How do I stop my binge-fast cycle/erratic eating patterns?

GhostlyGoat37

I can go hours without eating and feel fine, but as soon as I start to eat, I can't stop. This is why I consume all my calories (1500-1600) by 10 am in the morning (2-4 hour eating window), and fast until the next morning. I've been doing this for the past several months and it hasn't affected my weight. Everything's fine until I get a huge desire to binge and give into cravings. Urges to binge typically happen once every 2 weeks. I tend to eat anywhere between 4000-5000 calories during these episodes which leave me feeling extremely guilty. Once the guilt sets in, I fast for 40 hours and exercise for several hours to "reverse" the damage. I don't feel great doing this and have almost fainted as a result. However, this doesn't stop me from torturing myself because the desire to return to my original weight as fast as I can overpowers anything else. I can't live like this anymore. I don't remember the last time I had 3 balanced meals throughout the day. I'm always either fasting for 22 hours or 40 as a form of punishment for losing control. Help?

kitkatkarr

Brain over binge is a book that helped many binge eaters. I'm not advertising but this book helped me have a better understanding of my binging in the past.

SueInAz

Yikes! That certainly doesn't sound like a healthy way to live at all. Besides, once you get back to your goal weight (as quickly as possible) it doesn't sound like you'll have learned how to maintain that weight, either. There's nothing wrong with eating one big meal once each day but if you then go off on a binge that destroys any calorie deficit you've created over the last week or two it's obviously not working for you.

I've seen a lot of people talking about deprivation/binge cycles in these forums. Going without eating for long periods of time seems to make it much more difficult to eat a moderate amount once they actually eat. Disallowing themselves foods they like and eating only things they deem "healthy" creates a strong craving for foods they consider "unhealthy" which eventually leads to a binge session on those foods.

The first, and easiest, thing to do is get rid of the food you typically binge on and simply stop buying it especially in bulk. If you don't have 4000-5000 calories of binge food in the house, you can't eat it. It's very difficult to eat that many calories in veg. Buy single servings of treat foods to allow yourself an occasional treat but not enough to make a binge possible.

It seems to me that you need to start eating at regular times and perhaps even plan what you're going to eat at each meal and make that plan before the day actually begins. If you're eating at regular times, have a plan in place, and you're eating both enough calories and foods you enjoy eating, you should feel less compulsion to binge.

jerzymike

.i use go crazy trying to loose weight.6 meals a day,mma training. Nothing was working.I have been doing intermittent fasting for 3 days n lost 5 pds so far.no shakes,no crazy workouts. Best part ,its free

RodaRose

Books by Geneen Roth. Also tons and tons of yoga -- as many different types of teachers and classes as you can possibly manage.

CooperSprings

Listen.
You either want to stop or you don't.
You are not weak willed.
You are not powerless.
Wake up.
Grab a bite to eat.
Focus on your life.
Have lunch.
Focus on your life.
Have dinner.
Focus on your life.
Have fun.
Love yourself.
Be a sponge to all the good in life.
Stop punishing.
Start living.


This is my perspective.
I no longer binge.
I understand how you feel.
Fly free.
Whether you realize it or not: you are.

txcraftr

I have done things like you in the past and sometimes I have a small binge but I always feel awful afterwards both physically and mentally. What I do to break the cycle is plan, eat as planned and if I feel bingey I get up and walk right out the door and take a walk until I feel I can control myself. I have had to do it for every meal of the day until I could get control over my urges. You need to ask yourself how you are feeling when you want to binge. Are you tired, bored, anxious, sad, angry, happy or just don't care? When you get back from walking do something that is not conducive to eating like sewing, crocheting, knitting, play piano, anything you can do where you want to keep your hands clean. You don't want to slop grease or ketchup or crumbs on your hard work. Most of all, come here and post about it. There are lots of people who care. You can friend me if you want. I understand. I also understand how hard it is to change your ways. I call it mind over fatter and I work on it daily.

jgnatca

It sounds like you are missing your hunger signals until they are screaming. Hence the ultimate loss of control. I think you need to get rid of the idea that you can "reverse" a bad decision. You might need some counselling support to figure that part out. My reaction to a poor choice is "water under the bridge" and I don't skip my next meal. Part of my discipline comes from my diabetic training. Diabetics can't skip.

Imagine the difference between a tsunami and a still pond with a gentle ripple.




Your goal is a gentle ripple, responding naturally and frequently to your hunger signals.

Twolfe57

ChangeThePath wrote: »

Listen.
You either want to stop or you don't.
You are not weak willed.
You are not powerless.
Wake up.
Grab a bite to eat.
Focus on your life.
Have lunch.
Focus on your life.
Have dinner.
Focus on your life.
Have fun.
Love yourself.
Be a sponge to all the good in life.
Stop punishing.
Start living.


This is my perspective.
I no longer binge.
I understand how you feel.
Fly free.
Whether you realize it or not: you are.

Twolfe57

I too can go most of the day without eating, but once I start eating then I lose control. And look out on grocery day, I want to have a little bit of everything as if there is a famine coming!!! Lol

jgnatca

I am most likely to fall off the wagon just before supper. I do much better if I have a snack at my low sugar moment in my last hour at work. That way I don't show up at home with the hangries.