About OA

What is OA?

Overeaters Anonymous is a Fellowship of individuals who, through shared experience, strength, and hope, are recovering from compulsive overeating.

We welcome everyone who wants to stop eating compulsively. There are no dues or fees for members; we are self-supporting through our own contributions, neither soliciting nor accepting outside donations. OA is not affiliated with any public or private organization, political movement, ideology, or religious doctrine; we take no position on outside issues.

Our primary purpose is to abstain from compulsive eating and compulsive food behaviors and to carry the message of recovery through the Twelve Steps of OA to those who still suffer.

What Does OA Offer?

We offer unconditional acceptance and support through readily available OA meetings, which are self-supported through voluntary contributions.

We in OA believe we have a threefold illness—physical, emotional and spiritual. Tens of thousands have found that OA’s Twelve-Step program effects recovery on all three levels.

The Twelve Steps embody a set of principles which, when followed, promote inner change. Sponsors help us understand and apply these principles. As old attitudes are discarded, we often find there is no longer a need for excess food.

Those of us who choose to recover one day at a time practice the Twelve Steps. In so doing, we achieve a new way of life and lasting freedom from our food obsession.

How Do Members Achieve and Maintain a Healthy Weight?

Overeaters Anonymous is a program patterned after the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. Many people have reached a healthy body weight and maintained it by following our program of recovery. Overeaters Anonymous is not a diet club. We know that only by following a program of emotional and spiritual healing can we learn a new way of living without being obsessed with food. For the first time in our lives, we progress toward a healthy body weight.

Because of our long experience of compulsive eating and recovery from compulsive eating, we are able to offer understanding and support for the compulsive eater and general guidance in developing a personal plan of eating. OA claims no nutritional expertise. We strongly recommend that members seek the advice of medical and nutritional professionals for guidance with and approval of a plan of eating.

You may also know others who are maintaining a healthy body weight but who may still have issues around overeating, bingeing, grazing, bulimia, anorexia, or other compulsive food behaviors. Overeaters Anonymous offers hope and recovery to these individuals as well.

Why do I need the Twelve Steps? I only want to lose weight.

We cannot emphasize strongly enough our experi­ence that for a compulsive eater a food plan alone has proved useless over a long period of time without the practice of the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions in our daily lives. OA’s Twelve Steps are a set of actions that provide relief from the obsession with food.

How Does OA Work?

The concept of abstinence is the basis of OA’s program of recovery. By admitting inability to control compulsive eating in the past and abandoning the idea that all one needs is “a little willpower,” it becomes possible to abstain from overeating—one day at a time.

In OA, abstinence is the act of refraining from compulsive eating and compulsive food behaviors while working towards or maintaining a healthy body weight. Once we become abstinent, the preoccupation with food diminishes and in many cases leaves us entirely. We then find that, to deal with our inner turmoil, we have to have a new way of thinking, of acting on life rather than reacting to it — in essence, a new way of living.

From this vantage point, we begin the Twelve Step program of recovery, moving beyond the food and the emotional havoc to a fuller living experience. As a result of practicing the Steps, the symptom of compulsive eating and compulsive food behaviors are removed on a daily basis, achieved through the process of surrendering to something greater than ourselves; the more total our surrender, the more fully realized our freedom from food obsession.

While a diet can help us lose weight, it often intensifies the compulsion to overeat. The solution offered by OA does not include diet tips. We are not a “diet” club. We do not endorse any particular plan of eating. We don’t furnish counseling services, hospitalization or treatment; nor does OA participate in or conduct research and training in the field of eating disorders.

For weight loss, any medically approved eating plan is acceptable. OA members interested in learning about nutrition or who seek professional advice are encouraged to consult qualified professionals. We may freely use such help, with the assurance that OA supports each of us in our efforts to recover.

Abstinence Defined

Abstinence is the action of refraining from compulsive eating and compulsive food behaviors while working towards or maintaining a healthy body weight.

Spiritual, emotional, and physical recovery is the result of living and working the Overeaters Anonymous Twelve Step program on a daily basis.

Is OA a Religious Organization?

Overeaters Anonymous has no religious requirement, affiliation, or orientation. Overeaters Anonymous is a spiritual program, not a religious one. The Twelve Step program of recovery is considered “spiritual” because it deals with inner change. Members are free to hold whatever religious beliefs they choose, or none at all. OA has members of many different religious beliefs, as well as atheists and agnostics. Everyone is welcome. Many of us discover we are eating compulsively because of an emotional or spiritual hunger. As we search for spiritual fulfillment, some of us become more involved in the religion of our choice.

Why Is OA Anonymous?

Anonymity allows OA to govern itself through principles rather than personalities. Position and status have no relevance in OA; we are all compulsive overeaters. Anonymity at the level of press, radio, films, television, and other public and social media of communication provides assurance that OA membership will be kept private.

Anonymity also allows each member the freedom and safety to develop personal honesty, accountability, and responsibility about his or her actions and choices.

How Is OA Funded?

Overeaters Anonymous has no dues or fees for membership. It is entirely self-supporting through literature sales and member contributions. Most groups “pass the basket” at meetings to cover expenses. OA does not solicit or accept outside contributions.