Controlling Compulsive Eating

DuckyBugden
DuckyBugden Posts: 5
in Health and Weight Loss
And/or binge eating.

Recently I have completely lost myself, and my diet, to compulsive eating and I just cant seem to get myself out of the cycle.. Or control myself at all! Well I can control myself to a point during the day but come evening the compulsive side comes and I literally just cannot stop myself from scrounging the kitchen for snacks, its even gotten to the shameful point where Im stealing food from my housemates because Ive eaten all of my snackable food (and by snackable I mean takes more than 20 minutes to cook, my compulsiveness doesnt have the patience for longer then that). I do replace the food obviously but still, Im really getting out of control and its getting me down. Doesnt help that Ive been struggling with depression recently so can barely get out of bed, let alone go to the gym.

Does anyone have any advice they can give to break this habit? I sound so weak I know but I literally just cant help myself and it is so horrible to lose control to that extent. Ive found that eating vanilla yoghurt or brushing my teeth can get rid of the urge but its still an issue :(

Replies

  • emelypoynter
    emelypoynter Posts: 55
    When I get like that. I drink water...lots of water. Or, I brush my teeth like you said. Lastly, I just workout to take my mind off of wanting to eat.
  • Rocbola
    Rocbola Posts: 1,998 Member
    It helps to make sure that you start eating good food, and keep eating good food all day. When i started making sure i had enough calories during the day, i stopped binging at night. When you starve yourself, you start to crave anything that is around, and pretty soon you are eating it. The best advise i can give on this topic is to have a big breakfast and a big lunch.
  • wasveganvictoria88
    wasveganvictoria88 Posts: 249 Member
    I had a biiiig problem with portion control and out of control eating. What I've done is given myself 6 meals a day - make it more if you need to - even if you're having lots of small but often meals. It used to be a night my attacks hit - but now I rarely feel hungry before bed and if I do I just think its too late to eat and go to bed! Honest try it, if it doesn't work - you've lost nothing!
  • slobkat
    slobkat Posts: 15 Member
    Snacking on things like fruit helps me with this because fruit fills me up like no other and since I have a sweet tooth it really helps with that too! Drinking water can also help. Keeping a bowl of mixed fruits beside me in work really helps me just to snack on and keep that hungry feeling away without filling you up too much. It sounds like you would benefit from more than just 3 meals a day, as veganvictoria suggested perhaps have 6 small regular meals? I think the gap between 3 meals a day can be too much for some people, I know it used to be for me but snacking on fruit and drinking water in between has helped me loads so I'd definitely recommend that!

    I haven't had chocolate or any dessert kind of food for nearly 2 weeks and that's something I used to eat every single day.
  • tuppencehapenny
    tuppencehapenny Posts: 7
    Drinking lots of water can help control your appetite. I sometimes to go the gym to distract me from food, but that's probably not a helpful solution for late-night snacking. Maybe keeping some motivational material - like pictures of people that represent what you aspire to - easily visible (so that you see it on the way to the storecupboard) might help?
  • Melampus
    Melampus Posts: 95 Member
    I'd look at what you eat. While it is true that if you eat fewer calories than you use you will lose weight, regardless of how balanced your diet is, your diet does need to be balanced to avoid you feeling hungry. If you're short of something, for example, protein, you'll feel hungry.

    Try to eat within your calorie allowance, not by eating less food (i.e. less weight or volume) but by eating food that is not so dense in calories. One of the first changes I made as soon as I saw how many calories were in the things I was eating was to eat less breakfast cereal and make up the volume with fruit. That tastes good, I still feel like I have eaten a meal rather than a snack but there are fewer calories in the fruit than in the breakfast cereal so it helps me keep within my allowance.

    Obviously it is good to avoid eating too much fat but be careful with that - many sources of fat are also sources of protein and as I said earlier if you eat too little of that it will leave you hungry. By comparison you can eat less cereal, pasta or bread and not be left short of other nutrients.
  • Darlingir
    Darlingir Posts: 437
    Is there a professional you can speak to? I know for myself compulsive eating was (and always will be but I manage it) a symptom of a larger problem or unresolved issues....and so on. That would be my recommendation
  • skoshness
    skoshness Posts: 175
    Good food advice above but also maybe you should see someone about the depression, hope you start to feel better soon
  • Bobskiframps
    Bobskiframps Posts: 39 Member
    try planning your meals and snacks out for the week so you dont have so much temptation. According to recents studies the urge to eat something when we're not actually hungry only last 20 minutes or so. So try to do something to distract yourself from eating until the urge goes. Like exercising or a manicure or facial. Iv been trying it the last couple of weeks and it seems to help some of the time. But everyones different so you never know it might work better for you than me. :) good luck. Add me if you want, we can encourage each other not to snack.

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