noodle

You know, I went through this for a long time when I was younger.
I got up to 220 pounds by the time I was 26. I would eat all the time, literally all the time that I could. I'd end up feeling like I could chew off my own limbs at times. It's such a horrible feeling... ravenous hunger, though I knew I shouldn't be hungry and some guilt and confusion as to why I was eating so much, watching the scale go up, etc.
Mine was somewhat related to psychological issues but it was compounded by what I was choosing to eat. The foods I'd grab would cause blood sugar crashes, and I'd pick up something else to combat the depression and tiredness that came with it.
It took forcing myself to exercise and face up to some of the issues that I was dealing with to combat the depression and changing my diet drastically to curb that hunger. I ended up eating the same amounts of food for a long time, but different kinds. Whole foods, complex carbs, vegetables, LOTS of proteins, and shifting my boredom patterns.
I would literally eat all day, my stomach wasn't empty often, but I was eating edamame as a snack, lightly steamed and refrigerated broccoli sprinkled with soy sauce, airpopped popcorn with butter flavored spray and a little parmesan cheese, turkey and string cheese roll ups, etc. But, I dropped some weight really fast at first from the change in type of food.
I'll not give too much advice, but that's how I forced myself to get a handle on the feeling that I was going to keel over if I didn't eat. The lower GI foods really helped.
And then I found out that my mother was hypoglycemic... she's now an insulin dependent diabetic, as was my father, and I need to keep an eye on my blood sugar. Just that knowledge alone helped me be more proactive. I still can go into those modes where I get into the cycle of FOOD NOW if I eat pasta too often, or too much sugary stuff.

It's a horrible feeling, though, Lasereth and RedJake, I can only empathize somewhat because I know I didn't go through quite the same thing. But, I lost 94 pounds and a lot of the retraining of the hunger areas of my brain (with a lot of help from other people and nutritionists) has stuck as long as I pay attention. Good karma (I don't do "luck").

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