OCD and diet

ddm1101

Hi,

I have diagnosed OCD and I find that it really affects how I eat. I want to only eat when I'm actually hungry, but I find that my OCD makes me want to eat on a strict regular schedule.

I know that CBT and retraining my brain is the best way to combat this, but I'm wondering if anyone else has had similar issues and if they have recommendations for ways of thinking/behaving that help.

I know that I am at a healthy weight for my height and age (5'4 and 115). However, last year at this time, I was really underweight (102) and in comparison, I feel much heavier and it really affects me. It makes me not want to be social. I try to set goals for weight loss and I say to myself that I don't want to be seen by anyone until I reach those goals. It is really unhealthy, I know, but I just get anxious about wanting to be seen looking my best and not feeling like I do now. I am seeking help, but I don't know what else I can do on my own to help reach a better mindset. It would be great to hear about other people's experiences/success stories.

Thanks!

ddm1101

On that same note - I do about 50 minutes of cardio every single day. I can't miss a day without feeling extremely awful. I haven't missed a day in over six months and even then, it was only one missed day due to illness.

How do you help yourself feel better about taking days off to recover? I know that recovery days are essential, but I just hate the idea of not working out because it makes me feel so good afterward!

htimpaired

Are you in tx for the OCD? (I have it as well, not around food, but other things that I won't bore you with).
I was quite underweight when I was diagnosed, because my appetite was so poor and I was so anxious and depressed I couldn't eat.
However, I would think given the fact you are currently at a healthy weight and don't need to lose weight, your OCD therapist might be a great resource to start with, if you're working with one.

Just a side note, I have found my OCD is much more manageable when I am exercising regularly, not for weight loss, but for fitness and mental health. Better than any medication I've ever taken.

Feel free to send me a friend request if you want to chat in more detail about the OCD stuff.

Lizzy622

If missing a day is awful how about switching up your exercises so you work different muscle groups? This would at least give certain muscle groups a rest day.

ddm1101

Thanks for the responses!

Yea I'm working with a professional, but I wonder if there are things I can do on my own to help as well. I think it's all about forming good habits and I'm trying to get in the habit of focusing less on food and more on feeling happy with myself.

As for workouts, that's a great idea. I've been thinking about trying yoga and that way I can have a few low key workout days that still make me feel like I've done something good for my body.

aylajane

I dont have diagnosed OCD, but I definitely have OCD-like tendencies. I have to eat on a schedule, just the way it has to be. I know my calorie limit is, say 1800. I know I will eat 11 times a day (7 times while at work, 4 in the evening). Roughly every two hours. I pack my meals accordingly - most are 100-200 calories each, and I bring 7 in my lunch bag. Occasionally I will be hungry enough to eat two at once, but then I will skip one later.

The point is, you dont have to eat when you are hungry. Many peopel do not have good hunger cues - I will absolutely overeat if I do not keep track of the calories. But I have no issues eating within my calorie limit as long as I eat the right number of times each day.

So eating on a schedule is NOT going to make you gain or lose weight - eating too many or too few calories will. Figure out how to divide your calories into the schedule you need to keep to be sane, and pack your meals accordingly. Your OCD should only be a help in sticking exactly to your planned meals and therefore your planned calories. If you find yourself gaining or losing weight over time, your total calories are off and you can adjust them.

Use your OCD to your advantage - it actually is much easier to "diet" with OCD than going off hunger or emotional cues to eat. I have no trouble sticking to a plan. Its when I dont plan that everything goes all haywire and I over or under eat.

Chaotic_Weevil

aylajane wrote: »

I dont have diagnosed OCD, but I definitely have OCD-like tendencies. I have to eat on a schedule, just the way it has to be. I know my calorie limit is, say 1800. I know I will eat 11 times a day (7 times while at work, 4 in the evening). Roughly every two hours. I pack my meals accordingly - most are 100-200 calories each, and I bring 7 in my lunch bag. Occasionally I will be hungry enough to eat two at once, but then I will skip one later.

The point is, you dont have to eat when you are hungry. Many peopel do not have good hunger cues - I will absolutely overeat if I do not keep track of the calories. But I have no issues eating within my calorie limit as long as I eat the right number of times each day.

So eating on a schedule is NOT going to make you gain or lose weight - eating too many or too few calories will. Figure out how to divide your calories into the schedule you need to keep to be sane, and pack your meals accordingly. Your OCD should only be a help in sticking exactly to your planned meals and therefore your planned calories. If you find yourself gaining or losing weight over time, your total calories are off and you can adjust them.

Use your OCD to your advantage - it actually is much easier to "diet" with OCD than going off hunger or emotional cues to eat. I have no trouble sticking to a plan. Its when I dont plan that everything goes all haywire and I over or under eat.

Sorry, but as someone who does have OCD, I have to say I strongly disagree with this.

Because there are possibly people reading this thread who maybe don't have a lot of experience with OCD- I want to clarify something that could help understand why I have a problem with "trying to use it to your advantage"

OCD isn't really about being super neat or organised, or really liking structure and numbers etc. it's not about getting annoyed when those things are off. Of course, these are things that are common among OCD sufferers, but to understand why you shouldn't let them 'help' you with your diet you need to know why sufferers do these things.

Common behaviours like counting, organising, checking, repeating etc are Compulsions. Compulsions are something that sufferers feel they MUST do as a result of Obsessions.

Obsessions are nasty horrible intrusive thoughts. They can be about things like the safety of yourself or others around you, they can be strong doubts about who you are as a person, if you are "good" or if you have something wrong with you. For example, a sufferer might be obsessed with the concept that a person close to them will die. As a result, they might develop a compulsion that "fixes" or at least quiets that obsession. For example, turning a light switch on and off a specific number of times. It's something that gives you a false sense of control over that obsession.


The reason I have an issue with utilising this for tracking/weightless, is that these two behaviours tend to feed off of each other. The obsessions motivate the compulsions, and performing the compulsions allow the obsessions to dominate your life. Trying to direct your OCD towards something like weight loss could create a whole new obsession/compulsion for the person, which could lose to unhealthy fixation with your weight/intake or possibly losing too much.


I don't think there's anything wrong with tracking and measuring etc. I do it myself, but you have to be able to compartmentalise it, you really can't let it become part of the OCD cycle for you.


Sorry if that's really long and ranty, but this is something I feel really strongly about

Unknown

This content has been removed.

aylajane

My apologies for not understanding the psychology behind it. As much as you oppose "using" OCD, I feel just as strongly about the "eat only when you are hungry" approach to diet. If that worked, most people wouldnt be overweight. I am going to be a bit obsessive/compulsive about certain things, I could fight it but since it doesnt "interfere" with my life (my life works fine eating like this... eating 3 times a day would not significantly benefit me or make me any happier) I just work with it. Why battle two issues when I can make them work together?

But if you have a true mental disorder that needs "fixed" (mine doesnt... I know it is there, it doesnt hurt anything, and there is no need for me to "fix" it), then I can see why you would want to separate the two.

Thanks for the info.

Chaotic_Weevil

MrM27 wrote: »

Chaotic_Weevil wrote: »

aylajane wrote: »

I dont have diagnosed OCD, but I definitely have OCD-like tendencies. I have to eat on a schedule, just the way it has to be. I know my calorie limit is, say 1800. I know I will eat 11 times a day (7 times while at work, 4 in the evening). Roughly every two hours. I pack my meals accordingly - most are 100-200 calories each, and I bring 7 in my lunch bag. Occasionally I will be hungry enough to eat two at once, but then I will skip one later.

The point is, you dont have to eat when you are hungry. Many peopel do not have good hunger cues - I will absolutely overeat if I do not keep track of the calories. But I have no issues eating within my calorie limit as long as I eat the right number of times each day.

So eating on a schedule is NOT going to make you gain or lose weight - eating too many or too few calories will. Figure out how to divide your calories into the schedule you need to keep to be sane, and pack your meals accordingly. Your OCD should only be a help in sticking exactly to your planned meals and therefore your planned calories. If you find yourself gaining or losing weight over time, your total calories are off and you can adjust them.

Use your OCD to your advantage - it actually is much easier to "diet" with OCD than going off hunger or emotional cues to eat. I have no trouble sticking to a plan. Its when I dont plan that everything goes all haywire and I over or under eat.

Sorry, but as someone who does have OCD, I have to say I strongly disagree with this.

Because there are possibly people reading this thread who maybe don't have a lot of experience with OCD- I want to clarify something that could help understand why I have a problem with "trying to use it to your advantage"

OCD isn't really about being super neat or organised, or really liking structure and numbers etc. it's not about getting annoyed when those things are off. Of course, these are things that are common among OCD sufferers, but to understand why you shouldn't let them 'help' you with your diet you need to know why sufferers do these things.

Common behaviours like counting, organising, checking, repeating etc are Compulsions. Compulsions are something that sufferers feel they MUST do as a result of Obsessions.

Obsessions are nasty horrible intrusive thoughts. They can be about things like the safety of yourself or others around you, they can be strong doubts about who you are as a person, if you are "good" or if you have something wrong with you. For example, a sufferer might be obsessed with the concept that a person close to them will die. As a result, they might develop a compulsion that "fixes" or at least quiets that obsession. For example, turning a light switch on and off a specific number of times. It's something that gives you a false sense of control over that obsession.


The reason I have an issue with utilising this for tracking/weightless, is that these two behaviours tend to feed off of each other. The obsessions motivate the compulsions, and performing the compulsions allow the obsessions to dominate your life. Trying to direct your OCD towards something like weight loss could create a whole new obsession/compulsion for the person, which could lose to unhealthy fixation with your weight/intake or possibly losing too much.


I don't think there's anything wrong with tracking and measuring etc. I do it myself, but you have to be able to compartmentalise it, you really can't let it become part of the OCD cycle for you.


Sorry if that's really long and ranty, but this is something I feel really strongly about

As much as you think it's not a good idea to direct it towards this whole process, it can be done. I have dealt with it my entire life. Touching the door nob a crap load of times, turning off the cable box as a 10 year old and having to turn it off and on maybe a dozen times and always on channel 28. Why 28? Who the f knows. Touching things over and over until I felt like I could stop. It get annoying but you deal with it.

My OCD directed towards this game, yup. Wanting to be perfect in everything. Studying and reading and researching. Just diving in head first to learn as much as possible. Yes it can be done.

Oh I'm not denying it can be done, and I think it's great that you've been able to direct it in a way that doesn't result in additional obsessions or anything like that.

But it is a real gamble, and if don't think it makes good general advice for the majority of sufferers.

trekkie_bbs

I am not diagnosed with OCD however my friends and family all agree I have it the way I live. I found it hard to lose weight like you. But then I found logging in advance and planning my meals out in advance helped a lot. I even made up emergency plans in case I get stuck out away from home and unable to eat at home.

Ultimately I have decided to make it as easy as possible by eating mostly the same type of meals so little changes and I can always eat at 7:15 am, 1:00 pm, 7:00 pm. This helped me lose 54 pounds over the past 6 months.

By no means am I perfect and I do make slip ups and overeat when I get a sweet tooth. One bad thing for me is I hate to waste and I hate ice crystals forming on top of Ice cream so I tend to eat a whole container if I open it...... So I try to avoid it if possible.

Best wishes.

Kalikel

aylajane wrote: »

I dont have diagnosed OCD, but I definitely have OCD-like tendencies. I have to eat on a schedule, just the way it has to be. I know my calorie limit is, say 1800. I know I will eat 11 times a day (7 times while at work, 4 in the evening). Roughly every two hours. I pack my meals accordingly - most are 100-200 calories each, and I bring 7 in my lunch bag. Occasionally I will be hungry enough to eat two at once, but then I will skip one later.

The point is, you dont have to eat when you are hungry. Many peopel do not have good hunger cues - I will absolutely overeat if I do not keep track of the calories. But I have no issues eating within my calorie limit as long as I eat the right number of times each day.

So eating on a schedule is NOT going to make you gain or lose weight - eating too many or too few calories will. Figure out how to divide your calories into the schedule you need to keep to be sane, and pack your meals accordingly. Your OCD should only be a help in sticking exactly to your planned meals and therefore your planned calories. If you find yourself gaining or losing weight over time, your total calories are off and you can adjust them.

Use your OCD to your advantage - it actually is much easier to "diet" with OCD than going off hunger or emotional cues to eat. I have no trouble sticking to a plan. Its when I dont plan that everything goes all haywire and I over or under eat.

Calling yourself OCD is different than actually having it. I get teased about being anal and being OCD. One friend of mine is convinced that I am OCD. But I'm not. I'm just neat and organized and on top of stuff.

Most people use the term OCD to describe people like me - people who need everything kept clean, neat and tidy. But I do those things because I think they're important. If the CDs are in alphabetical order, I can find Synchronicity without looking through 200 of them first.

OCD is a real mental illness. It affects people differently, but it is hard to "use" it or change it. They do that stuff not because they think it needs to be done or even because they think it's important. They do it because NOT doing it will irk them so much that just doing it is easier. It controls you more than you control it, KWIM?

There is therapy and some people do get better. Some get a lot better!

What Americans commonly refer to as OCD isn't actually OCD. Both Schizophrenia and OCD have been referred to very differently than what they are. For what it's worth.

A lot of people with anorexia or bulimia also have OCD. Not all, but it pops up a lot. So does bipolar.

Not criticizing or arguing, just discussing.

Maleficent0241

You said it in your post- CBT and/or whatever your treatment plan is is what you need. My OCD is around germs and hand washing. I have trouble eating food I buy if it's past a few days old, even though I know objectively it's fine. The issue with OCD is the risk of a vicious downward spiral. You feel temporarily better performing your compulsion, but not really and that feeds back into the obsession, which again feeds into compulsions and so on. It can become very consuming and can worsen before you realize. Having a diagnosis and recognizing the problem is huge. Following through on treatment will help immensely. Personally I also need medication, which helps me a lot.

aylajane

Kalikel wrote: »

aylajane wrote: »

I dont have diagnosed OCD, but I definitely have OCD-like tendencies. I have to eat on a schedule, just the way it has to be. I know my calorie limit is, say 1800. I know I will eat 11 times a day (7 times while at work, 4 in the evening). Roughly every two hours. I pack my meals accordingly - most are 100-200 calories each, and I bring 7 in my lunch bag. Occasionally I will be hungry enough to eat two at once, but then I will skip one later.

The point is, you dont have to eat when you are hungry. Many peopel do not have good hunger cues - I will absolutely overeat if I do not keep track of the calories. But I have no issues eating within my calorie limit as long as I eat the right number of times each day.

So eating on a schedule is NOT going to make you gain or lose weight - eating too many or too few calories will. Figure out how to divide your calories into the schedule you need to keep to be sane, and pack your meals accordingly. Your OCD should only be a help in sticking exactly to your planned meals and therefore your planned calories. If you find yourself gaining or losing weight over time, your total calories are off and you can adjust them.

Use your OCD to your advantage - it actually is much easier to "diet" with OCD than going off hunger or emotional cues to eat. I have no trouble sticking to a plan. Its when I dont plan that everything goes all haywire and I over or under eat.

Calling yourself OCD is different than actually having it. I get teased about being anal and being OCD. One friend of mine is convinced that I am OCD. But I'm not. I'm just neat and organized and on top of stuff.

Most people use the term OCD to describe people like me - people who need everything kept clean, neat and tidy. But I do those things because I think they're important. If the CDs are in alphabetical order, I can find Synchronicity without looking through 200 of them first.

OCD is a real mental illness. It affects people differently, but it is hard to "use" it or change it. They do that stuff not because they think it needs to be done or even because they think it's important. They do it because NOT doing it will irk them so much that just doing it is easier. It controls you more than you control it, KWIM?

There is therapy and some people do get better. Some get a lot better!

What Americans commonly refer to as OCD isn't actually OCD. Both Schizophrenia and OCD have been referred to very differently than what they are. For what it's worth.

A lot of people with anorexia or bulimia also have OCD. Not all, but it pops up a lot. So does bipolar.

Not criticizing or arguing, just discussing.

Thank you for the education. I will be more careful in the future not to refer to my "quirks" as OCD, as it is clear I am not truly in that camp. I apologize for seeming like I understood something I really do not! I will stay out of this thread now OP - hope you get some assistance from more knowledgable people and get what you need!

AliceDark

Can I ask why you've identified eating on a schedule as something you'd like to fix? It's not necessarily a bad thing (assuming it doesn't disrupt your life, which is a big assumption). A lot of people have a hard time eating according to their hunger cues -- there's a ton of cultural baggage when it comes to figuring out whether or not you're hungry, and how hungry you are, and when you're full enough to stop eating. I'm not saying you should or shouldn't eat on a schedule, just that it may or may not be something you'd need to change.

lemurcat12

AliceDark wrote: »

Can I ask why you've identified eating on a schedule as something you'd like to fix? It's not necessarily a bad thing (assuming it doesn't disrupt your life, which is a big assumption). A lot of people have a hard time eating according to their hunger cues -- there's a ton of cultural baggage when it comes to figuring out whether or not you're hungry, and how hungry you are, and when you're full enough to stop eating. I'm not saying you should or shouldn't eat on a schedule, just that it may or may not be something you'd need to change.

This.

If you see it as something that gets in your way, I can see wanting to change it, but I eat according to a schedule and not hunger (well, my schedule basically determines when I'm hungry--or, really, in the mood to eat--most of the time), and I don't see much wrong with it. In addition to the problems many have with eating to hunger I'm not actually convinced that's an ideal. Human beings are such culturally-determined creatures, and for many of us how we grew up thinking of meal times determines when we expect to eat anyway. In more traditional societies, when you ate would be pretty regulated and ritualistic, so I don't actually think there's some better state where we'd all eat more freely, to hunger. I actually suspect that the loss of most cultural rituals and imposed regulations re eating (like when I grew up dinner had to include meat and vegetables, and you would only eat at certain times and so on) has some relationship to the obesity rate, although I think reduced activity is likely even more significant.

Graelwyn75

I think your eating issues go beyond OCD and more towards a potential eating disorder, which is a direction it can take.

I have severe OCD (diagnosed) and also a history of EDs.
What you describe is eating disorder territory so please do be careful and try and speak to someone professional about it.

Mediocrates55

Someone mentioned ice crystals forming on the ice cream, so they would eat the whole container. Try putting a layer of saran wrap up against the remaining ice cream when you're done. If it is right up against it, it should prevent the crystals from forming.