Weight On, weight Off, the dieting yo yo.

So many people, including some of us, I'm guessing have lost weight in the past, then gained some or all of it back and sometimes even becoming heavier than we were before.

I think from all the healthy eating threads we've had, it's been discussed that strict dieting or fad, gimicky type diets that make us feel deprived tend to be those we can't stick to forever and we wind up gaining it all back and then some. And conversely, that it's a life style change of healthy eating and exercise that will be more likely to succeed for the long haul. We've talked extensively about carbohydrates and fat, too much sugar, eliminating fruits, not enough vegetables, too many calories, all the direct, physical elements to our diet and well being.

But, we haven't addressed a factor that I think is fundamentally important to address. And that is the psychological contributors to eating disorders, whether they're a real disorder or a more mild problem. Aside from physical reasons, medical or genetic...whatever they may be, what about the emotional side of things?

For myself, I think I need to get to the bottom of why I do the things I do which have made me gain weight during my later years. I didn't always have this issue. I was very athletic as a young kid and even into my 20's and most of my 30's. I wasn't over weight until I hit the 40's and then just a little, until the 50's. Then all hell broke loose. LOL. Yada, yada, yada about the slowing down of metabolism once I reached my 40's or having babies. Yes, that happens but that excuse only goes just so far. I think one needs to compensate for that. So, what gives?

I think in order to keep this tendency at bay, I need to know WHY. What about you? Do you think that the underlying cause is as important as it is to go at it from strictly a dietary/exercise angle? Do we want to suppress the underlying cause or just keep plugging away, attempting to cover that over with new eating habits? opcorn:

i think things are just too easy. convenience foods are easy and terrible for you. Our jobs are easier physically for the majority of people. I know standing or sitting at a desk can be tiring, but it's not cultivating a field of crops, building a home, or hunting for food all day.

Besides that we have way too much access to food and not healthy food. If we had to hunt all day for our meat, we'd be using the entire animal and getting what we need. Now we can just load up on corn fed muscle meats if we want or hit a McD's. Those foods are not created with health in mind, they're created to bring in the most dollars for the least amount of cost.

They modify them thru raising, or thru genetics and thru chemical means to appeal to centers in our brains to make us want them. That's why processed foods are so popular. Entire teams of very smart people are chemically altering the foods so they appeal to your senses more and entire departments of people do nothing but study ways to get you to buy more of it.

Most people I find (including most of the people in the weight lose threads) are not dieting, but instead switching to a healthy living style, ie. eating healthier, exercising more. When I think of the term dieting now, I think of people doing the fad diets, or have these extravagant goals that want to reach by 3 months and then they can go back to eating donuts, pizza, and ice cream everyday.

I think any psychological eating disorders should be talked with a psychologist and not a dog forum, just my 2 cents..

Its SUPER important to me. I am not overweight. I've gained 15lbs but other than my new found big boobs I am the exact same size... but I have an unhealthy relationship with my body. I've wanted to lose weight before but now I just want to eat well/exercise to be healthy, happy and have a good relationship with both my physical and emotional self.

I've always yo-yo'd to a minor extent. I go between 140-155... and you cannot tell a difference but it eats at me when I'm on the heavier side.

seriously though. 155 in this photo.



138 and preggo in this one.



It isnt a size yo yo for me. Its a health one. TO get 140 or under I do terrible things to get there... and for what? I want to be happy and healthy and stop yo yoing in my mind.

What causes an eating disorder. Well, I'll tell you what caused mine and what eating disorders are about more often than not.

What caused it? hard to say.. a few things probably starting with:

the constant pursuit of perfection.. eating made me a failure, giving up and eating was a sign of weakness. I wanted to be perfect, at everything, all the time. and being thin, that was simply part of the package. I started out simple enough, to be perfect I had to look like model XYZ things like that, but it turns into so much more than "I want to be skinny" I wish I could put it into words.
Perfection is the only option. If my grades aren't perfect, if my body isn't perfect, if I am not perfect, if I don't do everything perfectly..than I am a failure.

the need for control. I can't control the world around me as much as I want to. but my body, I can control. I can control what goes in, I can control what I look like, I can control how big I am. having that to hold onto.. it was like a drug. I can win this war against my body. I will be perfect no matter what. I am in control. anybody who is trying to stop me is just trying to take control away from me.

I totally lost perception.. even with my ribs sticking out, fainting, anemic, periods stopped, doctors warning me.. I thought they were all lying, I was fat. I knew what I saw in the mirror..fat fat fat fat fat. I got a 98 instead of a 100 on a test, it's because I'm fat. My mom isn't as proud of me as she would be if I was thinner.
Me being fat and my body became the root of every problem I had. and every time the number on that scale went down, I didn't care what people said, It was worth it. It was euphoric.

The feeling of triumph of watching the number go down. The doctors telling you you are "clinically underweight". People calling you thin (in a good way or a bad/concerned way). Winning this inner battle. Being in control. On your way to being perfect.
It's addictive.

and of course, top it all off with a totally unhealthy relationship with food. It's never just "food". It was my enemy, arch nemesis, a poison. and then I would break down and it would become my comfort, my best friend and then I would think about what a poison it is, how fat I am going to get, what a failure I am... and I would want it out of my body.
BINGE. PURGE. BINGE. PURGE. BINGE. PURGE. and the cycle continues..

People think that girls look at pretty women in magazines and have anorexia for kicks. To make them look thin..
and sometimes, many times, that is how it starts. but it goes so much deeper than that.

It took 2 stays in rehab to "cure" me of my eating disorder and get me to a decent weight. Do people honestly think that people do this for attention or for some other reason? Like I would ever put my parents through that for selfish reasons.
and in the end, that is what helped me the most.. my parents. Seeing the looks on their faces, I can't even imagine what it's like to have your child slowly kill themselves and not be able to do anything about it. They felt helpless, and I couldn't stop.

I put "cure" in quotes because it's never really something that goes away. Sure, I weight a healthy weight now, I eat now.
but in the back of my head, every time I eat, every time I look in the mirror.. it's still there. and I still don't have a healthy relationship with food.

and I think that's why I'm doing this. It's not about losing weight, I know 1000 very tempting ways to lose weight, and fast. I just want to be healthy, in every way. I want food to just be food. and I want to LIKE my body.

I want a healthy relationship with food, exercise and of course myself.

I think we need to instill more self-esteem in kids/teens. Teach healthy eating and exercise habits, teach about embracing your body, about loving yourself
Tell your kids that it is about doing YOUR BEST and not being THE best that matters.
and that perfect.. it doesn't exist.

Fran your post summed up everything that I've gone through, except I've never had a actually eating disorder. Which actually makes me feel worse because I don't have the control to not eat food, and that makes me hate my body more. And like you, whenever I get a bad grade, I think its because I'm fat, or if my parents yell at me, its because I'm fat. I love food, and I hate the fact that I can't stop myself from eating it.

Fran...that took a lot of courage and incredibly good insight. I'm so happy that you figured out what was behind your issues and found ways to deal with the triggers and how much a healthy lifestyle means to you.
One of my nieces had a short bout with anorexia nervosa. Her Mom sent her to a treatment center straight away before things really got out of hand and she no longer has that feeling about food...hasn't for years. She simply eats healthfully and I think that the treatment place made her see what her underlying emotional reasons were for doing what she was doing, seeing what she was seeing. It was very scary. I'm so happy for her and for you that this got nipped in the bud before it completely ruined you both.

I don't know what my emotional issues are regarding food. I don't think it's extreme or anything. Or maybe there are not necessarily any covert or underlying issues. I've never been severely over weight. Eventually, I seem to have a cut off switch, although that switch should have clicked sooner. LOL. But there must be something somewhere underneath that makes me find so much pleasure in food and in unhealthy food in particular. Is it a friend to me? Or a blanket? I don't know. I'm not aware of anything in particular. I was never abused or anything close to make me reach for food as a comfort. I don't think I'm all that rotten of a person that my self esteem is on the floor. So, I just don't know. But they say there usually is an emotional factor somewhere in there that makes people over eat or have other kinds of problems related to food.

It seems to be helpful to change the way I think of food....not so much as any big deal, but more of a way to fuel my body and give me what I need. Of course, cooking is fun and interesting to me. And the taste of things, of course, matters to most of us. So, then I find myself thinking about food possibly too much. (?) Although, on the other hand, that way, I find that I have time to figure out healthy alternatives. It use to be thinking about when I could have another cookie. LOL Or I wasn't thinking about it at all. Just grabbing. It can not be used as a security thing or whatever the heck is going on. I wish I knew.

Merico, yes, a psychiatrist is the only qualified kind of person to really get to the bottom of things, I guess. Some misinformation could be passed around on a forum. But isn't that the way it is with everything on a forum? I don't see any harm in tossing around ideas and personal opinions, sharing experineces. I don't think anyone is attempting to give the equivalent of professional advice. At least I hope not. But if someone doesn't want to be a part of this kind of discussion, there is certainly no obligation.

Yes. This is wonderful, a much superior way to going about losing weight and getting healthy. But is it possible to switch to a healthy life style, not a quick, fad diet...but still, at some future point switch back to an unhealthy life style?

Well...I, for one, once I get to my goal weight and body condition (from exercise) I don't want ever to slip back to less than optimum eating habits and too little physical activity. I want to know what it takes emotionally...besides the logistics and life style, to maintain with the least amount of conscious effort or struggle, my new, trim and fit body. I want to know ahead of time how to prevent those times where I might slack off, like I did during the holidays. What if some time, that slacking gets out of hand? There has to be more in the arsenal than the physical tools or logistics/method. There must be the physical and psychological sides to this....mustn't there be?

Eating disorders are more broad than restricting. Not having control is also a symptom of eating disorders. Look at bulimia. They do not have control. Disordered eating comes in many forms.

*hugs to everyone*