Overcoming Overeating

Rating:
Summary: Dumping diets is a lifestyle -- NOT just another diet!!
Review: As infants, we are born with the ability to self-regulate our eating. Only when we start eating solid food do our eating habits get molded by our parents as they socialize us to fit into our culture ("No crackers now, you'll spoil your supper!"). This book is about getting back to that self-regulation that is your body's birthright.

"Reader from the US" (below) makes a common mistake many of us compulsive eaters make when starting out. The authors even mention it in Chapter 7: 'Fred' sets out to see how well he can resist the food he brought home. Fred "took on the task of dumping diets as though it were a new diet" (p. 79 of massmarket edition). Alas, "the rebel within Fred knew that having a well-stocked freezer was a temporary indulgence, [so] it was going to get what it could while the getting was good".

"US", it takes a while; you have to trust you won't eat yourself out of house and home. And many of us backslide; take it one day at a time. Try throwing away the scale!! And commit to eating out of stomach hunger. "The more you look forward to the experience of stomach hunger, the more apt you are to find it" (Ch 9) and it is infinitely more satisfying to satiate stomach hunger than mouth hunger (those times you eat when you're not really hungry).

This is truly a wonderful book! "When Women stop Hating their Bodies" (by the same authors) is also helpful, as are Geneen Roth's books.

Rating:
Summary: Authors should be sued
Review: I bought the book, read it, and thought it might
work for me. I was at about 270 - 275 lbs for quite
a few years. That was in 1999. By 01/01/00 I hit
300 lbs. That was the straw that broke my back.
My doctor was complaining about heart palpatations,
High cholesterol and High Tri-glicerides. I knew
something had to change.

I did an internet search on Triglicerides, and found
the Atkins diet. I bought two or three of his books.
By 01/01/01 (a year later), I dropped 60 lbs. My doctor
was thrilled with the weight loss but didn't care for the
higher cholesterol. I weened myself off of the Atkins
(then I was 205), and the blood stats couldn't be better.
Not to mention he took me off of my high blood pressure
meds! That doesn't happen too often :).

Rating:
Summary: When Women Stop Hating Their Bodies
Review: I read this book in conjunction with Overcoming Overating because I'm a late-night compulsive snacker. After a 30-pound weight gain in about a year's time, I was browsing through self help in the book store and saw this book. I can't recommend it enough because it employs common sense, cites historical trends in weight perception and shuns the "poor fat me" advice and helps you get in touch with the you on the inside. When I have a bad body thought or am thinking about another snack when I'm full, I flip through this book and talk myself down off the ledge. If you don't want to look closely and deeply at yourself and how you fit in your body and in your world, then this book is not for you. This book leads you on the path to accepting yourself as you are before (or if) you decide to lose weight, and I have found it a very useful tool. I recommend those who want something past traditional diet rhetoric give it a chance.

Rating:
Summary: This book changed my life
Review: I read this book ten years ago when I was a compulsive overeater in college (in 1991). I had read countless books on eating disorders and how to stop my binge-eating; I had seen several therapists and specialists; I had tried every diet and every psychological trick and therapy known to humankind.

Then, I happened to read an article in Shape magazine that summarized the themes of this book. I was so struck by its approach that I promptly bought the book. And WOW -- my attitude changed dramatically -- and the compulsive overeating, a problem I couldn't imagine my life without, soon ceased.

The book's principle is, in essence, forget about the relentless calorie-counting, the food-diary-keeping, the constant eating-controlling. (Thank goodness! because those never helped me and indeed may have fueled my compulsion.) Instead, it taught me to 1) be kind to myself during and after a binge, rather than heap insults on myself; and 2) learn to tune into stomach hunger instead of "mouth hunger," and trust your body to ask for what it needs. Yes, this sounds absurdly simple to me now, but you cannot imagine how this thought shift impacted me -- and the book explains it in a way that helps you understand your overeating AND to do something about it.

Now, as a thin person and (so much more importantly) a person not obsessed with food every waking minute (and many "sleeping minutes"), I cannot recommend this book enough. In the last ten years, I've pushed this book on every overeating friend who's asked how I managed to change, so I thought it only appropriate to share my thoughts via an Amazon review.

This is one of the four books that has dramatically and forever changed my life. I have frequently wanted to shower hugs on the author for the gift this book gave me -- the life of a normal eater who is not constantly planning her next binge. I'm telling you, if you've tried every approach in the book and still struggle with binge eating, do yourself a favor and read this book! Good luck. (And THANK YOU, Ms. Hirschmann, if you ever read this!!)

Rating:
Summary: Helps so much!!
Review: I read this book years ago. Whenever anyone asks me how I lost my weight - this is the book I suggest. Not that this is a weight loss book, this is a be happy and sane and integrated and whole in your relationship to food book. This is a free yourself from self hate book. This is a start living your life and not holding yourself back book. This book changed my life and everyone I suggest it to loves it. Very smart and compassionate.

Rating:
Summary: The hope of life
Review: I was looking for a book for eating disorder, and I found this.
I am very greatful and was totally amazed how intimate they understand the pain of diet/binge. it takes effort to feed myself on demand as well as quiting the idea of my body is a wrong body, but I am getting there and find myself is becomming happier. After I have feed myself on demand for a while, I realized how powerful this mathod is for helping me quiting my addition to food. I start to see myself refuse chocolate that was send to my face by my boyfriend. I remember how I would want to stuff everything into my mouth when I was in the nightmare of diet/binge cycle, because the constant dieting has made me become very inscure about food. I am still trying to "quit" and learning to accept myself. but I am not giving up. I know that, after believe in the garentees of every diet plain for years and seeing non of it can stay in my life, quiting diet and built a healthy relationship with food is more important than anything.
I wish more woman can get help from this book and I have to say thank you to the authors.

Rating:
Summary: This book spoke to me
Review: I was ready for this book. I knew diets were not working for me, as I sit here 5 pounds heavier (yet again) than my previous peak weight--- and this was after 2 years of trying Meridia, Xenical and Phentermine. I had already gotten past beating myself up for yet another failure; already gotten past ridiculing myself mentally when I saw myself in pictures. No, I had already decided diets were making me miserable, and I didn't know what the answer was, only that I refused to go on another diet again.

Then a friend (overcoming bulemia) recommended "Intuitive Eating" (2003 edition) and Overcoming Overeating. Little did I know I had already vocalized the ideas in these two books. And little did I know these books would change my life.

I must admit, Overcoming Overeating was hard to get into. The forward was dry and written in a very formal tone. Chapter one read like a textbook. But, I stuck it out because what I read did make sense.

I am so glad I stuck with this book! Overcoming Overeating discusses in moderate detail eating disorders, one of which is called binge-eating disorder. I saw myself in every example of these people. I had no idea I had an eating disorder, though I became certain after reading this book, that I do indeed have this medically-recognized disorder.

This discovery was freeing and painful at the same time. I was so relieved that now all the puzzle pieces fit. I had already started the work on my own before this book, but by the time I was finished I was ready to work on my disorder with my therapist. The two days following the completion of the book, I was flooded with emotions... anger, sadness, regret, joy, peace etc. It was almost overwhelming.

I will be eternally grateful to the authors for allowing me to see that I don't suffer from a lack of willpower, that it wasn't my fault that I "failed" at another diet, and that my success and happiness in life doesn't depend on whether I am thin or not.

Don't get me wrong! This isn't a book that tells you give up dieting and stuff your face for the rest of your life. This isn't a "fat acceptance" book. This is a book for people who want to fix their eating disorders and fix their relationship with food and fix their response to emotional issues that they have repressed for years and suppressed by going into a food coma.

You must be ready for this book. I recommend therapy and perhaps antidepressants in addition to reading this book because eating disorders are biological, psychological and environmental. You may not be able to conquer this on your own, though I do think this book is a good start if you don't want to do therapy and meds.

Anyone who asks how do they lose weight if they can't diet didn't get the point of the book and isn't ready to change their life.

Dieting causes eating disorders. Points, carbs, counting calories, food diaries, scales (both food and poundage) are ALL tools of a dieting world. In order to follow this plan, you must be mentally prepared to rid your house of ALL dieting materials, which is much harder than you might realize since throwing away dieting materials means throwing away all the hope that came with each diet. This was mentally challenging foe me. This is a serious change of life!

To address the reviews that said this plan will cost hundreds to implement... maybe, maybe not. Part of the plan is to refeed yourself without restrictions (glossing over the idea here). This means you not only have to go out to the grocery and buy ALL the foods that you like, you also have to buy several of them and keep restocking the pantry as you need to. This is a hard concept for people like me who always kept a bare pantry because "you cannot eat what you did not buy." You MUST buy food and you MUST buy a lot of it.

That part of the plan deals with eating what you want, when you want to and to stop when you are full. You must retrain yourself that you can indeed take good care of yourself by paying attention to your hunger signals and then feeding yourself exactly what you want. (glossing over the plan here).

This book was so logical, so compassionate, so forgiving that I have no doubt that I am no longer eating-disordered, yet I live in an eating disordered world.

Giving up dieting is the solution. Getting to your natural weight you were meant to be may be a nice surprise result of paying attention to your body's hunger cues. You will stop bingeing. You will have plenty of food on hand. You will NOT go out of control and eat it all. You'll be surprised if you give yourself some credit and the chance to prove it to yourself.

I am so contented and peaceful now. Good luck!

Rating:
Summary: Not for those who love dieting!
Review: Like another reviewer, I think this book is dangerous -- to those who make a living telling the overweight that they can't trust themselves and that some foods (the ones they want) are B-A-D.

Instead, the authors address the concept that if we listen to our own bodies and only eat when we're actually physically hungry (as opposed to bingeing or just plain old pigging out) we'll overcome the need to pig out in the first place.

I've tried this and it's amazing -- when you know that you can have anything you want, you suddenly get very selective and I found that it was the taboo-ness of certain foods that made them attractive. Now, because I know that I can eat whatever I want -- and because I don't eat if I'm not physically hungry -- I'm much healthier physically and emotionally.

I can actually ENJOY eating!

Rating:
Summary: If diets don't work, how do I lose weight?
Review: This book mainly contained information that I already read in previous books, similar to this one. Ok - may be dieting is all too tightly tied up to failing to support some imposed image of body size and shape - may be it is bound to fail - may be overeating is not about food but emotions. Even after you learn to accept yourself and deal with the inner emotions, there is still the question of losing weight. Simply biologically, dieting will make you hungry and you'll crave food. Exercise creates hunger as well. Being hungry you'll want to eat. Weight is thus not lost. And restricting can lead to binging relapse. In the end, I was left dissatisfied with this book and many others.

Rating:
Summary: Opened my eyes to loving myself unconditionally
Review: While this book held a few bits of helpful information, I found it overly clinical and had to force myself to plow through it. The book was written after years of clinical research and studies done on overeating disorders... It should be interesting and informative, however, the findings are presented in such a dry non-narrative fashion it reads as technical survey after survey after survey. Booooooooooring.
I didn't get much out of it. If you are looking for some serious answers about overeating....keep looking, this isn't it. Overall, I wouldn't recommend it.