Am I a chocoholic?

hiker583

Hi,

I recently joined this forum. I was born fat, but in my teens I lost lot of weight and was considered thin. Then I moved into an environment where I am surrounded by chocolates / cookies and other fatty junk food. I very quickly gained all the weight back, and some more, a total of 50lbs. That was 10 years ago. Since then I have been struggling to loose weight. I am physically very fit, I run marathons and do lots of outdoor stuff. But every time I loose weight by any activity, I always just gain it back.

I think the main reason is that I am addicted to food, especially chocolates. All day, that is all I can think about, how to eat chocolate. I know its bad for me, but I get this very strong urge to just go and grab some. I feel that if I eat quickly without anyone seeing then it won't matter. Sometimes I tell myself just one piece, and before I know I have eaten a full bar. If I don't eat chocolate, I get irritable, I feel like I am depriving myself of something, so then I make excuses for why I should eat just one today. Am I a chocoholic? Is that for real?

I have also noticed that I have episodes of binge eating where no matter what I eat, I cannot satisfy myself. Since I have started noticing them, they have somewhat reduced, or I can control them a bit, but I just cannot control my chocolate eating. Unfortunately I do lead a very stressful life, both at home and at work and I have absolutely no support in my struggle to loose weight. Maybe that is the reason that in 10 years, no matter how strong my resolve to be fit is, my chocoholism always wins

2essie

I know exactly how you feel. I always class myself as a chocoholic but again, I do not know if there really is such a thing. All I know is if I get the urge to eat chocolate I just have to have some.

Over the last 19 months I have managed to lose 40 ish lbs. I did lose over 50lbs but with holidays and Christmas I put some back. I am now working at getting this off again.

I have noticed that if I can go for three days without chocolate and I eat proper meals with plenty of fruit and veg, my cravings for chocolate go away. I have been great up to this last week. I have been having chocolate at weejends and suddenly all my cravings came back. I am now working on getting the chocolate out of my life again because I know that is what will take over my life and make me pit the weight on again.

I have told myself that I am allowed to eat anything for the next three days as long as it doesn't include refined sugar. I will eat as much fruit as I want even if I go over my calories for the next three days just to get the chocolate out of my life again. It can be done but it takes determination.

Friend me if you are going to log every day and need some support. I know I could do with someone who understands the problem

Doc_V

I have a big problem with binge eating...part of the reason I make myself track. I don't stop at just one of anything. I've found that after about a week of restricting volume, I literally *can't* binge. My stomach has shrunk up enough that I get sick before I do too much damage. On those days that I have to eat everything in the house, I binge on salads and grilled chicken, sometimes eggs and low fat cottage cheese. The fiber and protein helps shut up the binge reflex better than that entire bag of chips that I want. Don't bring it in the house! I can't stress that enough.

I love hot chocolate mix for the chocolate fix. I make my coffee with a little bit of hot chocolate mix instead of cream or sugar in it. The no sugar added is only 60 cal for a full packet, regular is 90. If I use a half packet, it's only 45 cal each cup. I can live with that to keep chocolate cravings at bay.

Lisamjs1

Ive just had a big binge on sugar and feel pretty rubbish now so am here to help motivate x

hiker583

I do not have the option to not bring anything fatty in my house. My husband is one of those people who is blessed with that out of the world metabolism, he can and does eat anything in the world and still looks like a starved teenager. Unfortunately he does not really understand or support me in my weight loss, so even after repeated angry protests at him bringing boxes of sweets in house, he does not care.
So I am on my own, and I am getting over it with friends like you. Few things I have done -
1. kept the food on high shelfs so that I have to literally get a chair to reach them. Not that it has stopped me when I am under the influence of a binge, but it has helped sometimes with out of sight out of mind.
2. have a regular supply of bananas and oranges that i love and fall back to them when I realize that I am in binging mode.
3. try to sleep when I see an episode of binge coming.
Its all little things that are helping and I am happy to report that I have had just one binging episode in last 1 month.

Now chocolate is yet another thing. That I have not been able to control at all in last 1 month, eating literally a big bar a day or more. That is the next thing to get over.

TavistockToad

you need to look at the reasons wy you binge in the first place... a binge is essentially eating your feelings... so you need to confront whatever it is that makes you sad/upset/depressed in the first place which then leads to the binge.

amm8589

I used to be in your boat. I had to have chocolate after every single meal. All sweets were an issue, but chocolate cravings were strong. I decided to go cold turkey, giving up sweets and chocolate for Lent last year, and by Easter Sunday, my desire to have those things were gone. I still don't eat them, and I don't miss chocolate.

If you don't want to go to that extreme, then try having "healthier" chocolate options. For example, Fiber One Chocolate and Oat bars are good, high in fiber, and satisfy cravings. If you want a low calorie option, go with a cup of hot chocolate. That works surprisingly well.

I still keep sweets in my house. My husband doesn't eat them, but my kids do. I don't keep a lot of it in the house but we always have something around. It's funny how nothing tempts me anymore. I never thought that at my age (46), my lifelong love of chocolate would disappear, but it has.

Good Luck

runningjen74

I had / have a very sweet tooth - but I've given them up cold turkey. however, if I don't eat enough protein or fat I crave sweet stuff. i still eat chocolate just about every day - but generally 85% coco solids (70% is the minimum I eat)

If I am tired I crave sweet things and carbs - so I make sure I get enough sleep.

If I am very stressed, I can crave bad stuff, I try and go for a walk or do some exercise. But really, this generally goes back to have I eated enough protein and fat. Failing that a cup of herbal tea and some 85% chocolate helps.

It's not that I actually have a sweet tooth, but I've discovered that quite a lot of things set off cravings - I just don't eat them and don't keep them in the house.

For me it boils down to:
- Don't start eating sweet things, or I can't stop
- Get enough sleep
- Every so often a piece of cake is not the end of the world - no regrets. All about balance.
- Eat enough protein + fat
- Exercise regularly
- don't keep things at home that set me off