[DrDoug] Can't stop eating (sometimes)

[stillcrazy]

I have been carefully McDougalling for about six weeks now. I don't have any problem with staying with the recommended foods, but sometimes I cannot stop eating.

I watched you (Doug Lisle) on the Forks Over Knives Extended Interviews last night talking about how to stay sane while dieting and what you had to say was most encouraging. But on occasion, I seem to need to eat HUGE quantities of food -- after having what seems it should have been a pretty satisfying meal, I eat, for example, 5 more baked potatoes or 3/4 of a loaf of Ezekiel bread. My stomach feels really stretched, so those receptors are working, but I keep on eating anyway. I do eventually feel satisfied.

I would love to trust my body to regain equilibrium but I is the only way to handle this to white knuckle through it?

[DrDoug]

Doug here, chiming in.

In general, I notice that it is processed food that drives the addictive process.

People should keep in mind that there is nothing wrong with THEM. It is THE FOOD that is the problem.

Animals have zero problems regulating food intake. Except when confronted with processed food. Then they have problems.


The best move, if a person struggles with excess weight, is to minimize processed foods. That means bread, pasta, little healthy crackers. Etc.

I never worry about people going crazy on WNF. Except nuts and dried fruit. The rest, even if you eat a huge amount, it all doesn't actually add up to much. And you will just eat less the next day. Rarely is any sort of portion control needed with unsalted whole starches like potatoes or rice.

All the best,

Doug L

[DrDoug]

Truth is...people don't grasp that it is very rare to consistently overeat on whole natural foods. Even if you stuff yourself, you will eat less tomorrow.

I have to say, I hear this a lot. But when people come to true north health center they magically do not eat enough food to gain weight. Eating as much as they want, if they are overweight, they lose weight. We keep Jeff Novick's warnings about nuts in mind, and no worries.

People think that if they stuff themselves it means they over ate. That they eat more than they "needed" to. But you NEVER eat the RIGHT amount of food, as such a quantity does not exist. Right amount for what? The next hour? Four hours? Six? Two and a half?

There is no RIGHT amount of food to eat. When you have eaten not enough or too much. Impossible.

The nervous system evolved to continually course correct. It is a dynamic process. You eat a ton at 4pm, you won't be eating a ton at 5pm. That simple. Eat a lot today and don't exercise, you will eat less tomorrow. You won't even notice it, but this will happen.

Eat away. Just make sure it is WNF. (Whole natural food).

You don't eat for "other reasons". You may think you do, but you don't. If so, why do you not spontaneously breathe more? Just go up 20% or so for an hour on breathing. Or sleeping. Or fluid intake. Why is it never any of these other homeostatically controlled drives that gets excessive for "other" reasons no? Why is it ALWAYS eating that people think they are doing for "other" reasons? If you are munching away on WNF there is a perfectly good reason why. You are still a bit hungry. It is worth storing a bit of glycogen in your liver and muscles for tomorrow. If you get good and stuffed and don't need it, your hunger will be less tomorrow.

If a personally is systematically overeating, day after day, it is because the food is adulterated. Salt. Sugar. Oil. Processed to be softer than normal. Easy to digest as it has been pulverized and reconstituted. Like bread and crackers.

Binge eating to excess, consistently, on WNF? I don't think so. Rare. I'll be straight. I've met less than 10 of those people in my whole career.

I'm open to feedback on this, but be clear. Is anyone saying that they eat a diet devoid of any processed foods, no sugar, salt, fat, or processing, and consistently eats so much on that diet to maintain excess weight? Let's hear. Because if this is you, you are an unusual, quite unusual, animal. If so, you might need to eat salad and vegetables religiously before you eat the cooked starches. But hitting all three in order -- salad, vegetables, starches--is close to fool proof. That has been my observation.

[DrDoug]

People think they overeat because of stress. That they overeat for comfort. That they overeat because of habits. That they are mindless eaters, or bored. Note that you breath and sleep completely mindlessly.

Interestingly, in rural China, with plenty of calories available, nobody is overweight.

Same all over the world where oil hasn't invaded the food supply.

All over the south seas, in the Dominican Republic, etc., the people were not fat. Suddenly, 20 years ago, everybody got huge. Stress? Emotional problems? Sudden attack of mindless eating?

Apparently Americans had almost no stress during WWII, and after. They were mindful of how many bites they took, had no emotional problems, and were never bored. No family problems or work problems. Utopia, apparently. Because nobody (with unusual exceptions) was fat.

Same all over the animal kingdom.

But....starting by about 1970, suddenly some psychic tragedy emerged. Americans started having more emotional problems. More stress. Way worse than in WWII!! Suddenly, deciding whether to watch the Brady Bunch or Columbo was stressing people out more than ever before. And this stress made them eat and eat.

Some got mindful, and counted every bite. That is the reason they are thin. Careful counting. Which is the same reason wild animals living food abundant environments are thin. They count every bite, very accurately.

You all have to be kidding.

The idea that one can "mindlessly" overeat, consistently to excess body weight, and that one must be "mindful" to not over eat, flies in the face of biology.

Animals are often in situations where there is plentiful whole natural food, and they could eat more if desired. They don't.

I believe it is very rare for a human to overeat, and maintain an unhealthy, and unattractive degree of fat, on whole natural foods.

People can and do overeat on processed foods, and rare concentrated WNF (nuts and seeds). Dried fruit, actually, is a processed food.

The degree that one needs to adhere to WNF to be fit differs individually. But if you are more than 10% above a close approximation of your ideal body weight, I believe you are unlikely to be consuming a WNF diet. Regardless of their stressors, peoples across history have not done so. What has changed is the FOOD. IN THE LATE 20TH CENTURY. Coincidence? I think not.

As Jeff Novick says, get the food right first. Then we see what's left. And I say, if there is something left, we go back and look at the food again.

We don't start weighing the potatoes, or "mindfully" counting the bites.

Best,

Doug L