[blackdragon]

im 245 i went from 230 to 245. I GAINED 15 pounds. If u eat healthy and exercise ur suppost to loose the weight not gain it. Im such a failer. I threw up my supper today for that reason. IM GETTinG TO FAT. its like a disease that makes me look ugly. food = fat. easy equation in my case. and fat = unhappyness. Why must i be fat?

[Greenleaves]

Sorry you're feeling bad blackdragon.

Have you ever tried to get into a hobby or something? I think it's good to do things that help distract our minds away from food, whether it's about eating too much or too little.

I sometimes throw up when I think I've eaten too much or the wrong foods. It's a bad habit to get into. I hope you find a way out of it.

[Genevieve]

BlackDragon, are you on any meds that could be causing this weight gain? I ask as someone who was told -- repeatedly -- that the meds didn't cause weight gain, it was only me failing to control my eating. (I'm anorexic, so maybe it wasn't me overeating?) So many psychotropic meds will cause weight gain, and the doctors are only now starting to talk about it.

Also, talk to your doctor, whether you're on meds or not, because there are some drugs now that might help. Meridia was actually developed as an anti-depressant, so that might be helpful. At any rate, the doctor might be able to prescribe something that might help, or point you in the direction of help.

If you're entirely unmedicated, and this really is gaining because you're eating too much for your body, then before you start beating yourself up, try a tiny bit of exercise. Nothing like "Join a gym and go every day for hours and get real cut" or anything like that. Just, you know, go for a walk; park far from the entrance; wash the walls; even just dance to songs you like in your living room. (That last one is something I've done when I needed to start SOMETHING but didn't have it in me to leave the house.) Usually, you need some sort of exercise to keep your metabolism going strong, otherwise you'l l try to eat less, and your body will try to conserve energy by slowing your metabolism way down. (Right now, I've been restricting again and have actually GAINED some weight, for this very reason.)

Good luck, and I'm sorry you feel bad.

[Lexicon78]

I know everyone hates diets and all that but have you tried ediets.com? just a suggestion. I know I have a lot of trouble with food, also. Maybe you're gaining weight because of the foods you are eating. I know some foods put on more weight than others. That may be what's happening, also.

Maybe another suggestion is that you eat really small meals more than 3 times a day. I've heard of people eating as many as 6-9 meals a day, but with very small portions.

[Genevieve]

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Lexicon78 said:
Maybe you're gaining weight because of the foods you are eating. I know some foods put on more weight than others.

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I'm sorry, this just isn't true. 1000 calories of cake has the same effect on weight as 1000 calories of carrots or celery. Period. Yes, there are things that are different between them, but that will have no effect on weight loss or gain. There are no "magic fat burning foods."

What is true, is that the 1000 calories of cake will be a much smaller amount than the same number of calories of carrots -- it would take a few hours to eat that many carrots -- so that cake will likely not fill you up as much as the carrots. It's also true that the cake will be digested more rapidly than the same calorie content of a whole grain, such as brown rice, which means that you're likely to be hungry again more quickly after eating it.

The only reason that diets say to reduce fat is that one gram of fat has 9 calories, while one gram of carbohydrate or protein has only 4. That means that you can eat more carbs or more protein, ounce for ounce, than you can fat. Fat also tends to have fewer nutrients in it, so you have to eat more to get a balanced diet.

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Maybe another suggestion is that you eat really small meals more than 3 times a day. I've heard of people eating as many as 6-9 meals a day, but with very small portions.

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This is true, though. Registered Dietitians will usually create a meal plan that includes three solid meals per day, plus two to three snacks; trying to eat every 2.5 to 3 hours; eating a mix of fat, carb, and protein; and never letting yourself get too hungry. The hunger scale is usually ten points: 5 is neutral, neither hungry nor full, 10 is too stuffed to move and feeling sick from overeating, 1 is weak and shaking from hunger. The goal is to eat while you're still at 3 to 4 for hunger -- just barely noticing that you could eat about now, although you could just as easily go another hour. And the goal after eating is to feel just barely over neutral -- say a 6, maybe 7, on that scale.

What you can do, if you're truly interested in losing weight, is to look at what you're eating and when. Keeping a food journal is best, writing down when you eat, what you eat, and how much. Once you know what you're actually eating, you'll know whether you've gotten into some bad habits that will impede your weight loss. Things like drinking sodas, that sugar is coming without any nutrients, which makes it wasted calories. NOT calories that will make you gain weight differently than any other source of calories, just calories that don't have nutrients to them. And diet sodas really aren't better -- there have been enough studies done now that show that drinking diet sodas actually is associated with weight gain, because they seem to stimulate hunger.

Good luck.

[blackdragon]

my psych thinks it was the abilify that caused the weight gain and so she took me off and put me on lithium.