Low Carb for Compulsive Overeaters

[pbziegler]

I used to be a compulsive overeater/binge eater but is has been many years now since I would call myself a compulsive overeater. However, I do overeat enough that I have managed to add about 30 pounds I don't need. So while I have developed ways to break the compulsive overeating habit I have been experimenting with how to actually lose that weight and keep it off. And to improve my blood numbers. Low carb promises these results so i am doing this self experiment. Never Weight Watchers again. Can't be hungry all the time or feeling deprived. Hope to find support and guidance here.

[ojoj]

I used to be a compulsive overeater. I tried Atkins 13 years ago and lost weight (and some health issues) I never thought I'd be able to stick with it. I'd tried so many other diets. However, this time it was different, I almost immediately stopped thinking/craving food.

Over the years, I've analysed and looked at my eating habits previously and I'm fairly sure that sugar/carbs are addictive. Once you stop them, you break free - but you cant ever go back to them - well you can occasionally, but its tricky (think recovering alcoholic/smoker...)

Anyway, thats how it is for me. As long as I dont eat carbs, I dont want them so I dont compulsively eat and its worked for 13 years

Jo xxx

[bkloots]

Welcome. You'll find others here who have walked in your shoes. LC might be the key for you.

Best wishes.

[MickiSue]

I was where you are. I could eat normally for a long time. But sooner or later, I'd start overeating SOMETHING, and it was always high in carbs. Last winter, it was dried fruit. 12 lbs worth of the carbs in dried fruit, to be precise.

It's taken me since early June to lose the 12, and another 4.6 lbs, besides. But they're gone, and now that I finally have accepted that carbs are not, and never were my friend, I plan on keeping them gone.

Welcome. This is a good place, with good people.

[jschwab]

I was never a compulsive overeater but I certainly had moments where carbs led to overeating, mostly because they do not satiate. I think low carb can help address a lot of compulsive behaviors - alcoholism, smoking, etc. Having your nutritional needs met can do wonders for the brain.

[Tborba]

I also suffer from overeating and binging. I am no doubt a sugar/ carb addict and I need it to stop. Today will be my first day trying Atkins, and I'm fully commited, but worried about the sugar/carb withdrawal. Any advice on how to deal with it?

[ojoj]

I also suffer from overeating and binging. I am no doubt a sugar/ carb addict and I need it to stop. Today will be my first day trying Atkins, and I'm fully commited, but worried about the sugar/carb withdrawal. Any advice on how to deal with it?

The only withdrawal problems I got were maybe a bit of a headache and feeling a bit "flu-ey" but that all passed within a week and then I felt amazing, energy levels shot up, IBS, arthritis, eczema all just went!!

I did have cravings occasionally, but I didnt given in to them because I just felt so much better. I'd just eat low carb stuff until they passed - a piece of cheese, cold meat, nuts.....

Jo xxxx

[Just Jo]

:wave: Hello and Welcome pbziegler!

Just a comment on this part of your post:Can't be hungry all the time or feeling deprived.Some people on any WOE plan feel deprived if they can't have their old time favorite food... a poster to these threads wrote this a while back and it pretty much sums up how I feel about my own LC WOE:
“I look forward to the things I can EAT without GUILT instead of regretting the things I can no longer HAVE!”

(by madgicb 04-25-15) Wishing you much success on your journey to a healthier YOU! :cheer:

[Just Jo]

I also suffer from overeating and binging. I am no doubt a sugar/ carb addict and I need it to stop. Today will be my first day trying Atkins, and I'm fully commited, but worried about the sugar/carb withdrawal. Any advice on how to deal with it?I agree with ojoj (and I usually always do!) eat something perfectly on-plan for your LC WOE! You can never go wrong that way!

I'm an overeater and binger too but I've developed strategies to combat all my food related issues. I have a boat load of them (food related issues and strategies)!

Success is built on being OP (on plan) one day at a time, sometimes it's one meal at a time. But they do add up!! Good Luck! :thup:

[MickiSue]

tborba, my husband made chocolate chip cookies on Saturday. The ones he hadn't yet eaten sat on the counter, in a container, all day yesterday.

For dinner, I ate beyond full of the wonderful pot roast I'd made. I'd rather eat a little too much of on plan foods, than any off plan.

And then, I suggested he take them with him when he went to play ping pong last night. There are still some left, but today they aren't bothering me.

Someone has suggested keeping a handful of hard boiled eggs in the frig. If you think you are hungry, and you don't want them, then you aren't hungry, just craving.

[ojoj]

http://www.dietdoctor.com/first-part-of-our-sugar-addiction-video-course-free-for-all

Jo xxx

[Bonnie OFS]

Compulsive overeater/binger here. In OA. I don't tell anyone at meetings (we're not allowed to promote diets), but I don't think I could have stuck with the program if I were trying to eat everything in moderation - LCHF keeps me from being triggered into a binge.

Like others said, I try to focus on the many things I can eat, rather than what I can't. Holidays are difficult, but getting better.

[Nancy LC]

How did you overcome your compulsive over-eating? I'm still looking for answers.

[Bonnie OFS]

How did you overcome your compulsive over-eating? I'm still looking for answers.

If you're asking me, I haven't overcome it. However, I'm better. I still overeat, but not every day, and I haven't binged in over a year.

I work the steps, especially the first 3. I pray a lot - along the lines of Anne Lamott's Help, Thanks, Wow. I say "help" a lot! When I notice that I've gotten over an obstacle without overeating, I say "thanks." Haven't gotten to the point of "wow" yet. Hopefully, that will come.

I absolutely hate it when I get that horrible, almost irresistible urge to eat something I shouldn't. It's hard work. But if I do the work, it's worth it. If I don't, I screw up again.

[ojoj]

I liken it to trying to give up cigarettes. In the end, its the longevity of not having one that stops people starting again - those who do have "just one" tend to then have just another and another and..........

Me??? I managed to give up the carbs because of the other positive effects of not eating them - arthritis, IBS, eczema all went. Also, whenever I did get the urge to have something bad, I'd have a huge piece of cheese or something low carb - to the point where I just didnt want to eat anything else - that in itself told me that I wasnt eating because I was hungry - it was a craving, an addiction.

Cigarettes - well thats another story and a massive fail on my part :(

Jo xxx

[Bonnie OFS]

Cigarettes - well thats another story and a massive fail on my part :(

Jo xxx

It's been over 20 years since I quit & it's the cost that keeps me from starting up again. Just the other day I found myself thinking that smoking might make me thin again. :(

[daylitemag]

This is an interesting thread. Any strategies that have worked for others are of interest to me, too.

I am employing the eat OP method at the times when I might otherwise eat things I should not. I keep nuts around all the time and when I get cravings I try to eat a handful of nuts (or more, if that's what it takes). At least they are filling and satisfying without giving me a bunch of unwanted carbs.

Any other strategies?

[Nancy LC]

My issue isn't binge eating carbs. I can do it on low carb things too. I'm not a really awful, awful binge-eater, but I just tend to eat far too much when it is very tasty. LC or not.

[Bonnie OFS]

My issue isn't binge eating carbs. I can do it on low carb things too. I'm not a really awful, awful binge-eater, but I just tend to eat far too much when it is very tasty. LC or not.

Me too. But I figure that overeating meat isn't anywhere as bad as overeating bread, popcorn, or potato chips. And those things can lead me into a major binge - meat doesn't.

[Nancy LC]

It is better, but I am still gaining weight. Body isn't as forgiving as it once was.

[MickiSue]

My oldest son is skinny as a rail. Nearly 6 feet, and he weighs in the 140's. But, when he was a baby and a toddler, he ate nearly non stop. It's true. If he was in his highchair, and there wasn't always something to eat on the tray, he'd fuss.

Non stop, something for him. I was amazed at what that child could put away! One day, when he was a little over two, old enough to make simple sentences, after a marathon of eating, he said, "Mommy. My tummy hurts."

I looked at him and said, "That's because you're full, J. That kind of tummy ache means that you're full." He was astonished. I am certain that his gut had signaled "full" before, but he didn't know how to distinguish that discomfort from all the myriad of other gut discomforts little people need to learn about.

So. I wonder if that is part of why so many of us overeat, chronically? Because we haven't really internalized "This kind of tummy ache means that we're full."?

It's simple, but I know that, if I get into, for example, emotional eating, or eating to avoid eating something else, I will eat past discomfort. Or, so quickly that by the time my stomach knows it's got adequate food in it, it has too much.

I need to think about this one....

[Nancy LC]

My brain is super slow about getting the full signal. Sometimes, if the food tastes really good, I keep going until I get the signal and by that time I'm in your son's tummy ache range. :-) Probably 50% of my problem is the speed of my eating.