Trying to lose weight and stop the binge eating: How do I distract myself from food?

Like someone said a while back, log your calories.

I use

www.livestrong.com/myplate

- it knows about almost every packaged food and sandwich on the planet as well as the fresh stuff. You log miles and food. If I get anywhere near energy balance, the weight falls off. Commit to recording everything you eat for one day. Then another. Then push it to a week. What you will learn is amazing.

I also suggest reading Matt Fitzgerald's "Racing Weight". This is actually written for athletes trying to shed the last few pounds rather than for fat people.

Personally my problem is snacking all evening, after doubles (as you said...). What actually works best is that i started doing some exercises in the evening- mobility and easy strength work - during TV ad breaks. I realised that I was basically eating out of boredom and because I felt lousy slumped exhausted on the sofa. Getting up, stretching, doing a few lunges, squats, pushups and pullups and stuff every 15min all do more for making me feel better after a hard training day than getting up for a snack out of boredom every 15min.

Good luck.

Anyone who eats too much is obviously not on letsrun enough. you need to troll on letsrun more. also get laid. maybe see a psychotherapist too. yur welcum.

When I'm surfing porn or letsrun on the Internet, I can go hours without eating!

Anytime I need to get my eating habits under control and drop a few pounds, I go with the low-carb option, which I do very well with. It takes about a week to get over the addiction to high-glycemic value carbs (sugar, processed flour, starches, etc.) I find that pre-diet, I actually have a physical reaction when standing next to a bag of candy or goodies that appeal to me. It's not just mental cravings, it's a physical craving and feeling of uneasiness. A week later, and that reaction is no longer present, and I can easily pass on the foods that spike blood sugar levels.

I don't completely deprive myself of sweets, though, I just switch to sugar-free choices, which you will be forced to consume in moderation or else you'll end up with gi issues.

Once the weight is off, and my mileage is back up north of 40, I go back to my usual eating habits and am fine until some injury forces a few months of down-time again.

I have a big problem with this too.. I've been trying to eat healthy, eat more salads, vegetables etc. but sometimes like today I just went through tons of crackers and cheese spread, probably consuming over 2000 calories in a sitting. I'm shy and introverted but am seriously considering trying some therapy because I have to get my binge eating in check... it is destroying me.

binge eating is probably a result of chronically restricting your food intake at other times. eat "normally" (aka fuel properly with healthy food at distinct meal times) and the urge to binge will go away.

Make sure you're drinking plenty of water too, keeps that metabolism nice and high.