Hi everyone, I'm new to this group and I thought I'd finally bite the bullet and find specific help and advice for what is REALLY keeping me from losing the weight I want to lose! People are telling me "I'm not eating enough day-to-day" or "I'm a tall girl so it takes a while" but that's not the case. I hear people mention cheat days being NECESSARY but I am coming to the conclusion that I should not be allowed cheat days.

But before I look in this forum, I wanted to introduce myself and tell a bit of my story. My name's Stephanie and I've been trying to lose weight for about three years now. My first year was very successful and I knocked back sixty pounds. However, since then, I have really amped up my exercise and have been watching what I eat like a HAWK, obsessively logging in MFP. But I haven't lost a single pound in two years. This is really frustrating to me and I couldn't figure out why! I do everything right and, despite everything telling me not to in my head, I even took cheat days like you're SUPPOSED to.

Though, I don't think my cheat days are the ones you're supposed to take. I've always had a problem with binge eating (without realizing it) but it's not emotionally tied at all. I just really like eating and physically CAN'T stop once I lose control. I joke about missing some sort of trigger in my brain that tells me I'm full because I literally never feel full. (I think I don't know how to recognize it or something.) On days where I overeat, I generally stop logging because I know I'd just break the chart. I literally can't think of anything else except what else I can have and then I feel disgusted with myself during and after. I can easily eat thousands of excess calories.

When I was in college, the freshman fifteen was the freshman fifty. I would walk into the dining hall and my tray would be overflowing with food so much that I'd actually put my tray down, grab another plate and go up for more before sitting down. I'd get a dessert before sitting down and one before leaving. A soup, a salad, the main course, the other main course, a piece of pizza, every side dish. Something from the vegetarian bar just for kicks. A couple of cookies. A BOWL of ranch dressing to dip everything in. All in ONE meal. Then I'd go back to my dorm and see what I have in my fridge. It was out of control and that is completely normal for me on a day like that. Usually, I would not even feel full afterwards.


Anyway, that's most of my backstory. Now, after losing 60 pounds and getting down to 175 (I'm 5'9"), it's gotten to the point where I burn 500-750 calories a day working out or playing sports daily. (Today, I had a boxing class in the morning and will play soccer tonight!) I also work an active job (preschool teacher). I watch what I eat and do well ALL week. Then, I'll have ONE cheat day and it'll erase everything I did that week. This has happened about once a week for two years and I have lost NOTHING. (Fortunately, I have also gained nothing so that's a plus...) Last week, I was at a party with friends to watch the Patriots play the Ravens and they had all sorts of food out with pizza and chip, chili...etc. I missed a lot of the game because I kept getting up to get food and then I'd stay in the food room stuffing my face. Then, when I was done with the food that was there, I actually left during halftime to run to the supermarket down the street by myself to buy something else I wanted. And by golly, I ate that entire bag of kettle corn, that entire fruit tray and a good portion of that hummus. It was wicked embarrassing and I felt absolutely disgusting and wanted to cry.

So this is something I still suffer from. I'm hoping to get control in 2012 and I'll look at all the old posts here but I wanted to say hi and tell about myself first!