Just say "NO" whats your tip?

kenna44cat

Thank you, the tip about buying groceries every day is great if I can find the time, and I don't have a vehicle or a bike, so that would mean a nice walk, too.

MyJourney1960

I think that stopping and thinking about it is the best way to stop. it doesn't help me to not have junk in the house because i can totally over eat on "healthy" food - i can have several slices of whole grain bread, or a LOT of whole grain crackers/rice cakes, with natural peanut butter and no-sugar-added jam. or roast chicken. or hummus. or fruit. etc. it doesn't have to be doritos and ice cream.

so in the past few weeks i've been doing my best to NOT start. once i start with the binge, it's hard to stop. before i get up to take that extra food (bread, cracker, fruit), i ask my self why. i tell myself that i'll wait 20 minutes. i take out my tweezers and start attacking my eyebrows, or my nail stuff and start doing my nails. something that makes eating a bit difficult...

neandermagnon

Ask yourself a couple questions. #1 are you eatting enough? #2 is this emotional eatting or are you hungry?

read this:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/975025-in-place-of-a-road-map-short-n-sweet

^^^ this. number 1 especially

there are different causes of binge eating... sometimes it's a psychological problem but at other times it's a normal physiological response to eating too few calories. Your palaeolithic ancestors did not have any idea what a calorie was, let alone how many they needed to eat. If there was a food shortage, then they suddenly found a lot of food, it makes sense from a survival/evolutionary point of view to eat as much of the food you just found as you possibly can, because you don't know where your next meal is coming from. We are descended from the survivors of millions of food shortages, and so, this is how our bodies respond if you don't eat enough, that is, when you get the opportunity to eat (or, in the case of a modern person dieting, when your primal biological impulses take over from your frontal lobes telling you not to eat) you stuff your face with as much food as you can.

You will not succeed constantly battling against your body's own survival instincts, so it really makes a lot of sense to ensure you're eating enough for this instinct to not be triggered. A sensible deficit, based on your current body composition (i.e. if you have more fat to lose you can get away with a bigger deficit) and your BMR and TDEE, will enable you to still lose weight without ending up bingeing every time your resolve breaks. A sensible deficit is somewhere between 10-20% below TDEE for most people, the extremely morbidly obese may get away with up to 30% below. The leaner you are, the smaller the deficit should be.

even if someone suffers from psychological bingeing, if they are also restricting calories too much, they will actually be fighting both problems at once, i.e. their normal survival responses and on top of that whatever psychological issue is making them binge eat, and as such it makes total sense to *not restrict calories too much* so that they are only fighting against a psychological problem, not a normal survival response as well. Counselling/therapy may help in severe cases, if self help methods don't help much to prevent psychological binge eating.

So don't restrict calories too much in the first place, and for many people this will prevent bingeing. If you do binge, the worst thing you can do is punish yourself with further restriction. Bingeing in many cases is caused by, and in all cases is worsened by, excessive calorie restriction. So first and foremost make sure you are eating enough. If you are eating very well yet still bingeing, then use psychology (either self help or with a professional) to tackle the issue.

pippywillow

If I'm thinking about binging it helps to sit down at the computer and log everything I want to eat. Usually seeing the calories will be enough to make me not want to, or at least change the serving size.

I also try to remember how I feel afterwards. And if I wake up in the morning still full from the day before (that used to happen all the time) I won't want to eat anything tomorrow.

Of course there are days when I've just done it without even thinking about it first. But those are happening less and less lately.

mrdexter1

What is your tip on just saying no to binge eating all the time?

The simple answer is to use a full keto diet because you know if you eat any carbs you ve blown all your hard work and you re not tempted by anything in feeling full and in not counting cals and macros you re not juggling things to fit treats in..... more energy, sleeping better and you cant help but drink enough and the weight just drops off.

For me , it has the added benefit of being able to introduce carbs gently at goal weight so i can bulk leanly.

Inesesfitnesspal

Plan smaller meals every few hours, drink a lot of water in between, You wont be so hungry and will just have to motivate yourself to wait until the next meal...

JesterMFP

Binge eating is a very complex thing, and I don't think will-power alone really cuts it. I think you need to really find out what makes you binge, and put strategies in place. It's not just a case of "emotional eating"; real binge-eating is different, it's a step beyond that, but a lot of the strategies for emotional eating can help. If you are really struggling and feel out of control with it, it's really worth seeking professional help. There are also a lot of self-help books out there. There's a binge-eating group here on MFP that has a suggested book list. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/743-binge-eating-support-group

Is it certain foods that set you off? In which case, you may need to limit those, at least for a period of time. Some people cut out trigger foods and find that they can re-introduce them later when they feel more in control.

Is it under-eating? It's very common for under-eating to trigger bingeing, both for physiological and psychological reasons. That's another good reason not to cut calories too drastically. The human body has evolved pretty good mechanisms against starvation, and those mechanisms can kick in even if you are far from actual starvation. Often people will say that they feel "fine" and "full of energy" etc, but they will be having urges to overeat because they are simply not giving their body enough energy. While you are restricting intake, make the most of the food you're eating so that you're not getting too hungry: make sure you're getting plenty of protein, fibre and enough fat, and drinking enough fluids. Have a read of this: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/9-ways-to-deal-with-hunger-on-a-diet.html

Sometimes, it's the psychological effect of dieting, and feeling deprived of food in general, or certain types of food. This is also a very common with dieting, but can be worse if you grew up in an environment where food was (or seemed) scarce - either really scarce due to poverty, or because you were brought up to believe that certain foods are forbidden, or you had to compete with others to get your fair share etc. So, for some people, as soon as they tell themselves they're "on a diet" they are suddenly fighting the urge to overeat. Including all the foods you really like in your normal diet can help (unless they trigger binges, obviously). Making small, sustainable changes that you can live with is best. Even if you eat everything you like, you may still feel restricted just by calorie counting, because there is always a limit on what you can eat. Intermittent fasting can be very helpful for this, for some people, as it gives you a lot of flexibility and allows you to have bigger meals. (I notice someone above has recommended small meals every few hours; if that works for you, then great. It doesn't work for everyone. For me personally, that way of eating makes me far more inclined to overeat. I have found that it's ok to feel hungry sometimes, it actually helps you to be more aware of your body's needs. The key is experimenting to find what works best for you.)

As others have said, some people have certain times or situations where they are more likely to binge, so being aware of those triggers can help you to prevent it happening.

As well as looking for the reasons why you binge, work on the emotional aspects that drive you to overeat. Look for ways of distracting yourself or "surfing the urge" (google urge surfing for more on this). Also read this: http://bingeeatingtherapy.com/2010/11/08/fighting-urges-to-binge-eat/
Find other ways of coping with negative emotions so that you don't need to turn to food. This is very hard, but it's sometimes just about creating new habits. When you get the urge to eat, go for a walk, or a run, or have a bath, or call a friend. Write a list, and when you get that urge, work through your list. Sometimes just postponing eating something can make the urge go away. If the urge to eat doesn't go away, well then it might just be real, physical hunger, in which case, eat something!

jjay23

I try to keep all the binge type food out of my house, I also have a "fat" picture on my phone, its truly awful and every time I think about eating everything and anyhing in site I look at that. If all else fails I drink a tonne of water which usually makes me feel a little sick and then have to sit down, it stops me thinking of eating loads.

JesterMFP

I try to keep all the binge type food out of my house, I also have a "fat" picture on my phone, its truly awful and every time I think about eating everything and anyhing in site I look at that. If all else fails I drink a tonne of water which usually makes me feel a little sick and then have to sit down, it stops me thinking of eating loads.

This makes me a little bit sad. I honestly don't think self-loathing and making yourself feel sick are the best ways to develop a healthier relationship with food.

55in13

I think I must be one of those lucky people who just says no and that's it. I have 'treats' in my office every single day, without fail. Cookies, cakes, sweets, chocolate, donuts, flap jacks... You name it, it's here. I can honestly say in the 5 months that I've worked here that I have never picked up a single treat from the table. I just, don't.

It isn't constant where I work but it is often like that. In an odd way, this makes it easier eventually because you get used to it. I would like to say that my undying commitment hardened my resolve, but the truth is after a while you just don't even notice donuts anymore.

6spdeg

easy.. just take a gander at some old pics.. makes my mind up every time

kazaroona

If it's something you do then it's a really hard habit to break and takes a lot of willpower. I was a terrible binge eater and it was either extreme diet, or binge. This is what I have done to try and stop my bingeing, which on the whole, I have.

I have had to change my thinking, and acknowledge what my triggers are. One of them was that if I had a chocolate bar for example, previously I would think, well now I have had that, today is a write off, especially if I had gone over cals, so I may as well eat everything I want and can lay my hands on and start again tomorrow. I have changed that by thinking that one chocolate bar, even if I have broken my allowance, is not going to be the end of the world or make me put on weight, but eating all that food is going to be a diet breaker and can take days to get back on the wagon.

It depends if you are all or nothing- I cant have nothing or I feel deprived and a binge will come on, whereas I know other people are 'nothing' and completly remove their binge foods from their diet. (Saying that I agree with not having trigger foods in your house). My thing is crisps, so every few days I will have crisps, but I'll have them at less than 200 cals and factor them into my daily allowance rather than caving and eating a sharer bag of kettle chips for like 700 cals right before bed. I am also starting to want them less now, and having other thngs as my savoury snack fix.

Other tricks I try are if there is a load of food in front of me, I imagine it all mushed up inside my tummy. My stomach is meant to be the size of my fist, so to visualise all that food inside me, bigger than my stomach, can make me feel gross and not want to eat it all. (I'd just like to add that this a psychological trick to help stop over eating, I'm not disputing the volume of food a stomach can or cant hold, or it's accurate size, and would still eat to sate my hunger!)

The other thing I try and tell myself if I am feeling weak and wanting to eat just because I want something 'yummy' rather than because I am hungry, is.....

I know what it tastes like, I have tasted it before. It would make me happier to be slimmer than it would to taste it again!

super_J73

I'm an emotional binge eater. I've had a few things happen over the past year where I could have ruined my progress, but I decided that I wanted to stay in control. I keep a pair of old very large jeans in my closet, I pull them out when I'm feeling a binge coming on. I keep healthy choices in the house, low cal chocolate treats or I put on my ipod and get outside for a walk.

d9123

intermittent fasting

MissSusieQ

i want to eat when im bored and im capable of putting away a lot of food without thinking, so when im bored and thinkingabout eating i set times for eating things. i generally have my whole days food planned out ahead, so i'll tell myself 'you only just had breakfast. you can have this snack at 10.30, lunch at 12.30, this snack at four, and no dinner till 6.30'

mcibty

If I'm thinking about binging it helps to sit down at the computer and log everything I want to eat. Usually seeing the calories will be enough to make me not want to, or at least change the serving size.

I'm doing this right now because I'm supposed to go out for dinner!

jamers3111

I've never really had a problem with binge eating like a lot of others do, but I do have cravings (understandably not the same thing). To combat them, whenever I have a craving I like to drop down and do 20 push-ups. If I still have the craving, I do more push-ups. Exercise seems to help me with cravings, and push-ups is something that I can do just about anywhere.

Not sure if it would help with binging though as that has never really been an issue for me.

I don't have a binge issue but I do cave into cravings more than I should... I'm going to remember this!

Annerk1

You binge eat because you get overly hungry. Eat smaller meals more regularly or incorporate healthy snacks into your meal plan. Drink more water, it helps you feel full between meals.

JulesAlloggio

Just say "No"

Find a healthy alternative to the sweet.

Ice Cream ....healthy version = Banana, protein powder, skim milk, peanut butter..all ice mixed in a blender mmm mmm delicious

Mom2ATM

If I'm thinking about binging it helps to sit down at the computer and log everything I want to eat. Usually seeing the calories will be enough to make me not want to, or at least change the serving size.

I also try to remember how I feel afterwards. And if I wake up in the morning still full from the day before (that used to happen all the time) I won't want to eat anything tomorrow.

Of course there are days when I've just done it without even thinking about it first. But those are happening less and less lately.

great idea!!!! I think this would help me along with occupying myself!! Im totally a boredom eater!!! Ive noticed the last few days i overeat bc i have nothing else to do, especially if the laundrys done the dishes are done the kids are bathed, its all in the PM that i binge as well so im thinking of maybe crafting with my kids every night to occupy myself