Binge eating

Melmo1988

Does anyone regularly binge eat or over eat? Trying to figure out how to stop. Weighed myself yesterday and I've gained about 20lbs.

crskoglund

One of the biggest challenges with binge eating isn't the initial action, but the feeling of defeat/discouragement that comes with it. For me, once I feel like I've "fallen off the wagon," I have a tendency to switch to a "screw it" mindset -- I've already "failed" to meet my dietary goals for today and eaten an entire pizza, so might as well down that six pack, have a couple cupcakes... and next thing I know I've doubled or tripled the damage.

The best advice I've heard on this is, if you have a cheat meal or binge meal, don't think of it as a failure, but consider it in the context of your diet as a whole. It's just another meal. Log it and move on. You haven't fallen off the wagon. There IS no wagon. Aim to stay under your calorie goal, but accept that there are going to be days where it just doesn't happen. Forgive yourself.

Also worth noting is water/food weight can do strange things. I'm not sure what time frame you're talking about re: the 20lbs, but it's highly unlikely that's all fat. If you watch your eating for a day or two I bet that number drops significantly.

EDIT: Forgot the most important thing! Please don't ever weigh yourself after you overeat. The numbers you see on the scale will be wildly misleading and will only make you feel awful. Wait a couple days.

raquele3394

crskoglund wrote: »

One of the biggest challenges with binge eating isn't the initial action, but the feeling of defeat/discouragement that comes with it. For me, once I feel like I've "fallen off the wagon," I have a tendency to switch to a "screw it" mindset -- I've already "failed" to meet my dietary goals for today and eaten an entire pizza, so might as well down that six pack, have a couple cupcakes... and next thing I know I've doubled or tripled the damage.

The best advice I've heard on this is, if you have a cheat meal or binge meal, don't think of it as a failure, but consider it in the context of your diet as a whole. It's just another meal. Log it and move on. You haven't fallen off the wagon. There IS no wagon. Aim to stay under your calorie goal, but accept that there are going to be days where it just doesn't happen. Forgive yourself.

Also worth noting is water/food weight can do strange things. I'm not sure what time frame you're talking about re: the 20lbs, but it's highly unlikely that's all fat. If you watch your eating for a day or two I bet that number drops significantly.

EDIT: Forgot the most important thing! Please don't ever weigh yourself after you overeat. The numbers you see on the scale will be wildly misleading and will only make you feel awful. Wait a couple days.

I agree!! Drink lots of water and hit the gym and move on!! Forgive yourself

Geocitiesuser

Melmo1988 wrote: »

Does anyone regularly binge eat or over eat? Trying to figure out how to stop. Weighed myself yesterday and I've gained about 20lbs.

I struggle with this constantly. I had it under control for like two years, then it came back. Different things work for different people, and different things trigger it for different people.

What has worked for me:

- Try to avoid stress at all costs, so much easier said than done, but once in a while something stabs me in the heart
- "Food abstinence", I avoid refined sugars (HFCS, Bleached white flour, etc) like the plague
- Keeping junk food out of the house, and/or buying in smaller portions, so if I do go off the rails, there isn't enough available to do major damage
- I still haven't figured out a way to tell the local pizza place to ignore my online orders

danishgirlagain

I seem to eat and eat and eat until it actually hurts. It's like the "off" switch isn't working. I have what I planned for lunch (a bowl of tomato soup with some veg, black beans and chicken broth. After I finished that I was still hungry so I found some leftover salad from last night, added some cut up Turkey Breast cold cut, some cheese, a hard boiled egg and some mayo with balsamic vinegar as dressing. I know it all sounds healthy but it put me way over for the day which leaves me feeling defeated and hating myself. Why can't I JUST SAY NO! to extra food. I know I dont need it and it will make me feel full to the point of nausea. Any ideas???

AnneGenevieveS

You are not alone!! There are a lot of us here that have either been bingers, or still struggle with it. It's a hard thing to stop doing when you are dieting. Many of us tend to feel the need to binge when we allow ourselves to get too hungry. And then of course there is the urge to binge when stressed. When you're dieting, that gets compounded with a feeling of "failure" when you give in and eat too much... which makes you stressed, then possibly try to starve to make up for it... then feel stressed and binge again... then feel angry at yourself again, in a vicious cycle. It took me YEARS to get control over it, and I still feel the urge at times.

My tips:
• Figure out your binge and eating triggers, whether that is depression, boredom, stress, anxiety, being too hungry...
• Then find another, healthier way to deal with that trigger. For me, when I get stressed, I have found that walking outside is absolutely the best thing I can do. I'm away from food and I'm handling my anxiety in a healthier way. I also get blood sugar drops and want to binge on sweets uncontrollably when that happens, so now I try to eat a lot of protein and don't let myself go without food for too long, because that will trigger me to eventually eat like a mad woman.
• Therapy - I know some people don't want to open up, but a lot of external and physically manifested issues are because we are holding on to things inside that hurt us.
• Find foods you can eat that help you with binging, and avoid ones that trigger the beast. I can't handle myself around marshmallows, so I don't ever buy any. As above, protein helps me, and (I probably shouldn't admit it 😆), but if I have a string cheese, water, and a beer or wine, then sit on my deck in the sunshine - my blood sugar comes up, my anxiety goes down, and I'm less likely to continue eating without really being hungry.
Oh man, someone is going to get angry at me for that last comment, but I'm being real here!! I barely drink, and that's kind of my last ditch effort when I can't control it anymore. Not advising it! Just saying that I found something that works for me most of the time. When I was younger, it would be a glass of lemonade, but something to get my blood sugar up. Everyone has to find what works best for them, and understand for their own personal situation why they continue to do it.

AnneGenevieveS

danishgirlagain wrote: »

I seem to eat and eat and eat until it actually hurts. It's like the "off" switch isn't working.

I know EXACTLY what you mean! I find that I have underlying anxiety on those days, and it's like I'm trying to fill the anxiety with food.

Do you feel like it happens more so at the end of the day? It does for me. Do you exercise regularly? If I exercise and drink a ton of water, I'm less likely to feel that way.