Alexithymia and Overeating

Post Reply New Topic

I have a huge problem, which I never realized before is likely attributed to alexithymia. I overeat most days, and I thought it was because I have binge-eating disorder, but it is more because I cannot recognize hunger. I do not know when to start eating (sometimes I can also go all day without eating, then at night I begin eating and keep eating because I think I should still be hungry). I also do not know when to stop eating. I am fat and I hate myself because of it but I cannot seem to change things because I simply do not know when or how much to eat, when to stop, etc. Also because of my sensory issues, I eat a lot of "junk" because of the textures. Anyway, does anyone have ANY idea how--if I cannot identify hunger signals--I can set up an eating schedule. I am so close to just giving up forever and I already hate myself completely because of this. I really do not want to spend the rest of my life looking the way I do, but I don't know how to change. I am in this ALL on my own. Any suggestions?

I'd suggest for the schedule, try just making it every specific number of hours. I've heard that for most people 4 hours is about the most they should go between meals.

So, when you wake up and ever 4 hours, have some food. Figure out how much food you should eat nutrients and calorie wise over a day for the amount of weight loss you want, and split that into these meals. Use that as a basis for how much food to eat every 4 hours, and try following that schedule.

Figure out the time of day to eat, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Put certain amount of food in your bowl or on you plate and eat and all you get on your plate is all you get to eat. No seconds.

Stop eating junk food even though you enjoy the textures but that sort of sensory input isn't healthy so you are going to have to stop doing that for the texture. You can still have some junk food but not a lot. Maybe have it at least once a week or two but don't eat the whole bag. Eat how much servings it is for each serving by looking at the nutrition label.

You may have to count calories every time you eat and even use measuring cups when you pour yourself some pasta or cereal or milk. Some people actually do this when they are on some restricted calorie diet.

I'm a little bit of a nutrition .. what's the word? I know a lot... (I've been creating and following meal plans, everything from weight loss to weight gain, since I was 3 and diagnosed with type I diabetes)... and if you'd like help developing a plan, I'd be happy to help you.

I don't mean to underestimate your problem here, but I am the exact opposite. My stomach is extremely sensitive. It's especially bad when I'm overloaded, like right now. The past few weeks have been really chaotic for me, and I haven't had adequate time to rest and recover. My stomach has been so sensitive in the past month that I've probably unintentionally lost at least two or three kilograms in weight. If I eat too much, I get nausea. If I go a few hours without eating, I get nausea. If I let myself get too thirsty, same thing happens. If I eat something either too acidic or too basic, that wrecks havoc on my system too. I have to be very careful with what I eat and when, and if I'm not, I get sick. I think that while we are complete opposites, we can both benefit from the same solution. Make sure you watch when you eat, what you eat, and how much you eat, and you should be fine.

Do you eat while doing other activities? I've found that I can eat a huge amount of food while sitting in front of the computer. It might help if you set aside an eating time and did nothing but eat a meal during that time. I have the same problem recognizing hunger and fullness, and I've found that eating this way is so mindnumbingly boring that I just want to get it over as quickly as possible to return to more interesting activities. Besides eating healthy and monitoring the quantity of food, this method might help you avoid overeating while doing something else.

I suggest you just start counting calories for a while to get a good idea of how much you need.

http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/calories-burned.php

Stick your information in there, and it'll come up with how many calories you are likely to need each day. For me, it comes up with 2230 calories; I'm a 28-year-old female, 5'4", light activity. (Check those activity levels. You're unlikely to be anywhere past "light" unless you are into sports or have a very active job. I guess there are athletes using the site who need to know how much you should eat if you spend six hours a day training or something...)

Then, you can check to see how many calories are in your meals. (That same site has a list of foods and how many calories are in them; you can use that to estimate when your food doesn't come with a label.) Once you know that, then you'll know whether you are eating too much or too little and when you should stop. The easiest way is just to divide your calories per day by three and have one-third that amount for each meal.

All of that is a little annoying to do at first, but once you get the hang of how many calories are in different foods, you should be able to eyeball it without measuring or weighing anything and keep a mental running total.

If you start losing or gaining weight (unless you happen to want to), then it's likely you are eating too little or too much. That's to be expected because no two people are really alike, and the formulas are really only estimates. If you discover this, then adjust your calories per day up or down by about fifty at a time until you get to the right level.

Other signs of eating too much: Indigestion and bowel issues, feeling tired after meals, not feeling hungry by the next meal.
Signs of eating too little: Dizziness, shakiness or weakness, a tendency to sleep more often, lack of energy, cravings, wanting to eat between meals, taking longer to "recover" after exercise.

My advice:

First, see a nutritionist. They can tell you exactly how much food you need and when, as well as examining you to see if your weight is high enough to cause health concerns (many people who think they're fat actually aren't, because our society's standards are skewed) and whether you have any medical conditions contributing to the problem.

With the nutritionist's help, make up a schedule of exactly what you should eat when. For example, # of servings of specific food groups per day (make sure you know how much a serving is), and # of meals per day. Pick the healthiest stuff you can tolerate with your sensory issues. Eating healthy is more important than trying to lose weight fast - if you lose more than 1 pound per week you're endangering your health.

Incidentally, you may be interested in researching Prader-Willi Syndrome. I doubt you have this syndrome, but they can have some similar issues with not knowing when to stop eating, so you may be able to find strategies for PWS that could help you.

Yeah, a nutritionist could do the stuff I just recommended--the calculations, the designing the diet. You do have to be kind of good at applied math to figure it out without it taking too long. It's a lot of ratios; maybe seventh or eighth grade math. A nutritionist could do that for you. There are also simpler systems that replace calories with things like "points" or similar larger units (like you count how many fruits you've had, rather than how many calories)--a lot of diabetics use them because they're a little simpler to learn and use than calorie-counting. Alternatively you can get a nutritionist to teach you how to count calories, so you can make sure you are getting enough food but not too much.

You may also want an occupational therapist if you are having trouble feeding yourself consistently and in a healthy manner. A nutritionist can teach you how much and what is healthy for you to eat, but if you have problems with simply forgetting to eat, or forgetting to stop eating, or not knowing when you're supposed to eat, or not being able to cook anything, or any of that stuff, then you probably want an OT.

BTW, one last thing: Remember that getting addicted to calorie-counting is worse for your health than overeating will ever be. People who get neurotic about eating exactly the right things in exactly the right way tend to have a lot less fun than they could, end up with sky-high stress levels, and sometimes even starve themselves or end up with nutritional deficiency diseases. I know that autistics are pretty likely to be perfectionists and detail people; so, for goodness sakes, don't overdo it. I've seen people have their whole lives taken over by eating just the right thing, and it really doesn't look like fun at all--no time for anything but thinking about eating, planning food, researching food... Yeah. Don't do that. Bad idea. </standard warning>

Callista hit it on the head 100%. I too have this problem and had to hire a nutritionist and then start logging everything I ate. I could never figure it out otherwise and often crashed from undereating or got fat. I use Sparkpeople.com to log all my food. There are a number of intelligent calculators out there to help you figure out how much to eat and there are a lot of really bad nutritionists so my advice is to educate yourself a tiny bit about nutrition and THEN hire a nutritionist if you have to.

Thanks for all of the advice everyone!

Last summer I became super obsessed with calories. I think I almost became anorexic(ish). I was down to less than 500 calories a day for the summer. I lost 50 pounds in probably slightly less than 2 months, and I also lost about half my hair in the months that followed. Obviously that was not sustainable, so I ended up going back to old habits, and put back on the 50 pounds again. Grrrrrrrrr!

The only thing that really worked for me was when I did the weight watchers core system. I lost 100 pounds (I really did not try to lose as many as possible as quickly as possible that time, and I often ate until I was overstuffed but it was on really healthy, low-cal whole foods) in six months. Then I quit when they came out with their "new and improved" system. I didn't like it. I have since tried getting back into that, but no matter how hard I try, it doesn't work. I am stuck on the textures now, and I cannot seem to let go.

Callista, I did not know an occupational therapist could do that. Do ALL occupational therapists know how to do that or are there some who are "specialists" in that area that I would need to see? I just might look into that because I really don't think I am going to be able to change it on my own (even when I am eating healthy as I was on the core program, unless I am purposefully starving myself, I always overeat.) I think I will look into that tomorrow to see if they are covered by my insurance. Thanks!

I eat breakfast when I wake up. I eat lunch at noon. I eat dinner at 7'ish, depending on when it's done. I do not eat at any other times of the day (I make exceptions for vacations and when I'm with other people, but that doesn't happen so often that it becomes a bad manner). If I'm correct, many weight problems come into play because of snacks and eating at bad times. Reducing yourself to three eating moments each day might help. For the other issue, try to find some healthy food which works for you.

For me, it's always about working a routine into my eating habits. I sometimes started doing stuff like eating noodles every evening after dinner. I'd gain weight, and then would have to stop the routine to get back to normal weight. Also, exercise can be good. Even just walking an hour each day can be very helpful. I use that time as recharge time, too.