HELP!!! Binge eating 😩

chunkybuttf

Hey guys so I have a serious question and I will really appreciate it you guys help me with this. OK so I’ve been bulking I go to the gym about 4 to 5 days a week and I lift weights for about an hour and a half each day I am 29 years old, 5’5, 131 pounds currently since I’ve binged just for five days. But my original weight was 126 pounds before all that water retention from the binge eating I’ve done. When I was bulking I was eating around 2000 to 2200 calories a day, my protein was about 126 to 120 g of protein my carbs was around 238 to 240 g and my fat was 60 g. Anyways let me get straight to the point! My issue is recently I’ve binged eat for five days which is the longest I’ve ever done I basically ate any and everything probably 6,000 calories per day! I’ve never binged eat for five days so that to me is scary and I’ve been feeling very down on myself my question is should I cut or should I be still continuing to bulk. Will my weight godown if I give it a couple days? Today I ate around 1890 cal 248 g of that was carbs, 142 g of protein, and 54 g was fat. Is there anybody out there who struggled with this am I under eating iis that why I binge? because i’m very active I walk about two hours a day for three days and I work out almost 2 hours in the gym maybe I’m just overworking I don’t know please help. Thank you all in advance!

pinggolfer96

Well, why’d you binge in the first place??

AlleriaEating

I think you should prob take the time to figure out why you're binging, tbh. Overeating sometimes is normal - going out to dinner with friends or something - but if you're compulsively binging and you don't feel in control, that might be a deeper problem.

chunkybuttf

@AlleriaEating yes it’s compulsive and now my glucose levels are 56 mg/dL I have no clue what that means but it’s in red

rosileem

I’m not a doctor, a personal trainer, or a registered dietician. I think by exercising for two hours a day, I would crave inordinate amounts of food as well.
Maybe consider questioning where the need to binge is coming from? And if it’s compulsive perhaps it has to do with working the body that extensively? Which I think may be recommended only if you’re going into a competition of some sort or for an athletic event. I understand people want to bulk up, so maybe the intake of so many calories is to balance pushing the body especially with weight training?

If possible, see a doctor and ask about it. Definitely doubling (or tripling) the caloric intake needed is a red flag. Personally I’m around 1700 cals/day and that’s for a “semi-sedentary” lifestyle (but I do weight work about 4x a week, although not for an hour and a half). Perhaps keeping around the 2200 cal mark may balance the intensity of the workouts?

slimpit

Hi, I have a similar issue and found that the more you stress over the binges, the more you feel out of control, the harder it is to stop the bingeing. I binged on Saturday as it was our wedding anniversary, it was a "planned binge" but where I normally eat 1600 calories I had 4000!!!. However, I went back to normal eating on Sunday and was looking forward to going back to the calmer way of eating which I really enjoy. Binges can be a way of rebelling against your self-imposed rules (cutting, eating all the food you never allow yourself to eat. But it can also be a form of self-punishment of self-sabotage. Personally I find all the self-analysis is not helpful, the best way is to just put it behind you and go back to your normal eating regime, whether that is cutting bulking or maintaining. I am also not really a big fan of all the bulking/cutting as it just sets you up to binge. There is not point in trying to go lower to compensate. A lot of the weight will be water weight and will come back off again in a week max. Wishing you good luck!

WholeFoods4Lyfe

I'd highly recommend finding a qualified therapist, no one on a message board is going to be able to help you with your disordered eating. Good luck and I'm sorry that you are going through this. I have/had an eating disorder and it was not an easy thing to overcome, I still have moments of disordered eating and it scares me every time.

katepool77

Most times binge eating is an emotional issue and sometimes it’s hard to identify what’s behind it on your own...sometimes the reason is situational and obvious (stress eating because of a specific event) but if it’s ongoing most times it’s a deeper issue that needs to be addressed. There are self help books/articles that will help get you started in asking yourself the hard questions, or maybe a group dedicated to the subject, either online or one that meets in person. I’m sure a therapist could help you, someone who focuses on this subject. If you feel it’s stemming more from cravings or physical reasons I would check and recheck your nutrition; if you’re lacking in something maybe you’re trying to make it up somehow by overeating. Wish you the best of luck figuring this out.

Brinds90

Did you actually have any success gaining any weight on 2000-2200 kcal per day? How long were you on those calories for, and how much weight did you gain?

The reason I ask is that:

Given you're 5'5'', 126 lbs and 29 years old, your BMR would be about 1400 kcal per day. Even with a desk job, sedentary lifestyle and no gym sessions you'd need 1700 /day to maintain your weight. You walk 2 hours a day on 3/7 days (call it an average of 1 hour/day); so add 200-250. So that's 1900-1950 without even going to the gym. Looking at the numbers and including the gym sessions you would likely still be losing weight on 2000/day.

Unless there is an underlying condition (mental health or otherwise), it sounds as though your calorie intake is nowhere near enough for that level of activity, which over the medium to long term will send the levels of your appetite hormones all over the place.

When you're changing your energy intake (for example, transitioning from a bulk to cut), try to taper calories, reducing/increasing intake by about 200 kcal every couple of days so that you don't shock your body too much. Give yourself a couple of weeks to reach your target daily calorie intake. It makes things a lot easy, both on your body and your mind.