Overeating

Yes, I gained somewhere around 15 lbs of new adipose tissue that coincided very well with my 135 day stint in hard mode. There were a number of complicating factors however, and in the past I had binge eating tendencies from years ago. Over the past six months, I have shifted my focus substantially to improving my health and reversing a trend that I saw headed in the wrong direction. I am in much better physical condition now and am much more aware of my health, but am still about 8 lbs or so heavier than I started last September (not aiming for quick weight loss but rather improved overall fitness @36 years old).

What likely happened is that I had processed foods that were a part of my diet naturally and I used too much of my initial willpower maintaining hard mode and didn't leave enough in the tank to avoid overeating. If I were to recommence hard mode I would have a much better toolkit and excellent workout habits. My main focus on hard mode was learning and education and perhaps it would have been better had I been on a fitness kick at the time (and even better if I were not dealing with a concomitant anxiety disorder).

 

I always have used food to cope with stress too. Even when I did PMO. I use many things apart form these two to fill up some empty emotional holes and get dopamine to feel better. I'm still dealing with over eating. Not because of stress anymore tho, but simply cos it's addicting - the food. Intermittent fasting has helped me and is helping me to deal with this stuff a lot. As well as going vegan. That all is helping me to keep my weight somewhat in check. If not for those two things I would be way fatter. All tho lately I've been gaining some, instead of losing, like I want to. I have to get back on right track.

I find that addiction to fat, carbs and sugars is way worse for me and harder to deal with than PMO, which is pretty damn hard to deal with on itself. Meditation has tremendously helped to deal with most of my stress, so I don't have to replace PMO with other addictive thing that much, I replace it with meditation instead. Even tho I still sometimes replace it with playing video games. But meditation has helped a lot. Can't recommend it enough!

 

I thought, in the light of the posts on this thread so far it would be important to clarify that 'food addiction' doesn't exist, according to scientists. This isn't intended as a criticism of what has been said so far, but I hope you will find this article helpful. It is from the UKs National Health Service (NHS).

The article is here:- http://www.nhs.uk/news/2014/09September/Pages/food-addiction-doesn't-exist-say-scientists.aspx

If you want to read the original study, it is here:- http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763414002140

 

All I can do is only speak from personal experience and as far as my experience goes I notice that I get more rush from certain types of foods, not all foods. And I want to stop but can't. And when I do I feel this huge urge to consume those things, not something else. Not just eating in general is my problem, certain types of foods are. But that's me.

I also have to say that I do find this science thing completely irrelevant. Science is a map. Maps are useful to navigate a territory, but they are not a territory itself. Definitions, science and knowledge are useful as tools in this world. And of course it's also fun, which is why I love science. And I love talk about it and learn it. Same goes for words by the way. They are tools. Whether we call something "food addiction" or "eating addiction" makes absolutely zero difference in practice. It's just unnecessary hairsplitting and verbalism which serves no purpose other than entertainment of oneself. Or in many cases satisfying the OCD or something.

There are psychologists that help people deal with these types of issues in practice while those scientists argue what name to give them. It's just funny man.

 

You are entitled to take that point of view ^ @Shugi Shugi, but I disagree with you completely. I consider it imperative.