Overcoming Overeating (Mass Market Paperback)

~ Jane R. Hirschmann (Author), Carol H. Munter (Author) "Picture this. You're walking down the street..." (more)
Key Phrases: hunger column, legalizing food, dumping diets, The Dieter's Dilemma, The Plan Phase (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Diet/binge. Good food/bad food. Punishment/reward. These are the compulsive eater's nightmares, a longtime pattern of recrimination and guilt that ultimately leads to more overeating and more weight gain. Now, for the first time, here is a proven, step-by-step plan that doesn't control your eating habits--but cures them, once and for all. From the authors of "When Women Stop Hating Their Bodies".

From the Inside Flap

AT LAST! A BOOK TO HELP YOU BREAK OUT OF THE DIET/BINGE CYCLE--AND LOSE WEIGHT NATURALLY.

Diet/binge. Good food/bad food. Punishment/reward. These are the compulsive eater's nightmares, a longtime pattern of recrimination and guilt that ultimately leads to more overeating and more weight gain. Now, for the first time, here is a proven, step-by-step plan that doesn't control your eating habits--but cures them, once and for all. OVERCOMING OVEREATING will show you how to:

¸  Give up dieting forever and discover that you actually eat much less without the pressure of restraints
¸  Eat from true stomach hunger instead of "mouth" hunger--the emotional trigger that makes you turn to food even though you're not hungry
¸  Enjoy the enormous satisfaction of meeting true hunger with the foods you most desire
¸  Stop overeating and lose weight naturally
¸  Move beyond your negative preoccupation with eating and weight toward a fuller, more satisfying life


From the Trade Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Fawcett (April 29, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0449003825
• ISBN-13: 978-0449003824
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #435,350 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

74 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book spoke to me, May 24, 2004

By A Customer

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.

54 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book changed my life, September 20, 2001

By A Customer

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!!)

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you are tired of dieting chew on this!, October 24, 2000

By	Lee Mellott "www.SkinCareForWrinkles.com (my ... (Frederick, Maryland) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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!