[NEOCORTEX]

i cannot control myself around sugar. i eat to a point of feeling sick and then i eat some more and i really do not want to eat anymore but i can't help myself.
then i make sugar 'off limits' and binge on it some more, to the point where i literally have to throw out everything sweet in the house.
i usually have good control over my eating if i don't sweat over it too much, but this is a recurring problem. the upside is that i get so sick of sugar that i end up eating well just because i really like eating well and i'm sick of feeling sick from eating all the sugar.
but i don't know how to stop these sugar binges. i would really like to just be able to have a couple of cookies or just one piece of chocolate because that's all i really want but it just seems impossible.
i've lost 63 lbs so far (my goal is about 100 lbs) and i feel like these binges are hindering my progress so that i'm maintaining weight rather than losing by spending half of every week binging and the other have eating normally.
help?

[carter]

Originally Posted by NEOCORTEX

i would really like to just be able to have a couple of cookies or just one piece of chocolate because that's all i really want but it just seems impossible.

It would be nice, wouldn't it? And yet I think some people are just not wired that way.

One thing I learned about myself while I was losing weight is that I am definitely not the sort of person who can eat "just one" and then put the bag away for tomorrow. I am not satisfied with small amounts of certain foods and never, ever will be. It is not a value judgment, or an indictment of my discipline or strength or value as a person to acknowledge this. It just is.

To lose weight and keep it off I have had to learn to work with this personality trait of mine, rather than try in vain to change it and beat myself up because I could not change it.

That means not putting myself in situations where bingeing is available to me. There are certain things I don't even buy and bring into the house - not just cookies and sweets, but even a loaf of bread - because I know that once I start eating them I will not stop until they are gone. I strive to only eat these things (if at all) in absolutely controlled conditions where binge quantities are not available to me. If I am at an office party with a spread of treats I won't even touch them until I am about to leave the party, and then I will take one or two very special-looking items to try and leave.

i've lost 63 lbs so far (my goal is about 100 lbs) and i feel like these binges are hindering my progress so that i'm maintaining weight rather than losing by spending half of every week binging and the other have eating normally.
help?

You've done amazingly well and should be proud. I feel very much what you are saying because I regained about a quarter of the weight I lost on behaviors very much like what you are describing - in control half the time, bingeing the other half the time. I am working on losing the regain now and I am entirely focused on controlling the bingeing - the rest of it, eating on plan, I know how to do because I did it for 3 years to lose the 120 in the first place.

And I'm approaching the problem, as I said, by acknowledging that I simply will binge on certain things if I give myself the opportunity - so I do not give myself the opportunity. There is no need to test my purity by putting a pound bag of candy on the table in front of me and challenging myself not to eat it. I'm better off not buying the pound bag in the first place.

[Palestrina]

There are polarizing ideas of what to do about sugar. There are many advocates of abstinence and I know from experience that with abstince that sugar cravings do go away... but they come back unfortunately and when they do they cause these types of binges. This is neither a good thing nor a bad thing, it's just a consequence of restriction.

When I decided to go down the Intuitive Eating path it was because I understood that certain foods were "charged" which included sugar and junk food. I had attached the label "bad" to these foods and therefore they held a special power over me, I had a love hate relationship with them: love for the foods, hate for myself for eating them. It caused a lot of guilt and ultimately it was this dysfunctional way of encountering this food that made it a bad situation. With IE I first legalized these foods and tried to eat them without guilt. I limited my quantities only to satisfying my physical hunger (which is a whole other can of worms lol) and tried to eat them with enjoyment. It was a process of neutralizing my relationship with foods like sugar.

It does take a while but I can tell you that abandoning the addict-mentality has the best thing I've ever done. I spent many years avoiding these foods, restricting them, keeping them out of the house and painting myself as a victim of addiction. This built up a lot of resentment and distrust in myself. I can strategize a lot to avoid binges but they did catch up with me. Now that I've taken away the "charge" of these foods I can keep them around the house, eat them whenever I want to and feel no guilt about it because my desire for them is small. I can have a box of cookies around and not eat one for days and days. I can take one or 2 cookies for my afternoon tea and enjoy them without guilt and without starting an avalanche of out of control cravings.

Which ever way you choose has to be the right way for you.

[rabidstoat]

I am so conflicted about sugar.

I think it's ridiculous that I can't eat a little bit of something sugary without binging, even though I can't. And I can't imagine a life without sugary treats, it's sad, but it seems like it would be devoid of happiness.

But then I think of alcoholics, say. I totally support people who know they can't have any alcohol or they will binge on it, and I don't think they are silly or weak at all because of it. And I know that they can have happiness in their lives without alcohol, because I have happiness in my life without mine.

So if that's true of alcohol and others who are alcoholics, it should be true of food and those like me who are food addicts. I mean, logically I realize that I should have a perfectly happy life without sugar. And if I don't think an alcoholic is silly or weak for having a problem with alcohol, why do I think I'm silly and weak myself for having a problem with sugar?

Makes no sense. Stupid sugar.

[magical]

Originally Posted by NEOCORTEX

i cannot control myself around sugar. i eat to a point of feeling sick and then i eat some more and i really do not want to eat anymore but i can't help myself.
then i make sugar 'off limits' and binge on it some more, to the point where i literally have to throw out everything sweet in the house.
i usually have good control over my eating if i don't sweat over it too much, but this is a recurring problem. the upside is that i get so sick of sugar that i end up eating well just because i really like eating well and i'm sick of feeling sick from eating all the sugar.
but i don't know how to stop these sugar binges. i would really like to just be able to have a couple of cookies or just one piece of chocolate because that's all i really want but it just seems impossible.
i've lost 63 lbs so far (my goal is about 100 lbs) and i feel like these binges are hindering my progress so that i'm maintaining weight rather than losing by spending half of every week binging and the other have eating normally.
help?

It sounds as if you're stuck in a binge/restrict cycle because of an "all or nothing" approach to junk food.

You really need to let such thoughts go and see food for what it is - simply fuel for your body - NOT so that you can stuff yourself with the "forbidden foods" because that's the last time you think you'll be eating them.

Choose the foods that you like to eat for the day or the meal (including desserts/chocolate etc), eat them and take your mind off food once the meal is done. This does not mean that you should not be enjoying meal times. These times are relaxation or break times (when you're on your own), family times (when you're with your family) and socialising times (when you eat out with friends etc) and the focus should be on relaxing or spending time with your family/friends, rather than the food per se. Apart from these times, don't even think to go into the kitchen. There's no need to really!

[Songofsusannah]

Reading this couldn't have come at a better time for me. I've managed to put on almost 10 pounds over the holidays solely because of my bingeing on sugar. I am at the end of my rope.
I too am not one of those people that can have "just one" cookie or piece of candy. (It is SO nice to know I'm not alone by the way.) I will literally eat whatever sugar containing food is in front of me until it's gone. I absolutely hate this about myself, and I have spent years trying to fix it.
I want more than anything to be able to be in the same room with a sugar containing food and not have it dominate my thoughts until it is gone. I don't know what to do, and I feel so disgusting that I've let my weight balloon up like this.

[mars735]

This sounds very familiar! I think I'm fortunate in that I usually get sick of sugar before too much weight is gained. I guess I enjoy eating it to my heart's content at the times I do have it. In between, I'm happy to not have it or even enjoy fake sweets, like protein shakes, bars, & hot chocolate. It's a balancing act, but like Carter wrote, some of us have different wiring. People who study such things have speculated that maybe we evolved the craving for sweets because sugar is a quick fuel source and survival may have depended on recognizing that, in ancient times. So maybe it's just a normal though inconvenient human variation, rather than a character flaw.

[Biscuits]

I can't have sugar in the house, otherwise I also binge on it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with having a sugar free household.

[effervescent17]

Sugar is definitely an addiction. I don't know if you have ever seen FED UP, but if you haven't you should. Shows how sugar is worse than cocaine! I believe it too because when it comes to me and sugar I can not stop. Sometimes it won't even be that good but I still need more and more. I guess the only way to really do it is to do that 30 day sugar free challenge...but I know it's hard as **** I mean it's literally like giving up a drug...except worse because you can't avoid sugar for the rest of your live like drugs!

I think of sugar like sex addicts, it's just something you can't go the rest of your life without. I wish I knew how to control it, it's either all or nothing. Also the problem with sugar free is it actually makes you crave more sugar...so sugar free really isn't the best option either.