maybe he was purchasing them for someone else and had to take drugs with an obesity side effect and as caring for his thin mum who has a sweet tooth, or hosting a kids party…i am glad you are so pleased with your own choices, and feeling better now, but you have no right to judge.

i would have felt nothing but compassion. poor guy.

but you don’t know his story… judge not lest YE be judged.

very sad post 🙁

OMG i just read it again ” I did some research, stumbled across 5:2 and off I went and haven’t look back ever since. So what is it that prevents people from achieving success? Is it a head in the sand mentality that says nothing bad will happen to me? Is it just too hard to eat healthy? Is (excess) food an addiction as strong as any drug addiction? Boredom? What is stopping people from achieving success?”

off you went… and whereas that large guy in your eyes isn’t achieving success, which you mention twice, YOU are. i am a woman who will politely stand up for others. this post is disgraceful. in so many ways. this might get me thrown off here, because i am telling it as it is, especially if you are a big wig on here, but i just cant stick the looking down your nose at a sick man attitude. you didnt stop to think did you.

it just makes me cry.

all you gotta do is read up, google, read about prada willy syndrome, and then realize it could be 500000 factors none of which are understood yet. ”eating himself to death”… as if its his fault somehow, that he is doing it knowingly! and how you yourself determine/define ”achieving success’. perhaps he is a huge success spiritually, or in other ways. in your eyes you are that ‘success’ ,ergo he is ‘failed’. (just the words success and fail are outrageous in this instance) that is a given, from your post. your writing made me weep for humanity. how we judge so fast… think about YOUR diet, not his diet. i am a humanitarian and i cannot do anything but wince when i think about you looking at that guy thinking he hasn’t achieved. and you wondering why… i am sure you are nice, but if you re read your post, it will make you, as it made us, here, shudder. i am sorry but there it is. google ”why are some people not able to achieve success with their weight as I DID and never looked back” but don’t press ‘i’m feeling lucky’. i can see that you have difficulty understanding emotions, and thats not fixable but god forbid you should be judged harshly. i don’t think you’d take to it. did you know some babies are born morbidly obese…i am not happy from all of this. i think its put me off the forum.

@whyamisoshy

You say “do not judge”, but this is exactly what you are doing regarding bigbooty.

I quote you again “but you don’t know his story…”. I do not see his post as judgemental. In my view, he just honestly does not understand why obese, sick people “eat themself to death”. Like my husband not understanding me binge eat when I’m stressed, like me not understanding my sister eating every day for 2 persons, and so on.

And I think that bigbooty’s intention to understand “why” and start such a sensitive discussion must be apreciated, not judged the way you do. By forcing us to think deeply and give an honest answer to his question, we all have something to gain. Maybe more sincerity and awareness is what everybody needs not to eat himself to death anymore. Your speech about bigbooty not being “politically correct” does not help anyone. The ‘fat, sick and nearly dead’ need to wake up (myself included), not more understanding and excuses. I see bigbooty more humanitarian than you, on this matter. Important is to speak openly to see / find the root of the problem. This is helping people. Keeping the mouth shut to not hurt somebody’s feelings, on long term does not help anyone. On the contrary.

can i just say- you sound like a nightmare. interfering (you even did here) and holier than thou not to mention just a trouble maker. dont post where i post.
bigbotty is fine.
i like the honesty.
why dont you TELL your husband and sister how fat they are and tell them what to do about it. thats what you should do if your post expresses your rue concerns for their lives. good luck wth that 😉

michael would NOT be impressed by this horrible thread to judgemental converts who will probably put it all back on again cos they too have issues which is what got THM over weight to start with.

everyone loves a with hunt so target me i dont care. i will stand up for the judged and bullied.

thinking you know whats in people bedside tables, drugs wise, thinking you know everything about ”friends” or ”people you know” is ridiculous. yet you judge judge judge.

just min your own waistlines and businesses.

let them alone. or dont. stop them in their tracks and tell them everything you know and that you care so much you want to help them. and watch the responses.

one of you seem to understand PEOPLE. we are complex. we are multi faceted. we are all in need to help. we all need love. compassion. understanding. a bit of leeway. the benefit of the doubt.

i spoke my truth. i said it lovingly in a gentle voice. and i wish you all peace.

Dear me Why, Adaline is right, you are the one judging people here! And you think you’re a humanitarian?!

Do you think I haven’t had conversations with these three friends of mine. That’s the reason I know they have no other health problems! And even being told about 5:2, the 8 week BSD, and the possibility of reversing T2, not one of them is interested in making dietary changes to lose weight or improve their health. That’s their choice, although as a friend it’s hard to stand by and watch.

And who are you to say what Michael Mosley would or would not be impressed with?

Why,

Have you ever heard the saying ‘People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones’? 🙂

you’re weird. freaking me out now. bye.

Back to the original question on this post, talking for myself, it was emotional. Eating filled an emotional void and the wrong kind of foods gave me pleasure and it turned into a bit of a vicious cycle. I won’t hesitate to say I was also lazy, despite knowing what healthy diet is and what I should do, I didn’t do it.
The change, or at least the want to change, needs to come from within. Until then, the message falls on deaf ears, and, may in fact have the opposite effect.
Congratulations on your success, bigbooty 😊

Hi Bigbooty,
The trouble is sugar and refined carbs are highly addictive! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-darria-long-gillespie/the-shocking-truth-about-_10_b_9906666.html
We haven’t got our heads round what this means as yet. There are too many people, businesses and governments with vested interests in people consuming large quantities of the stuff. There a panic in the market every time Coka Cola drops a notch on the stock market.
How do you begin to educate people? Do you tax it? Big brands are slow to bring in non- sugar ranges of food. How else do you get it to taste nice?

I have been struggling to stay on the 5:2 diet for the last year since seeing Michael Moseley’s documentaries

3 months at the last attempt – the longest I have ever stayed on any diet – I’m a 58 year old male

Even after feeling I had FINALLY found a doable system to lose weight I have still not been able to stay on it

I have decided the reason I stop and start is an addictive personality and self-destructive tendencies which are very hard to identify let alone overcome

won’t stop me trying (I’m eating myself to death since I stopped drinking heavily)but I feel the psychological/emotional issues are just as strong as the desire to lose weight and recently I’ve started to consider the fact that I will just have to resign to being fat and dying early

(sorry for the downer post!)

Hello Graham58, Your post resonates with me! I’ve been living the dilemma you describe. I too have deep emotional issues that have prompted me to overeat and binge for decades. Unfortunately, no amount of willpower has ever helped me with this. When I’m triggered and find myself in ‘binge-mode’ the waves of emotional turmoil and subsequent craving seem to win out over my resolve. What has helped me though is to do simply as you described, which is to do the best I can and to get back on the horse as often as possible and over and over again if need be!

5:2 has been especially helpful for me because I feel it has helped improve my mood and brain function and I’ve gained a psychological clarity into some of the underlying causes for my bingeing and emotional overeating, were a result of years psychological abuse (childhood and then choosing a partner who emulated those behavior as an adult). Each time I reach a certain clarity, I’m aware of one binge trigger suddenly ‘evaporating’ if that makes sense. In other words, that trigger disappears because of new awareness and insight. So 5:2 has been liberating (and cheaper than therapy)! Prior to 5:2 I was rarely aware of what drove me to binge. I’d just do it unconsciously and then feel bad about it afterwards. Practicing 5:2 has allowed me the clarity to see the significance of all I’ve been through and I’ve actually begun treating myself with the respect that someone who has been through a battleground deserves. This new strength only came in increments and (and that’s where getting back on the horse over and over is helpful) I’m still prone to triggers from time to time and thus binges too, however, at least 5:2 has helped rid me of addiction to processed foods so that when I do binge I binge on much healthier fare (just too much of it)! I reached my goal weight in September and am maintaining fairly well (I’m a kilogram over goal at moment from a binge last week. I’m still a work in progress, though from where I was truly have progressed just by keeping, keeping on as best I can). I don’t know if any of this helps. We are all different and have different reasons for bingeing.

I’m in a very apethetic mood because of the time of year but then I have been known to feel like this in July too so how much the dark nights are adding to my apethy and depression is hard to say

I walk with a heart monitor and music on along a straight tree covered path near my house (actually an old railway track) but although I can see it elevates my moodany excuse not to do it wins over

such a bad track record over the years has started to come back and bite me “why bother to start? I never stick to it anyway”

I maybe have to research information about how people break an addiction to heroin because although it sounds dramatic I think my food addiction is the same thought processes , self hatred, self-sabotage, etc.

Like a heroin junkie who SERIOUSLY BELIEVES heroin is making his life better I feel that about food – of course INTELLECTUALLY I can understand that I’m eating myself to death but the mirage of food being Love and Pleasure are still much more powerful as emotions and that has always won out

having said all that I’m 15 stone so I MUST have some switch off point somewhere – I feel so sorry for people worse than me who are 34 stone and heavier because their addiction is just much worse than mine

I completely understand them tho on some level I just feel lucky that I’m not as extreme but I know I have exactly the same thought processes and emotionaL issues

Hi Graham, sorry to hear you’re struggling.

Addiction is a word often used quite lightly, but is a very serious, chronic condition. Addicts are people who find it difficult to deal with life – they tend to be by nature depressed, anxious, ill at ease. This means they seek out substances and behaviours that change the way they think – by using whatever their drug of choice is, they are really self-medicating.

Repeated use of drugs/behaviours lead to addiction – simply the body becomes dependent on a chemical. If the chemical is no longer administered they feel bad – withdrawal. And that’s when an addict is really in trouble – whatever they were using no longer makes them feel good, they need it just to approximate feeling normal. That’s a miserable state to be in and nobody would choose to be there. Our current obesity epidemic would certainly suggest there’s something addictive about some foods – why else would you eat so much you severely impact your health and quality of life ?

Recovery from addiction is a simple but very difficult thing to do. The first step is to understand what’s happening and realise that whatever you’re using to medicate you is not the answer, and that if you carry on using it, will become a serious problem. If there are certain trigger foods (normally sugar and refined carbohydrates) you need to stop eating them. They aren’t a “treat” or an escape from life, they’re just sugary junk that gives you a brief “hit”. The second and much harder step is to look at yourself and why you behave like you do. What is it that causes you to behave like this ? It’s also helpful to identify alternative coping mechanisms – rather than heading for food, what else could you do to make yourself feel better ? Exercise, talking to someone, a hobby….

Sorry if this sounds a bit preachy, it’s just that I am an addict. I know what it’s like and (luckily) I found the answer above.

If it helps to know it, I had a very long period of trying to get back on my Intermittent Fasting program once I had blown it. It was basically the entire Summer. And I re-gained 20 pounds.

I was lucky in that I had succeeded from Christmas to some time in April. I knew I *could* do it if I got my head right. And I knew how much better I felt in every respect when I fasted and ate sensibly. I just couldn’t get past those insane cravings that take over your whole life. Yes, I am a food addict too!

I would do a couple fast days. I would string together a good week. Even 2 good weeks. And then I’d give in to something again. I struggled from April through September. But, happily, I finally got my determination screwed up and did it by the beginning of October!

My message is DON’T STOP TRYING. It won’t matter how many times you’ve failed once you’re successful. And, once you’re successful at it, you’ll feel sooooo much better physically and mentally that you’ll be invested in it. It’s worth the effort you put into it just to be rid of the insatiable cravings that drive you to eat when your stomach is already full and stressed to have to accommodate even more food!

Be kind to yourselves. Beating yourself up really doesn’t contribute anything. Get all your resources on your side — your family and friends, your environment and, mostly, yourself. Then get busy to distract yourself from cravings. Take a long drive on a road without restaurants and a lot of advertising. Clean out a closet. Get an engrossing book. Go take some nature photographs. Anything that keeps your mind and body occupied. But, above all, DON’T GIVE UP no matter how many restarts it takes!!!

“my doctor has said the heart disease and stroke in my family on both sides mean I’m a heart attack waiting to happen

and STILL I don’t lose weight!”

OK, Grahmam, so *what* are you doing today to make a healthy change?

Pick ONE thing. Do it for 24 hours. Set a timer at 1 hour intervals and get up and move around your house for 5 minutes each hour. Or don’t eat starchy carbs for one day. Or have one sugar-free day.

It won’t help to feed the idea that you can’t change or be successful. You need to pare your goal down to one thing you can make a healthy habit and then add one more in another week or two.

Everyone here wants to help but it’s up to YOU to get started. Please write back what you will do for the rest of the day.

I have done a lot of therapy over the years which is where my level of self-awareness comes from to get me to the point where I can identify clearly where I’m at

I don’t think it’s inappropriate to be having this conversation on this site though

most people if they are honest are eating for the same reasons as me- sometimes dieting for the same reasons because it’s a project that distracts them from the deeper more painful things – a lot of people think they are miserable because they are fat and when they are thin all their esteem problems will melt away

that’s why I’m not looking for dieting advice – I bet we all could write our own books about calories, carbs, cardio, food combining and now the 5.2!

For me exploring other hurdles and self sabotage is just as important as food advice – the two go hand in hand

Graham, I agree with everything you said in your most recent post. I feel that many of those who repeatedly binge or overeat, do so in part because there is underlying emotional pain that is difficult to feel, experience and face. I know that to be true for me. Many blame the food industry for their addictions. I feel I’ve experienced physical addiction, though for me there is usually an emotional component beyond the physical addiction. I know this because I can find myself bingeing on all kinds of healthy food including kale salad, macadamia nuts, coconut butter all while not caring a hoot for processed or sweet stuff.

I agree that shedding weight does not equal recovery. Not for me at least. In fact, if anything, since reaching goal weight maintenance, I’m even more aware of my emotional triggers and sensitivities. However, like I said above, because 5:2 cleared a lot of my brain fog, I have a clarity I didn’t have before that has enabled me to get to the bottom of some of the issues in record time. I was in various types of therapy for 10 years, both individual and group work. Some of the insight into my own past abuse since practicing 5:2 has been worth years of therapy! In other words, I’ve cleared stuff I didn’t even get close to touching over that decade of therapy.

lachubster I don’t think you are completely undestanding what I am saying when I talk about wanting to resolve underlying issues and feeling until I do the whole thing is just going round in circles and ruining my health in the process

It’s true what you say small steps are better than no steps but that depends on where you are as an individual – for the time being I’m not dieting and I think I’ll start again when I get some clarity – maybe it’s a personal thing I’m not able to express in words on a website

I don’t feel overwhelmed or paralysed though – like you I’ve done it all at least six or seven times before – lost the weight, looked good (I think people smiling at you because you are thinner must be an American thing – we are very different culturally) and then put it all back on again and more

I’m needing something more fundamental than just new clothes to go through all that again

As a large man I wonder if people thought the same of me, and now i know. Frankly, as you put it wanting to know his situation is none of your business. I grocery shop for my family. They do not eat the foods I eat, and they chose to eat things that would not be considered healthy. It is not up to me to impose on my spouse what she can and can’t eat. I don’t control her.

Hi Merryme,

Thanks for your posting. An interesting and thought provoking read. This article explains how the addiction to sugar works. I have a similar reaction with processed carbs. Maybe because they are chains of sugars? I don’t know.

https://theconversation.com/heres-what-happens-to-your-brain-when-you-give-up-sugar-for-lent-37745

The unhealthy process you mention that attaches sugars to proteins and fats is called glycation. It happens inside the body, most damagingly with fructose (and galactose), but also to an extent with glucose. And it happens also outside the body with cooking of things like the donuts you mentioned. Look it up to find out more.