I cant do moderation

i am the same- can't do it at all, so I avoid it like the plague. But that's not good either because when you restrict yourself so much you start to crave it more. I'm okay all the time I'm busy and when I get home I never have the flat to myself so I can't have any sneaky junk food but I dread being alone now :-s

Would also be very interested to know if anyone has successfully overcome this!!!

I am great at loosing weight. I've been very fit at times in life...and then when I've reached goal...and I get busy with things in life...i somehow get back to my junk-eating-not-working-out ways....I put on weight again..not as much as before...but still FAT!!!!

I can't practice moderation! I either eat super healthy or I eat total crap!!! I cant eat JUST ONE PIECE OF CHOCOLATE...i'd either have none or eat a whole box..same for cookies and what not.

Any of you like that?? Have any of you changed your habits successfully?? can I ever be truly skinny permanently?? LOL

you can try to change it or embrace it
how about cheat day once a week (I do Friday) when you eat that whole bag of doritos and whole choclate bar?

That is me to a tee!! I do really well for awhile and then I say "hey, I can have that _________" and I am off the wagon. I just keep trying and reminding myself that really this is a lifestyle change not a 'diet' because if I tell myself that I have to restrict then it's like I want the not so good stuff even more. I'm really working toward not paying attention to the number on the scale so much as how my clothes fit now. Which really, the scale has not moved in over a month but I can fit into clothes that I couldn't a month ago and I actually had to buy smaller shirts for the summer. I can see definition in my abs and noticed that I don't have saddlebags and my thighs are pretty hard!!! Keep working on it. Friend me if you'd like cause it's helpful for me to hear from people who struggle like I do but don't give up!!! Good Luck!!

I don't know if I'm allowed to recommend this, but it can't hurt - but if you want to change your habits I suggest getting Paul McKenna's I Can Make You Thin (including the book and CD, I got it for less than a tenner on Amazon) - it helps break the diet/gain cycle by changing your eating habits.
Seems to be working for me so far - I'm only using this to make sure I'm not eating too few calories whilst using his methods.
TMC

Here's the problem I see with not being able to do "moderation" (and I'm not saying you can't.. a lot of people can't handle the things they love in moderation) -- you've said you reach your goal weight and you think to yourself "I can have this or that" and then you're off the wagon and gain the weight back. Do you think you fall off because you've been severely restricting those items? And suddenly being able to eat them makes you go a little crazy with them? I used to think I HAD to do all or nothing. Then I realized that wasn't going to work. I definitely pick and choose the items I want to indulge in (M&M's and cookies for the time being). I count out serving sizes and I portion them out.

If portioning it out won't work, then I recommend NOT buying an entire bag or container of something. They make small single serving things of Ben and Jerry's ice cream (heck -- they make a DELICIOUS greek yogurt mixture). Or buy a small bag of M&M's ... whatever you really want, buy a small container of it and then there isn't more waiting for you.


Good Luck.

I don't know if I'm allowed to recommend this, but it can't hurt - but if you want to change your habits I suggest getting Paul McKenna's I Can Make You Thin (including the book and CD, I got it for less than a tenner on Amazon) - it helps break the diet/gain cycle by changing your eating habits.
Seems to be working for me so far - I'm only using this to make sure I'm not eating too few calories whilst using his methods.
TMC

I really need to go back to listening to these too

Exercise more to compensate.

I posted this last week. You might find it comforting!

http://happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2012/05/quiz-are-you-an-abstainer-or-a-moderator/

"A piece of advice I often see is, “Be moderate. Don’t have ice cream every night, but if you try to deny yourself altogether, you’ll fall off the wagon. Allow yourself to have the occasional treat, it will help you stick to your plan.”

I’ve come to believe that this is good advice for some people: the “moderators.” They do better when they try to make moderate changes, when they avoid absolutes and bright lines.

For a long time, I kept trying this strategy of moderation–and failing. Then I read a line from Samuel Johnson, who said, when someone offered him wine: “Abstinence is as easy to me as temperance would be difficult.”

Ah ha! Like Dr. Johnson, I’m an “abstainer.”

I find it far easier to give something up altogether than to indulge moderately. When I admitted to myself that I was eating my favorite frozen yogurt treat very often, two and even three times a day, I gave it up cold turkey. That was far easier for me to do than to eat it twice a week. If I try to be moderate, I exhaust myself debating, “Today, tomorrow?” “Does this time ‘count’?” etc. If I never do something, it requires no self-control for me; if I do something sometimes, it requires enormous self-control.

There’s no right way or wrong way–it’s just a matter of knowing which strategy works better for you. "