Customer Reviews

Overcoming Overeating

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I was ready for this book. I knew diets were not working for me, as I sit here 5 pounds heavier (yet again) than my previous peak weight--- and this was after 2 years of trying Meridia, Xenical and Phentermine. I had already gotten past beating myself up for yet another failure; already gotten past ridiculing myself mentally when I saw myself in pictures. No, I had already decided diets were making me miserable, and I didn't know what the answer was, only that I refused to go on another diet again.

Then a friend (overcoming bulimia) recommended "Intuitive Eating" (2003 edition) and Overcoming Overeating. Little did I know I had already vocalized the ideas in these two books. And little did I know these books would change my life.

I must admit, Overcoming Overeating was hard to get into. The forward was dry and written in a very formal tone. Chapter one read like a textbook. But, I stuck it out because what I read did make sense.

I am so glad I stuck with this book! Overcoming Overeating discusses in moderate detail eating disorders, one of which is called binge-eating disorder. I saw myself in every example of these people. I had no idea I had an eating disorder, though I became certain after reading this book, that I do indeed have this medically-recognized disorder.

This discovery was freeing and painful at the same time. I was so relieved that now all the puzzle pieces fit. I had already started the work on my own before this book, but by the time I was finished I was ready to work on my disorder with my therapist. The two days following the completion of the book, I was flooded with emotions... anger, sadness, regret, joy, peace etc. It was almost overwhelming.

I will be eternally grateful to the authors for allowing me to see that I don't suffer from a lack of willpower, that it wasn't my fault that I "failed" at another diet, and that my success and happiness in life doesn't depend on whether I am thin or not.

Don't get me wrong! This isn't a book that tells you give up and stuff your face for the rest of your life. This is a book for people who want to fix their eating disorders and fix their relationship with food and fix their response to emotional issues that they have repressed for years and suppressed by going into a food coma.

You must be ready for this book. I recommend therapy and perhaps antidepressants in addition to reading this book because eating disorders are biological, psychological and environmental. You may not be able to conquer this on your own, though I do think this book is a good start if you don't want to do therapy and meds.

Anyone who asks how do they lose weight if they can't diet didn't get the point of the book and isn't ready to change their life.

Dieting is one cause of eating disorders. Points, carbs, counting calories, food diaries, scales (both food and poundage) are ALL tools of a dieting world. In order to follow this plan, you must be mentally prepared to rid your house of ALL dieting materials, which is much harder than you might realize since throwing away dieting materials means throwing away all the hope that came with each diet. This was mentally challenging for me. This is a serious change of life!

To address the reviews that said this plan will cost hundreds to implement... maybe, maybe not. Part of the plan is to refeed yourself without restrictions (glossing over the idea here). This means you not only have to go out to the grocery and buy ALL the foods that you like, you also have to buy several of them and keep restocking the pantry as you need to. This is a hard concept for people like me who always kept a bare pantry because "you cannot eat what you did not buy." You MUST buy food and you MUST buy a lot of it.

That part of the plan deals with eating what you want, when you want to and to stop when you are full. You must retrain yourself that you can indeed take good care of yourself by paying attention to your hunger signals and then feeding yourself exactly what you want. (glossing over the plan here).

This book was so logical, so compassionate, so forgiving that I have no doubt that I will no longer be eating-disordered, but while also knowing that I live in an eating disordered world.

Giving up dieting is the solution. Getting to your natural weight you were meant to be may be a nice surprise result of paying attention to your body's hunger cues. You will stop bingeing. You will have plenty of food on hand. You will NOT go out of control and eat it all. You'll be surprised if you give yourself some credit and the chance to prove it to yourself.

I am so contented and peaceful now. Good luck!

*****Updated 6/06********

I've been finished with therapy for a while now and my doctor still follows my progress. I can with certainty say that I am a healthy overweight person.. my blood pressure, triglicerides, cholesterol and everything is better than my doctor's results she said. My doctor is in complete agreement that a) a person can be fat and fit and b)it is o.k. to deal with the emotional side of an eating disorder without worrying about the weight.

I followed the Overcoming Overeating plan to a T and now I have naturally progressed into an Intuitive Eating approach while keeping all the tenents of the OO approach: nothing is off limits, I will never diet again, I accept myself fully as I am right now today and a bad body thought is never about the body. (I dont' even have bad body thoughts any more). I eat what I want when I want it and I stop when I am satisfied, which for me isnt' even to "full"; it is like one stop before full.

I know weight loss isn't the "prize" so I don't want to relay the false impression that my goal was ultimately to lose weight. No, my goal was ultimately to love myself as I am and to get to the bottom of by distorted thinking that weight was my problem all along. I have accomplished my goals. And as a result of that, my body is restoring itself to its natural set point. MY BODY is restoring itself... I am NOT trying to control this at all. It is happening just like they said in the book: you can't achieve that which you are looking for. If you want weight loss, it won't happen (or at least it will be temporary); when you stop caring about weight loss and start caring about yourself... ironically, weight loss will happen as a side effect of self-love and acceptance.

It's hilarious when people ask me "what's my secret" to losing weight and I say "I stopped dieting and I eat what I want." and then they just stare blankly at me and look confused and walk off. No doubt had I said, "Oh, I was addicted to sugar and so I ate eleven pounds of bacon a day and then gave myself low carb enemas five times a day" they would have wanted to know ALL the details and then everyone they know would have done that.

My weight is the result of a problem I no longer have. And therefore, because I no longer need it, it is shedding itself.

Thank you to the authors.. you have helped me achieve my freedom from weight and body worries and freedom from that prison of diet mentality and self-hatred and I am now living a full life of peace and happiness and self-love.

I read this book ten years ago when I was a compulsive overeater in college (in 1991). I had read countless books on eating disorders and how to stop my binge-eating; I had seen several therapists and specialists; I had tried every diet and every psychological trick and therapy known to humankind.

Then, I happened to read an article in Shape magazine that summarized the themes of this book. I was so struck by its approach that I promptly bought the book. And WOW -- my attitude changed dramatically -- and the compulsive overeating, a problem I couldn't imagine my life without, soon ceased.

The book's principle is, in essence, forget about the relentless calorie-counting, the food-diary-keeping, the constant eating-controlling. (Thank goodness! because those never helped me and indeed may have fueled my compulsion.) Instead, it taught me to 1) be kind to myself during and after a binge, rather than heap insults on myself; and 2) learn to tune into stomach hunger instead of "mouth hunger," and trust your body to ask for what it needs. Yes, this sounds absurdly simple to me now, but you cannot imagine how this thought shift impacted me -- and the book explains it in a way that helps you understand your overeating AND to do something about it.

Now, as a thin person and (so much more importantly) a person not obsessed with food every waking minute (and many "sleeping minutes"), I cannot recommend this book enough. In the last ten years, I've pushed this book on every overeating friend who's asked how I managed to change, so I thought it only appropriate to share my thoughts via an Amazon review.

This is one of the four books that has dramatically and forever changed my life. I have frequently wanted to shower hugs on the author for the gift this book gave me -- the life of a normal eater who is not constantly planning her next binge. I'm telling you, if you've tried every approach in the book and still struggle with binge eating, do yourself a favor and read this book! Good luck. (And THANK YOU, Ms. Hirschmann, if you ever read this!!)

This book is about acceptance and learning to take care of yourself. By eating the foods you desire when you are hungry the authors claim you will melt to your natural size. The authors walk with you step by step to help cure your eating problem once and for all. This book is not about learning control, like eating low fat or healthy foods. This book is about learning to eat what your body truly craves when you are huhgry, enjoying it and stopping when you are full. This book can help you learn to love, respect and accept your body. No more body bashing! You can move beyond negative thoughts about your body and past your preoccupation with dieting. You can learn to take care of your body and appreciate where you are right now! And as you learn to be an effective caregiver you will gain freedom from dieting and progress to your natural size. This is an excellent book and I highly recommend it!

I think it is very difficult to explain to anyone without an eating disorder, what it really feels like. I bought this book over a year and a half ago. The change I have gone through since then is amazing. When you have a food/weight obsession, you sacrifice so much energy to it. Everything revolves around it. It is so restricting. Can you go out with friends to a party? "No, I feel to fat, everyone will think I look so fat. And I won't be able control myself if there is a food buffet." You break out in a sweat, when a friend invites you over for dinner. You would rather decline, than either a) go and only pick at your food, or b) go and lose all "self-control" and pig-out. All your thoughts, everything, has to do with your body. Thoughts of the future always start with "when I lose weight" or "when I fit into that bikini". Really, you are almost waitng for your life to begin, you refuse to start living in the present. Now, althought I am in no way "cured" (old habits die hard), I have a lot more pleasure in life. And not only the formerly "forbidden" pleasure of eating. My body hasn't changed much since then, but my body image has. When I walk into a room now, I know that people aren't scrutinizing me, and if they are, well, who cares? Going from late night binges of anything and everything, I have now become a lot more selective. And no more compulsive overeating. When I am no longer hungry, I stop eating, because this is not a forbidden pleasure. I don't have to eat everything, because I have allowed myself this "cheat." No, as soon as I am hungry again, I will eat...and whatever I want. Like I said, I have often talked with friends who have never had an eating problem, and they can't even conceive of the mind set. When you are an compulsive overeater, you are not in control of your life. It took me a long time to realize this, and reading Overcoming Overeating was one of the first steps I took in this continuous journey. But, like I said, the difference it has made is amazing. I can remember reading an article from Alanis Morisette, where she said something like: "Imagine what would happen if people with eating problems/obsession devoted the same amount of energy to other persuits". And I was really able to relate to that, how much energy I had been investing in my food obsession. And this book really helped me free myself. But a word of warning: this is not a diet! It is not a weight-loss plan, it is only for people, who seriously realize that it is time to (re-)start communicating with yourself and stop punishing yourself.

The main theses of this book are that diets don't work for the long term, and that if we could return to nurturing self-feeding on demand, the way we ate as babies, we would eventually stabilize our intake and consequently our weight.

Our obsession with diet has gotten us nowhere except crabby, frustrated, and hungry. We obsess about counting calories, points, fat grams, whatever. We no longer enjoy the pleasures of a leisurely meal because we're so busy computing and worrying about excess. If we'd allow ourselves to eat at will, whatever and whenever we want, the fear of hunger would go away and we would allow ourselves to feed naturally, which means in balance and healthfully. We wouldn't match the unfortunate current trend toward anorexic-looking bodies, but we would be healthy and well-nourished. And our obsessions and compulsions with food would disappear - if you know you can have a cookie whenever you want one, you probably won't devour a full bag of Oreos at one sitting and then deny yourself for the rest of the year. If you know that nothing will leave the planet, you can afford to enjoy it in moderation.

This book was an eye-opener for me. Everything the authors say makes sense. And yet, I just can't bring myself to let go of my own little rituals and launch myself into the universe of safe, natural eating habits. So I keep it handy and browse through it a lot - reinforcement, maybe, until the day comes that I can. Until then, I recommend it for people who want a new perspective on their eating habits, and some provocative new ideas to ponder.

About 8-9 years ago I used this approach to finally establish a healthy relationship to my body and food after years of painful, damaging, obsessive dieting and disordered eating that had taken over my life. Although the approach is scary at first, it's the only one that has ever worked for me. Following yet another diet only perpetuates the underlying problems with food/eating. Although I was panicked at first about gaining weight when all food was allowed, after about a year I was 10-15 pounds lighter than I'd been when I was constantly dieting. I was suprised to find that when I truly listened to and respected my body's hunger and normalized my relationship with food, my body settled into a healthy, lower weight.

Recently I relapsed into dieting and struggling with food and after a year of trying to diet again, remembered that this approach is the only sustainable, long-term solution. After picking up this book again, I already am feeling more at peace with my body, food and eating. In the beginning I am chowing down on all sorts of 'forbidden' foods (chocolate truffle cake for breakfast) but I know from experience that after the novelty of being able to eat forbidden foods wears off, my true cravings for generally healthy foods will return and my life will have balance again.

Self-acceptance and tuning into your body's hunger are the only long-term ways to have emotional and physical wellness for me.

I highly reccommend this book... but you really do have to be committed to it, not test it out as 'another diet' that, if you fail, you'll go back to Atkins or whatever... this is the antithesis of diets, it's a holistic, long-term way to regularize your relationship with food, yourself, your body. Please read this if yoiu struggle with compulsive overeating.

Like another reviewer, I think this book is dangerous -- to those who make a living telling the overweight that they can't trust themselves and that some foods (the ones they want) are B-A-D.

Instead, the authors address the concept that if we listen to our own bodies and only eat when we're actually physically hungry (as opposed to bingeing or just plain old pigging out) we'll overcome the need to pig out in the first place.

I've tried this and it's amazing -- when you know that you can have anything you want, you suddenly get very selective and I found that it was the taboo-ness of certain foods that made them attractive. Now, because I know that I can eat whatever I want -- and because I don't eat if I'm not physically hungry -- I'm much healthier physically and emotionally.

I can actually ENJOY eating!

As infants, we are born with the ability to self-regulate our eating. Only when we start eating solid food do our eating habits get molded by our parents as they socialize us to fit into our culture ("No crackers now, you'll spoil your supper!"). This book is about getting back to that self-regulation that is your body's birthright.

"Reader from the US" (below) makes a common mistake many of us compulsive eaters make when starting out. The authors even mention it in Chapter 7: 'Fred' sets out to see how well he can resist the food he brought home. Fred "took on the task of dumping diets as though it were a new diet" (p. 79 of massmarket edition). Alas, "the rebel within Fred knew that having a well-stocked freezer was a temporary indulgence, [so] it was going to get what it could while the getting was good".

"US", it takes a while; you have to trust you won't eat yourself out of house and home. And many of us backslide; take it one day at a time. Try throwing away the scale!! And commit to eating out of stomach hunger. "The more you look forward to the experience of stomach hunger, the more apt you are to find it" (Ch 9) and it is infinitely more satisfying to satiate stomach hunger than mouth hunger (those times you eat when you're not really hungry).

This is truly a wonderful book! "When Women stop Hating their Bodies" (by the same authors) is also helpful, as are Geneen Roth's books.

I am a swedish 62 year old women, who has been dieting almost all my life. I found this book a year ago and it has changed my life. The authors point out the fact that every women in western society is a victim of pressure to be perfect and not the person they are.I can hear that on my job when people just talk about dieting all the time and try to restrict their intake all the time. What energy is lost on that problem. When I first tried to follow the book I ate everything I loved in big portion and was very scared about what could happen to my body. But suddenly after half a year I realized that I was tired of the food I earlier had to restrict. But I also became a little heavier. After some more month and today I can have the house full of candies, icecream, which never happened before in my entire life. Slowly I have got in touch with my hunger as explained in the book. I who earlier overeat and stopped in every café now listen to my stomach and normally don't eat if I am full. I am working hard to stop eating when I am not hungry. It is not easy but I am learning. I think I have lost some kilo but I don't weigh my self as recommended in the book. But a friend of me, who borrowed the book has lost 7 kilo and for her was the change even bigger because she was eating enormously when she tried to be "a good dieter" earlier as a protest. The book explains it very good. Thank you for the book I think it is a sensation, which need to be taken seriosly in every country that has that awful pressure on women.

I'm glad to have this book, and "When Women Stop Hating Their Bodies" Jane Hirschmann and Carol Munter have truly done some excellent work here.

It makes me feel alive, being able to eat what I want without guilt, buying clothes that fit now, and looking in the mirror and liking what I see today. It helps me to live a fuller, more satisfying life. I don't have to live with this compulsive overeating all my life, because this is going to help me eat my way out of an eating progblem...Thank you Carol and Jane!