I am on 100mgs of Sertraline, and have been for a year. In that time, I have had a couple of periods where I have felt myself sliding down, but these have been constrained by the medication.

Now, however, like clockwork (being autumn), I can feel the slide coming on, and I am turning to food to deal with it.

After two years of (mostly) keeping the weight off, I really don’t want to return to being overweight, yet the desire to consume is almost overwhelming.

I know that talk therapy can help, and I will be asking my GP to refer me when I see her in the next week or so, but in the meantime, are there any ‘tricks’ you can suggest to divert my attention when I want to eat eat eat?

Bear in mind, this is compulsive eating I am talking about; NOT trying to convince my body that it has had enough. My body isn’t interested in ‘enough’. It’s interested in consuming!

Similar here, on 20mg Citalopram combined with Mrs Egf’s condition/no dog to walk anymore & generally can’t be arsed with biking in shit weather. Just looking forward to making tea. 🙄

Oh & now no job either.

Step 1 is don’t have the food in the house. Obviously if you’re going to drive out to the shops at 10pm to get a mars bar this might not help, but it may be enough to stop the milder urges.

There was a program on superfoods just on that said increasing zinc intake could help

I agree, Jamie, considering if the food isn’t there, I don’t tend to even think about it. My problem is that I have eight kids, so keeping the house devoid of food is pretty tough.

In process of changing meds going on to mirtazapine, I can’t stop eating, piled on a stone in a couple of weeks

Can’t help directly – but best wishes

Me normally. I’m currently dealing with one of the strongest rounds ever and in 4 days I’ve had a bowl of rice across 2 days half a bowl of pasta and half a chicken tikka. Bizarre. And I’ve stopped booze.

My usual mechanism is to have no food in the house then have a few gins so I can’t drive to get any. That or buy veg and salad, I’m never as fussed for them. Keep the mind on something. My food issues are so much stronger when I’m bored. Not just tv, actually engage brain in something complex like human interaction if possible. Home alone worst for me.

Under IAPT you can quite likely self-refer to your local talking therapies service.

I’m a compulsive bulimic (wouldn’t recommend it) and find that just keeping myself busy is easily the best thing I can do – lots of exercise. Lots & lots!

I’m not taking anything for it (it’s tied in with depression/OCD etc.) and feel that aside from not giving myself downtime to stuff myself silly, group therapy would be the way forward for me – but it doesn’t seem to exist in my neck of the woods.

So keep yourself on the move. Chase your brats round the garden til you collapse from exhaustion

have a few gins so I can’t drive to get any.

This is a really handy tool for me too – it’s too far to stumble to the shops and if I can get past the time the local takeaways operate then I’m onto a winner. Also having no crap food in the house helps a lot – WTF wants to binge on beans & salad??

been down the same road many times mate.
diagnosed with a health problem, get depressed, eat like a ****, gain weight.
get mended, mood lifts, lose weight.

next bout of surgery, repeat same things all over again.
but, i am facing surgery number 4 in the last 5 years, and i seem to be holding the demons at bay this time.
on a bit of a weight loss plan and it is working.

iifc you are about my size. you fancy a bit off a challange over the winter.
see who can lose the most weight in say the next 4 month?

My problem is that I have eight kids,

Well. At least your sperm is working as it should.

iifc you are about my size. you fancy a bit off a challange over the winter.
see who can lose the most weight in say the next 4 month?

Chub Club lives on!!!

Yeah, ok, I’m not a chbber, but my unhealthy relationship with food has really been helped by theotherjv’s organisational skills 🙂

There any specific times you tend to really go for it? Or is it really just constant. Having 3 girls who cover a wide range of ages means there are about 6 meal times everyday!! So with 8 kids I can imagine you and the other half have your hands full. I’m just wondering if it’s constant feeding or when the house has gone quiet type stuffing your face?

Fruit kinda works for me.
I’m a compulsive eater too and whilst it doesn’t satiate my hunger fully it does help and I don’t feel as bad if I’ve eaten five apples or pears.
Don’t know if it would work for you, but I do hope you find a solution that helps.

when the house has gone quiet type stuffing your face

This, mostly. I do have particular difficulty between 4:00 p.m. and 9:00-ish. No idea why.

That’s the worst time for me too, I’ve pondered over it for years, and wonder if it’s linked to the relief of taking your foot of the gas. I can feed everyone without really picking at stuff but once I exhale when they are all sorted my food urge rockets. I can only speak for me, and I know this will go against family meals etc, but I had to start eating my tea when all was quiet and I could just sit and have a proper meal. When I was eating with various kids etc, I was always up and down doing stuff, so it never really felt like I ate a meal. So then just continued stuffing crap down myself. I know eating late is pants health wise, but for me was better than the alternative. Equally, every time I approached the pantry, I would just find a job to do; ironing, going to the shops, bike maintenance, any shite task really. I just found this broke the urge.

I know there is nothing scientific to my thinking or experience, and hope you don’t think I’m preaching or doing down your issues, but it’s just how I try and manage. Some days it doesn’t work for me, but does more often than not. Good luck, however you sort it.

A few suggestions, which might or might not work for you:

– Don’t buy snack food/have it in the house.
– Failing that, some snack foods may be better at making you feel full without lots of calories, e.g. popcorn (not sweet or buttered) and possibly rice cakes.
– Rather than casual grazing and grabbing food outside mealtimes, make having something like a cake or biscuits a sit down affair at the dining table with a cup of coffee or tea at a regular time. In other words, turn it into a bit of a ritual like mealtimes (preferably with family members). So instead of unthinkingly working your way through a packet of biscuits over a couple of hours, you only have two or three biscuits at the table, and you train yourself not to eat or think of eating outside that time and away from the dining table.
– Be fussy and demand the best. The best and nicest snacks and other foods are often expensive (so you can only afford less of them). I would rather have one very nice good quality expensive biscuit than half a packet of cheap digestives made with palm oil.
– Taking that a step further, home made cakes etc. are even better (and making them yourself will occupy your mind and give you something to do instead of eating).

I have eight kids

Do you live in a shoe?

Have meat snacks instead of crisps/Bombay mix etc.

4 loin chops with the fat cut off seasoned with a bit of herbs.

Fills you up faster and less carbs.

And more onanism obviously.

Or a lettuce, I find the crunchy helps me feel like I have eaten, plus it’s full of something that helps you sleep.

It might also help if you make your main meals more of a ritual, as opposed to a more rushed or very casual affair (if that is what they tend to be). Again this would help to create a clear distinction in your own mind between when and where you eat and the rest of the time.

Nicotine patches..

Stick one over each eye and you won’t be able to find the fridge.

) and possibly rice cakes.

That’s what I was going to suggest! Force yourself to only eat these when peckish and not only will you not put on weight, they’ll put you off eating!

Don’t ask me, I’m crap at it 🙁

However I do find properly filling breakfast (loads of protein and a tiny bit of carbs) helps. Basically iDave diet type stuff. For me the compulsion to eat seems linked to muscle glycogen levels even if my stomach is not telling me I’m hungry. There are lots of paths to hunger and not all feel the same.

This, mostly. I do have particular difficulty between 4:00 p.m. and 9:00-ish. No idea why.

Same here.

My solution, as above, is to stop buying Frosties for the kids. 😀 They are my Kryptonite.

Have healthy stuff pre-prepared and lying around – carrot sticks, rice cakes, fruit. Cut down on supplies of bread etc – I find it bloats you up and makes you hungrier.

Find something else to do mid-afternoon – a quick run or speed walk around the block, anything like that will hold off the food cravings until tea-time.

No good advice from me, just another voice to say you’re not alone.

When I’m alone in the house and have nothing to do I stuff my face with whatever I can hide the fact that I’ve eaten, sometime when I know I’m going to be home alone I plan what I can sneak in my face. It sucks.

I used to have a set of rollers that I used in the living room that had the opposite effect so maybe something like that. Keeping busy does seem to help.

Cut down on supplies of bread etc – I find it bloats you up and makes you hungrier.

This is particularly interesting, as my great weakness is bread. I love the stuff… white bread, brown bread, bread with seed in it… pretty much all bread.

So do I, especially with lots of butter and perhaps a bit of honey or marmalade…

<Heads for cupboard>

Now, however, like clockwork (being autumn), I can feel the slide coming on, and I am turning to food to deal with it.

This is worth thinking about, and trying to deal with. If its caused by the season there maybe ways to mitigate the effects. Off the top of my head, I’d be looking at vitamin D supplements (in autumn, winter and spring, and you’ll really struggle to get enough from food) and some sort of light treatment, light box or just getting outside for an hour at lunch time.

SaxonRider – Member

Cut down on supplies of bread etc – I find it bloats you up and makes you hungrier.

This is particularly interesting, as my great weakness is bread. I love the stuff… white bread, brown bread, bread with seed in it… pretty much all bread

this too is my biggest downfall.
not unknown for me to eat a large warburtons loaf in a day.

got weighed this morning after a month of not eating crappy carbs, and a month after my doctor tellimg me to lose some weight.

1 stone off in 4 weeks.

I would strongly recommend trying the iDiet if you can. Teaches you a few things about food.

1 stone off in 4 weeks.

Well done (less)big fella!

Pack of choc Bourbon biscuits and big bowl of porridge so far this morning, still feel the urge to eat (urge, not hunger)

‘Alo Alo. It is I, Le Wopp. Listen carefully as I weel say ziss only wernce. ..

I am in the midst of a weight-loss process myself which I have done once before and it’s very effective:

The Fast Diet

I used to get Seasonal Affective Disorder myself. Don’t know yet how that’s going to work in Spain.

I found taking “Saint John’s Wort” tablets (active ingredient “Hypericum Perforatum”) completely removed the effect. Obviously I had to overcome my aversion to the name but I suspect that wouldn’t be a problem for you… 😉

Also, as we discussed elsewhere, get bizarre sex whenever possible.

Rots of ruck.

St. John’s Wort isn’t recommended for those taking AD’s

Aha. Well, St. J’s is an anti depressant, so ignore my bad.

A target or goal will help James; a target and a distraction.

Autumn/Winter is a horrid time for bike riding. Often I will be riding 250 miles a week through summer, and able to eat anything and everything … then the darker nights and wet weather moves in, which means less riding but the same appetite … or more.

I suggest you book a week on Majorca with me early May. The target is there to keep fitness … and fit into your summer kit too.

No, could be could advice Mr. W. Just wanted to make others aware just in case

I’ve got a dodgy foot at the moment, my first proper ailment and as a result August and September miles have been low, food intake high and the weight is going on.

I s there a way we can file share some kind of league/ tracker to encourage each others weight control (in a sensible non over doing type way) I’m thinking gaming it a bit as that sort of thing works for me?

I’ve had Seasonal Affective Disorder for ~25 years now and about this time of year, the inexplicable carb cravings kick in, even if I’ve just finished a big meal.

I’m hoping that the fitness cycling will help reduce how much weight I put on this winter, I did get as low as ~74Kg this summer from being 90+Kg from at least Xmas 2013 to summer 2016. But already I’ve noticed the cravings have started and I’m up to 75Kg.

For me, I need to keep the intensive hill climbing going and then recover on the flat/downhill. But depression including SAD takes on many guises, including weakening motivation.

Eating until your really full – Isn’t a bad thing intrinsically and it does lift your mood – I find vegan/plant based options really helpful for combining non weight gaining with a feel good binge – Porridge (loads of it) with chopped fruits made with soya or rice milk for example – The last thing you need when your feeling down is to impose puritanical constraints on yourself – Its wrong to pathologise the desire to eat until your done. The meds however..