Hi, I'm Chris. I'm glad I finally found a forum for overeaters. I've been looking for one for a while. I'm 28 years old and I've been an overeater for my whole life. My highest weight was 350lbs. By watching everything I ate and daily exercise(and I mean religiously) I managed to lose about 130lbs. My lowest weight was 220lbs.

I haven't been walking for the past few months and my will-power hasn't been so great, so now I'm back up to about 260. My latest thing seems to be only eating a few times a day, but binging when I do. It's hard to stop when I know I should. I'm like an alcholic who can't just have one.

I've always said, I wish I were an alcoholic, then I could quit drinking completely. With food, you can't quit completely, you can only moderate yourself, which is much harder.

Take care everybody, ttfn

Hi ShafferNY,

I know exactly how you feel. I can't stop either. What did you do to lose the 130 lbs originally ??? I had lost 150 only to gain 100 back and I try to think, hmmmm what did I do then that made it work. One thing I know is I wasn't as hard on myself then as I am now.

Are you from NY ?

Hope to hear from you.

I'm from Upstate New York, about an 1:30 minutes south of Plattsburgh.

The only two things I remember doing is exercising and watching what I ate. I went walking every night, or at minimum every other night, for about 2-3 miles. I made it a routine. I also cut out eating all junk food. It was really hard sometimes watching everyone in the family eating cake or ice cream and trying to resist.

It take an extreme amount of will power for me to stick to those two things, but I did it somehow.

I've been holding right at about 260lbs for the last few months. I'd like to at least get back down to 220. My ideal weight should be 190 according to what I've read. I'm 6'3".

Hi Chris,

Oh yes, I know where Plattsburg is, my company (well not mine) has a site in Chazy.
I used to book the Plattsburg Inn for my boss to stay in. I work in Pearl River.

I know its hard to pass up everything but gee girl, we did it then, what has changed that we can't seem to make it click now? How about us making a list of then and now, if maybe we can pin point what went wrong? Wanna try?

Its strange, I kept my weight off for over 10+ years, and now, if I see any food, poof, right in the old mouth w/out even thinking about it.

I have 80 lbs to lose I should weigh 170.

6'3" YOU GO GIRL !!!! I'm 5'10" You know, I think the Idea weight for a person is what they feel comfortable at, what your body feels comfortable at. When I was 170 I felt good, but wasn't happy that I wasn't 140 lbs like a model... stupid I know but now I know different. I'd be soooooooooooooooooooooo sooooooooooooooooo happy at 170.

Let me know if you want to work on this with me.

Hugs.

Hi, Chris! I'm new to the forum too. I was wondering about what you wrote above. Did you get discouraged? In the past, I've found that if I give myself a "free day" to eat whatever I want every two or three weeks, then I'm much better at sticking to a more restricted diet the rest of the time. I understand exactly what you mean about alcoholics, though, because that's exactly how I feel. It'd be so much easier if I just never had to deal with food at all!

Actually, I'm a guy, but I've been called worse.

Is this an all women's forum?

Chris ROFLMFAO !!!

Don't go away!!! This forum has alot of women, YES, but there are guys here too. I never should have assumed...my bad

I thought it was pretty funny too. :lol

With the name Chris, you have a 50/50 shot at getting it right. Don't feel bad. I got a good laugh out of it.

Lucky is not my middle name

So what are your plans for losing? do you think its more head hunger than belly hunger. I know its mostly head hunger for me but I have a BIG appetite as well. I notice I have a hard time in the winter months losing too b/c there's just to much indoorness and food. Good thing is, summers around the corner and I'll be outside MUCH more. I actually rarely cook in the summer except on the grill.

Chris I was at my doctor yesterday and like he said, which I know is the truth, the bottom line to losing weight is calories in, calories burned. Have you ever used Fitday.com to log in your food intake? its a cool site that you can customize. A good tool.

Right now I don't have any big plans for losing weight. I know I should be getting more exercise and I should go walking more often, but it's winter and right now I just don't have the drive or motivation. I have been trying to watch what I eat though. That's something I'm constantly aware of. My biggest problem though is lack of exercise.

My appitite is definitely a "head hunger." Very rarely does my stomach actually growl for lack of food.

My biggest problem with food though is not knowing when to stop! I can go hours in between meals without eating anything, but when I do start eating, I don't stop until I'm stuffed. I usually only eat two or three times a day.

I think knowing where your weaknesses are is half the battle with overeating. The other half is avoiding them.

I hear you on the weather motivation, but how about getting a video to work out with in the mean time. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, just something to keep you moving. Some times I'll just put the radio on and dance...can't hurt right lol.

Maybe eating just 2 times a day for you isn't enough and thats why you can't stop eating once you start. Have you ever thought of eating a few small meals a day (like 5 or 6) instead of 1 or 2 big ones? I personally have a hard time doing this but it does work for soooooo many people. And they say its a healthier way to eat.

I have the same problem with eating, once I start I have a hard time stopping. My stomach can actually hurt from being full and I'll still ram it down. So what I've been trying to do is eat ooodles and ooodles of veggies, calories are low, they are great in fiber and they do fill you up. For instance, I made chili and instead of using beef I used ground chicken (not turkey ick) and packed it with mixed veggies, use cans or frozen, doesn't matter. So when I get home from work, there's no 2nd guessing what I'll be eating for dinner, I eat till I'm full. Protein keeps you fuller longer as well, so how bout a nice steak or piece of chicken or fish and a mound of veggies? I like sauces so most of my veggies have something on it.

Try to make sure you drink alot of water inbetween because believe it or not it really does take the edge off of hunger. If you have a hard time w/water, how about unsweetened iced tea (plain).

Is night time your hardest time ?

When you said that, I thought I could hug you. That's my exact problem. I just eat and eat and eat until I can't eat anymore. And then for the rest of the day, I won't eat anything else because my body just isn't hungry. Even when I was on a "diet", I would fit in a binge day where I would actually calculate exactly all the food I would buy and try to eat it all in one sitting. I just didn't know what it was. When I'm in "diet" mode, I'm pretty determined about sticking to the plan and exercising. But even then, I would still binge. The binges would become more frequent until eventually I stopped "dieting" and go back to my old habits of eating convenience foods. Rice A Roni, Pasta Roni and the like. I'm a convenience foodaholic. And I'm sorry, but I love buffets.

Both of you have had great successes (losing 100 or more), I am so envious. For you to stick a plan that you lost so much weight off of, I give you so much credit because I've been dieting since as long as I can remember and I've never even been mildly successful. But I'm getting older and I figure if I keep trying, eventually something should stick to this dense brain of mine before it's too late.

By the way, I'm from NY too!

Hi Dragonfly, nice to meet you and WELCOME!!

I love convenience foods too. The other day I made a pkg of asian rice and I loaded it up with canned veggies, so there was more veggies than rice per serving. Actually you could barely see the rice LOL but the flavor (KEY WORD FOR ME - FLAVOR) was there Thats the only way I know how to fill the void. At work when they have food and its usually all the time, I've been trying to stay by the salad/veggie platters and then I'll have a little of what else there is. I think its working but I'll know in a few weeks when I visit my doctor and I get on that dreaded scale.

I feel the same way, I"m getting older and I hate to waste my time being fat with no energy. Gotta get the brain trained is so true.

Where in NY are you ? I'm in NJ but right by the border of NY.