I'm addicted to food. I need some serious help.

[OttilieStonelady]

There, I said it. I've had issues with food my whole life. Always eaten a huge amount of sugar. I have OCD which can be crippling and I use food to cope with it which makes cutting down on high sugar and high calorie food even harder. When I am suffering with severe OCD episodes I binge eat. My BMI is now 29 and I am desperate to be a healthy weight again. I feel disgusting and I can feel how slow my body is. I just don't know how to stop eating shite and start exercising more. I am a lone parent to a two year old and have a full time desk job. I need help. Can. Anyone help?

Be kind to yourself. Give your body healthy nutritious food to nurture it. If you have a binge, forgive yourself and move on. Low carb eating really helps get rid of cravings.

Might it be a binge eating problem? If so then lots of us struggle with that.

Professional help is v expensive, but there are some v low cost books and free podcasts some of us have found helpful. Eg ‘Brain Over Binge’, Christopher Fairburn (that one the NHS recommends). Think there’re some relevant threads.

I found starting exercise - I started with walking - helped me a lot, mental health wise and physically, even before I began working on the food problems. A key thing was finding regular time slots to do exercise. Being single makes it harder, of course. If you have any childcare, those times could work?

Do you get help for your OCD? If not I’d start there. If you already do maybe it’s time to go back to your GP and ask for a review because of how you feel it’s impacting you.
Maybe start with a list of small goals, today I’m going to walk during my lunch break, today I’m only going to drink water, today I’m going to try a YouTube exercise channel once kids in bed or before they get up.
Also try and get enough sleep

@Dozer

I found starting exercise - I started with walking - helped me a lot, mental health wise and physically, even before I began working on the food problems. A key thing was finding regular time slots to do exercise. Being single makes it harder, of course. If you have any childcare, those times could work?

I can easily take an hour every lunch to go to the gym. I even have a gym membership. I just can't bring myself to go. My willpower is through the floor. I guess I'm scared that I don't really know what I'm doing and don't feel it'll work.

I think getting the ocd sorted is the first step. What help have you received for this so far?

@FlorenceNightshade

Do you get help for your OCD? If not I’d start there. If you already do maybe it’s time to go back to your GP and ask for a review because of how you feel it’s impacting you. Maybe start with a list of small goals, today I’m going to walk during my lunch break, today I’m only going to drink water, today I’m going to try a YouTube exercise channel once kids in bed or before they get up. Also try and get enough sleep

I'm having CBT for PTSD as I was abused by my ex partner and that is likely to continue for a while, but they don't recommend treating PTSD and OCD at the same time so I chose to treat the one which is worse. Thankfully I have a plan in place for my OCD however would really like to make a start now.

@Bluntness100

I think getting the ocd sorted is the first step. What help have you received for this so far?

Just cross posted

I guess I'm scared that I don't really know what I'm doing and don't feel it'll work

Oh cmon now 💐 that’s an excuse. Everyone knows how to use a bike, or a climber, a rower or a treadmill. And you can ask for a intro day or pt session. And you know exercise works too.

Speak to your doctor about the ocd. I’m sorry about your abuse. 💐

I'm a snacker.

What has helped me a lot was to have a nice breakfast (the cliche, who knew?!). I have 2 fried eggs (just a lick of butter/olive oil in the frying pan and cook it on the lowest so the yolks are nice) on a slice of brown bread (used to have some spinach with it as well but I'm too busy nowadays). It feels me up and I stopped all snacking until lunch!!! It was great!

I don't desperately need to lose weight but if I did I would get little boxes ready in the fridge of healthy snacks I would like to eat: mix of nuts and fruits to add to yogurt, lovely fruit (even the pricier ones, a punnet of blueberries or a mango yum!!!). It has to be something you love and easy to reach otherwise "hello nutella my old friend"!

Btw everyone was going crazy about the Joe Wicks exercise videos. They're still on YouTube! Why not start with those 20 min routines at home? after I heal from surgery that'll be my workout

Speaking as a binge eater I think it's key to treat sugar & simple carbs like an addictive drug. I've struggled with food / bingeing / weight all of my life and it's the only thing that has worked for me (and I've tried almost everything except surgery...).Eliminate them, prepare yourself for the withdrawal symptoms, and in a short period of time you will find it makes a big difference to how you feel. When that 'sugar fog' lifts, urge to binge will go away and you will be able to think and plan much more clearly. If eliminating sugar / simple carbs forever feels too daunting, just try it for a few days and work from there.
I read three very different books recently that you might find helpful. Downsizing by Tom Watson and Why we eat (too much) by Andrew Jenkinson and Ditching Diets by Gillian Riley.
I know what it feels like to be in the grip of all consuming urges to eat everything in sight. Wishing you lots of luck with it

@Bluntness100

I guess I'm scared that I don't really know what I'm doing and don't feel it'll work

Oh cmon now 💐 that’s an excuse. Everyone knows how to use a bike, or a climber, a rower or a treadmill. And you can ask for a intro day or pt session. And you know exercise works too.

Definitely an excuse + anxiety. You're right.

I have to agree, low carb worked for me. If I’m eating complex carbs and sugar I can eat everything in sight and not feel full. A whole pack of biscuits, huge bar of chocolate whatever, and I want more. I’m not a binger, but I could eat a large quantity of something snd it would not make me feel full or not for long. And if it’s in th house it plays on my mind till I eat it.

However when I’m low carbing, which is nearly all the time for the last decade, I’ve just fallen off the wagon three or four times in the last decade or so, after about two weeks all cravings go, it can be in the house and I’ve no desire to eat it, I don’t even think about it, and my appetite decreases, so I eat till I’m full and stop. When I’m eating lots of carbs and sugar that doesn’t happen. I can keep going.

I also have a lot more energy on low carb, when eating sugar and lots of carbs I’m sluggish. When I’m low carb and burning fat I’ve much more energy,

I’d recommend it, try it for two weeks, have a look at the low carb boot camp threads.

Clearly the ocd is something to address and you may have an eating disorder, which also needs to be addressed, but in the meantime give this a go if it appeals.

That’s brilliant you have potential exercise slots!

By ‘work’ do you mean weight loss or a ‘full’ fitness regime?

If so then suggest, for now, just trying the exercise out as an activity, for your health and (if possible!) fun, and to see how you feel afterwards, physically and mentally. You could listen to some good music, podcast or audio book.

I regard my exercise primarily as a mental health ‘treatment’! With bonus physical health benefits.

Weight loss is mainly down to food, but it sounds like your MH is a higher priority right now.

Sugar is addictive, as is processed food. I recommend the sweet poison quit plan by David Gillespie, the No S Diet by Reinhard Engels (book or free website here: nosdiet.com) and Drs Chis and Xand’s recent podcast, A thorough examination, addicted to food here: pod.link/chrisxand

Exercise wise - 5 min strength training each morning linked to something you always do like boil the kettle (as advised by Rangan Chattergee - any of his books are good) and find your local parkrun and turn up to walk it or even volunteer or spectate next week and you will get sucked in.

Having said all this It is only the parkrun and the strength training that I am managing to stick to just now. I have had great success in the past with no S and quitting sugar and feel so much better when I do it. The podcast is new and I know they are talking sense but somehow I am finding it hard to get started again.

I also recently read How to Change by Katy Milkman. Really useful research based insights but the thing that struck me is that you have to keep applying the strategies long term or you will regress. There is no magic wand that will change someone forever without planning. I didn’t say effort as the planning should make it feel effortless and the no S diet is the only one I have found that getting more effortless over time.

I downloaded an app called Wow it has a few different meditation things on, one is a sugar stop challenge, I've found it helpful, I listen when I'm in the bath. I've lost 8lb this month, I don't know if it's the app or not but it's worth trying :)

Having gym membership means you can just go and walk on the treadmill for 30 mins. Watch other people, get a feel for the place.

Once I have burned calories (Zumba today) I feel less like eating loads of crap. I have a high protein meal afterwards and feel really good.

Once you get your confidence you could look at classes or weight training to change your body shape.

I could have written your post, I have the same feelings of addiction when it comes to food.
I feel like I’ve tried everything over the years. I reached out to my GP a few years ago - I felt so embarrassed by it, but admitting I needed help felt like a big hurdle I’d overcome.
However, months down the line I’m still waiting for the weight loss team to get in touch, so in the meantime I’ve started Ozempic. I’m hoping it will help me get back in touch with what the feeling of being “full” is like.
I know it’s not for everyone, but for me it felt worth trying.

@OttilieStonelady I think you need to look for ED advice rather than advice to lose weight. Many of suggested solutions may not work if you do have an eating disorder.
It's not about eating less and moving more in that case.

Beat is a good place to start. www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk

Best of luck with everything @OttilieStonelady - you’ve got some good suggestions here on exercise. Also please be nice to yourself - I know everyone has different weight expectations and feels different at certain weights, but a BMI of 29 isn’t that horrendous. If you can get it down a bit, brilliant, but it’s absolutely nothing to feel bad about or beat yourself up over. I hope you can start to concentrate on your overall health and good luck!

Another low carb fan here, although a recent convert. I did the Fast800 (feel free to search my name for the thread I did with my food) and the cravings that triggered me to binge have gone. It’s been over 30 days since my last binge episode. Before that, I lost 3st last year by doing low cal but I found it impossible to keep the binges at bay and was fast regaining it. I have now re-educated myself. Calories are not equal. Yes, as a measure of energy they are but if you are faced with overwhelming hunger and desire to binge, you won’t be able to keep it off long-term which is why nearly nobody does. If you Google the names of the many success stories on WW, slimming world etc, and look at their social media accounts, nearly all will have regained the weight. Those people that eat whatever they like are fortunate enough not to be plagued by the sort of cravings that many others (and most overweight or obese people) get. It’s a losing battle and it’s not because overweight people are greedy or lazy. With low carb and no sugar, the temptation is gone. I can think about high carb food without it making me crave it. If I feel really hungry, my ‘treat’ is salami or cheese (I avoid too much processed meat normally but as a one off it’s fine) rather than an order of pizza, ice cream, coke, bags of sweets and toast that totals over 4000 calories. I think I will need to avoid refined carbs forever. For me, everything in moderation just doesn’t work and never will.

Hi I think you are taking a great first step posting in here. The above pp advice is all good. I would just add you mention willpower and willingness to go to the gym. Don't rely on willpower what you need is to make a habit apparently a habit forms after 21 days. Just for a week try taking a lunchtime walk everyday even in the rain if you feel better afterwards remember that feeling and use it to power you through the walk the next day if you are not feeling like it. Good luck 😉

I also second walking. It doesn’t give you a ravenous appetite either which going to the gym can. Get a fitbit so that you can see how many steps you have logged. Any time you can, go for a walk. It doesn’t feel as daunting as doing a full gym workout. If you’re struggling to go now, chances are you won’t stick to it.