Binge eating problem... I need your advice.

Patttience

Well there are many approaches. Mine was to quit sweets. I also used to have no control over sweets. Now the way i do it is to only have them when other people offer them to me and some other low risk situations. Work out your own low risk situations and limit the food you binge on to those situations. It might take a while.

That said, there is a lot to successful dieting and binge recovery. I've solved my problems. I've been in maintenance for 8 months and began my journey in january 2014. In all that time, I have broken my rules only once and that was quite recently. I didn't binge though.

It's very psychological. You have to find deep commitment and work at it.

You do'nt have to feel deprived. Eat lots of fruit. The sweetness of fruit should satisfy your need for sweetness. It satisfied me. I have to be careful with dried fruit but i eat some in small portions. If i binge on them its because ii've got stress or some other emotional crisis that needs resolving. I work at resolving it quickly. I get help.

Liftng4Lis

All things in moderation. Do NOT over restrict yourself, as it leads to over eating later.

Francl27

Well you have 3 options.

1) not do anything, stay overweight, keep eating all the frozen yogurt and cake, and feeling horrible about yourself every time you do it.
2) learn to eat them in moderation so you can still enjoy them without gaining the weight back. Feeling awesome because you can still enjoy things you love but keep a healthy weight too.
3) decide never to have them anymore. EVER. Which clearly, as you have noticed, doesn't work, and makes you unhappy.

So it's either 1 or 2. Which one would you prefer? Think about it.

I'm not trying to be mean. I completely get where you're coming from, and I've had my share of binges. Heck I've gone to bed hungry more times than I can count because I had a little too much ice cream or chocolate or cookies at lunch.

But the bottom line is... I LOVE that stuff. I don't want to give it up. And I hate feeling miserable when I eat it. I mean, really, do you even REALLY enjoy it that much when you feel so guilty about eating it? I know that I don't.

So, a few tips...

- buy single servings if possible
- wait until you want some, but don't have a crazy craving for it yet.
- put one serving in a bowl, then put the rest of the container away. Log your serving BEFORE you eat it. Turn off the TV and the computer, sit down with your bowl. Take a small bite. Make it last. Enjoy it. Take another bite. If you start thinking about the next serving you're going to have, make yourself stop and enjoy your bite. Think of it as your next serving. When it's the last bite, take your time, and tell yourself it's the last bite and you're going to really enjoy it.
- if you feel like going to the kitchen to get more, log another serving. Look at the numbers. Do the math. Complete your diary if needed, so you'll see it tell you that you'll weigh 10 more pounds if you eat like this for 5 weeks. That might help.
- if you get a second serving, do the same thing as the first one. You WILL notice at some point that it just doesn't taste as good anymore... tell yourself that - do you really want to finish it now, when it doesn't taste as good, or leave it for next time when it will taste awesome again?
- for me, I tend to binge less if I always have the stuff in my house. When I started binging on chocolates every time I had some, I just bought a lot of it. Now I know it's here when I want it and it helps me (I can ask myself if I REALLY want some now, or wait until a day when I'm actually craving it).

Truth is, a whole container of frozen yogurt in 2/3 days is really not such a huge deal and can probably fit in your calories. The cake sucks though. I love cake, and I almost never have it because of the crazy calories. I usually wait for a day when I'm not very hungry and have extra calories and go buy a cupcake or something (or those 3 packs of Madeleines from Starbucks might work too). But yeah, I haven't had cake in a while.

In the end though, it's really about what you want more... the food or the weight.

Ironmaiden4life

Great suggestions in this thread.

As well as trying to moderate your physical behavior you may want to consider journaling, especially before and after an episode of bingeing. Journaling may help you uncover the emotions that are leading you to self sabatage.

Accountability is also a great help. Find some way to make yourself accountable for your behavior, a mentor good friend or coach.

You may also want to seek out support groups and as has been suggested self help books or a counselor.

scolaris

Do you eat enough fats? Getting traditional fats from avocados, olive oil, coconut milk, salmon, beef, full fat yogurt, etc. can really help with satiety and cut down on bingeing and craving.

daniwilford

My suggestion is to change how you talk to yourself. Life is full of second chances. Because you felt like a failure you quit. Why even bother to go to the gym if I can't eat right. Next time you eat more than your allotted calories, don't call yourself a failure and throw all your hard work away. I do this by thinking of the life style changes, I am making as practice. Just like learning a to play musical instrument. Our performance is way out in the future, today we are just practicing. That means if we mess up, we can start over, no big deal it is just practice. If we need to work on one bit we practice it over and over again, until we can get it right. There is no need to give up on playing the whole instrument just because you ran across a hard part in a difficult piece of music. Keep practicing! No need to give up on a life style change just because a cake or a carton of ice cream is difficult for you. Play the parts you do well everyday, and practice little by little the difficult pieces. A therapist can help just like music lessons or voice coaches. Even the masters had teachers, coaches and a life time of practicing.

nvmomketo

I had similar problems with sweets. I had a difficul ttime stopping. It was almost like what I imagine a mild addiction would feel like so I treated it like one and quit sugars as much as I possibly could. I also had prediabetes and autoimmune issues (for which excess carbs are inflammatory) so I had extra incentive to drop sugars.

I started a low carb, high fat diet a few months back. It's basically the same as the Induction Phase of the Atkins diet. I eat mostly fats and proteins (meat, seafood, cheese and cream, nuts, coconut, avocado, butter and oils) with only some types of carbs (veggies and berries). I no longer eat foods that come from grains (corn, rice, flour based products), starchy veggies beyond a small amount (potatoes, carrots, beets, etc), and I avoid added sugars as much as possible.

Following a very LCHF diet eliminated my sweet tooth in about a week, and it reduced my overall appetite by a large amount. I forget to eat now, which is astonishing to me because a few months back I was getting shakes, dizzy, and headaches if I did not eat every 2-3 hours. Now I can easily go 6-9 hours before I remember to eat! (This isn't rue for everyone, but it appears to be true of most long term LCHF dieters around here.) All without seeing any (unnecessary in my case) therapist.

If interested, look up low carb high fat diets or nutritional ketosis. There is also a group (Low Carber Daily) that is dedicated to that WOE.

Good luck in whatever you decide to do.

daniwilford

nvmomketo wrote: »

All without seeing any (unnecessary in my case) therapist.

Many people who don't see therapists, see them as unnecessary. We are not always the best judges of ourselves. If you describe your situation, a good general practitioner, is going to tell you when they are unnecessary. IMHO therapists are wonderful to talk to, and good ones are not going to continue to see you if you do not need the treatment.

nvmomketo

daniwilford wrote: »

nvmomketo wrote: »

All without seeing any (unnecessary in my case) therapist.

Many people who don't see therapists, see them as unnecessary. We are not always the best judges of ourselves. If you describe your situation, a good general practitioner, is going to tell you when they are unnecessary. IMHO therapists are wonderful to talk to, and good ones are not going to continue to see you if you do not need the treatment.

I suppose that could be true. In my case though, I am sure a therapist was not needed to deal with my intense carb cravings because a dietary change eliminated it within weeks. It's gone. I'd still like to have an Aero bar, a large Coke, or a big bowl of ice cream, but the control issues are totally gone so I can skip it with satisfaction. Eating those "foods" and having a return of those symptoms isn't worth it now that I'm on the other side of it.

I think diet can often help with the same issues that therapists sometimes see, especially if there is a health issue. Definitely not all, but some.