okay, well first I guess I should say I'm not precisely skinny yet, but I'm a size 14 down from a size 22 so I FEEL much smaller.

I've always been a bit of a 'coping' type of eater, an emotional eater. Over time I have worked on stopping the emotional eating, but at the same time I swear I'm some sort of pack eater-if I'm around other people who are eating it's downright impossible for me not to join in. Even if I know I'm not hungry.

Well I've been downright silly the last 4 days. I haven't been eating enough to gain weight, but have just been maintaining. and in order to maintain, I literally have to eat when I'm not hungry. Anywho, my problem is this:

I over eat in small amounts, and end up with a horrible stomach ache all night long while my stomach desperately tries to digest what I put in there. Yesterday was worse. It was busy, and due to scheduling I had to eat breakfast before I felt hungry, so it ended up every time I ate it was not because I felt hungry but just because I 'had' to or because other people were eating. so last night, I felt Horrible. Chest pains and nausea in addition to the stomach ache.

This morning I feel fine.

so I guess my questions are this:
I overate more, more often when I was bigger and never had stomach problems. Why am I experiencing this now? Less fat in my nerve endings?

What is this? I looked it up and it might be gastritis....but I don't know entirely what it means if it is.

And most importantly, do you guys have any tips on how to stop doing stupid things you know you're going to regret?

I really need to stop this.

thanks.

You might want to go see your doctor. I know I have had 2 different stomach ailments that sound close to what you are describing. The first was my gallbladder. Some people have gallbladder problems when they lose a good amount of weight and usually have to have their gallbladder removed. I went for about 6 months in pain with my gallbladder before I finally had it removed, very thankful I did.
Second one I had was about 5-8 years after my gallbladder surgery, I was tested for H-Pylori. Basically (from what I remember) it is a bacterial infection in your stomach, they test you for it with a blood test, if you test positive you take some meds and in my case I haven’t had hardly any stomach problems since, and that was about 8 years ago.
Anyway, what I learned is stomach problems are usually not just what, when or how you eat, there is a good chance there is something else medically behind them and no use living in pain if you don’t have to.
Best of luck!

I was thinking gallbladder as well. These are the symptoms I had when I had to have my gallbladder removed.

Yes - we are not doctors, and even doctors won't diagnose without seeing you.
Take yourself to a doctor. Don't wait a week, go today.

Pain at night, "chest" pains, nausea... Yep, sounds like gall bladder to me, too. That's what happened to me. The good news is that these days, gall bladder surgery is much easier than it used to be, in most cases.

See your doc! And if you're in bad pain, go to an emergency room.

Jay

hmmmm....wow, well I wasn't expecting such a unanimous vote, that's for sure......

to update, I woke up feeling fine, and yesterday I was really good and although my chest felt sore I didn't have anything painful, this morning I've woken up feeling fine. so if one of those episodes doesn't happen again, could it be something else?


(not trying to disagree with anyone here, just not big into doctors...I would rather wait and avoid it, if the whole thing was truly an isolated incident. )

It is possible it was just a really bad case of heartburn/indigestion after eating way more grease than your body was accustomed to me. It happened to me. After 3 months of eating clean, I decided to have some hot wings. OMG..Now I had eaten spicy up until then, so it wasnt the spices..it was definitely teh grease. Honestly, I thought I was going to die. The pain was something I had never felt before. a terrible throbbing almost doubling over pain right in my upper belly and lower chest. So I can imagine that just a fuller body than your body is accustomed to now could easily cause the same reaction. LIke you said though..do make sure it was isolated. Needless to say, I have not eaten anything over greasy like that since. LOL

When a gall bladder is "upset," they call it colicky. A person can have intermittent episodes of colicky gall bladder for a long time before things get acute. Perhaps that was why the pain has stopped--things just settled down.

I'm not big on doctors either, but I've had both acute gall bladder and kidney stones. Terrible pain is a big motivator toward medical intervention.

Jay

lol, I can understand pain being a motivator....it's not really something that makes you want to cuddle up to it, iykwim.

I guess to be fair on the evening in question I did have a good size bowl of buttery popcorn...so yeah, 100% grease. But that's the type of thing that could be just a indigestion type of thing or a gallbladder thing.

On the upside being in so much pain the other night, the past few days I haven't been motivated to eat when I'm not hungry at all! lol.

Just an update, the episodes continued happening off and on, so I went to the doctors and was diagnosed with GERD. I'm not sure totally if that's what I have, since afterward I totally stopped eating as much and have been on meds. The only time I had a flare up is when I ate too much again.

I however, am just glad not to be feeling so bad again.


Thanks ladies! without you I probably wouldn't have even gone in.

Sorry to hear about the GERD. My son has it, and it made the first few months of our lives a living ****. As you've already learned, small portions are critical. Good luck!

hi all, just another update....

I've been having these episodes now every 7-14 days since I originally posted, finally gave up on the gerd diagnosis and got more tests done. After an ultrasound and endoscopy, they found lots of gallstones (so you all were right in the beginning) and some gastritis caused by the gallstones and symptoms of them passing.

Now they're talking about wanting to take my gallbladder out, which admittedly makes me nervous. I know many people have theirs out and do fine, lose weight, feel better, etc....others feel only a little better, worse, gain weight, regret it, etc..... and I just feel like I don't have a lot of good information.

would anyone be willing to share their experiences to help me decide what to do? Anyone who's just taken the gallstones out and not their whole organ?



Thanks ladies.

I am not sure about just getting just the gall stones out. It doesn't solve the problem that is creating them. I had my gall bladder out because it was no longer functioning. My sister had hers out due to stones. The danger of not removing the organ is that any new formed stones can get caught in the biliary ducts and cause an infectious problem that can quite quickly involve your pancreas. That's never good.

I still can't eat a lot of rich or greasy foods. Not that I do that anymore but before changing my eating plan, I would have a lot of pain and nausea if I ate from say, a fried appetizer platter or piece of cheese cake! Hmmm, its actually been a good deterent!

Wow, my mom and I were JUST discussing this today! I've been having the same problem, except for the chest pains. If I even think about eating just one slice of pizza, I will be doubled over with stomach pains all night.

I just assumed my stomach wasn't use to these types of foods anymore, but my mom thinks it's gallbladder related, because of my weight loss.

well, being female, overweight, and losing weight rapidly (or switching from a drastically higher calorie to lower calorie diet) are all risk factors in gallbladder problems, so it's possible.

I agree, I don't want to NOT get it done, if it's necessary, there are just a lot of scary stories out there and frankly most all the information I feel like I'll get (except maybe you guys! ) will be biased. I guess I'm just a product of being raised in a no-money-for-the-doctors type of household, and I've had so many problems recently....meh.


Thanks everyone for your responses, I really appreciate it! you all help me feel more brave about these things.