emotional eating

I am a pre-op and I have alot of problems with emotional eating.I am seeing a therapist for this. However, I have lost large amounts of weight in the past, only to regain it ,mostly to using food as a crutch when I have problems.I am thinking that wls will be helpful because,I will not be able to binge as bad.I am hoping to have rny ,as I would be looking for controls on my eating, like dumping.I am trying to find out from post- ops who also had emotional overeating issues ,if you have managed to get past it ?,or with the help of the tool are you in better control of emotional eating?I know that I am going to always struggle with it , but has it got any better?Thank you ,Dar

I am 10 months post op and have lost a total of 100# (84 since surgery). I think my loss has slowed down because I am also an emotional eater and surgery does not change everything. It helps that I cannot tolerate a lot of the foods I used to eat. Just the mention of McDonalds grosses me out. So some of the "cravings" have gone away. If you get dumping once, you will not want it again. I taste very small amounts of any new foods to make sure they don't make me sick. My problem is that I can eat chips, some candy, and cookies. I have to be very careful because I reach for them when I get stressed and I really want this to work. Because of that, I have joined overeater's anonymous. I also follow Dr. Phil's plan (a little). It helps to recognize what triggers your overeating and what you reach for. Then you could substitute good foods or a walk to deal with the stress. Hope this helps.

Sharon, thank you.Congratulations on dropping 100 lbsyou are doing wonderful.Dar

Dar, I am 2-1/2 years out. I, too, am an emotional eater. In the past, the food I ate just packed on the pounds. Now, if I turn to food as a way to deal with things, there is a physical reaction that is very uncomfortable. The surgery does not address the psychological aspects of obesity. After all this time, I still find that I will turn to food as that was the only coping skill I had for so many years. It doesn't happen all the time but I am having to adjust to the fact that the issues I have with my weight will be with me for the rest of my life. I have lost 180 lbs. (all of my excess weight) and now am considered "normal" size however I find it very difficult to feel normal. I work at it constantly and ask for and get lots of support. I attend support groups regularly and participate in online email groups. I have even sought out individual therapy along the way. The relationship with food is sometimes the longest deepest relationship we have ever had and the thought of changing it is daunting. But...I would do this again in a heartbeat. I feel that by working on the emotional issues I am getting healthier emotionally as well as getting healthier physically. The surgery does not help you control the emotional part of the disease of obesity but it does give you a tool to get a handle on the physical. However, people learn how to outeat the surgery because they do not address the emotional aspects. The journey must be looked at as a process. It requires work on many fronts, physical and psychological. I often say that if you are not ready to take your life and shake it upside down you may not be ready for surgery. This journey requires us to re-evaluate our entire lifestyle, it is not a quick fix. I would encourage you to continue to work with your therapist as you go through the process and if possible, attend a WLS support group so you can meet and talk to people at various stages of the process. Good luck and God bless. Hugs, Pat B.

Pat, thank you for responding, I never thought about the relationship with food being the longest & deepest .Now you are making me think, differently about this journey I want to come to your house and hang around with you for a while. Dar

Thinking is a good thing. It is important to understand these things now before you have surgery so you can be prepared for life after. You are welcome to come to my house anytime--but I warn you, you may have help me in the garden!! Pat B.

Hi Dar -- sorry to be so late with this reply, but I just joined today and found your post. I hope that sharing some of my experiences might help you a little. I am 4 months postop (60 lbs so far!) and luckily have had very few complications. Surgery was very easy for me -- there was very little pain and very little adjustment to eating again. I hope it goes even more smoothly for you! I feel as if I am in better control of my emotinal eating now, but I still do it occasionally. I have gotten really sick a couple of times out of sheer stupidity -- kind of like denial that I've even had surgery, feeling as if I could eat as much (and as fast!) as I could preop. Trust me, this won't happen often. Once should be warning enough, but slow learners like me take a few more times before it sinks in. : ) One thing that amazed me when I first came home from the hospital was how differently I felt about food -- almost immediately. I thought that seeing food -- and particularly smelling it -- would drive me nuts when I couldn't eat it. But the exact opposite is what actually happened. The first day I came home, I saw a commercial on TV for McDonald's french fries. I was afraid this would make hungry, make me sick, or make me feel deprived. But what actually happened was I had an overwhelming desire to SMELL the fries! I didn't want to eat them, I just wanted to enjoy their smell. And then I realized that I could now truly enjoy the smell of food, just for the smell itself, without triggering any desire to overeat -- or even to eat at all. This was a major discovery for me, and one that I think has helped me the most in this journey. In the entire 4 months since my surgery, I have not had one french fry -- and better yet, I haven't even WANTED one. Sure, there are some "bad" foods that I have wanted. And I find that if I allow myself a little of something that I'm craving, it will both stop the craving and keep me sane. And once I've allowed myself to have a little, I've never craved that same food again. The picture is not entirely rosy, however. There are some foods that are more dangerous to me than others. I find that the most dangerous foods are those that I tolerate well, and are easiest to eat. My biggest danger these days is crackers. I can eat a surprisingly large amount of crackers without feeling sick, but the next day I feel puffy and bloated from all the salt. So when I feel the urge to splurge on an emotional eating binge, crackers are the first thing I reach for. This has been fairly easy to curb -- by making the crackers more difficult to get to, and by finding healthier substitutes like unsalted nuts. I guess awareness of the problem is the first step towards helping to control it. Sorry to be so long-winded. I hope that some of what I've said has made some sense. Believe me, it does get better -- and you're absolutely right, surgery is most definitely helpful because you are physically not able to binge as badly are you can now. How are you doing now, Dar? Do you have your surgery date yet? Best of luck to you.

thank everyone for responding to emotional eating questions. I am pre-op but still have plenty of questions. the emotional eating thing was something that i had major concerns about. but now that i know that it is still a very REAL possibility, I know that I must work harder at evercoming that obstacle and identifying WHYI DO IT. I am one of those people that hate to be sick, so I think that dumping symdrome will be a very strong deterrent to me - plus there are so many things that I want to do in life (not sit in the house in front of the tv and eat) I hop that when that emotional thing comes over me I will be able to get up and go for a walk, go tothe mall, the park, bowling skating, go somewhere do something, and do things that I have not done in quite a few years or have never done before. I am defiunitely looking to a whole new life inside and out

Hello fellow Tennessean! I am considering RNY and just came from my therapist's office and discussing it with him. I too am an EXTREME emotional eater. He gave me a paper on ways to "Self-Soothe" using your 5 senses. Well, I only use one! My mouth and then I eat way too fast leaving me still craving. But according to his article it says to use all of your senses. For example, Vision - buy a beautiful flower, fix your nails so they look pretty, look at beautiful pictures in a book; Hearing - listen to beautiful or soothing music, pay attention to sounds of nature (waves, birds, rainfall, etc); Smell - try on perfumes in a store, light a scented candle, boil cinnamon, smell the roses; Touch - take a bubble bath, put clean sheets on the bed, have a massage, soak your feet; Taste - Really taste the food you eat, eat one thing mindfully, eat slowly and savor the taste. I hope this might help. I know I certainly need to try it. BTW I am coming to Nashville next Tuesday to attend WLS seminars at two different places. Would you might telling me who you are going to? Thanks, Jeanette

hi. i am still having problems with binge eating...i know its affected my weightloss.....it is not uncommon to totally sabtoge ones surgery....i ate a whole oh henry bar today...and i feel very bloated and depressed about it...i do not dump...please try to get food ishues resolved before surgery...hugs Dawn