Newbie here who has tried and failed too often

[Phantom13]

Hello all,

I am a 27 about to be 28 year old male 6'4" 290 lbs. I have tried and failed so many times to lose weight. My goal is 215 which at this point in my life seems like a pipe dream, why ? because I have a fast food addiction that I indulge in because of my depression. I allow myself to keep falling for the same trap and despite recognizing it still feel compelled to give in. I need help.

 

[Llama]

Hi Phantom and welcome to the forum. Are you getting treatment for your depression? I´ve found talk therapy very helpful for my eating problems. Other than that: if you have big trouble letting go of your fast food maybe you could start by incorporating only one fast food item into a meal and having the rest be homemade? Like you get a 500 kcal burger plus a big homemade salad with low cal dressing or something. For me adding veg to meals really helps with satiation and calorie control.

 

[Phantom13]

Hi Phantom and welcome to the forum. Are you getting treatment for your depression? I´ve found talk therapy very helpful for my eating problems. Other than that: if you have big trouble letting go of your fast food maybe you could start by incorporating only one fast food item into a meal and having the rest be homemade? Like you get a 500 kcal burger plus a big homemade salad with low cal dressing or something. For me adding veg to meals really helps with satiation and calorie control.

I haven’t thought of that approach tho I find it hard as portion control is probably my biggest vice.

also I have had treatment in the past but it does very little.

 

[Llama]

Do you know how many calories you're currently eating? Just keeping track for a couple of weeks can really help in figuring out where you're sabotaging yourself and where what might be easy changes. Cronometer and MyFitnessPal are the apps most people here use but other ones exist. Vegetables tend to give you a lot of bulk for not very many calories, especially when raw, so they can make it easier to reduce your calories without making you feel like you're starving all the time. Here's my favorite shouty parrot man showing you the difference.

 

[alligatorob]

Hey Phantom, welcome to the opera, or forum...

I know just how you feel, I felt that way for many more years than you've been around. What worked for me was simple, just stop the overeating, one day at a time. You can do it today, just commit to today and deal with tomorrow tomorrow. I know that sounds simpler than it is, but you should be able to do it. I found that once started I pretty quickly started feeling better about myself and that helped.

LaMa has given you a lot of good and more specific advice, consider mine in addition to hers, not instead.

You can do this!!

 

[Cate]

Hi, Phantom & welcome to the forum. Finding the right counsellor is important. Acknowledging the reasons why you eat junk food & learning to build your self-esteem sound like the key. I think it's worth trying someone else. It's much harder to look after your own health if you don't feel worthy. I lost a lot of weight, back in 2007, but still felt the same way about myself & saw someone who helped me to overcome how I felt about myself & work out strategies to heal from past hurts. It really did help me a lot. LaMa's suggestion is a good one of adding something healthy to your junk food. As you eat more healthily you might just feel like increasing the healthy component & reducing junk food. Your body deserves healthy food.