Struggling with overeating

[newbs16]

I feel constantly drained and keeping overeating at night usually between 5 and 9 o'clock. It's been going on for couple of years now and I feel like I've let myself down, I'm also overweight and feel miserable.

[Indigo_]

Could you see a dietician maybe? I'm not sure if you would need to go through your GP for this?

I do sympathise, I have put on almost two stone in the past two years I think. I basically eat whatever I want and do hardly any exercise. Last month, we had nearly 10 takeaways.

I think it would be useful for you to sit down with somebody and discuss your eating habits, what you're eating, how often, etc and to maybe devise a gentle exercise plan too. With some support you could definitely get into healthier habits. That probably sounds preachy considering I'm overweight myself.

[Dougella]

You might want to look into binge eating disorder or compulsive overeating and see if the descriptions resonate with you at all. It can often be emotional reasons that cause you to overeat so working out how you feel when you do it can be helpful.

[anewyear]

I guess a positive is that you've identified a certain timeframe when it happens. Maybe that's the first step in beating it, for example, ensuring that you're too distracted (or even, going to bed for an early night) to try and break the habit?

Easier said than done I know. Similarly I'm starting to get slightly... not worried, but noticing.. that I seem to like the thought of a glass of wine in the evenings more than I used to. I reckon a large part of that is the shite of working from home; if I was getting the train back from somewhere I think it'd be possibly less likely to happen

[Toxic]

Is it because the food is easily available?

I had a lot of crap going on at the start of last year (something made me become aware how chunky I was getting) and then I was ill for a few months, the whole thing started me off to getting my weight from like 110kg to about 85 over 8-9 months.

For me anyway, like a big tube of pringles or a big bar of chocolate..I can't just have a small portion of it and then put it away...Once I open something I'll finish the lot even if its "multiple portions" the only way I could fix that was...just not to have any of it anywhere near me. Even now, if I found myself with a bumper pack of chocolate buttons..I'd eat the lot, my thought hasn't changed, I have no restraint I just have to make sure I don't find myself with a bumper pack of chocolate buttons

The other things are what most people say, when you feel hungry..try drinking instead, I find thats all fine and dandy but when your craving a pizza a glass of juice really aint cutting it The easiest thing I found for that was going to bloody bed when I felt like a snack

I found cereal was a good one when I was getting hungry and it was a stupid time to go to bed, seemed quite filling without going calorie mad, well it was in comparison to sticking some chicago town pizzas in the microwave.

Personally I'm still a bit too chunky - overweight if you consult the NHS but I feel I hit the point where I can't lose any more weight without doing exercise because the amount of calories I had to consume to be at a deficit was just miserable but its certainly doable to get some weight off without going mad with exercise (I've never stepped foot in a gym!)

I don't really "know" anything, I'm just someone who also likes to overeat who managed to get some weight off without too much "hard work" - I hope you find some helpful support

[Schmosby]

^Yeah, I think not having snackable foods to hand in the first place is good advice.

[firemonkey]

I've had quite big issues with overeating in the past. At my previous place I had about 16 takeaways a month. It's been cut back to about 2 .a month now. A lot of that is also to do with there being far less takeaway places to tempt me here. I also buy less snacky bits than I used to do when I first moved here.

My stepdaughter says I've lost some weight. I'm beginning to notice a bit with my trousers being looser. I bought some braces for when I go out. Having to hitch my trousers up every few minutes round the supermarket when my stepdaughter takes me is rather iffy . Just got to try and work out how to put them on. My stepdaughter fitted them on for me the first time. I'm not sure if the x goes at the back or front

[Dougella]

^ I think the X goes at the back with braces.

[Toxic]

There ya go

I did exactly what I said I did. I found a large bar of chocolate hiding in the fridge door, not the single bar type things, the share/portion one your suppose to keep putting away.

Ate it one go, It's too bloody easy - I just had dominos too so I've probably put a bloody kilo on today, its too easy to overeat, I don't really know how the body is suppose to cope on 2000 calories, when I was trying to lose weight last year I felt cack when I was only on 1700 or so (I'm aware my diet isnt the best - but its like one stray donut and you have ****ed everything for the past fortnight )

[Mo34]

I use my fitness pal app (when I cba) to work out kcals in foods and meals it will also work out your own recipes if you put in the ingredients. Works out fat, carbs and protein too.
I found it to be quite the eye opener.

[Dougella]

^^^ Men are supposed to eat around 2,500 calories a day, so no wonder you felt rubbish on 1,700!
There is a theory about foods that are known as 'highly palatable' which we are much more likely to overeat, the obvious things with lots of sugar, fat, salt etc. It's not our fault we can't stop eating them, they're designed to be that way. I'm exactly the same, there are some things that I know if I have some I'll just carry on and eat the whole thing. So I either don't buy them or just buy a small amount and accept I'm going to eat them in one go.



^^ There's also cronometer which is an app and a website I think, it's a similar thing where you can put in the food you eat and it will give you a breakdown of the calories and nutrition. It does take a bit of getting used to.

[Toxic]

Originally Posted by Melangell

Hi Toxic, how did you figure out how to eat 1700 calories? I need to eat a calorie restricted diet, but am a bit daunted at trying to work out the calories.

Well I don't eat breakfast - so I was ok counting to 0

I also bought ready meals in the weekly shop that didnt exceed 400 calories (that was difficult as it limited you to the odd healthy range/bugger all)

I can make it to 6-7pm with only having a 400 calorie meal although I suspect I added on some extras with all the coffee I consumed (although I did go from 2 heaped spoon fulls of sugar to either 1 half/a sweetner) So I'd generally add on 300 calories as a round figure for milk sugar over the course of the day without actually working it out as that left me 1000 for me dinner. I had a rough idea how much potato-y based product was around 250-300 calories (like I know them uncle ben packets of rice are about 225 per half) which left me with a 700-800 for meat/fish..and usually beans or corn or something coz I'm a salad dodger at heart I also never had any sort of snack/treat/dessert, I stopped all alcohol and drank pepsi max or water if I was that way inclined.

I don't think there was anything particularly clever about it, its probably the complete wrong way to go about doing things but it seemed common sense that at my size back then I was suppose to eat 2700-2800 calories and if I forced myself to stick to 1700-1800 that was 7000 calories over the week or 2lb and whether the science behind that is bollocks or not - it seemed to correlate well to my actual weight loss.

My current weight is a touch over "OK" and it feels a bit of a fight to keep to my calories, if I sneak a digestive in with a coffee break at lunch, go directly to hell, do not pass go its certainly easier when you've got more to lose I'd like a couple more KG off if I'm honest but I can't do it just from food and despite getting in 12-16k steps a day I'm really not prepared to do anymore sort of exercise

[newbs16]

I just wanted to thank you all for responding to this thread, sorry for my rudeness after all I haven't responded to anyone.

[Toxic]

Woman at work weighs stuff

she weighs her cereal out and has her little portions of milk/fruit and shes scanning all her barcodes and dishing out her sins or whatever points they are because shes having a sweetner in her tea or something (the humanity) It just boggles my mind how much of a titting about it must be, does she have to count her beans?

I think you can get your head around stuff quick quickly..once you know how many calories are in.....chips?, you know waffles or little potatoes/fries or anything else thats basically a reshaped chip will be around the same. I'm even quite good at guessing calories in a ready meal based on whats in it. I might be a 100-200 calories out over the course of a day but its a rough guide. Same with meat/fish really, once you roughly know 1 or 2 providing its not bathing in a pack of lard the rest are similar

I wouldn't go mad weighing stuff out, I know for me that would have just put me off. too much hassle! I would have sacked the whole thing off and went out and bought a bumper pack of pringles

[WhispPurr]

newbs16, if you're overeating btwn 5-9pm, are you getting enough to drink during the day? I don't think I drink enough water, and I tend to snack late in the evening.

I used to reach for sugary cereal bars, but have now stopped buying these - so I often snack on porridge oats or oatcakes (I'll turn into a oat at this rate!) :/

Maybe try keeping a food diary to identify what you're eating/ drinking and when. Also your mood - I'm terrible when it comes to comfort eating; I've not found a successful alternative yet (except napping, similar to what Toxic said!)

[Bluebear]

I used to have this issue too, one thing I’ve found which helps is to drink a lot of water, it really fills me up. When I put on a lot of weight I used to eat a lot of chocolate and biscuits at night.. now I don’t eat at night unless I’m hungry and then I have something like a banana or cereal (not much fun but I’ve got rid of my big belly). Also breakfast is important (which I often skip)