Eating Like a Fat Person
July 8, 2007Although I haven’t always been able to use the word “fat”, this is precisely what I have been since about 1999 when I started compulsive eating. That is 8 years living as a fat person and in this time I have been eating like it is going out of fashion. Not only in the amount of calories I have consumed but in how fast I eat. That’s right, I eat like a fat person.
I guess I have been aware of it only for a couple of years now and I have made attempts to slow it down but usually I fail. Since I have been dieting this time it is something I have been trying to combat. I find it very hard, not least because I am ravenous by the time I get around to sitting down to my meal. So I have taken to sitting at the computer with my meal. Not an ideal situation but it does help to put my knife and fork down between mouthfuls and browse the web, particularly weightloss blogs and forums. I am slowly coming to terms with redesigning not only my eating behaviours but the speed at which I eat.
A question for you – do you eat like a fat person? did you? what have you done to relearn how to eat?
Groovy Babe 
I am trying to change how I eat, although I wouldn’t say I eat like a fat person. I eat in the same manner I did when I was skinny – the difference then was in WHAT I was eating and how much physical activity I had in my life.
I eat too quickly, too, but I also multi-task while I eat. Surfing the web, reading a book, watching TV, whatever. I never just sit with my food, savour it, let it linger. That’s what I’m trying to work on!
I really have never been a fast eater… In fact, I am the complete opposite.
My husband however is one of those super fast eater who seems to be shoveling the food into his mouth. Watching him makes me absolutely lose my appetite.
What started working for him though was sitting at the computer, or sitting down to watch TV while eating. Anything that makes it so the plate isnt stable enough for him to just dig in. He’s gotten a lot better!
It took me a while to be able to use “fat” too.
I used to eat like a fat person in that I had to be full – painful full – to stop eating. I ate fast, and I at a lot.
Now I try to slow down, enjoy tastes, pay attention to what I’m eating by cooking more, etc. It’s been a bit hard to learn and keep to at times, but I’m losing weight and feeling better about myself, which is what counts.
Spunk – yeah I have a fear of hunger which I am trying to overcome. Before, I would eat until it hurt because it was preferable to going hungry. Even now if my stomach is empty I equate that with being hungry which isnt always the case. I am slowly learning to ignore my paronoia and concentrate on the physiological aspects of eating and losing weight.
i usually eat fairly slow……unless i am very hungry. then i gobble…..but i try not to do that very often…so when i’m starved i have to make a conscientous effort to slow down how fast i eat.
generally, my fat mode of eating was eating until i was stuffed…then eating dessert afterwards…then waddling to a horizontal place to nap for 2-3 hours. get up repeat. repeat as many times necessary to balloon up to 274 lbs.