Okay, so last week i went into burger king and got my bf his dinner, before this i had no desire to get any, until i looked at the menu board and without thinking ordered myself a chicken burger, afterwards thinking it cant hurt. After eating it i was lying in bed absolutly sick out of my mind, later on realising i had gotten food posioning from it as well as my sister she had only taken a bite, during the next day or so i couldnt keep anything down felt like utter crap. After getting better i jumped on the scales and had lost a few pounds, now this is where i have made my mistake, i got excited about the weight loss and stupidly figured that with me eating next to nothing the weight would fall of, which it had been, and i so know this is a REALLY bad way to lose weight but it's almost an obsession now, i cant seem to make myself eat a proper meal, i guess im just so anxious to lose weight even with knowing that it isnt healthy.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how i get past this?

Emphasize to yourself, over and over again, that you want to be healthy, not just lighter. You want less fat, not just less mass.

Losing weight by starving yourself is going to cause you to lose a lot of muscle tissue. Not only will this make you weaker, but it will lower your metabolism, making it so that you have to eat even less in order to lose weight or maintain your ideal weight. And if in the future, heaven forbid, you ever do start to gain a bit of weight again you can very possibly end up at even a higher weight, since you don't have the muscle tissue to help moderate your energy use.

So you were sick, you didn't eat well, and you lost a bit of extra mass. Fine, this is going to happen to everybody (no matter what their size vs their ideal weight), but that is over and it is time to get back on the road to recovery and good health, which means eating right and exercising.

I couldn't have said it better.

I kinda picked up that obsession too. I struggled to get past it, and to some degree I still am. Here's the problem:

You can't eat next to nothing forever. I'm sure, theoretically you could but It would certainly shorten your lifespan. Sure you might get thinner - weigh less and all that good stuff but your body can only handle that kind of abuse for so long. Jen's absolutely right about losing the fat and keeping the muscle mass. Alot of lean muscle mass takes more caloires to maintain than the same ammout (by weight) of fat.

Start off by figuring out how much you need just to maintain the weight you're at right now. Search for "BMR calculators" online and that will give you a pretty good idea of how many calories you burn daily (just existing - not including any activity). Finding that helped me relax a little knowing that I could get a bare minimum of 1500 cals a day without gaining.

I had to learn to shift from one obsession to another in order to get past it. So I began to focus on figuring out how I could get all the nutrients and fiber I need every day without driving myself (or my family) nuts. I also began to catalog all the foods I felt like I was missing out on (there were alot more foods I missed than I realized). My next step was to attemp to convert those beloved goodies into something more healthy. What I now have is a recipe book with converted recipes for all sorts of "no-no" foods - like fettuccini alfredo, oatmeal raisin cookies, creamy cheesy chicken and rice, and butternut squash pie (sounds scary - but really really tasty).

To make a long story longer If you MUST obsess over anything (and I must, it's just how I am), obsess over something that will be worthwhile in the long run. It's not just about the scales. Everything is connected to the way you eat. You skin, nails, hair, energy levels, and emotional well being suffer when you don't get enough of what you need. You also gain it back faster if you never learn to eat healthy.

Jane

start: 310 (Oct '04)
goal: 150 (Feb '06)
current: 135 - and holding
Total loss: 175 via WW, excercise, and loads of support.

Like the other ladies said- eventually you'll stop losing weight. Your body is very smart & it will figure out what's happening & will hoard calories & slow or stop your weight loss. The lower numbers on the scale are really hard to resist I'm sure. Geneen Roth has some great books about our relationships with food- check her out!

Wow...never thought about it, but that's me in a nutshell also! Good advice!

Hello All,

I think this thread brings up a great point about the obession with weight/scales/food/excercise. I have talked about it before in another post but I really see it more and more within myself the more weight I loose. The closer I get to my goal the more I think about every morsel I put into my mouth and every moment on that treadmill at 3.4mph. My friend told me that I was beginning to have an eating disorder and I was soooo FUMING MAD...because it is not an unhealthy obsession actually its a healthy one because before when I ignored my weight or managed to fool myself into thinking that my weight didnt efffect who I was and all those other cliches that nice relatives pass on to us it was fine that I paid no mind to my body and now that I am everyone has something to say. I own the fact that I too am obsessed with my food and my eating and my excercise because that way I will never again mask my eating with ignorance about whats really going on with my body. I truly believe in my case anyway..as I love food, and all the wrong kinds of food...that the only way for me to ever be able to maintain is to become obessed with being healthy. I know how easy it is to become obsessed with that number or that size on jeans and how we all slip and do the wrong things to get there, but this is a learning process. Teaching my body to retrain itself to heal, eat and use food and excerise properly will be a lifelong challenge. But keep the faith, your body needs food so dont make it your enemy and if you want to get past the guilt of eating start out by eating lots and lots of good stuff, salads and fruit and maybe that will get you past this little bump in your weightloss road. Stick with it and be healthy!