Why Do We Overeat?

Interesting. Good that you've found a system that works for you. I don't do well with routine.

Frank, I agree with you. I've been eating my dinner on salad plates since Dx, except if I want to add a salad with a drippy dressing and don't want it to mix with the meat. Or when there are no clean salad plates left <G>.

I wonder if hypnotism would work.

might be worth a try. I do mind nessages to my body, almost like self-hypnotism I guess, when I get super determined to shed some pounds.

Aggie, My definition would be eating more than you need to maintain whatever shape you are comfortable with.

Weight loss usually leads to lower blood pressure as well as improved glycemic control, and there's good evidence that lower blood pressure (as long as it's not too low) leads to increased longevity.

Body fat per se is not bad. Subcutaneous fat is actually protective. People with lipodystrophy, who have almost no fat, have insulin resistance just like many overweight people.

It's the visceral adipose tissue, the fat around internal organs, that is bad. And luckily, it's easier to lose this fat than the subcutaneous stuff.

I think Set Point theory is interesting, but the problem is that it suggests it's impossible for anyone to keep the weight off, and some people do manage to do that. Also, the Set Point can change with age and other factors.

I haven't read the book you mention, but I know that when people on the Four Corners Diet (originally the GO Diet) weren't losing weight, the originators of the diet often found that they weren't eating enough.

But I wasn't as interested in general theories of weight loss as in hearing what different people have found works for them. We can be different, and weight loss/gain is complex, and we may all have different triggers that it's difficult to generalize.

For example, what works for me is to simply eliminate some foods. I don't eat rice, for example. That way I don't have to keep track of quantities. Other people do better limiting amounts. If they give up a food completely, they crave it and eventually pig out.

What a great idea! I think we need to be creative to manage our diabetes well. If the traditional recommendations don't work for us, we need to figure out what does.

I think mindless eating while watching TV is a real problem. I did that when I was a teenager. I remember making a huge dish of ice cream with chocolate sauce and eating it while watching a movie. Then I'd realize the ice cream was gone, and I hadn't even enjoyed it because I was so engrossed in the movie. But I was too full to have another dish.

Now when I have a treat, I try to stop doing anything else, and I focus on the food, enjoying the texture, the smell, the taste. So I get more enjoyment from my food than I did when I was an active teenager.

Thanks again Gretchen for a stimulating and funny post.

It took me till the age of 40 and some hypnosis before I was happy to leave anything on my plate. In the UK and in the sixties it was the starving Bi-afrans who we were afronting by not eating everything up. It is easy to laugh at behaviours that are nonsensical but which are a product of early conditioning. Unless you can laugh at what you are doing the behaviour tends to have a tight grip on you whether you realise it or not.

I agree it is not what I eat that is the problem: it's what I eat in front of the telly!

And do we really need desserts at all?

Well, we don't need desserts. But they do taste good. At least to me.

Pre-Dx, I would eat dinner, and then I'd want a dessert to get the salty taste of dinner out of my mouth. Then I'd want black coffee to get the sweet taste of dessert out of my mouth.

When I eat less salty food, I have less desire for dessert.

There are several possibilities here. One is that you were misdiagnosed and you're really LADA (latent autoimmune diabetes of adults). Read up on this and if it sounds like you, see if you can get a test for GAD antibodies.

Another possibility is that you're MODY (maturity onset diabetes of the young). If there are a lot of others in your family with diabetes, especially if it occurred when they were relatively young, this is a good possibility. The best source for this is Jenny's MODY pages.

Another is that you're some kind of diabetes that hasn't been discovered yet.

And the fourth possibility is that you're just a thin type 2. This is uncommon, because insulin resistance tends to cause weight gain, but this disease is so complex that it's possible.

Thanks for a quick reply! Now I do have a little fat in the middle though I'm thin overall. Perhaps that's my problem? You said in another comment that it's easier to lose belly fat than subcutaneous fat. Would you please give a quick run down on how (exercise, nutrition etc) or recommend a good book for this purpose? Thank you so much

I have your book The First Year Type 2 Diabetes. It has been very helpful. I appreciate you covered the social aspect of this disease, such as friends and family getting offended when you turned foods offered. It's all too true!

The Eadeses have a new book coming out on reducing fat in the middle. I don't know if it works. They say it worked for them.

According to Dr Bernstein a diabetic person who needs to gain weight should add more protein to their diet.   

Weight training can build muscle which weighs more than fat.