Did I get your attention???

Ok, curiosity... when I answer posts here, I am always coming from a perspective of a "food addict"

But many times I have people write back...

"But I don't have an addiction to food"

Which I always think to myself YEAH RIGHT!

Don't beat me up I'm being honest!!

What can I say I'm pessimistic, I also laugh when people say they don't eat TO MUCH so they don't understand how the are fat.. I AM FAT BECAUSE I EAT LIKE A PIG (alone mostly)

Today I thought about, "what if I'm wrong?"

I mean...I am me and I am addicted, how do I know how the next person is???

I'm curious as an addicted fat person how is it for those of you who are not addicted?

Oh and on a side note if I am wrong, then I'm also jealous because I would give anything not to have this problem (addiction)

. " Life is uncertain, so eat dessert first."

I have a thyroid issue that makes it harder to lose weight but that's not how I became obese! If I had not worked out so much when I was fat I would have been a lot bigger than I was. How can you be almost 300 pounds and not be addicted to food? To me being addicted to food and being an emotional eater is the same thing. Maybe it's really not' date=' but, in my mind it goes hand and hand.[/quote']

Hmm, as I mentioned, I eat out of pleasure, not for comfort, or when I'm happy or depressed. However, I would certainly say I'm addicted at some level. I suppose one could consider pleasure an emotional response.

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No, I'm addicted, no question. I eat too much of inappropriate foods for the pleasure it brings. I would say that my addictive element is only slighty emotional - I don't generally seek food for comfort, for example, and I don't eat more when I'm upset or when I'm happy. I also have to be careful about eating out of boredom or habit.

Ditto for me!

I find that if I don't start eating, I can go for most of the day, but once I start, I can't stop, especially if it's something like Pasta or bread. That's kind of the definition of addicted, isn't it? It has also led to a kind of a fear of eating (feeling like I won't stop), which makes it hard to do the multiple small meals thing, thus bringing me to where I am, scheduled for surgery in 4 days!

It's hard to see how one can resort to WLS and not be addicted to food. I know I am.

I found this paragraph on the web site referenced below. "The stages according to the Kubler Ross Model are – Denial, Anger, Grief, Bargaining, and Acceptance. These stages of grief parallel naturally to addiction."

http://addictionjournal.net/?p=791

Hmm, as I mentioned, I eat out of pleasure, not for comfort, or when I'm happy or depressed. However, I would certainly say I'm addicted at some level. I suppose one could consider pleasure an emotional response.

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Yes, I suppose it is. Interesting, there are all kinds of emotions but I usually think of emotional eating when one is sad or upset. I have used food with all emotions!

I'm completely addicted with a very bad thyroid. I think I got to my highest weight faster with a thyroid problem (gained 16 pounds in one 2 week period, and 11 pounds another week... and that just the recent ones), but I certainly would have gotten there eventually.

I must be addicted to food...a slight clue must be that I'm already thinking about dinner shortly after I wake up! Then again, I have to since I need to pull something out of the freezer, to have time to defrost for dinner. I eat because I love the taste or texture of something. I'm supposed to be losing weight (pre-op with no surgery date yet), but I opened up a bag of chips & ate 3 chips just because I wanted to taste them (new store brand chips & got a couple free bags). My husband finishes dinner & he whips out the **oooohhhh soooooo sinful** chocolate cake from Easter, which is still fresh as can be, & I'm sitting right in front of it. Naturally, that sexy gorgeous cake was doing a number on my will power (which I have NONE, or I wouldn't be at this point in my life), & I sliced a teeny tiny wedge off. Maybe 2 bite size but WHY did I have to have it??? See, I'm addicted! There's just no doubt about it. Now I absolutely *hate* myself for having those 3 chips & tiny wedge of cake. Altho, it did satisfy the urge to eat either of those items since I did taste them. Maybe if I had tasted items all along, I wouldn't be nearly 300 lbs today??

I knew of someone who put herself on a low cal diet but if she wanted ice cream, she was going to have it. She'd have 2 tablespoons & her yearning for ice cream was over. She lost about 50 lbs & looks great. I know I need help. I just pray that I never ever let myself get this big again. I need to find a new addiction! Haha!!

Has anyone noticed another addition coming on? I guess that would be another topic.

I think a large % of people who do not think they are addicted are just not "educated, ready to admit, are in denial". Also a persons ego can prevent them from accepting they could possibly be addicted to something. I think Lauren-vats gut is right in the first place.

All of us who know we are addicted are one step ahead of the game in keeping it off. (I pray)

This is a good question. I am addicted to the thought of food and the pleasure it will bring. Does that make sense? So yes I am addicted to food. Everyday is a struggle to make good choices and not give in to cravings of food I know taste great (I have a major sweet tooth but lost some of it w the sleeve, not totally). I do feel like an addict when I go the entire day eating healthy and have to ruin it at the end of the day by eating a piece of chocolate or eating late when I'm not hungry. It's like I have to have something else because the day went so well. It's in those moments I feel like a victim to food. I eat more when I'm bored or think of something delicious.

Could it just be that I love the taste of food? It's not that I eat when I'm sad, I love all kinds of food and the cultures. It's an experience. Is that bad??

I've had the same primary care physician for 20+ years (rare in this day and age). I have an uncle who is a world renowned geneticist whose specialty is diabetes and obesity. I've managed to get the two of them in the same room on several occasions and the discussion and debate on this very issue is always evolving and ongoing.

One of the things my PCP realized that kind of swayed him away from the "it's all diet and exercise" opinion was a lunch he had with one of the trainers for the Seattle Seahawks. As he pointed out there are 300+ pound NFL linemen that spend 5 to 8 hours a day in the gym 300 days a year. They eat relatively healthy and far less calories than the average Olympic swimmer. Yet they remain technically' date=' morbidly obese. The diet and exercise argument wouldn't put them that large if entirely true.

Yes some people have a very unhealthy relationship with food, it's one of many causes, but not the only cause. I think the reality is more of a blended issue. Many people fall into the category of not always eating the best, not always exercising optimally and having genetic issues and or a metabolism that is seriously dysfunctional. No one cause and no one solution outside more drastic measures like surgery.

I was one of those people that didn't battle weight most of my life. I graduated high school at 145lbs at 6'1". I was teased for being too skinny. I graduated high school and started going to the gym daily while taking weight gain shakes. I was working as a grocery store meat cutter which was a very, very physically intensive job throwing around 200lb boxes of meat all day. We worked in shirt sleeves in a 35 degree room. I think that cold temperature and the calories we needed to stay warm is what messed me up. But it didn't help that I got myself from 145lbs to 250lbs in 2 years. It was all muscle and I was built like a professional gym rat. But 6 days a week in those work conditions played a role.

Went to back to school, got a degree in technology and a desk job, wife and kids and went to the gym once a week instead of twice a day. Weight crept up, muscle disappeared and a few years later found myself getting sleeved and turning this around.

But then I look at my wife. 5'10" 135 lbs, size 6. She has out eaten me every single day we've been married (20+ years) and is within 5lbs of the size she was when we got married. Never exercises ever, eats crap, candy etc. If it were all diet and exercise she'd be 500lbs.[/quote']

This is exactly how I feel sometimes! If I eat a meal it sits in my stomach and becomes fat and some of my friends eat the same or more and gain nothing. It feels unfair

I don't think anyone has denied at least some of their problem is owed to good addiction. I think what I and others are trying to say is, 'yes, food addiction is part of the problem but not the whole picture.'

I had problems before I developed a 'food addiction.'

Am I saying that food addiction is not part of the end result, absolutely it is part of where I am now. Gaining weight didn't start with a food addiction for me though. It was a series of things that made it all but impossible to maintain my healthy weight and made it very hard to lose weight and then spiraling into a food addiction as a result.

No' date=' I'm addicted, no question. I eat too much of inappropriate foods for the pleasure it brings. I would say that my addictive element is only slighty emotional - I don't generally seek food for comfort, for example, and I don't eat more when I'm upset or when I'm happy. I also have to be careful about eating out of boredom or habit.

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Yes that's exactly how I feel. Are we addicted to taste? Lol

I must be addicted to food...a slight clue must be that I'm already thinking about dinner shortly after I wake up! Then again, I have to since I need to pull something out of the freezer, to have time to defrost for dinner. I eat because I love the taste or texture of something. I'm supposed to be losing weight (pre-op with no surgery date yet), but I opened up a bag of chips & ate 3 chips just because I wanted to taste them (new store brand chips & got a couple free bags). My husband finishes dinner & he whips out the **oooohhhh soooooo sinful** chocolate cake from Easter, which is still fresh as can be, & I'm sitting right in front of it. Naturally, that sexy gorgeous cake was doing a number on my will power (which I have NONE, or I wouldn't be at this point in my life), & I sliced a teeny tiny wedge off. Maybe 2 bite size but WHY did I have to have it??? See, I'm addicted! There's just no doubt about it. Now I absolutely *hate* myself for having those 3 chips & tiny wedge of cake. Altho, it did satisfy the urge to eat either of those items since I did taste them. Maybe if I had tasted items all along, I wouldn't be nearly 300 lbs today??

I knew of someone who put herself on a low cal diet but if she wanted ice cream, she was going to have it. She'd have 2 tablespoons & her yearning for ice cream was over. She lost about 50 lbs & looks great. I know I need help. I just pray that I never ever let myself get this big again. I need to find a new addiction! Haha!!

This is the way I eat. If I want something I have a few bites of it and then I don't feel deprived. I decided to do this from the beginning so that I learn to eat like a regular this person, I didn't want this to be a diet where I couldn't have this or that. That never worked for me in the past.

I have had to work on my food addiction and emotionally it was so difficult at the beginning when I couldn't eat and had head hunger. I had to learn how to deal with my emotions without food. Now that I am almost 2 years out and my addiction is much better. I still have times where I eat when I am emotional but those times are few and far between and I can now stop myself.

So do you guys know someone with a completely healthy relationship with food and what does it look like? By this I mean they rarely over eat, they eat healthy, they don't snack when they are bored or sad and they can say no to their favorite foods? Are alllll skinny people not addicted to food and we are the only ones? I doubt that. I do think some people have more will power, better genetics or exercise way more so they balance out. My activity level has contributed to my weight gain along with my need to like big quantities of food I enjoy.

If they aren't addicted why do they allow it to happen? If you didnt eat too much or the wrong things and youre aware you are getting fat.. Why not just stop? If you lost all your weight why turn back to eating wrong.. Unless you want to be fat again.. Unless of course you have no control over what you put in your mouth etc.

Addiction is the continued use of a substance or behavior despite adverse consequences.

Well, I do think it's possible for this to happen without it being full-blown addiction. I was always overweight, but the obesity crept up on me when I switched to a desk job that had me working insane hours for weeks on end, plus I had a crazy commute. We would down sodas because they are free and kept us awake. We'd fairly mindlessly eat while continuing to work - we got paid by the hour, so we worked as much as we could. The pounds crept on, and we'd think oh, it is just a couple of pounds here, 5 lbs there... Next thing you know, that few lbs became 50.

Now, I am a food addict, but i used to control somewhat because I was fairly active before that time. However, we weren't really eating like food addicts then - we were eating whatever was quick, cheap, or provided by the company we worked for so that we could keep going. We were fueling up, just with the wrong foods. We went thinking about anything but the short term.

And as we all know, once it's on, it becomes more difficult to get the weight off. Sometimes it's harder to exercise. Sometimes the same reasons you put on the weight to begin with are still there. Could you have become addictive because of this, absolutely! Is it necessarily the case that you have? No, I don't think so.

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