Hi
You should see your GP to rule out if you are bulimic.
If you really are a food addict, neither your GP or your nutritionist will be of much help, since they do not know about this condition.
Check out the Food Addicts Anonymous groups (google or look under my resources tab in addictionsunplugged.com) to find them. They can help you with a good diet to cut cravings and also for more information on food addiction.
Thank you! I really appreciate the effort that you went to in order to answer my question! And yeh I guess I do fit almost all of those criteria which is quite scary. So should I make an appointment with my gp or find a nutritionist or someone else? You summed up a lot of the emotions about how I feel about food, so thank you again!
Your GP may not know much about food addiction but he or she can help you if you are bulimic.
I suggest that you read as much as you can from my website. Then google food addiction anonymous - there may be a meeting near you. You can find people there who can help you with a diet that will help cut those cravings.
Thank you! I really appreciate the effort that you went to in order to answer my question! And yeh I guess I do fit almost all of those criteria which is quite scary. So should I make an appointment with my gp or find a nutritionist or someone else? You summed up a lot of the emotions about how I feel about food, so thank you again!
Hi there
I can see that you are very frustrated – for good reason. Did you know that exercising is not necessarily the best way to loose weight or keep it off? You are doing what so many people have done and most have had the same sad result – no weight loss. Sometimes, they have even gained more weight. Please know that exercise is not the main contributor to weight loss. In fact, exercise is more likely to make you hungry (hence the phrase ‘to work up an appetite’) so that you may end up eating more and thus gaining more weight.
The way you describe your eating behavior makes me wonder if you have an eating disorder, such as bulimia. If so, you could benefit from medical attention for this condition; often when a bulimic is prescribed medication, the urge to binge is curtailed. You also could be a food addict.
See if these questions apply? If you answer yes to just a few of these, you might be a food addict, instead of (or as well as) being a bulimic.
1. Have you ever wanted to stop eating and found you just couldn’t?
2. Do you think about food or your weight constantly?
3. Do you find yourself attempting one diet or food plan after another, with no lasting success?
4. Do you binge and then “get rid of the binge” through vomiting, exercise, laxatives, or other forms of purging?
5. Do you eat differently in private than you do in front of other people?
6. Has a doctor or family member ever approached you with concern about you’re eating habits or weight?
7. Do you eat large quantities of food at one time (binge)?
8. Is your weight problem due to your “nibbling” all day long?
9. Do you eat to escape from your feelings?
10. Do you eat when you’re not hungry?
11. Have you ever discarded food, only to retrieve and eat it later?
12. Do you eat in secret?
13. Do you fast or severely restrict your food intake?
14. Have you ever stolen other people’s food?
15. Have you ever hidden food to make sure you have “enough?”
16. Do you feel driven to exercise excessively to control your weight?
17. Do you obsessively calculate the calories you’ve burned against the calories you’ve eaten?
18. Do you frequently feel guilty or ashamed about what you’ve eaten?
19. Are you waiting for your life to begin “when you lose the weight?”
20. Do you feel hopeless about your relationship with food?
Copyright © 2000-2010 Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous
If you think you might be a food addict, then I suggest you abstain from all junk foods – which are designed to be addictive. This means sugar, white / refined starches, pop, deserts, chips – in other words, a food addict should only eat proteins and fruits and vegetables. Some food addicts may be able to eat grains in moderation but many can not.
I appreciate this may seem like a hard food plan to follow. But you will find that if you eat natural rather than processed foods, you will not be hungry and you will stop binging on foods. You will not need to exercise other than what feels pleasurable to you. And you will loose weight.
I repeat: The way to combat a food addiction is to stop eating junk food. Realize that you may feel withdrawal at first: this will feel like cravings, agitation, irritability, and you may find yourself giving in when you are hungry, angry, tired. These are the times that people relapse the most, as with any drug addiction. Do not underestimate the power of this withdrawal. It will undo even the person who has the best will power.
The good news is that it only takes about three weeks for cravings to start to subside IF you stop eating junk food completely. Unless you sneak in a few treats here and there (like on a weekend or as a special treat)… which will serve to prolong the cravings indefinitely. If your addiction has advanced enough, that treat will be enough to make the cravings return even worse that before.
In some cases, people find that their food addiction is so advanced, that despite all efforts, they keep relapsing. If you find this is the case, you may need to get more help than just stopping the foods. You may need to follow a special food addiction diet and get community or peer support. There are such supports with twelve step programs like Food Addicts Anonymous.
You can find more information about food addiction or about support groups on my website: addictionsunplugged.com. Esp: http://addictionsunplugged.com/2011/03/30/are-you-a-food-addict