To those that would say they were/are addicted to eating - what kind of strategies help you cope with the compulsion to always be eating?

I always scoff at comments like “you can’t binge on broccoli”... Haha I do that.

I don’t think I’m addicted to food itself but more on the action of chewing, swallowing, feeling full. In the past I ate pretty typical fat food - Maccas with the thick shake and nuggets. Dominos with the garlic bread. Copious amounts of milo and milk (Aussie thing) and that got me to 80kg (176lbs) as a naturally petite (as in, small bone frame & 5ft 1) 20F. AKA obese.

Over 3 months I’ve lost 10kg/22lbs by eating more veggies, cooking at home and not eating out or having sweets/desserts/snacks at all. But it’s getting harder and weight loss aside - I don’t want to eat until pain anymore even if I lost all the weight I wanted.

My maintenance TDEE is 1600 now and I struggle to even keep it under that - my compulsive eating always sends me over. Left to my own devices (which is 99% of the time) I will eat until I feel sick & slightly scared at how much I’ve eaten. Things like rice, tofu, eggs, yoghurt, broccoli, strawberries, nuts, avocado, etc are all fair game.

Just tonight I’ve had 3 x 250g punnets of strawberries, 8 eggs, 2 cups of brown rice, 2 zucchinis (courgette), a capsicum (bell pepper), and - I shit you not - a whole 800g packet of plain tofu. A rough calorie count of that comes to at least 2000 calories in the space of a few hours (maybe 8 hours) - which if I wasn’t short and female might be fine - but for me it’s over maintenance and well over a fair deficit.

At the moment I’m trying to do IF just to keep my calorie count below 4000. Everyone tells me it’s the fasting that’s making me eat like this but honestly it’s just damage control for a long-standing problem. I eat like this if I have 1, 3, 7 meals a day, reducing the amount of meals reduces the amount of calories. If I eat breakfast I’ll eat until I fall asleep, basically.

I’m trying to find things that take my focus away from food - studying (though it’s online so I can do it at home), going for a walk, running errands etc. (Funnily enough If I’m out of the house I won’t eat or have the urge to eat. A couple diet cokes and I’m sorted for the day - but come home time it’s a free for all. And it’s not like I can avoid going home.) but I wanted to see what works for other people so I can forge a plan in place for myself to get out of this habit.

*** I just wanted to say that I don’t in any way think I struggle with binge eating disorder. I’ve never eaten in a frenzy, super quickly, secretly or with guilt - I kinda just enjoy the process of eating and will do it non-stop for hours if I can, which racks up substantial calories once I run out of veggies/fruit. I also don’t really care what I eat, so long as I’m eating. So compulsive eating feels like it fits a lot better if I was to describe it.

Hope someone relates because I feel this is so odd lol

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