I'm 17, and a binge eater. I don't look obese or anything, but I definitely need to lose weight. I had taco bell today with a friend, and then after work i drove through mcdonalds. I finished mcdonalds like 15 mins ago. Give it another five minutes before i go to the pantry and get something else to eat. this is consuming my life... i feel so sad. I hate myself because something as stupid as food has THIS much power over me.

does anyone know how i feel?? please help.

Yea, I know exactly how you feel! So many days I felt out of control and I kept eating and eating constantly! The last time it happened, two weeks ago, I polished off a BLOCK of chocolate (on top of other things), like the size of my fist! I didn't even want any of it, I just couldn't stop myself.
BUT there is hope!! I think the biggest thing you can do is remove yourself from situations where you would go to a fast food place, if that means not eating there with your friends, then do it. At least for a while. For me the only thing that works is not eating ANY sugar at all. Not even one bite. Of course its hard, but then the cravings for junk go away.

Can i just say ditto to what the both of you said?

Dear, everagainbabee,

I have been doing this for ever it seems like. I'm 30 years old and I probably have the same story as you or at least very similar to it. The only answer I can give you is you absolutely have to be sick and tired of being sick and tired.
I have been to Overeaters anonymous meetings and I have gone to a fast food places prior or after the meeting and then lied about what I had to eat. It just made me sicker and sicker. The only thing I can tell you is that you when are ready when you are ready. I don't want to discourage you but I really feel like this is the only way. You have to hit rock bottom before it even makes one difference in your mind, no matter how much or little you weigh. You have to be willing to go to any length to get relief from your problem. If you aren't willing to go to any length then you probably aren't ready.
I have not been to an OA meeting in 8 years but for the first time ever I feel like I am ready to do this. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. I will not take no for an answer. There is not a place on this earth where I cant stay on plan. I read and hear people say that they don't think they can stay on plan because it is too restrictive, but I am not willing to say that I cant.

I am so sick of being fat (255 lbs @ 5 ft tall), I am willing to go to any length to be healthy. I have gone past the point of just wanting to be thin but to the point of just wanting to stay alive to see my Daughter grow up and be a happy woman. Being thin no longer means much to me. I just want to be healthy.

omg i could positively KILL for double decker tacos and 7-layer burritos and gorditas and big macs and fries. i work literally upstairs from mcdonalds and a 5 min bus ride to taco bell. yesterday on the subway home some girl was eating bk fries sitting directly across from me. i was staring her down the entire time. or, well, staring her fries down. i hate that it's still such a challenge for me.

definitely been there. just a couple of months ago I was eating alone at fast food, then with friends a little bit later, then again when I got home. FULL MEALS, ina couple of hours time. i remember this one day I had nothing better to do so I went through the drive-thru at BK and got the biggest i could hold (like a triple whopper or something?) and a large fry and REGULAR soda and then sat in my car in the parking lot and ate it all before going out to dinner with my family.
Of course I ate it in my car, not inside, because I was binging and I was embarassed and paranoid about what people were going to think when they saw me sitting alone wolfing down a whopper the size of my head. I was probably right to be embarrased.
But really, what all these ladies are saying is right. You have to be ready. It's pretty simple, though i know it doesn't feel that way to you now. But I wasn't ready for a long time, and I'd diet for a week or two (usually very restrictive dieting) and then binge for a month. I couldn't talk myself out of those binges every day, but now that I look back I see I didn't really try. I would make out a feeble "but I'm on a diet..." before the binge monkey would start shreiking and, well, you know what happens after that.
But once you're ready, its almost like a light has been shined on your life for the first time. You look around and realize that maybe it's not so hard. (of course a couple of days later you'll realize its still the hardest thing, but you start developing those coping tools almost immediantly, and it gets easier.) You just start eating healthy, one day and then two days and then two weeks in a row, and you stop thinking about binging. You're thinking more about what the number on the scale will read tomorrow after such a great day of on-plan eating. It's really just a light-bulb moment that everyone has at their own time, and once you get started its easy to keep going, even though you will certain fall off the wagon more than a dozen times. Just climb back on, keep on trucking, and in a month or two you'll be on here reassuring another girl that's having the same problem, telling her your secret.

this place is the best weight loss tool available as far as I know. Use us, we're here for you.

i know exactly what you are feeling. ive been consumed by many destructive patterns of behavior in life, bingeing included. it takes over all of my control of my body. and once i start it's so hard to stop. i can remember sitting in fast food parking lots, eating entire boxes of donuts in my bedroom, sitting in front of the refrigerator unable to leave the kitchen until i was sick. and i hate myself for it. i hate that i can't control myself ALL THE TIME. it's a learning process for sure.

hi all

i am not sure i would call myself a binge eater but i know i regularly have the feeling that the more i eat the more food i want? i am very frustrated and confused at the moment it almost seems easier to me not to eat which i know isnt the right way to go about things.

if anyone can offer advice i woud appreciate taking to anyone with a simlar isssue

much love

mystic

Hi! I read a book that might interest you, it's called Confessions of a Carb Queen. It's the auto-biography of a woman's addiction to fast food. You know, we warn our kids about cigarettes, drugs and drinking but I truly believe that that stuff can be addictive to some people.

She went from competitive body building to being 500 pounds and spent hours every day driving through different fast food places!

She finally figured out that it was the sodium that was the trigger for her.

Do you think you could swear off the fast food for a period of time (like a week) and keep a journal about it? You can make versions of the stuff at home.....for instance healthy soft tacos with chicken, soy meat, or grilled fish instead of TB mystery meat, LOL.

Oh and you know what can also be a food trigger for a lot of people is SODA including diet soda almost always included in a fast food meal.

A LOT of people have this problem. You are not alone at all. When you see the commercials of all the smiley thin people at McDonalds or whatever....well we all know that's not how it really is.

Also you might be interested in renting the movie "Supersize Me." It is almost impossible to want fast food after watching it!

tonight was not good for me. not fast food. but soooo not good.

oh yeah i watched supersize me not a nice film however i still find myself eating macdonalds what the **** is that all about! lol

much love

mystic

I had a binge issue at 17 too. So I relate You need to understand that binge eating is usually related with not listening to your feelings. If you eat something, dont feel guilty! This is really hard to overcome, but by feeling guilty you basically let yourself know what you're doing is wrong - and then you feel even worse, and eat! Start listening to how you feel. Why are you eating? Stress? Alone? Lack of confidence?

It's all about becoming comfortable with food, and being able to deal with how you feel. If you do feel insecure about how you look or are alone its hard to be alone with those feelings, but overcoming a binge problem and being able to deal with your feels is a very self empowering thing to do. You will do this!

I know how you feel too. Sometimes I think about food all day. What can I eat next? When is the next meal? Blah blah blah.

It's hard You can overcome it though.

I'm also seventeen and I binge, so I know how you're feeling. But food isn't something stupid to be controlled by, I mean, there are so many people with an eating disorder out there. Not all overeaters, but food is still in the center of their lives, like it is for me and you. But I know it sucks to be addicted to something, whatever it is. I used to smoke aswell, and in the end I hated that because I let something other than myself take control of me. It's the same thing with food for me, I eat against my will, yet something inside me tells me I need to eat all of that food. "I don't want to eat it" doesn't seem to be a good enough argument.

But the people on here have inspired me to do something about it, even though I've only been here for a few days, haha. Before I didn't think I could ever do something about it. So many diets had failed and only made me heavier, so much food I had consumed. Maybe I wasn't strong enough, maybe this was supposed to be my life. But it doesn't have to be, I'm starting to realise that now. Though I've only been binge free for two days so far, I feel different this time!

Anyway. If you want to talk, or get some motivation, or whatever, you can PM me if you want to.