Compulsive behaviour

What healthy foods taste good to you? Raisins, strawberries, apples, grapes? Stop eating sugar and over time your brain will decrease the urges. When you have an urge to eat or buy junk food, walk to your bathroom mirror, lift up your shirt, and ask yourself if you want to get fatter by eating junk or lose weight by making the healthy decision.

It’s hormonal. Sadly, none of R1’s perfectly reasonable advice works for people whose appetite is out of control. You can’t make the right decisions.

Ozempic, Mounjaro, Wegovy work. They or drugs like them are the future of addiction medicine, be it food, recreational drugs, alcohol or other harmful behaviors.

Zepbound works. It stops the obsessive food thoughts.. OP, do whatever you need to do to get an rx. It’s a miracle.

Addiction is difficult, OP. You've taken the first steps in recognizing eating as compulsive behavour.

Modern life does come with some really wonderful advances, and I highly recommend going on a GLP. I've seen it work in two instances close to me, my sister and a good friend. My sister described it like suddenly being free of the urge to eat crap all of the time. Her favorite evening activity was sitting down to binge some TV shows with a family-sized bag of M&Ms and eating the whole thing. She reports that now, on Maonjaro, she simply doesn't want to eat junk. I don't know which GLP my friend uses, but his transformation has been nothing short of amazing. He's lost so much weight that he had to buy a new wardrobe for Summer. Both had been trying to lose weight for years, done all the diets, and failed repeatedly.

GLPs really do work.

Just throw out the junk food. You can't be tempted to eat it if it's not there

[quote]It’s hormonal.

How do you know? Did you see OP's test results?

I agree a GLP would help. Addiction to carbs/sugar suck, but it can done. As stated above, get the junk out of your house. Try to limit artificial sweeteners, it still triggers your addiction.

tl;dr - skip this part if you're not interested in my story

I gained 25 lbs and ballooned to 248 lbs during COVID (I'm 6'2"). I was home making a lot of pasta for friends, neighbors, and my fat ass. I laid off the carbs and fairly quickly got back to 223. My doctor put me on Ozempic (I'm pre-diabetic) but really only lost five pounds in about 18 months. Then back in March, someone posted a thread about starting the Mediterranean diet, and that sounded like a good idea. I started cooking chicken three days a week, fish two days, one day of red meat (beef, lamb, pork), and one vegetarian day. We have pasta at most once per week, but more often every other week. I've been snacking on fruit during the day and after dinner. I make a lot of salads that are mostly vegetables to go along with the protein of the day, and not just lettuce salads. Bulgur seems to help the carb craving, and I include it in a lot of the salads. That's not to say I don't eat the occasional cookie or three, a Danish, or that blackberry buckle I made inspired by another post. But I only had two pieces of the buckle and sent it to the office with my partner. I think the GLP helps with the craving, but if it was with me in the house all day, I'd be picking on it. Anyway, I was 202 lbs when I got on the scale this morning. I'm sure it's a combination of the Ozempic and the change in diet, because that's 16 lbs in under three months, and I'm not actually trying to lose weight very hard. That's my story; I hope it helps. I know it's tough, because I'm a total carb addict when I start eating them.

Carry on.

I've been on Mounjaro for about a year and have lost 25 lbs. It really does turn off the 'food noises' and cravings for sugar.

I stick to protein and vegetables and only make what I know I will eat (roast chicken breast or legs, flounder, branzino, tilapia, steaks). My salads are basic and I eat an orange or some fruit at least once a day for fiber. I drink about 54 ozs. of water a day. I'm currently on a diuretic and blood pressure meds so my doctor doesn't want me drinking too much water. I don't eat or use fat-free anything; I use light cream in my coffee and put Sargento shredded cheddar in scrambled eggs.

I've been on diets since I was in my teens. If I could lose 35+ lbs. 40 years ago, eating foods from the original Nutrisystem program (a 'hamburger patty' that was hydrated by putting it in boiling water for 2 minutes type shit), I know I can lose weight other ways.

WW used to work for me but, with the points system, I could figure how to have a piece of cake and salad and fish for dinner. In other words, I wouldn't use my points wisely.

I've been overweight since I was 9 when my Dad left my Mom, sister, and me. My sister would cry so much my Mom often had to get her from the school nurse. My Mom cried herself to sleep at night so I didn't feel I had anyone I could talk to about my feelings. I ate cookies, candy, ice cream, you name it. I ate my feelings.

Maybe you should see a therapist along with your GP. You can find out why you're a comppulsive eater and use a GLP-1 to help get your food intake under control.

Good luck, OP

There are therapists who specialize in this. Since you have a desire to cooperate (get better), I'm optimistic on your behalf. You can beat this.