talking. Where do I start?

I've gone low carb, cravings do go but you have to prepared to give up forever. I'm not in that camp so back to fat

I will go find that, thanks Pear.

I have plantar fasciitis. I have a running machine and as long as I wear fit Flop trainers my feet don't hurt at all

Hmm yeah Moomin I think giving up a food group for life isn't a sensible solution. It must be possible to go low for a while to break the habit maybe?

It's the dopemine reward system in the brain, creates addictions.

Can I park alongside too?
The only thing that gives me the same buzz is alcohol...but only alcohol that is high in sugar. And obviously that's not doing my health or my weight any good!

Nothing beats the fuzzy, happy full feeling I get from carbs and sugar. I keep losing weight and keep coming back to it and then gaining again.

Is it really no sugar ever again? I even quit refined sugar and find myself having too much agave and maple syrup. It's the sweetness.

Really Tart that's good to know. I've just had my foot taped today, I have excessively short calf muscles evidently.

You've got it Momo, it's definitely about reward.

I'm very lucky Sky that alcohol holds no interest for me at all! Bollocks to the wine, pass the cake.

Sky you talking about the sweetness, reminds me of when I last tried to give up sugar and was putting honey into lemon tea. Without thinking I opened the bottle and squirted some STRAIGHT INTO MY MOUTH.

I am beyond redemption.