Has anyone figured out what caused them to start overeating in the first place?
 

My question is how did you figure it out? And I'd love to know why although that's pretty personal.

I know OA isn't about figuring it out but I'd still love to know.

I think I was simply born with a large appetite. My mother tried to bottle-feed me according to a doctor's recommended schedule, but apparently I used to scream bloody murder after every feeding -- until she gave me a whole extra bottle. When I was four, I discovered a large box of chocolates left by some guests and ate the whole thing. Apparently my dad said, "Good, she'll get sick and won't want to eat chocolates from now on," but my stomach withstood the experience without any problem and I continue to love chocolate to this day.

Freelance

There are a couple things... the found convenient food was cheaper.. and quick.. my family never had much money when I was younger so we grew up on frozen and processed foods.. also I found myself to be a stress eater.. sad.. anxious.. what made me feel better?? Of course ice cream.. cheesecake... a variety of appetizers delivered right to my door.. now I try to stress clean my house.. lol its more beneficial

This is a great question. I've been trying to figure this out for myself for years!

I grew up in proverty, and we were always short on food. When I went to college, I had free range of the entire cafeteria. I gained (and lost) weight, but only began to have a SERIOUS overeating problem after I received radioactive iodine to "treat" my thyroid.

After that, even when my hormone levels were considered normal, I would binge, overeat, be really emotional if I did not get the food I was looking for, etc.

I have a hunch that my hormones and what I eat really guides me. I've come to this conclusion due to my thyroid hormone history, how I ate when I was pregnant/nursing, and what my cravings were when I was on or off birth control meds.

I've also discovered that I am sensative to wheat gluten. When I eat a lot of this, I don't feel the "I'm full" signal. I can quickly fall into a frenzy of never being satisfied with what I am eating... and quickly binge on carbs and other foods.

It's almost like having a chemical inbalance in my body. Weird, eh?

I'm still trying to figure this out. I agree - stress definately contributes. So does lack of sleep and not getting daily exercise.

I think this is an excellent question!

I'm not sure I know the answer,but I think it may because I was a picky eater when I was a kid. I strongly disliked the taste and texture of a lot of "regular" food. Green vegetables has a very strong unpleasant taste to me. I always felt like I could taste the chlorophyll. I also did not like if say, the juice from my green beans touched my mashed potatoes or my meat. I didn't like anything to have ever even been close to a green or red pepper or an onion. (I still prefer not to eat anything that has even been in the vicinity of a jalapeno).

I have memories of seriously disliking the family meals my mom made, and school lunches- both always hot meals, w/plenty of boiled canned green veggies to foul it all up. The smell alone made me feel ill. This led I guess to me filling up instead on sandwiches, chips etc. Fast food/junk food was extremely rare for us growing up,but I sure developed a love for it early, because all the other stuff was just repulsive to me and I had to eat something! Bologna sandwiches were my junk food before I had easy access to hamburgers. I stayed at the high end of a normal weight range through sheer willpower most of my life, but I ate BADLY, almost all junk. I seriously rarely ate any vegetables other than lettuce and frozen corn on the cob. Then a few years ago when I went into a serious bunch of life crises and major 2 year long depression, I stress ate and comfort fooded myself to over 200 lbs.

Funny thing is, once I started taking control again, I've found that many of the foods I hated as a child, I now love. Of course now there are steamed veggies, instead of that awful canned stuff, so it all tastes so different and the texture isn't all slimy and icky. I'm honestly amazed I didn't get scurvy though from the many years I had almost no vegetables and very little fruit.

So for me it was a combination of developing a love for the least healthy foods, then stress eating/emotional eating the crap out of it.

Ive always had the issue of not eating enough, like my body just wouldn't give me the signals to remind me Im hungry until I was beyond the point of hungry it would hurt. Then I would eat really fast and eat WAY to much because as we know it takes a few minutes for our brain to catch up with our stomach. Then I would be so full I felt sick.

Most of my under eating stems from depression due to job loss and money issues. The over eating came from high calorie fatty fast foods that were a "quick fix" to my hunger pains.

Honestly I still have trouble some days with under eating but calorie counting and having to write everything down has helped me remember that I should eat BEFORE I feel starved so I dont binge.

As a child, I was always denied the delicious yummy (bad) food while my older brother and sister were allowed to have all they wanted. I was fat and they were not.
Because of this, I've never really freely allowed myself to have a stupid cookie when I wanted, or the whole package. Or a bag of chips. Sometimes I'd treat myself, but it wasn't without severe guilt associated with it. A relationship with food isn't supposed to be like that. It's made me obsessive about food in a way, and I hate it. I can't just have a little bit at a time because I'll not be able to stop thinking about it until the package is empty and the food is out of reach. Instead, I keep foods around me that I hardly even like in an effort to not eat too much, and it really sucks. I need to fix myself. A psychiatrist would probably help! (half lol/half serious!)

I've watched Oprah a number of times and that question has been raised many times. I've thought about it and realized that I don't have any deep dark psychological issues that cause me to overeat. I plain just like food and I want it when I'm tired or stressed. One thing I do know though, is that eating out at restaurants or eating junk food is such a "treat" because I didn't get much of it as a child. I come from a large family and we couldn't afford such things. So now, when I want to "treat" myself, guess what I do?

I think eating a lot of refined foods makes you feel hungrier just like you said. Once I get started, it's hard to stop. Stress and lack of sleep are HUGE factors.

Hmmm....Stress cleaning. I'll have to remember that one! However, that's the last thing I want to do when stresssed! :)

Originally Posted by gertie140:
I think eating a lot of refined foods makes you feel hungrier just like you said. Once I get started, it's hard to stop. Stress and lack of sleep are HUGE factors.

Yes! The more processed carbs I eat, the more I crave them. When I eliminate processed foods it takes a few days, but the cravings go away. It's getting through those few days that's really hard. :o

Eating is a favorite recreational activity for me, always has been. And I have always had a bottomless appetite - if something is enjoyable to eat, I'll quite happily keep eating it until it is gone.

That is all there is to it for me - no deep-seated psychology, no childhood trauma, nothing to understand or root out of my psyche.

Developing control over my overeating, therefore, has only been a matter of finding ways to continue to enjoy the pleasure of food, while exercising discipline to avoid eating too much of it.

I'm not 100% sure. Some days it's not that I necessarily overeat. I just eat things that aren't good for me which is enough to gain weight. I know that when I was a younger kid my diet was very balanced and restricted. But when my parents got divorced when I was in highschool, my mom became very lax about how we both ate. I don't blame my mom, but I think it opened up a world of processed foods and carbs for me. And so when I got to college I didn't really know how or want to eat things that were better for me. And it was downhill from there.

The funny thing about my binges is that it's a flavor that I get addicted to. For example, I might crave Mac and Cheese. And then all I want to eat is Mac and Cheese for every meal. I don't eat tons of it at one time. I just may eat it for days or weeks. And then all of a sudden I'm sick of it. And then I'll be on to a new flavor. Unfortunately it's never broccoli that I crave. Breaking these cravings is really hard.

I was very healthy and fit until my second job out of college. That second job....it was so high stress that I literally spent all of my time at work afraid of being fired. There was barely any time I wasn't. 50-72hrs per week, every week, I was afraid and so were my coworkers. I was a breadwinner with everything to lose. The company overworked us, underpaid us, and made it sound like if we didn't work well over 40 hours per week we'd be fired. One of my coworkers came to work with whooping cough for a month because they were too afraid to take time off. I know exactly when I put on every single overweight pound, and this was it. Then I was laid off, lost my apartment we were forced, as newlyweds, to move in with my in-laws. I had the time to work out then, but at the same time I had insomnia so severe that I literally had to drink regularly to get any sleep at all. I didn't gain, but neither did I lose.

So, now I'm done with three of the worst years of my life and finally have the health and financial circumstances to focus on Me, for once. I've found, though, that I have two persistent issues from the **** I went through: 1) I am so, so angry that someone as hard-working and independent as I am had to suffer through all that work abuse and unemployment very much alone, and 2) I have trouble not cleaning my plate when there's not enough to be used as leftovers, because I developed the habit during poverty of never wasting anything. I even hesitate to throw out food that is older and not as fresh as I'd like.

Seeing everyone else's reasons makes me feel a bit silly--doesn't anyone else out there have a job situation you can blame for overeating?

For me it's a whole heap of things.

I grew up in a fat family, was taught bad habits and they take some breaking. I was a single teenage mum so had no money as such I relied on cheap convenience foods.

However there is a huge amount of social conditioning in there too. I was taught to eat my feelings, cried as a child received a hug but also a biscuit, fell off my bike get a choccy bar for being a brave girl. I soon learnt that if I had emotional or physical pain then food would provide comfort.

Add to this some bullying for being the fat kid and I learnt that even though I couldn't control their behaviour I could control my eating so I starved myself but the emotional pain would get so much I'd binge and not be able to purge it all.

I had an abusive relationship and I'm a rape survivor. He destroyed what little confidence I had, told me everyday I was fat and ugly and I believed him. It became a self fulfilling prophecy.

My fat has become my safety blanket. If I stay fat no one will love me and I won't get hurt, if I stay fat no one will desire me and I won't get attacked again.

All in all I'm a psychological mess but starting to face my demons and battle the bulge.

Punishment. It took me such a long time to figure it out.

I am not interested in food, could live happily without it. I never really crave anything and have never been much on sweets. What happens with me is that I will feel bad about something and punish myself with food abuse. I gorge on junk foods, foods I would not eat unless in binge mode. I finally realized that I either was trying to pass out from a food coma (avoidance of the issue) or stuffing myself in anger or anxiety. When deep in a binge I am in bingeland and don't have to deal with what is bother me.

I feel sick, bloated and so awful for a reason. I press myself into this kind of pain to punish myself for not being good enough or confident enough to take care of whatever issue is at hand.

Knowing this helps in only a small way, doing something about it is the key.

Stress eating for me!

1)Too many moves (some overseas), too much instability and too much change.
2) Family issues....sigh

re:
 

Probably a combination of fast food and depression medication. I had always been a bit overweight but was pretty steady for a long time.

About 10 years ago I was working full time doing undergrad and graduate school and right in the middle of my undergerad I had a baby who turned out to be extremely premature (25 wks).

Between running around everywhere i NEVER cooked. I mean who the heck wants to cook at 10:30 at night when you're finally home. Between work, medical appts, and school all I would eat all day is something from a drive through. Add some anxiety meds on top of that and bang, 80 pounds.

I'm off all meds now, done with school, and my son is now 10 (problems yes, but manageable). So, NOW is the time to get rid of everything I gained plus a bit more. :)


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Originally Posted by CocoTruffles:
Most of my under eating stems from depression due to job loss and money issues. The over eating came from high calorie fatty fast foods that were a "quick fix" to my hunger pains.

CocoTruffles, my heart goes out to you. I went through the same thing--laid off and unemployed for a year. I lost my apartment. My furniture and most of my belongings all had to go into storage. I had to live with my inlaws for a year as a newlywed--and anyone who's had to move back in with parents knows that it's worse when you're newlyweds. I went through nervous breakdowns, insomnia, recurring nightmares, you name it. I used to dream the room I was already stuck in most of the time at my inlaws was getting smaller and smaller, boxing me in like a caged animal. I'm incredibly sorry to hear about your job loss and money issues. No one except those who lived through the Dust Bowl really understand how hard it is to be unemployed in this economy--except for the unemployed themselves. I know nothing anyone can say can solve your stress about what's going to happen to your future, but at least know that there are many of us out there going through or having gone through the same thing, and it is nothing to be ashamed of. :hug:

I never realised until I was looking through an old photo album, but I think it began when I was around age 7/8. I was a completely average sized child until this age. Then in the space of about a year, my Grandfather died and I had to switch to a school that I was not happy at.. it's funny, I never considered myself an emotional eater, but it's right there in the photos, I suddenly began gaining weight around age 7/8. Nowadays, I've noticed that I have a tendency to eat when I have spare time, so I try to make sure that I'm doing something, even if it's just a small thing that keeps my hands busy. I also turn to junk when I feel stressed, so I've taken up yoga in the hopes that it will help my mental wellbeing as well as the physical :)

When I was growing up my mom was always buying loaves of bread and eating them on the way home from the store, carrying bags of chocolate in her bag, etc., so I learned very young that that was acceptable behavior. Of course now I know it's not, but I can't seem to get rid of the instinct to eat half a bag of candy in a day.

i grew up thin, but always wanted to eat more than what i should. I held back on getting seconds etc. Looking back, I wonder if I would've been fat had I allowed myself to eat like I do now.

I think food is an addiction for me, one that I just have to make a concious decision to get under control.

For me it was a combination.
Being taught from an early age to not waste food (so eat everything you're given)
Along with a mother raised to keep everyone well fed and utterly resistant to change.

Bad combination.
got around the first by making sure that the amount cooked matches the amount needed.
The second has taken a long time to fix as every previous attempt at weight loss in my family as met with failure (usually within the day). Only difference this time is I've taken an active hand in the cooking process and calculate everything (sometimes for 5 people eating different things.... and I'm the only one that tracks).

For me there are a few reasons:

- Emotional/stress eating. This is the big one. I often use food to send myself into a stupor where I don't have to think about anything. I use it as a pick-me-up if I'm upset or if I'm bored, I use it as a reward, etc. Even thinking about food to distract myself from other tasks or thoughts helps me. Sometimes I think I even 'like' (in a weird way) all the guilt and shame and obsessing that follows a binge, because that too distracts me from other things

- When I'm on a diet, fear of the consequences of being thin (more attention, esp more male attention) makes me want to stuff my face

- I'm naturally a big eater and a food lover. For a long time I defined my identity as a 'foodie', with cooking and eating food as my primary interest and hobby. When I started a diet a couple of years ago I realised I didn't know what my non-food-related hobbies were

- My mother is also a binge eater, and has alternated between obesity and a normal weight throughout her life with the help of strict low-carb diets. I probably picked up some behavioural patterns from her, though in no way would I blame my problems on my family

This is a great question that I am still exploring.
From what I can say right now, overeating is a way that I cope with stress/emotions. There are a lot of things in my life that are out of my control right now and I feel that I deal with this stress and uncertainty through overeating/binge eating. I guess it is a way to soothe myself or reward myself. Also, I think the dieting mentality doesn't help because I overeat due to thinking that when I am losing weight, I will not be able to eat these certain foods.

I'm with those who have never really had a specific issue linked to eating too much. I had a great family and a great life growing up as a kid, and my family was pretty normal-sized. I just really liked food a lot, and so if I wanted it, I ate it. I may have had some issues with not knowing when to stop because I remember being very full a lot of the time, even to the point where it was painful. I hated being hungry, and I got stomach pains that made me feel like throwing up sometimes, so that could have something to do with it too. I continued on into high school and college just eating what I wanted because I liked good food and just wanted to eat it if it was already there. A lot of times I would feel the need to empty a bag or container if I had already started in on it. Now I count my calories and keep track of how many I eat, trying to keep it under or at a specific number each day. Accountability is a major part of losing and keeping my weight off, and probably always will be. I really appreciated hearing everyone's stories on here!

A lot of it for me is emotional eating. Especially the weight that I've put on over the last 10 years. I've always been overweight, but not to the point I'm at now. I'm working on keeping my hands busy during those times of stress, rather than reaching for food.

I can't pinpoint the exact moment or cause, but it was definitely when I went away to college (I was an athlete in high school & never had weight issues). My older sister was killed in a car accident when I was 12 and honestly, we just didn't deal with it well. I was a super-sensitive kid to begin with and what family "knows" how to deal with something like that? Honestly, I just dealt with it by cramming it all inside because I didn't want to upset my (very fragile) mother, my brother was actually in the car accident with my sister and I didn't want him to have to re-live those memories and my dad was just not a "talk about it" kind of guy. So I had a lot of emotional issues for years, but they came out in different ways (suicide attempts, cutting, etc.) - but when I went to college just 6 years later, I was faced with not being the "smartest" kid in class anymore, which was a huge blow. Also, I was surrounded by gorgeous friends (and I felt insecure) and to top it off, all 3 of my best college girlfriends all had older sisters (all 4 years older than them, just like my sister) -so I was pretty darn jealous...and very depressed.

Roll all that up I was a ticking time-bomb. Over-indulging was easy - lots of beer and pizza - and soon, it became very soothing. While I was depressed, insecure and jealous, I would "eat" to sooth - rather than cutting (glad I got over that!). That instant gratification of eating something that tastes good became my way of life - it gave me those little tiny moments of happiness in a world where I was desperately depressed.

I am 100% sure that i started overeating when in middle and high school, my mom would be concerned about my weight (i was NOT fat in middle school, when she started in on me) and tell me not to eat if she saw me snacking. I started to snack EXTRA when she wasn't around, and thus began my dysfunctional relationship with food.

Emotional eating (Stress) coupled with PCOS/IR wackies.

I was not dx'd until 26, but I remember at 10 feeling like "whoa!" after eating a lot of toast with butter and sugar. I know it now to be a blood sugar wigginz.

A.

I have a lot of reasons for it I think... And weirdly, even when I was thin - like REALLLLLY thin, my uncle said to my Mom, "I think of the kids, Missy will be the one with a weight problem." I don't know if it's by what I liked to eat (carb queen) or my generally sedentary ways even as a kid or what... weird as he was right (though the youngest who was a baby at the time, also has weight problems.

For me it was a lot of things that contributed.

1. I love carby food and they create cravings and cravings I find very hard to resist.

2. When I get sleep deprived I use food to boost my energy and guess what foods? Carby foods which then trigger cravings which then make me over eat.

3. Being very uncomfortable in my skin/my body. I think some part of me used being fat to protect myself from getting attention for my body. I didn't want people looking at my body - so maybe they wouldn't if I was fat?

4. I am a morning eater. I am STARVING the first half of the day and not very hungry later in the day. The American way of eating totally goes against my natural biorhythms. If I eat a hearty breakfast and a hearty lunch and build in snacks inbetween, I don't need dinner. The hunger stops around 4-5 pm. However, that is when most everyone else is thinking about dinner and it's not like I 'can't' eat then, just that I really don't need to.

Nowadays I will often skip dinner, telling my family I have already eaten enough for today. I will prepare their dinner and skip it, or maybe just eat a very small bit of it. If I deny myself all day when I am reallllly hungry, I will binge later in the day and then end up way over eating. And again, what will I binge on? Simple carbs.

So, by staying away from carbs, getting enough sleep and eating when my body seems to be hungry instead of when most people eat their big meals, I feel so much better! And the mental stuff I just worked through over the years.

I am a stress eater and emotional eater. I had a grandmother who used to tell me I was fat and ugly constantly, and I would eat as a way to comfort myself. It's something I started doing at a young age, and haven't been able to stop.
When I get stressed out, I use that as an excuse to eat badly. I tell myself that it's okay for me to have pizza or Chinese food, etc because I can't possibly be expected to deal with the stress AND keep eating on plan. I've been working on that a lot lately, but it's hard.
I am also addicted to food. When I'm eating badly, I eat more for the taste than because I'm hungry. I'll eat until I'm so full I could explode, but it tastes too good to stop at the first sign of being full.
I have been working hard on trying to fix these problems, but it's a struggle.

I am an emotionnal eater. In the past I have used food to "self-medicate" myself when in fact I should have been on anti-depressants and or in therapy. Food = happy...

Also, I have realized that having had a really beautiful mom (think pageant beauty beautiful) has plagued me with a ton of insecurities regarding my looks and I think that being fat gave me a sense of control of what people would think of me...

Issues, issues, issues:dizzy:

My mother was an overeater, and I grew up following her example.

Also, being a victim of child sexual abuse only fuelled my emotional eating.

My weight gain started when I was about 10. I had already been through a lot of tragedy and at 10 my stepfather passed away. He was the only real father I had ever had. My "sperm donor" as I like to call my biological father, took it upon himself on our weekends we had together (every other week) to tell me that I was fat, he was always very abusive. I lost most of the weight during my teenage years and got down to a size 8. He abused me mentally and emotionally and I packed it back on during college and then some. I've finally completely severed ties with him for good (a year and a half now) and am SO much happier and healthier.

I don't binge eat anymore and haven't for a while and I know it's gone for good now. But I do know what turned me from a normal eater into a binger: dieting. Nothing else. Before I had ever dieted I never had a preoccupation with food. Once I dieted, my brain flipped a switch and kept up a bad habit to protect me from starvation (if I did it once, I might do it again, after all). Anyway I quit on my own. I said no more, and I'm done. I don't diet anymore either, I practice intuitive eating so that I naturally stay at the weight my body wants. Hopefully overtime my body will steer me back down to where it was last summer before I binged and ruined it all!

I never had a weight problem until I got pregnant with my twins (only time I was pregnant) Before that I could eat like a large trucker and not gain a pound. My doctor suggested that I have another child to flip my body back to what it was before I had the children. That seemed extreme and a strange way to drop weight, get pregnant. Anyway there is no big thing, I like food, I love food, I love to cook, I love to eat out, both my husband and I love good food. We try, and then fall off the wagon...we are trying again, slowly, a little at a time, so here I am with all you other lovely people.

Like berry, I tend to love carbs and I seem to seek out energy in the form of carbs when I'm tired. So, sleep is essential to me not overeating.

As for when I started overeating, I think it was when I was a young teenager (13-14). Every Friday night, my family would go visit one of my Dad's friends to play cards, and since they had no kids my age, I always asked to stay home. I remember making myself peanut butter sandwiches, as if I was celebrating something (the freedom of being alone??). Anyway, that's my first member of gaining a significant amount of weight. Of course, even then, I wasn't fat. I only became chubby during my second year of college and then fat once I got married. And, of course, I think all the dieting inbetween is what really caused me to continue gaining.

I've been overweight almost my entire life. My mom was a single teenaged mom, she was just a month past 16 when she had me. She barely knew how to care for herself, let alone a kid. We had very little money so we ate alot of cheap processed food. And we never ever ate as a family. I remember every meal being a like bowl of mac and cheese in front of the tv. And when I had dinner with family it was no better. Grandma was old school Ukranian, and her food was FILLED with fat. I remember one meal where she cut the fat off of some kind of meat, and fried just the fat up for us to eat. I honestly dont remember vegetables of any kind being served with our meals. So I guess I never really learned how to eat healthy. The thing is, now I love vegetables and eat them all the time. But, I was still eating all the crappy processed convenience foods because I hate cooking.

This is really the first time I've REALLY tried to lose weight, and I'm trying to change my way of thinking about food. I have a 4 year old now, and I want so badly for her to learn to eat wholesome, quality foods. ANd that has to start with me. I've stopped buying processed crap and go for more whole grains and organics and natural foods. And I try to make sure we have our meals together as a family, something I never got to enjoy.

Another thing that worked against me...I never got into any activities at all. No sports, no music, no dance....nothing. I never had any kind of hobby to keep me busy, except eating of course.

Wow...thanks for the opportunity to get all that out, that was very therapeutic for me!

Originally Posted by Skrael:
My mother was an overeater, and I grew up following her example.

Also, being a victim of child sexual abuse only fuelled my emotional eating.

I really related to what you wrote.

My father was an alcoholic (although not always actively), my my mom was an overeater with mental health issues, and I was sexually abused and generally didn't have healthy boundaries. My big body made me feel a bit safer and invisible. As for habits, I saw them both deal with their stress/problems by eating, and then the insecurity/invalidation/etc. that they did to me, I tried to eat away. Food and books became the only two real friends I had, and since we were poor/working class, I tended to binge when we had either of those things.(Digression: I once had a cousin who told me Sara Lee was my best friend. Ouch!) Family atmosphere was compounded by clinical depression that came on at an early age, which only fueled my need to chemically change my brain with food. I also *TRIGGER WARNING* used to be a cutter, but food was my first real mind-alter-er (Thankfully I never went to drugs, but some days I feel like food is worse, ya know?)

Anyway, I see myself in a lot of you who wrote here.