I frankly think that if I had to eat a 1300 calorie diet for a year to lose the weight, and then a 1600 calorie diet for the rest of my life to maintain it, AND had an overwhelming compulsion to eat all day and night, I’d give in to it, too.
The fact is, some people have this compulsion from the day they’re born, and for them to understand “why” they overeat is like understanding “why” their hair is brown. Sure, they succumb when they let down their guard. Some people are able to overcome it. Some aren’t.
I never see formerly-obese people griping about fatties, because they know how much is involved in what they’ve accomplished. It’s only the people who are able to maintain their weight with some relatively small amount of deprivation and exercise who think everybody should be able to do what they’ve done. Believe me, it doesn’t come as easily to everyone. If everyone were able to overcome a compulsion the way you have, well, they probably would have by now.
All evidence points to carbs driving insulin and insulin-related growth hormone production which causes a craving for more carbs, but also causes the body to store fat and burn carbs, instead of burning the fat. It’s behind type 2 diabetes, heart disease, estrogen-dependent cancers such as breast and colon cancers, and It’s also now thought to be behind the huge increase in Alzheimer’s, which researchers have started calling type 3 diabetes. Until the 1970s and 1980s, everybody knew that to lose weight, you cut back on starches. Then came the low-fat, high carb craze, and America got obese. People are now convinced that meat needs to play a tiny role in the diet, whereas before, it was a main part of it. How many people eat eggs anymore? For awhile, we were told to limit it to 2 a week. Now they’re thinking they have no harmful effects whatsoever. How much pasta did people use to eat? Spaghetti once every few weeks. Now it’s pasta, pasta, pasta. The amount of sugars Americans eat has reached over 100 of pounds per person per year. Until we all get it back in our heads that it’s sugars and carbs, not protein and fat, that pack the weight on and keep the cravings high, things will stay on the same course.