Please god tell me how to stop eating...

[bodgersmash]

I used to be a size 8. Then went up to a 10. Then a 12. Now I'm nearly in a 14.

I eat like a pig. Today I've had:-

• golden syrup protein porridge pot
• left over chicken pasta bake
• cheese and pickle sandwich (left over from a meeting at work)
• a double chocolate cookie (big one)
• two mini rolls
• two bags of crisps
• a bagel with Philadelphia
• ham egg and homemade chips
• a bag of mini eggs

I'm disgusted with myself writing all that out. but I just CANNOT STOP.

Please help me - if you've managed to kick this kind of eating to the kerb and lose weight, HOW?!

If you used to be a size 8 was this without effort? If tou have been on a constant diet could be that your body has just had enough. If you weren't dieting when did you start eating like this? Was there a trigger? Emotional or physical trauma/death of loved one/having kids/changing jobs.

Something has set you on this path.

Doesn't sound like you are getting enough nutrients either which can lead to overeating.

Atalune is right about finding the triggers. Just identifying them will be a start. Then you can work on strategies to tackle them.

You might find that you do need a snack and that 3 meals doen’t work for you. That’s fine, just control what you have and the portion size.

Low carb (i find no carb a bit extreme) - try to only get carbs from veg, give yourself a weekly treat perhaps but thats it. Log it all on an app.

OP, when you eat sugary food, or refined carbs (white pasta, white rice etc) your blood sugar rises rapidly. This triggers a flood of insulin to get that sugar away into storage.
As a result, your blood sugar then plummets, and you feel starving and crave more sugar, so the cycle continues.
Your body did not evolve to cope with that quantity of sugar (or white carbs, that are rapidly converted to sugar).
If you get rid of all those junk foods and eat complex, slowly digested carbs (brown rice, wholemeal bread or pasta), plus a decent quantity of protein and some fat, you will not get the peaks and troughs - your blood sugar level will be more stable, and your appetite steady. Meals will satisfy you for longer, as the carb is slowly broken down and absorbed over hours instead of minutes.
Give that a try, plus get some exercise. It doesn’t have to be ferocious - even some walking, gardening or housework will help.
Keep junk food as an occasional treat - one biscuit (70 to 100 calories) with a cup of coffee, or one chocolate (60 calories) rather than a whole box (over 1000 calories).
Good luck! You’ll feel much healthier when you’re eating nourishing food instead of crap.

I've been through a couple of months like this. Just eating anything I fancy whenever I want. Then suddenly...bam! Weight gain and belly FAT. I carry excess weight TERRIBLY too, I'm tallish, but have a tiny frame and no actual shape (no hips, no bum, no waist, no boobs) so I just get a wobbly belly which looks awful against my small upper body, my legs go parsnip and my already moonface gets even moonier! Fml! But! Started doing keto...omg what a a difference! Not to my actual shape or weight quite yet (although have dropped 5lbs in 3 weeks) but I feel totally full and satiated, so temptation to snack on crap is heavily diminished! Keto is super strict, so I track using an app called carb manager, but even if you don't go full keto, I definitely recommend low carb med protein high fat. Phenomenal difference in my hunger levels during the day if I start the day with eggs or a peanut butter shake (sounds gross as it has almond milk and a raw egg but it's like liquid gold if you pop some crusha sugar free milkshake mix in there!!!). I don't even think about food until evening meal. Also tracking has helped massively as I'm actually considering and actively deciding what to put into my body.

Whenever you eat ANY carbohydrate foods insulin is produced in order to deal with the resulting blood glucose.

Higher carb=greater blood glucose=more insulin required.

A large insulin 'spike' then results in a blood sugar 'crash' as the glucose is removed from your blood. This drop in blood sugar then drives you to want to eat more carbs.

Lower carb=small blood glucose increase=lower insulin requirement.

Reducing carbs and replacing with fats and protein will allow your blood glucose level to remain more consistent (less highs & lows). This will also result in a more stable insulin level.

This is being proven to reduce the craving for carbs (Google Dr David Unwin, NHS GP). Low carb healthy fat. LCHF.

Essential = our bodies must get them from food.

Essential fatty acids.
Essential amino acids.
Essential carbohydrate? No.
Our bodies can produce glucose (carbohydrate) from fats and protein.

Everything has been said about low-carbing, so I am not going to repeat it.
I have suffered from binge eating for nearly 20 years. I once put on 30kg in 6 weeks (I was eating at least 10,000kcal a day).
Apart from low-carbing and exercising, two things help me stop when I am on a downward spiral :

• being outside. Sunlight, fresh air... A walk is perfect, but even sitting on a bench makes a difference.

• Trying to ADD things to my diet rather than substracting them. If I tell myself I am not allowed cake, I feel like a failure if I have a mouthful, and then I might as well eat the whole thing. So I start by telling myself "OK, you can have as much sugary crap as you want for lunch, but have a healthy salad with protein first". By the time I have made and eaten the salad, satiety kicks in and I find it easier to eat normally because I have already done something "positive".

Let us know how you get on

Your current diet is a one way ticket to pre diabetes at the very least. Please take steps now for your health if nothing else.

I am you! I can eat and eat. I have just gone back on the harcombe plan phase 1. I've done it before and it works...it takes away my cravings. 3 days in and I can resist the cakes that are in the office. It's an amazing feeling. You can get most of the information free on line but I'd recommend the book. Good like whatever you decide.

@frenchonion do you have the recipe for the peanut butter shake please?

OP please don’t feel bad - my diet is similar to yours - I feel like I’m addicted to chocolate and biscuits. Good luck with making changes

Come and join us over on the 8 week challenge thread. I'm on Day 2 and I like the idea of us all doing it together (without going out to a group and standing in scales in front of real people!)

Do you have a link to the thread please housewife?

I've been pretty good so far today.

Breakfast : overnight oats with berries
Lunch: hard boiled egg and pasta bake
Snack: banana
Dinner will be aubergine bake

My mum bought me my favourite M&S biscuits as I'm feeling a bit ill. Lovely gesture in theory but it's taking all my willpower not to go and eat some immediately 😩

It's the thread "Anyone interested in an 8 week challenge??"

I stopped eating dinner with my DH as like you I would snack all the way through til dinner. I now have dinner at 6pm with my DCs and don’t eat after that, I just join DH for a drink while he has dinner.

I found that low carb made me start bingeing as I felt too deprived of what I like to eat. I now do SW and it really works for me as I can eat anything I fancy as long as I log it.

Also, if I ever go off plan and have lots of snacks in the afternoon, then I’ll say to myself that is my dinner, and I’ll just have a cup of tea, soup or fruit for my dinner that night.

You're doing great!

I am very similar to you and the only thing I have found works is the 'before you put it in your mouth, stop and think' aka, mindful eating aka what Paul McKenna says.

My problem isn't what I eat, it's the volume, and that is why things like low carb don't work for me. Because on low carb I still have this subconscious feeling that I can just eat as much as I want and its OK as long as its not carbs, and then I start letting the odd 'good carb' come back in, and then before I know it I'm having all the high fat stuff plus the carbs and it's a disaster! Plus I can't get on with any diet where an apple is 'too carby'.

I am much better with the mindful eating, as it means I'm not restricted in what I eat, I can enjoy everything and in fact I enjoy it more because I am actually thinking about it, not just shovelling it in, and it just naturally cuts calories.

It's how 'naturally slim' people eat, everything but just in small amounts.

Look up Paul McKenna I Can Make You Thin, it makes total sense to me.

Have downloaded McKenna's gastric band app.

Breakfast today was one small slice of toast with two hard boiled eggs.

Lunch was aubergine bake with loads of salad. Getting my usual post-meal chocolate craving so I'm drinking a Diet Coke in the hope that will quell the craving.

I did have three of my favourite biscuits last night but I'm still counting yesterday as a win because (a) I ate loads less snacks and junk than I normally would and (b) I would normally have eaten the whole pack of biscuits, not just three of them.

Baby steps!

You could try eating in a window (i.e. 16/8 or similar). This kind of works for me; I don't eat in the mornings as I'm not hungry then anyway and I find it just makes me crave things.

Do you exercise? I find that when I’m regularly exercising my diet improves as I don’t want to undo all my hard work.

Proof that you don't need to exercise to lose weight: I recently developed a long term illness which means I've been almost totally sedentary for the last 6 weeks. 500 steps a day. I've also lost my appetite massively. I can only manage One Thing per meal eg a banana, a piece of toast, a small portion of lasagne. I've lost a stone and can get into my thin shorts. Not recommended as a healthy diet but I used to exercise loads when I was well, but also eat loads. Food intake makes more difference to weight than exercise IME. tbh I would rather be well and fat again than thin and sick but never mind.

Also don't be afraid of being hungry. It's fine to be a bit hungry for a little while. Soup is great as it's filling but low calories but try to avoid bread with it.

Low carb here but for me that’s no sugar no starch no sweeteners. Still have veggies. Full fat everything. Quite extreme for some but I have to do this because I am a binge eater. If I could eat one biscuit and stop I would but I can’t