Hello,

I honestly need help. This summer I lost close to 50 pounds. I had no job or responsibilities and I worked out up to four times a day. I'm two months into school and I've gained almost 20 pounds back. I can feel my stomach jiggling and a double chin forming. My beautiful size 16 clothes are getting way too tight and my cheeks and arms are getting bigger. I can't seem to stop eating! Ice cream and muffins and coffee and pop and pasta and pizza and cookies and candy, it's taking over my life again! I don't know how to stop this cycle. I work and go to school, but I have plenty of time to work out and I can't seem to get there more than once a week! I don't want to live like this anymore. I felt so good and confident and pretty without the extra pounds... I want to go all the way down to 140 pounds, not all the way back up to 263! Can anyone offer advice?

Thanks

Is there any pattern to when/how much you're eating?

I know this may seem odd, but I remember that when I had bingeing problems while in college, some of those binges were triggered by actually procrastinating. It went like "I'm feeling overwhelmed by so much work (my job) and homework (college) to tackle, and I don't want to do it. But look: right now I'm busy bingeing, so I can't be doing my homework yet, right, it has to wait until I'm done eating!"

Of course, now that it's printed here on a screen, it looks totally silly, illogical, a waste of time and a childish desire to run away... and anyone would probably think "that girl was crazy and stupid". But those weren't conscious thoughts in my mind at the time (I became aware of that pattern and of why I followed it much later). Binges follow their own, flawed inner logic; once we've found out what kind of logic it is, it may become possible of fighting it and preventing new binges by following other behaviours/habits.

Of course, this is only one example in my own experience. It may be different for you. I only offered it because you mentioned "college", and that kind of stuff happened to me in college as well, so...

Echoing Kery, when my binging was at its worst a few years ago, I also very regularly used binging to procrastinate on my homework and to relieve anxiety over exams and such during college.

So I also would check with yourself and see if that's your case as well, and if so, maybe you can use that information to help yourself make difference choices?

That's definitely true, I'm a notorious procrastinator, and before I get into a big study session I always binge eat. Thanks for that tip!

Yeah, so now that you've recognized it, at least maybe you can start "arguing" with yourself before you automatically give in and binge.

"I want to binge." "Why?" "Well, probably because I really don't want to study." "Binging now won't really help-- you still have to either study later, or else risk doing badly on your exam!" "Oh, I see. Binge eating actually won't deal with what I'm feeling bad about. Maybe I'll just get the studying over and reward myself with something fun afterwards instead."

Idealized conversation, haha, but something like that. It has helped me before, at least!

Lol! Alright. I notice that after a bit the cravings go away.. if I don't give in. also when I'm exercising the cravings either go away or I'm able to eat in moderation. Perhaps I should focus more on that too.

That's great that the cravings do go away! Train yourself to remember that, and it may get easier over time. Exercising is a great option, usually makes you feel good. And yes, eating in moderation is also very important. That's something I've learned in my experience with binge eating-- eating too little definitely triggers binge urges more, no question, and at the same time, eating too much can also trigger binges from guilt or what-the-heck thinking....

You have to remember all that hard work that you put into losing the weight,, it's so easy to gain but you know how hard to lose...You can always make time to eat healthy even if you don't have that much time to work out.

First thing that comes to mind is that you lost the weight too fast, i.e., your regimen was unsustainable. At first you may not have been aware of feeling deprived because of the newness of losing weight. But at a certain point the newness wore off and you were left with the deprivation, so predictably you snapped and reverted to your old, comforting habits.

If I'm at all on the right track, I suggest you approach it differently this time around. Find a way of eating that doesn't leave you feeling deprived, even if it means losing weight more slowly. Find out what foods fill you up the most. Find flavours that leave you psychologically satisfied. Find healthy foods you enjoy. Find out whether you do better with three squares or five small meals, or any other combination. Same with exercise. Forget about the rules, just find something you enjoy enough to stick with.

The idea is to keep the deprivation to an absolute minimum, so you can stay in the game for the long haul.

Just my two cents,

F.

F,

You're right, I always lose weight super fast and have a hard time maintaining. I just get super tired of all the weight and want it off immediately. I also find it hard to experiment as I'm a super picky eater, and at college cooking options are limited to say the least. Ill experiment with more things, but thank you so much for all the support, I'm hoping to continue getting back on track

Im there with you doing the same thing.
I realized I gained 20 pounds of my weight back half way through the semester and tried to find my trigger times my anxiety is the worst. it’s usually right after class and before I go to work. Best thing I could do is meditate the few hrs I have during that break in-between or walk around campus until my nerves are settled.
Plus getting into the habit of eating late dinners before I went to bed was prolly what did it for me. My bf stays up later than me and I picked up on his eating habits. So thats something Ive been working on. Having a time limit on food like not eating past 7:30pm could prolly make a big difference.
Getting plenty of sleep would prolly help too, I often confuse tiredness with hunger.
Idk if youre having any of the same problems but college is the worst when managing my weight haha

I found I end up wasting so much of my money on food in campus. Not because I’m picking healthy options but because I’m driving around and wasting my time trying to find the cheapest options. (ya weird, I know). They have things like fruit salads that I’m going to eat if I get hungry but that’s prolly all Im going to stick to from now on. Everything else is terrible for you.