Intermittent fasting and binge eating

gisem17

I have not been diagnosed with Binge Eating Disorder (probably because I've never confessed it to my doctor), but I have episodes of uncontrollable binge eating so it is reasonable to assume that I have BED.
About three months ago I started intermittent fasting (20:4). I don't feel hunger pangs until late afternoon and so it's not that hard to wait a few more hours and eat all my daily calories in one large meal (including dessert). That has been mostly successful and I've been losing on average 1.5 lbs per week.
At the same time, I've been trying to get binge eating under control by identifying and resisting the foods that trigger it. That has also been more or less successful. I still have episodes but they seem to be less frequent and less severe.

Then I read on this post by @NovusDies on an unrelated thread

NovusDies wrote: »

The only reason to do intermittent fasting is if it makes getting to your goals easier. There is no way to spoil it unless you are looking for the only proven benefit of improved insulin response for those that actually suffer from insulin resistance.

I have always suspected that my BED was related to insulin. (I eat, insulin spikes and somehow the increased insulin triggers irresistible cravings for more food.) This post got me thinking that there might be a connection between insulin resistance and BED. Doing some research (i.e. a google search) I found this article.
https://www.edcatalogue.com/insulin-resistance-binge-eating/

I have no reason to suspect that I have insulin resistance (my doctor has never mentioned it and he as access to all of my blood work.) For now, I am going to assume that I do have it on the basis that it is a theory that fits the facts. If true, according to the article, my binge eating cycle goes something like this:
1) I eat because I'm hungry
2) My body produces insulin to convert food into energy.
3) Insulin resistance prevents my body from absorbing that energy
4) My body remains unfed and therefore still hungry
1b) I eat more because I'm still hungry
Oh, and the food that isn't being used for energy is getting stored as body fat.

Assuming NovusDies is correct, I may have inadvertently stumbled on a diet that is addressing the underline cause of my binge eating.

I am not advocating IF for people with BED. I am not qualified to do so nor am I convinced that any of this is true. I am posting this mostly to see if I can put my ideas in writing. And partially to see if by throwing this noodle against the wall, it sticks.

lgfrie

I am definitely a binge eater & I don't even need a diagnosis of BED to know it. I'm one of those people who can EASILY consume 3,000 calories in an hour long binge in the middle of the night, something I've done scores and scores of times. Which is how I got to 330 pounds before I started dieting.

Intermittent fasting is the only approach I've ever used that got the binging under control. I've been doing IF for a year and a half and have rarely binged during that time (although it still happens now and then, just much less frequently). I eat noon to 7 pm.

The "why" question - why does IF lead to less binging and more regular eating - is open to much debate. There might be something to the insulin stuff, or maybe not. Without a doubt, I am far less hungry in general on IF than any other way of eating. I wake up uninterested in food, and after 7 pm I rarely think about it, which is a huge change from how things used to be, when my life was dominated by thinking about, planning for, and consuming food. It really isn't an understatement to say that the incredibly simple IF method has changed my life.

If IF is working for you, as it is for me, I say just kick back and enjoy the results, don't try to figure it out because there'll probably never be a satisfactory answer that'll pass all the sniff tests. Insulin, hormones, so many people have tried to figure out what the benefits if IF might be and why it works, but in the end, if it works, it works.

cerad2

Assuming your blood tests include routine A1C tests then your doctor would definitely let you know if you had a glucose control problem. Heck, you should be able to read the results yourself. If your A1Cs are normal then you don't have glucose issues.