Hi, this will be a little long but if anyone has any advice or experience with something similar happening I would greatly appreciate it 🙏 I have absolutely no idea what to do and nothing I’ve tried so far is helping. Thank you so much :)
I’m 25f and I've been on an intentional weight loss journey since Summer 2022, and I've lost 170lbs naturally so far. I still have another 80lbs to lose and have been in a calorie deficit until now.
Throughout this journey, I've experienced a beautiful transformation in my relationship with food. I've embraced a non-restrictive approach and developed a healthy mindset around eating. However, I believe I may have missed some major stress signals that my body was sending me along the way and have now hit a massive roadblock.
The problems began in October when I started experiencing energy crashes between meals with symptoms that mimicked reactive hypoglycaemia. It seemed random at first but became more and more frequent until January when it worsened, and I started to think I may be diabetic. But medical tests ruled out any underlying conditions.
So, I continued to eat in a calorie deficit, but eventually, I hit a tipping point, and extreme hunger and binge eating episodes started occurring.
I've only been able to barely manage this by eating at maintenance, which I’ve been doing for the past 2 months but nothing has calmed down yet and even the slightest deviation, such as an increase in activity level, triggers intense and uncontrollable eating episodes.
These episodes are completely different from any emotional or restriction based binges I’ve had in the past. I’ve had a lifetime of unhealthy eating habits to compare it with and this is nothing like anything I’ve ever experienced before. Most online advice seems to focus on general binge eating advice, which doesn't fit me because I’m absolutely certain the eating episodes are NOT triggered by emotion, or stress.
My body seems very panicked around food, which is strange because I'm not restrictive at all. The other strange thing is that the cravings have not been for highly palatable foods. It's mostly for plain high-carb foods like rice, bread, oatmeal - things I don't even like very much. And I've never restricted carbs either. That's why I thought it might be some other health issue. But my doctors have run tests for diabetes, blood sugar imbalance, thyroid, hormonal issues, and everything came back normal. The only link seems to be the prolonged calorie deficit.
I think I missed a lot of other distress signals along the way too, like extreme dips in mood and mental health and low energy. It seems like my body eventually gave out on me.
I'm very eager to continue my weight loss journey and I'm willing to give my body whatever it needs to recover. But I’m unsure how to navigate the extreme hunger since it seems to be over-riding my usual hunger and fullness cues and the binge-like episodes are deeply disturbing and have been having a significant impact on my mental health. I’ve rapidly regained 25lbs since this started and I have no idea what to do.
I’ve tried mentally pushing through the episodes but the hunger is so intense I literally can’t concentrate- I literally feel like I have to turn the lights out and meditate to even attempt to get through them and I still fail every time.
I've also tried eating freely, but it leads to binges and needing to eat massive quantities of food almost every hour, which has been exhausting to keep up with.
I’m already eating a well balanced high protein, high fiber, mostly whole foods diet with consistent spacing between meals.
TL;DR - I’ve lost 170lbs in a sustainable way and my body seems to be fighting back at me. I still have 80lbs left to lose. I haven’t gone back to old unhealthy lifestyle but hunger has been so intense it’s been almost impossible to fight. I’m already eating high protein, high fiber, mostly whole foods and leave consistent spacing between meals. The binges are NOT emotion or stress triggered and the cravings are not even for highly palatable foods. Feels like my body is trying to store up food. I have no underlying health conditions. Currently eating at maintainance and taking a break for the past 2 months but nothing has improved so far.
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