Binge Eating

perfectly_imperfect77

Hi all! Has anyone been able to overcome binge eating by counting calories? I have been reading lots of books on stopping binge eating and they are all against calorie counting. I have been trying for a year now and I still binge eat 90% of the time. I'm going to try counting calories along with mindful eating to try and get control back in my life. I see no reason why you can't do both.

soechsner09

Yes and no. I definitely had a pretty serious binge problem, and I began tracking because I felt like I needed more control. One thing that has really helped me was arranging my macros in a way to combat cravings and keep me satisfied hunger wise. HOWEVER, binge problems often stem from deeper issues. Finding ways to prevent a binge due to boredom/hormones/emotions is a different story. Really examining the core of why I would binge helped me a LOT.

sbruer1307

Still a work in progress (I've been binging quite often and ignoring tracking off and on since October), but I think its helpful for me. Even if I binge, I try to track it so that I can see the 5 week projected weight after ingesting that many calories. That's a very good motivator for me--seeing where my frequent binges could take me back to.

kaciemennie

Here’s a long post, but I want to help: I’ve been diagnosed with Binge Eating Disorder (BED), which I thought was fake af and a label for lack of will power (grew up Catholic and my dad is a marine, if that’s any context for you).

BUT! I felt like garbage, several doctors told me to enter treatment, I was depressed. I had always been depressed, though. At one time or another I’ve been diagnosed with major depressive disorder, cyclothymia, OCD, and GAD. However, when I caved and started treatment for BED, many of those symptoms that overlap with these illnesses ceased to exist. It likely wasn’t any of these diseases in full effect, but my binge eating that drove all of these very negative and obsessive behaviors and thoughts.

The key? I actually had to sign a contract stating that I would not purposely lose weight. In this contract I had to agree to learn to develop a healthy relationship with food and my body. Put in the work and learn why I was eating. I basically had to learn how to recognize when I was actually hungry and when I wasn’t. More over, I had to learn to not beat myself up over my food choices. If I decided I was actually hungry, I ate what I want. Regardless of what it was. Slowly. Focused on my food and nothing else. I put down my fork when I was full. And I started losing weight. This took a long time and there have been (and will be) a lot of ups and downs, but this was addressing the root problem for me, and honestly, it was really the root of a lot of my negative behaviors. Getting on top of that has eliminated many of my impulsive behaviors in other areas of my life.

Now that I’ve got a better handle on accepting and mindful eating, I have started tracking to make sure I’m eating enough and am making smarter choices. I have my goals set to maintain. And you know what? I’m still losing weight, but I’m not obsessing over the numbers, which I found to be extremely detrimental. I was not able to effectively use tracking until I addressed my root problems head on.

perfectly_imperfect77

Thanks Kacie! A lot of that sounds familiar. I've also been diagnosed with chronic depression and GAD. I've been trying to build a healthy relationship with food by mindful eating for over a year now but I keep binge eating and I'm not totally sure why (almost seems more like a habit I have developed). I'm trying to track and eat intuitively together since neither one seemed to work for me separately. The only thing that worries me is that they are telling me my weight was most likely the cause of the blood clots in my lungs back in January and it is so hard for me to try to not work on losing weight. I am definitely going to follow your key tips. I'm not going to deny myself if I'm hungry. I'm also not planning on making myself eat things I don't like. And if I'm over my calories for the day and I get hungry, I'm not going to deny myself. When I did this before, I had an all or nothing attitude. I'm currently doing the Brain Over Binge Recovery Guide as well.

tinamarie6624

I will admit that I am the other side of the coin - now. For 90% of the time, I can keep my eating under control and the 10% will have an unexpected binge. You need to know that I've lost 219 Lbs. 2 years ago, I was 378 Lbs. I got that way by eating everything in sight. If I ate potato chips, I ate more than a bag in one sitting plus candy and ice cream. I am mortified to admit it but I had to admit all of my downfalls along time ago so that I could change the way I thought about food. I still don't do well when I have excessive sugar. I cannot have a couple cookies so I avoid those foods. I just try not to think about those foods that I could crave. My family eats ice cream and so we have ice cream in the house Although I love ice cream, I have not eaten any in 2 years.

Let me know if I can help in some way but I know so much of what we have to do is an internal struggle.

I wish you the best of luck.

Tina Marie

ekim2016

as a child I used to fantasize in bed that the walls would roll up and there would be fried chicken, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, pot roast, fried potatoes.. all exposed and ready to eat... yes, I became a binge eater...big time. It took years to overcome...

perfectly_imperfect77

tinamarie6624 wrote: »

I will admit that I am the other side of the coin - now. For 90% of the time, I can keep my eating under control and the 10% will have an unexpected binge. You need to know that I've lost 219 Lbs. 2 years ago, I was 378 Lbs. I got that way by eating everything in sight. If I ate potato chips, I ate more than a bag in one sitting plus candy and ice cream. I am mortified to admit it but I had to admit all of my downfalls along time ago so that I could change the way I thought about food. I still don't do well when I have excessive sugar. I cannot have a couple cookies so I avoid those foods. I just try not to think about those foods that I could crave. My family eats ice cream and so we have ice cream in the house Although I love ice cream, I have not eaten any in 2 years.

Let me know if I can help in some way but I know so much of what we have to do is an internal struggle.

I wish you the best of luck.

Tina Marie

Thank you Tina Marie! Congrats on your weight loss! That is amazing!

HellYeahItsKriss

There is a difference between binge eating and binge eating disorder. BED cannot be over come. It takes therapy and a lot of life long struggle. If all your methods keep failing I urge you to seek some help.

kaciemennie

HellYeahItsKriss wrote: »

There is a difference between binge eating and binge eating disorder. BED cannot be over come. It takes therapy and a lot of life long struggle. If all your methods keep failing I urge you to seek some help.

As someone who has this, I think of it like being in remission or how I deal with depression. Like depression, it’s something I live with, but am able to cope with most days...which feels like overcoming to me. That said, I do agree that if you find yourself at a loss of things that should work, but don’t, talk to your doctor. I’ve found my treatment to be extremely helpful and life changing. But it’s all acceptance, work, and accountability. It started to work when I started to face my truths, as cliche as that sounds. But, obviously, everyone is different. Don’t be afraid to seek support!

WilmaValley

Read Brain Over Binge by Kathryn Hansen. Will help you so much.

81Katz

I purchased some books from Amazon (that I've yet to read. Crap!!!) I will get started soon. BED is a viscous cycle that just goes round and round. Like a ride you just cannot get off.

It's never fun, it never solves your problems, for maybe 2 seconds the food tastes good, but the overdoing it always sends me into guilt, shame, regret, I absolutely feel emotionally gutted and then I hate myself. Asking "why can't I just stop?" Making promises in my mind that "this will be THE last time." Or I tend to fall into all or nothing. Eat too much, then eat too little to makeup for it. Then feel deprived, hungry, emotional which leads to going off the rails (again) lather, rinse, repeat. A spinning ride that won't let you off and you often feel powerless to get off that ride on your own.

I've gone through times of logging (which works) but eventually I start going into obsession. I've gone through times of not logging (listening to body cues, trying to eyeball my food/portions) which sometimes work, but progress doesn't seem to happen as quick as logging does so I get really frustrated. My binging happens whether I log or not though.

I often feel trapped by this. I don't want this, but I don't know how to get a hold on it. I went about 5 months binge free and I thought I had a handle on it ... Finally. But June of this year I threw those 5 months away because of crap happening in my life. I've been binging off and on since then. I'm exhausted from this.

Sorry this is so long. I see so many posts about BED/EDNOS/ED, that when I read them I go "damn, I could have written that."

kaciemennie

It’s 5 months binge free, though! As we all know, progress isn’t linear. What got you going last time? Instead of tracking when you binge, have you tried journaling about when you don’t binge and why? Or all the good you do throughout the day?Have you talked to your doctor?

Sorry for all of the questions, but doing those kinds of things have been helpful for me because they shift the focus to what I’m doing well so I don’t beat myself up over what I need to improve on.

losingit4G

Omg I love all these posts-embarrassed to admit it but they describe me so well-I have had some therapy and meds, specifically Contrave but it still only works some of the time-still have binges and just calculated my binge from last week that came out to be about 3400 CALORIES in one sitting-definitely an eye opener! I never do log after a binge but I know for a fact when I do log, I lose weight! Such a vicious cycle and I hate it! Would love to some day say that I no longer binge eat...add me as a friend-would love some similar company!