How do I quit overeating?

[Kura Ookami]

I'm overweight at the moment and i would love to lose weight.

Here's the problem. I feel like I'm addicted to food however and I get cravings and I eat to relieve those cravings, much like a smoker gets a feeling of satisfaction when he relieves his cravings. So eating can be as addictive as smoking.
There are certain similarities between smoking and overeating. I feel empty and insecure when i don't feed my cravings for food just as a smoker feels the same way without nicotine and when i satisfy that craving I get the same feeling of pleasure a smoker gets when he satisfies his craving for nicotine.
Unfortunately that's where the similarities end. I've read Allan Carr's easyway to stop smoking and applying his method to overeating would be suicide because with smoking you're craving a poison which will kill you if you continue. With overeating you're craving food, which is essential for life. Eating satisfies your hunger, while smoking actually causes your cravings for nicotine.
So that's my problem. I'm addicted to food and I don't know how to end this addiction.

[Zukin]

Here's an article about the basis behind food addiction:
Addicted to food? How to break your habit - Health - MSNBC.com

and here's a book about food addiction:
Amazon.com: Food Addiction: The Body Knows: Revised & Expanded Edition: Books: Kay Sheppard

One of the best ways to lose weight is to eat a lot of non-calorie dense foods like apples and vegetables, since the body will feel full and spend time digesting those foods while you end up eating less calories overall. You can also try grazing:
Small Meals: Grazing and Weight Loss

[Addict]

My fiancee has struggled with binging and overeating. It seems like it's gotten better though since she joined Weight Watchers. I'm not going to recommend that particular plan for any reason other than it makes you count everything. You start looking at food differently and you are forced to buy lots of fruits and veggies to maintain your point. And I have to agree 100% with this:

One of the best ways to lose weight is to eat a lot of non-calorie dense foods like apples and vegetables, since the body will feel full and spend time digesting those foods while you end up eating less calories overall.

[lizthefair]

This might seem silly, but if part of it is that you have something of an addictive personality, you might be able to change the focus of your addiction in such a way as to help you rather than hurt you. There is danger in this as all addictions can be dangerous when they get out of control, but the reason WW worked for me is that it gave me something new to obsess over...........

[Honeywith4bees]

Some things that I do when I am craving food that I know will not provide my body with the nourishment it needs:

1.) Do some form of exercise instead and/or
2.) Drink some water and/or
3.) Call someone and/or
4.) Read something about the subject that will get me thinking about the posative aspects of making better food choices.

There is a woman author, Geneen Roth, that has written some books about emotional eating that I have found to be very helpful.

Good luck!!

[cdn2wheeler]

Originally Posted by Kura Ookami

I feel like I'm addicted to food however and I get cravings and I eat to relieve those cravings, much like a smoker gets a feeling of satisfaction when he relieves his cravings. So eating can be as addictive as smoking... So that's my problem. I'm addicted to food and I don't know how to end this addiction.

While there's some truth to what you say about the parallel between addictions of smokes & food, it's been scientifically proven that nicotine is just as addictive, or maybe even moreso, than heroin.

Thing is that there's nothing in the body that requires nicotine (or heroin) but of course a body needs food to operate.

There is, alas, only one way to rid yourself of an addiction, no matter what that addiction is:

Stop doing it.

Some smokers use a patch, but that just substitutes one addiction for another. Sex addicts resort to frequent masturbation, but again, it just substitutes addictions.

But if you're really serious about this, then you already have all the motivation you need.

So stop overeating. Just plain stop it.

"But I can't! I'm addicted!"

Yes you're addicted. But you can.

"It's hard."

Yes, it's hard. Do it anyway.

"But it makes me feel so good."

Lots of things make you feel good, but you don't do those to excess either. So don't eat to excess.

"You make it sound so easy, but I'm different. It's really, REALLY hard for me."

I make it sound simple, because it is as simple as making a decision and sticking to it. But no, you're no different physiologically than anyone else. It's no harder for you than it is for anybody else.

"What if I fail?"

Then you start again.

"I just feel so lousy if I give in to a craving."

Good. You're supposed to feel crappy when your addiction overpowers everything else.

"I don't think I'm strong enough to do this."

Yes. You are. Really.

So do it.

(For the record, I quit smoking a couple of weeks ago. Do I get cravings? Oh, ♥♥♥♥♥ yea. Do I give in to them? No. I refuse - just flatly refuse - to allow an addiction to short-circuit my willpower.)

[artic123]

I read your message and can sympathize with you. You are ahead of the game in realizing that food is an addiction for you. I know you are relating food to smoking, but it is really food and alcohol that have a lot in common.

Here is my suggestion for you:

1) Locate an Overeaters Anonymous meeting and get yourself a sponsor.

2) Make sure there are not any medical problems, such as thyroid, hormones, etc.

3) Read all you can on nutrition and exercise so you are informed. Download some motivational tapes. It doesn't necessarily have to be about weight loss.

4) Remember it is not necessary to react to everything. You do not need take your problems out on yourself.

Don't:

1) Beat yourself up.

2) Diet--just maintain yourself for now until you can arrange support. (It works if you work it.)

3) Stop hating yourself. This isn't your fault.

I beg you to be gentle with yourself. Consider journal writing on this journey. I journal whenever I face a crisis. Sometimes I just plain amaze myself when I read it at a later time.

I wish you all the love you deserve on this quest.

Sharon

[mariposa]

I too struggle with this problem which I believe is mostly emotional. I found a very good book called The Pathway by Laurel Mellin which talks about two skills that you need to develop in order to deal with addictive behavior of all kinds: Self nurturing and realistic limits. In her book and in another, the three day solution, she outlines how you do this, but basically it involves checking in with yourself and asking yourself how you are feeling. Its amazing what being conscious does in terms of interrupting the feeling of being out of control. In any case this is one resource I found very helpful.

[uberinquisitive]

I also struggle with food addiction.

For me, what helps is to find the emotional source of my over eating and use EFT. I then give myself realistic boundaries: I eat what I want, but cut the portions about 40%. While I eat, I think to myself, "this is a lot of food...I'm gonna be so full from this." It works unusually well.

The week or so before my period, I get physically ravenous, so I let myself eat what I want. The way I see it, even if I eat sensibly 2 weeks out of a month, that's still 50% better than before. And even the weeks I eat sensibly, if I have an off day, I don't freak out.

This seems to be working ok for now.

[Kura Ookami]

Originally Posted by cdn2wheeler

While there's some truth to what you say about the parallel between addictions of smokes & food, it's been scientifically proven that nicotine is just as addictive, or maybe even moreso, than heroin.

Thing is that there's nothing in the body that requires nicotine (or heroin) but of course a body needs food to operate.

There is, alas, only one way to rid yourself of an addiction, no matter what that addiction is:

Stop doing it.

Some smokers use a patch, but that just substitutes one addiction for another. Sex addicts resort to frequent masturbation, but again, it just substitutes addictions.

But if you're really serious about this, then you already have all the motivation you need.

So stop overeating. Just plain stop it.

There's one question you didn't mention:
How do i know when I'm eating too much?

I think you forgot the question because it nobody in their right mind would ask the question: "How do i know when I'm smoking too much?" because it's obvious. You're smoking too much when you smoke at all. A single puff of a single cigarette is smoking in excess.
The simplest way to get rid of an addiction is to stop doing it, so how about I stop eating and die of starvation? That sounds like a great idea doesn't it? No thanks.
Define what is "to excess." when it comes to eating. That might help a little bit here.


I might try WW, but what happens when you're the weight you want to be and so you get off the diet?

[Amadeus]

Try taking gluten (wheat, barley, oats, rye) completely out of your diet. Remember it is hidden in a lot of things.
Also remove dairy out of your diet (milk, milk chocolate, creams, pastries, cheese, yogurt, etc).
Do this for a week and see if your addiction to food goes to a dramatic stop making you feel like you never had an addiction in the first place.

Some people can't tolerate these foods. It messes with their brains big time. You can go on a healthy diet, but if you suddenly eat pasta and bread your body will start to crave the unhealthy crap all over again. Take it out.

[cdn2wheeler]

Originally Posted by Kura Ookami

How do i know when I'm eating too much?

Excellent question. It's different for different people because of metabolic rates, level of physical activity, mental & emotional stresses and whatnot.

But it's hard to go wrong with simply moderate portions of a variety of foods on a regular-sized plate, no more than twice per day. Colourful foods, too; yellow beans, red peppers, green broccoli, golden potatoes, scarlet tomatoes, brown rices & whole grains. Meats are important too, as a portion of the meal.

Enjoying food is a sensual experience. The kitchen, like the bedroom, is to be a place of joy & peace, of sensual comforts & enlightening pleasures.

And, like other sensual pleasures, overdoing it removes the very reason one does it in the first place. The pleasure diminishes, even vanishes entirly. A sex addict takes little pleasure in f*cking, a drug addict only continues the flow of poison into his/her body to delay the crash and withdrawal. The alcoholic keeps drinking to avoid the hangover/DTs. There's no pleasure in that.

So keep the enjoyment of food as a pleasurable activity. You can do that by keeping your intake to a moderate level.

[Rose of Cairo]

Amadeus: Yes I have that with gluten, dairy and sugar too. No matter how healthy I eat and think, if I eat those, I just cannot stop anymore. (and get a lot of skin or digestion problems)

Kura Ookami: Some people are also forced to eat very often because of their unstable blood sugar level. Avoid fast carbohydrates like sugar, white bread, cake, pasta, white rice, pizza and so on, dairy too (lactose), maybe your body isn't able to deal with them (like mine...) Eat a lot of vegetables, and take Chromium. Chromium helped me a lot to regulate my blood sugar.

If all that doesn't help, you should look at emotional issues about eating or about being overweight. They can lead to an addictive eating behaviour too.

I have been there too, I know how difficult this is. But I found a way out, and so will you

I understand how you feel when you don't know if you're eating too much. I had reached a point where I didn't know that either. I was almost never hungry because I ate all the time, and I really could not feel any limit where it would have been "enough". That was because of that sugar/refined carbohydrates/dairy crap. Maybe your body, like mine, is sensitive to it. Stop it completely for one month and look if you feel better. (I began to feel better after one week)

You don't have to feel bad or weak. It's really a drug. Some people don't react sensitive, others do... but sugar addiction is a serious topic. Cut it out for a while, you'll see.

btw, Allen Carr wrote a great book about weight loss too... He doesn't recommend to completely stop eating

cdn2wheeler: if she has a problem with sugar addiction, or if she has some emotional reasons why she eats, telling her to eat "simply moderate portions" is like telling an hard core alcoholic to drink a glass of red wine a day....

[DrMartinRussell]

Originally Posted by Kura Ookami

I feel like I'm addicted to food...

Serious question Kura Ookami.

Can I ask which food / food types you are 'addicted' to? Which one specifically is the most 'craving' inducing? Because I bet it ain't mung beans.

[Jim11]

I suffer from food addiction but am in very good shape, and it's because I recognize where the problem comes from (for me specifically) and how to deal with it.

I have absolutely no addictive snacking foods in my house. Not even a box of vegetable crackers or "light chips" or "light popcorn" or anything. Because I will just eat the whole thing when I'm hungry. I have to just not have them around... and it works fine. I still enjoy snack foods at family gatherings, other outings, etc.

I also always have healthy snacking foods around. When I'm hungry as a rule I will force myself to drink a big glass of water and snack on something healthy and light (such as carrots, cucumber - things you can eat for 10 minutes and rack up hardly any calories) before I make something else.

Once you condition your environment to alter your eating habits they will become the norm for you after a bit.

I don't have the food addictions anymore, but I still don't bother having quick fix snack foods around... just out of habit. don't need them

In summary:
I bet you can't eat just one, you are a product of your environment, and you need to ATTACK the habits in multiple ways.

Jim

[bdp]

What foods are you addicted to? Let me guess--it's not vegetables, fruit, beans, whole grains, raw nuts, and water.

I "overeat" all the time, but I've lost 50 lbs this year. It's because I overeat on healthy food. In my house there is no cheese, oil, butter, margarine, salt, meat, sugar, white flour, or dairy. The most calorie dense thing I can eat is a banana with unsalted natural peanut butter and raisins on it.

Salt is addictive. Fat is addictive. Sugar is addictive. Cut those out and watch your addictions disappear. It might take a week or a month, but your taste buds will adapt.

This video lecture is an excellent introduction to the concept: http://vsh.voip-info.org/lisle.html

And the following books explain it in great detail:

Breaking the Food Seduction
The Pleasure Trap

[NotesMaeve]

Actually try eating based on hunger. My weight fluctuates between 105-110. Sometimes you'll be freaking starved. Yesterday, after a bike ride with my fiance, I was just famished. I would guess I ate maybe 2500 calories? Maybe more. Yes, it'll make my weight spike up to 110 temporarily. This morning, I feel really good, but not hungry.

So I'm choosing not to eat because my body is giving me the signs: Yo, you've had enough. BUT if I were hungry, I'd give myself whatever I wanted. Denial is ridiculous. A lot of people have advised avoiding white sugar/meat/white flour, and they're right, but you have so many options! Find new, healthy foods you love. Do things you love. Live your life and just be free and happy!

[cdn2wheeler]

Originally Posted by Rose of Cairo

cdn2wheeler: if she has a problem with sugar addiction, or if she has some emotional reasons why she eats, telling her to eat "simply moderate portions" is like telling an hard core alcoholic to drink a glass of red wine a day....

I understand exactly what you're saying here, Rose, and I don't disagree. I'm no Dr Phil - for one thing, I have more hair than he does - so I'm not in a position to diagnose an actual medically-defined addiction or psychological reason for her continual overeating.

But there's a world of difference between, say, an addiction to cigarettes or booze and an addiction to food.

One can live without cigarettes or booze, so one can eliminate them from one's world. One cannot live without food (not for long, anyway).

My point was - and is - that it's entirely up to the addicted person to manage the issue him/herself, whether it's food or drugs or alcohol or sex. You and I and everyone else on the planet can be supportive and provide proven techniques and processes which can help break the cycle, but in the final analysis it's up to the addict to make the decision to either give in to the addiction or to make the smarter choice.

[NotesMaeve]

^ But you can live without types of food. No one needs Puffy Cheetos.

[cdn2wheeler]

Originally Posted by NotesMaeve

^ But you can live without types of food. No one needs Puffy Cheetos.

WHAT??? I thought that's what God ate on Her day off..! Those and orange pop... (no wonder She was a bit cranky at times...)

[NotesMaeve]

Well, when I PMS, it's WISE to bring Cheetos of the puffy variety.

If you value your life an' stuff.

[Zukin]

I like Pirate's Booty as a nice puffy snack:
All our products: Robert's American Gourmet

Off-topic pirate joke:
Q: What was the pirate movie rated?
A: Arrrrrrrr!
Q: Why was it rated R?
A: Because of all the booty!

Back to the topic at hand - here's a list of diets on Wikipedia, surely one will fit your lifestyle:
List of diets - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

However, it's best to get into the pattern of eating healthy for life in order to maximize your continuous well-being and results, which is why one book is called Eating for Life.

And bdp is right. As you cut out sugar and refined foods from your diet, the cravings become easier to control.

[DrMartinRussell]

Originally Posted by bdp

I "overeat" all the time, but I've lost 50 lbs this year. It's because I overeat on healthy food. In my house there is no cheese, oil, butter, margarine, salt, meat, sugar, white flour, or dairy. The most calorie dense thing I can eat is a banana with unsalted natural peanut butter and raisins on it.

I assume you still have a way to go to healthy weight. Here's why I guess this...

I met a woman who was severely obese and lost 2/5ths of her body weight by going on a vegetable-salad-and-tuna-only diet for 3 years! For the next two years on the same diet she was stable at the level between overweight and obese, unable to go lower. Turns out she was overeating carrots to counteract her cravings for other foods.

IMO regularly overeating will not allow you to be thin, no matter what the food.

Side Note: SuperSize me was not a lesson in the unhealthiness of fast food/McDonalds. It was a lesson in the unhealthiness of massively overeating on stuff you don't like (he liked it at the beginning, but not as he went on. Surprise, surprise.)

[Amadeus]

Why do you say you are overeating? Plenty of the right food is good for you. The Abs diet and the Zone diet recommend eating 6 times a day. When we eat several small meals a day we are communicating to our bodies that there is not a shortage of food and that it is ok to release or not to store fat.
Fat people actually don't eat a lot when you look at the quantity per day. They usually eat large meals one or two times a day and they usually skip breakfast. I speak from experience on this. When I eat several times a day I can feel my metabolism working and I sweat a lot more.

[Kura Ookami]

What am i addicted to? That's easy. Chocolate.High in calories and easy to eat a lot. I'm going to try cutting chocolate out of my diet and see how that works. Maybe replace it with fruit. What's the difference between fructose and glucose?

[DrMartinRussell]

Originally Posted by Kura Ookami

What am i addicted to? That's easy. Chocolate.High in calories and easy to eat a lot.

Thanks for that clarification.

You are NOT addicted to food. You may or may not be 'addicted' to chocolate.

There are some good techniques out there for sorting out such chocoholic behaviors. I recommend NLP or EFT personally, but everyone probably has their favorite.

But if you don't want to 'therapize' it then here is a self-help way to resolve it.

Get your absolute favorite type of chocolate (you know which one that is), and have it for your dinner meal. Don't allow yourself to have anything else that you might normally have for dinner, until you have truly had all the chocolate YOU want (not the amount you feel you SHOULD allow yourself to have.)

The more natural variation of this is people who work in chocolate factorys and shops where there are allowed to eat any of the merchandise. It actually reduces consumption and theft. It's a bit much hassle to change jobs, so the dinner meal is more practical.

Originally Posted by Kura Ookami

I'm going to try cutting chocolate out of my diet and see how that works. Maybe replace it with fruit. What's the difference between fructose and glucose?

Hmm. Check with your eyes, ears, mouth, taste buds, stomach and body. They might know.

[cdn2wheeler]

Journalist and all-around smart person Carol Off recently did a vast amount of research on the chocolate industry, and a book arose out of her studies called Bitter Chocolate: Investigating the Dark Side of the World's Most Seductive Sweet.

Get the book. Beg, borrow or steal it.

I promise you, you will never look at another chocolate treat in exactly the same way again.

(more here)

[Amandaaa]

you just have to train yourself...
learn to recognize patterns in your behavior, and then create a plan to change it.

overeating/binge eating is usually an emotional thing. you may be using food to numb a certain emotion.. or to de-stress yourself.. or to cure boredom.... or it may simply be a habit that's become a part of your daily routine.

..whatever it is, you need to start reading up on how to break addictions..

if i were you, i would start keeping a food journal (or just a regular journal) and start writing out your thoughts every night.
you may start to detect a pattern after a while...and then you can decide how you want to replace those old habits with new habits.

Define what is "to excess." when it comes to eating. That might help a little bit here.

^i would start by focusing on the quality of your diet-- not the quantity.


just try to pinpoint the foods that are clearly "binge" foods. (usually salty, sugary, processed, refined carbs.. packaged "snack" foods...etc)
figure out when and why you're eating them, and then work on weaning yourself off of them.



(are you overeating at meals too, though..?

what is a typical lunch/dinner like for you...?)