Good for 3 days... then POOF!

Hey Everyone!

I got a question for you! I'm a 23 year old female who's 6'3 and right now am about 180lbs. I want to loose about 10 lbs (Last 2 months I re-gained those 10 due to a family death and job stress.. etc)

Anyhow, I'll track my calories almost perfectly, I exercise for 60 mins a day and I'll be doing so good for about 3 days. THEN (and this almost always happens) around 9pm or 10pm at night I'll be starving, half the time its hunger the other half I swear its an emotional hunger. Anyhow I'll just cave and eat 3 large bowls of carby cereal. Therefore just taking my weight back to where it was 3 days prior.

What can I do to stop this cycle? Could it be the exercise? What can I do to stop eating/almost binging at night? I've tried drinking water, milk, taking a sleeping pill, watching tv, just eating something small (but it just doesn't seem like enough!)

I find I wake up in the morning and am almost just depressed and upset with myself that lately its been almost changing my overall chipper mood! I need help!!!

Thanks you guys!!

Angel

I went through the same thing a while back.  Part of it was mental (if I expected it to happen, it would).  I think maybe you should double check to make sure you're eating enough during the day, and also make sure you're eating the right stuff (I ate a lot of diet products that were low cal, but certainly not good for me!)

If you truly think this is emotional eating then try to figure out the emotions behind it.

My guess is that you are simply hungry, so you are eating to fill a real, physical need.  You don't say how active you are, but at your height and age, you should be eating at least 1800-2000 calories per day to lose weight even if you are only slightly active.

You are smack dab in the middle of the BMI range for healthy weight, so it is going to be hard to lose even 10 pounds.  My advice is to eat moderately (without too much restriction) and exercise to tone up it you feel flabby.

hello im sorry about your family death. I went through eating difficulties when my mother died. The work stress plus the stress of a family death could lead to emotional eating as your own way of selfmedicating. I am currently seeking treatment for depression which goes back to when my mother died. Perhaps you should speak to someone perhaps your doctor or perhaps getting advice from your nurse.  If you want to talk you can msg me on here if you want. I hope that everything goes better for you x

Hi Angelpets.  Don't feel too bad, this happens to almost everyone.  Last week I had a licorice binge....  I've been doing some reading about my own eating habits and one of the books I've been studying is "it's not about the food".  It's about emotional eating and although I can't relate to all the issues she talks about, one thing that I personally found valuable was the author's suggestion to think about your hunger.  If you're hungry a few minutes or even half an hour after eating, ask yourself if you're really hungry for food or is there some type of comfort you are looking to feed.  She suggests not beating yourself up over it and to tell yourself that it's "interesting" you want to eat something in particular even though you just had dinner.  No judging, especially not of yourself.  It kind of forced me to think about what I was really hungry for.  Sometimes I found I was bored and food for me is comforting AND something to "do".   Just telling myself it was "interesting" that I wanted something instead of asking myself what's wrong with me actually helped. 

Certain times of the month also bring out the cravings and once the period is over, I'm back to good again. 

Sorry about the death in your family, it's not easy, even if you aren't the closest person to the one who is gone.