I need help.

StarlightAria

I don't know what to do. I want to lose weight. I have to many reasons why- good reasons like the fact that I'm insulin resistant from PCOS and other personal reasons. But when I'm eating and hungry, I have to eat. I can't stop myself. Even my motivations don't matter when I'm eating something really good.

What can I do? How can I stop? I'm so disgusted with myself and I don't know what to do.

ElizabethOakes2

What do you have your caloric intake set to? Is it a healthy intake for you or are you trying to cut too much too fast?

It really sounds like portion control is the problem. You might have to make some big changes to where and how you eat. Something that helped me is that at dinner, put one serving of each dish on your plate, eat it, and then get up and put your plate in the dishwasher and walk away from the table. If you aren't at the table with the food, and you don't have a plate, you'll be less likely to binge. Try to eat high protein, high fiber foods that fill you up and keep you full longer. Add beans, nonfat yogurt, lean meats and whole grains like brown rice and quinoa to your diet.

Without knowing more about your situation, that's about all I can offer.

VanillaGorillaUK

Continue eating bad foods but log everything you eat on MFP. Once you're in the habit of logging, slowly reduce portion sizes and add a little easy exercise (walking). You can keep eating at around maintenance level until it becomes routine.

From here things will naturally progress, because you would have built momentum and gained control. You'll feel the urge to cut back naturally, as opposed to forcing yourself.

mis1022

First I suggest you change your language about yourself, you are not disgusting. You are a human with issues and guess what every other human has issues too. Your issues happen to be food related like most others here on MFP.

Research some information about binge eating disorder, see if you might have this issue.

StarlightAria

mis1022 wrote: »

First I suggest you change your language about yourself, you are not disgusting. You are a human with issues and guess what every other human has issues too. Your issues happen to be food related like most others here on MFP.

Research some information about binge eating disorder, see if you might have this issue.

Thank you for saying that to me, it brought me to tears.
And I think you hit the nail on the head and I think I'm experiencing depression as well.

For the others, my calories are set to 1570.

Any other advice is appreciated.

sndrd49

You should read more posts you will see that you are not aline, not at all. Self sabotage happens for many, many reasons. Eating disorder or not, we overeat and sabotage our successes because of some kind of emotional pain. Food can numb that pain like any other drug. The kicker is that you can't just kick food, we have to eat. The challenge for me is redefining food as nutrition and fuel, rather than comfort or coping. It's an interesting journey. Hang in there, keep showing up here, there's plenty of good folks to talk to.

StarlightAria

ElizabethOakes2 wrote: »

What do you have your caloric intake set to? Is it a healthy intake for you or are you trying to cut too much too fast?

It really sounds like portion control is the problem. You might have to make some big changes to where and how you eat. Something that helped me is that at dinner, put one serving of each dish on your plate, eat it, and then get up and put your plate in the dishwasher and walk away from the table. If you aren't at the table with the food, and you don't have a plate, you'll be less likely to binge. Try to eat high protein, high fiber foods that fill you up and keep you full longer. Add beans, nonfat yogurt, lean meats and whole grains like brown rice and quinoa to your diet.

Without knowing more about your situation, that's about all I can offer.

That is one piece of advice I haven't heard and a great one at that. When I'm over at my boyfriends house we have dinner with his parents. Sundays are family days and she goes all out with dessert and everything. I love your idea about one serving and then getting rid of the plate. It makes so much sense!

bendyourkneekatie

ElizabethOakes2 wrote: »

What do you have your caloric intake set to? Is it a healthy intake for you or are you trying to cut too much too fast?

It really sounds like portion control is the problem. You might have to make some big changes to where and how you eat. Something that helped me is that at dinner, put one serving of each dish on your plate, eat it, and then get up and put your plate in the dishwasher and walk away from the table. If you aren't at the table with the food, and you don't have a plate, you'll be less likely to binge. Try to eat high protein, high fiber foods that fill you up and keep you full longer. Add beans, nonfat yogurt, lean meats and whole grains like brown rice and quinoa to your diet.

Without knowing more about your situation, that's about all I can offer.

That's great advice.
I also find, if I'm really hungry and about to have a meal that's quite calorie dense and therefore smaller in quantity, I make some steamed broccoli or celery and carrot sticks, to have with it. Now, while broccoli or celery aren't going to fill me up on their own, if I eat them first, it kinda pre-fills my tummy so I'm not so desperately ravenous, can take my time and enjoy my meal more, and finish feeling fully satisfied.

sew205

Yeah, you're not disgusting. You're just doing what your body is hardwired to do, which is to eat things that taste good when they're available. You (and I) would be super-successful in an environment where food is erratically unavailable. Yay for our ancestors who pounced on food and ate it ALL when it was available, and thus survived!

In this world, however, I second the advice of washing your dishes as soon as you're done eating. Other strategies I use to interrupt the eating when I'm enjoying a food and want more of it:
-Brush your teeth. Use mouthwash if you're into that.
-Drink a lot of water/unsweetened tea
-Say loudly something to the effect of "I'm done! That was delicious and now I am done!" (This works better if there are people around...)
-Eat more, but switch to the salad (and yes, it has calories, etc, but it's at least better, right?)
-Start pre-logging your food for tomorrow.

Preventive strategies that have been listed on forums approximately a billion times but that work for me, so I'm listing them again!:
-Serve yourself a reasonable portion and put the rest away. In the freezer, or the trash, or your fellow eaters' plates, as appropriate. (The counter isn't far enough for me, personally,)
-Plan ahead for delightful foods. Eat less of other things that day, or just embrace the overage and move on with your life.
-Try to set up your day so you're not sitting down to delicious food when you're ravenous.
- I do also find that eating more protein and less carb helps me be less hungry. For what it's worth.

And, also for what it's worth, I struggle with all this all the time, and sometimes I'm successful and sometimes I'm not. I wish you all the best!

StarlightAria

It's so nice to know I'm not the only one. I just wish I had more willpower.

sndrd49

Willpower can grow out of habit. I have logged in here everyday for forty days. It's a habit now, and picking up my tablet and clicking an icon then makes it easier to log food. When I log what I've eaten I learn things about nutrition and about myself. When I am accountable to myself about what I'm eating and when I'm eating it I can see the patterns and now I'm starting to find ways to avoid my own triggers. I needed to see it visually and it's all taking time. But, although I wish it could all happen quicker, I remind myself that this is a lifetime of bad habits and emotional eating that I am changing and overcoming so of course it's going to take some time. I will give myself that time and try to be kinder to myself as I progress here. I hope you will do that for yourself as well.