Thanks for all the good stories. I gained on vacation and I’m still trying to get it off. Unfortunantly, work’s been a big mess since I got back and I’m “eating my stress”. I need suggestions on how to reward myself with things that aren’t food, or worse, empty calories.
I have to wear a belt!! Woohoo!!
Any thoughts on intermittent fasting? Keeping my meals within a 4-6 hr window with 18-20 hrs of “fasting” seems like… maybe a good idea? Right now I’m keeping all my meals between 10am and 4pm and I get a wave of hunger around 8-9pm but it passes and I’m never really ravenous. I also don’t snack.
knocks on thread door
stands in doorway, cap in hand
Can I come back in, please?
Intermittent fasting is basically a hormetic stressor. It can be useful for some people, but only in some situations. If you’re sick, metabolically broken, fat, overtrained, etc. it’s probably not a good idea to deliberately fast on a regular basis.
If you’re getting enough sleep, training intelligently, you have your diet dialed in, you’re already at an appropriate level of body fat, you’re not under regular calorie restriction, then it can be a useful stimulus. Otherwise, probably not really a good idea.
I read this thread from time to time but haven’t posted until now. Now even sure if my post is within the guidelines - a thousand apologies if it isn’t.
Anyone here used CBT and/or hypnotherapy for eating/diet related issues? I’ve been dieting on and off for decades with occasional excellent short-term success but woeful long-term results. I’m completely over it. I don’t want to be fat again but I can feel my resolve slipping, as it always does.
Aaron Beck’s daughter* wrote a book using cognitive therapy for weight loss. It’s called ‘‘The Beck Diet Solution.’’ She’s had very good results in clinical trials. Like most dietary techniques, it works great as long as you keep doing it. (This was one of my failed attempts at weight loss.)
*Aaron Beck is widely regarded as the father of cognitive therapy, and his daughter has become an excellent researcher in her own right
Well, I am still doing daily workouts and I have started losing weight like crazy. I have lost like 3 pounds this week alone and am now down to 166, so roughly 10 pounds in 3 weeks. I swear I am not starving myself - I eat between 1600-1700 calories on an average day. The only major change I made was to buy a pedometer and start doing 10,000 steps a day.
I’ve been on a nutrition science kick lately, I read The China Study and I am now reading Good Calories, Bad Calories, which is pretty much the antithesis of the China Study. I’m looking for common ground, and so far the only thing they seem to have in common is a hatred for the politics of nutrition science.
I am trying to transition to a plant-based diet because it seems better for my mood. But frankly, so far it sucks.
Thank you. I have that book on my Amazon Wish List but since I’ve bought every dieting and every anti-dieting book ever published (a slight exaggeration, I’m sure) I was reluctant to fork out money for yet another.
I have an appointment to see a psychologist on Monday and now I’m panicking. Apparently her practice “doesn’t do diets”, they follow a “if not dieting, then what?” approach and my head knows that diets don’t work or I’d be negative at least 100kg by now but giving up on diets isn’t something I’m comfortable with either. I am currently within 6kg of my readjusted goal weight and I fear that if I give up diets, I’ll pack the weight on. Again.
That said, I’m fed up (ha!) with obsessing about food, eating, not eating, dieting and all the other baggage that goes with it, so I’m prepared to give it a go. Who knows? She may tell me that I don’t have an eating disorder at all, I’m just a glutton. 
I think I’ve finally found the solution that “clicks” for me. Six weeks ago I was diagnosed with PCOS, which comes packaged with insulin resistance. I definitely had IR because I’ve had reactive hypoglycemia since I was a teenager.
Just low carbing it was too hard. Calorie restriction was too hard. Going back to WW’s old Core program was too hard. I was feeling pretty hopeless. So I googled “insulin resistance diet” and voila… there it was. The Insulin Resistance Diet.
I’m down two pounds in ten days! It’s been completely painless, too. No hypoglycemia, no cravings, no uncomfortable hunger, and I don’t have to disrupt my family’s diet to stick with it. It’s pretty magical. If you think you’re insulin resistant and can’t find a weight loss regimen that is bearable, I really recommend giving this one a shot. I couldn’t be more pleased.
Hello??? Is anybody home?? Is anybody still losing weight?
I started My Fitness Pal on 8/29 and as of Saturday, I’ve lost 26 pounds. The good news is that I’m losing weight and really don’t feel hungry. The bad news is that I’m still less than 1/3 of my way to my goal of 85 pounds of weight loss. I’m also working on breaking the bad habit (so say the “experts”) of weighing every day. I can’t help it but I find it fascinating. Often, I’ll weigh at night and then again first thing in the morning just to see how much I’ve lost overnight. My wife thinks I’m obsessed. I just think it’s interesting.
Now my plan is to only weigh on Saturday mornings. I find that if I eat as soon as I wake up, I won’t mind not weighing because there’s no way I’m going to weigh having just added mass to my system.
My wife might be right.
I’ve also started walking about 3 miles a day. I’ve got to do something because I suspect that this desk job is slowly killing me.
1.5kg to go. Gawd I hope I can keep it off this time.
Well I’m certainly not still losing weight. I was pregnant, then I miscarried, then I tried Metformin, then I was taken off Metformin, and ever since then I’ve had carryover nausea from the Metformin plus a wicked lingering head and chest cold. My weight is in the same place it was before all this started but damned if I can lose under those conditions.
Starting yesterday I am finally not nauseous/queasy/faint for the first time in a month though. I am out to take the first of my two daily walks, in the rain, soon.
I am back on track with my eating (10 days in of averaging under 1400 calories) but I have no scale. I am going to start back at the gym in two weeks, then we’ll see if any progress has been made…
Hey all. I’m in need of both help and moral support -badly-.
Two years ago, I decided enough was enough- I was almost 500 pounds. I started counting calories every day, and exercising 2-3 times a week. I lost almost 100 pounds in a year.
In the past year, I’ve gained 50 of it back. Part of it was just me being lax about my calorie count, assuming I’d just ‘get back to it’ when I needed to. Well, about four months ago, I decided I needed to, and… I can’t.
I’m binge-eating like crazy. Now, I’ll caveat by saying I have a -lot- of stress in my life right now (my dad just ended his almost four year battle with ALS. His funeral was this week. I had the ‘where is this relationship going’ talk with someone I’ve been attached to, and … We’re not that attached anymore. Holidays always suck for me. Etc.) but I don’t need an excuse. I need a way to stop the goddam binge eating. I can’t seem to discipline myself to do it. At all.
I know how much I’m -supposed- to eat, but evening comes, or I’m driving somewhere, or what-have-you, and suddenly I’ve got a bag of chips, or ice cream, or fast food, and any discipline that day falls apart.
I don’t know what to do or how to stop this. I’ve tried OA, I’ve tried reading about it online, I’ve talked to my regular therapist (he’s hesitant to try to help, as it’s really not his field). I need help. Anyone here able to give me some?
Thanks in advance.
I have a couple questions for you:
-
How often do you pig out? (“binge” is such an ugly word.) A couple times a week? Every day?
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What is your definition of a binge? Does consuming any junk food count? Or more than a certain amount? Or does it simply mean going over your calorie allotment for the day?
- Perhaps four times a week.
- It’s mainly about volume, although it’s partially about food choices. A binge for me usually means a whole family-sized bag of potato chips, or chocolate / ice cream (the sweets I’d almost completely cut out of my diet two years ago). It’s ‘reward’ or comfort food, and quite a bit of it at once- generally until there isn’t any more in my kitchen.
Well anyway, I think you are asking for help in the wrong place. You have a really severe eating problem, probably far worse than your typical poster on a random message board who wants to lose 30 or 40 pounds for a reunion or whatever.
But since you are here, I will give you my free advice which is based on more than a year’s worth of informal online research into diet, weight loss, and exercise.
The first step is you need to see if you have the minimal willpower necessary to maintain a diet. Which you probably do since you successfully lost a good deal of weight in the past. You need to see if you can go for 48 hours without binging. To do this, you will need to (1) have a reasonably clear definition of “binge”; and (2) pick a 48-hour period starting in a day or two. It’s important that the period start in a day or two so that you can mentally prepare.
So just mark down in your calendar the starting and stopping times of your willpower test. Also write down your definition of “binge” so that you won’t forget. Probably the definition should forbid even small amounts of junk food like potato chips and ice cream. Also, it’s important that you write down the starting and stopping times in advance in your calendar so that you don’t forget.
Once the 48-hour period begins, you will almost certainly have the urge to eat unhealthily. When that happens, you need to remind yourself that (1) you are perfectly free to eat whatever you want which doesn’t fall within the definition of “binge”; and more importantly (2) you will be free to pig out once the 48 hours are over. Your aim is to follow the rule, nothing more and nothing less. Which might mean that at hour 47, minute 50, you are sitting at the table, staring at a big bag of potato chips, glancing at your watch every 10 seconds. That’s perfectly fine.
If you are able to make it through the 48 hours, then in my non-professional opinion, you have more than enough willpower to end the binging forever. Just post back here and I will explain how (in my non-professional opinion), you can do so.
All right. I’ll give it a shot. 48 hours starts Sunday at midnight. We’ll see if I can do this.
I was this close to goal. And then the bread binge kicked in. 
Made my 48 hours, and it wasn’t at all easy, but I did it. What do you think, brazil84?