Compulsive eating, binge eating, etc.

Hey! Just seeing if anyone is interested in talking about personal struggles with compulsive eating or binge eating. I have struggled with eating problems (actually anorexic in high school as a result of domestic struggles). I have basically been up and down with my eating patterns... I used to weigh 120 in 10-11th grade (I am 5'8'')...Then I went to college... finally started eating more foods and gained enough to be at a healthy weight. There was a time in the winter of my sophomore year in college that I got all the way up to 162!!! I never dreamed I would ever weight that much.. Then I kind of got back down to approximately 140-145 ish. Two years later and I am sitting at about 150. My ultimate goal is to weigh 135-140. I have tried SOO many things to lose weight..from 1000 calorie mode, reading books on emotional eating etc, to food logs, pre packing my food, food diary, low fat, sugar free foods etc. I've tried it all, but the one thing I cannot do is to control my eating... well thats just it! It's just that easy haha. Don't eat extra and you won't gain, eat even less and you will loose! Seems so easy and yet my friends, fiance, and family think it is so easy to lose weight. ARGH! haha this sucks.

anyways back to my little story... I did great on calorie count at 1200 calories my first week, lost two pounds and it went great... but as everyone else always says, I fell off the wagon. I just can't seem to control what I put into my mouth. I either do really good and log every single bite I eat, and the next day I decide I'd rather take a bite of EVERYTHING in my cubbard (including a few scoops of my light ice cream). ANYWAYS definitely am dragging this out..but want to see if anyone else experiences the same situation with compulsive eating. I eat when I'm bored, happy, sad, stressed, anxious, or anything.. Maybe I should try some duct tape? No just kidding, but hopefully someone may be able to relate to me and my struggles.

I work out for an hour and a half every day (running, biking, eliptical, and upper and lower body: lifting weights.) I do 45 mins of cardio each day and spend the rest of my time doing weights and ab work. I am a pro at working out but I sure cannot control my eating.  All of my foods are low fat low cal, light, sugar free, ya know all that stuff. The worst time I have is when I am at work, when I have access to absolutely any food that I want.. sucks and it is hard to resist. Anyways, I would GREATLY appreciate any feed back or anyone who is interested in talking about this topic. Thanks for your time!! Elli

Hi Elli! Welcome to CC:) I can relate. I have struggled with this very same thing. Check out this thread. You will find a lot of support here.:)

http://www.calorie-count.com/forums/post/1438 2.html

I hear you.  I have been doing so great and am really happy with my progress.  And yet sometimes, I just can't stop myself.  Check out my journal for the disgusting night I had tonight . . . I hopped on here to make myself stop.  It's worked, but why couldn't I have done it sooner? I'm figuring out my triggers . . . it's being home alone, mostly.  M husband has had a work thing going on and I've b=pretty much been on my own with my 3yo daughter for two weeks.  It's getting to be too much.  tonight, I didn't feel like cooking, or cleaning . . . I wanted to order in out of sheer laziness and a craving.  I ordered terrible food, ate too much of it, and then couldn't stop.  I was JUST talking about this in my journal two days ago . . . I ordered in then, too, and ate a bit too much, but didn't get out of control.  If I could do it then, why couldn't I do it tonight??

I don't know.  I'm rambling.  You caught me with a big trigger subject at a really sensitive time, obviously!  Sorry I can't be more helpful.  I'm hating myself too much right now to step back and talk about ways to control this.  I'd love to talk more about it . . . I'll add you to my friends, and maybe we can help each other get back on the wagon. 

I and my protesting stomach are going to go to bed now . . . I'll try to catch up with you with a more positive attitude soon.

I do the same thing. everything I buy is low fat, sugar free, etc... but I pick at it all day. without counting the calories because I never take definitive amounts that I deam "countable" Thr funniest thing is that tonight I have to write a paper so I knew I will be picking a lot and I literallly thought about ducktaping my cabinet shut. Everyone I know says to preportion things. devide the cereal into baggies with single serving sizes in them. It's a lot harder to eat it when you're keeping track of how much your taking in. Don't ever eat without putting your food on a dish. then you see what you're eating. and you'll start to feel rediculous putting one cracker on a plate. However you probably won't want to eat a whole plate of 20 crackers either cause youll know how many calories that is. I should really be talking my own advice. I don't know! I'm no expert.

grande, I was all of what you are experiencing -- stress eating, overeating, binge eating, emotional eating . . .

I don't have any of those problems now.  they just disappeared.  I credit it to the program I follow -- whole grains, fresh fruits, veggies, low fat dairy, and very little meat.  My 1350-1550 calories per day fill me up totally and I have no desire to eat any more.  I am slowly but steadily losing weight, down to 177 from 255.

God I can sooo relate and agree with what your saying. I too have big issues with compulsive eating and emotional eating and used to suffer from milkd anorexia and i believe this is how my body has chosen to recover...great. I am the same height as you as well and really want to lose weright for summer-but alas i have no will pwoer!