Hello all!!!

I'm a 23 year old female and have been trying to lose weight since I was 13!

A quick summary of my journey so far:
Throughout my childhood I have always been "chubby", mainly in the thigh and bum regions, but never overweight.
This all changed when I started University, and I finally did what I threatening to and become overweight. Ironically I was studying medicine, which involves lots of exams and long hours - which meant to me comfort food and a lot of it!

I just finished 6 years of university study and have around 10 weeks off before I begin work and want to get my health and weight in order before starting the gruelling shifts of a junior Dr and see this as my last ditch effort!

The main reason I have been unsuccessful so far is that I struggle with binge eating, for various reasons such as boredom, emotional stressors and sometimes because I hate cooking so let myself starve for ages then binge.

I've come on here to get some moral support and tips from those of you have been successful. And also in the hopes I can find a way to control my binge eating which has to some extent taken over how I think about food.

Thanks for reading and writing this was also an oddly cathartic experience!

Hey, congrats on finishing uni! If you can get through that, you can get through this too!

I'm a former (current?? recovered? partially?) binge eater and Intuitive Eating has really helped me, as has counselling. But that's not a quick results way. Is there any way you can combine your distaste for cooking (which I share!!) with a not very restrictive diet, and some soul searching or counselling to curb the bingeing? If you're not much of a carb person, can you do that? If you're ok on low calories but want to keep food variety then calorie counting could work? Or if you're super organised, check out the food section of the forum - I'm sure a lot of people here do food prep once a week in a big batch to minimise everyday cooking, but still eat well? Have a look around, if you see a post that you just "get", investigate that!

Oh, and? My #1 piece of advice for what to cut out of your diet altogether? GUILT. You can start chipping away at the binge-eat-repeat cycle right there. If you binge, remember: your body was demanding that food for a reason, perhaps stress, perhaps tiredness, perhaps hormones. Morality plays ZERO part in it! Just accept your body demanded something that was at odds with your mind, you honoured that, and you can learn ways to manipulate what your body demands. Then move on the second you feel GUILT, you've perpetuated the cycle. Just see it for what it is and find your triggers (for me it's depression & insomnia). Then work on managing those underlying causes independently from your weight, while sticking to the easiest healthy diet you can.

I really hope you can overcome this! Either way, it sounds like you have an awesome future career ahead of you after so much hard work - be proud of that achievement!

Welcome!!

I have had a bingeing problem too and have been able to get it under control by not being a restrictive dieter. It is debatable whether or not a person can lose weight while not being on a diet, but it has certainly helped with the bingeing. Good Luck!!

Welcome and good luck on your journey!!