Binge Eating and Weight Loss

pglowacki04633

Hey, this is my first post, and I wasn’t entirely sure which category it belongs in.

I’ll be discussing eating irregularities and disorders. I understand that this topic can be sensitive for some, so please keep that in mind before reading on.

My name is Shem, and I’m trying to lose weight. I’m currently around 82–83kg. My weight has always been a struggle, and binge eating has played a significant role in that.

Binge eating is talked about, but not in the same way as other eating disorders like bulimia or anorexia. From my perspective, it doesn’t seem to carry the same weight or gravity in people’s minds.

There are many reasons for this, but I think that’s part of what has made it harder for me to connect with others who share this experience. Maybe I wasn’t looking hard enough, but for the first time, I wanted to speak about it openly.

Food has always been a source of comfort for me. I go through cycles where my eating improves, only to have an episode where I binge. There are different reasons why it happens—seeking pleasure, comfort, or trying to suppress difficult emotions. It often involves eating until I’m painfully full, then waiting a little before eating again. The cycle continues until I can no longer derive any pleasure from the food—that’s when I feel “satisfied.”

The struggle is real, and I wanted to share my experience here to see if anyone else is going through or has gone through something similar. If you feel comfortable, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

nossmf

First, welcome to the forums.

Second, I think this is the appropriate forum for this discussion.

Third and most importantly, thank you for sharing this part of your life with us. I do not have any experience with this, either personally or anybody I know, so I cannot testify in any way. But it took a lot of courage to open up as you did.

Alatariel75

Hi and welcome.

I agree that binge eating isn't seen the same as more restrictive EDs, I think there's that stigma because it's seen as over-indulgence as compared to deprivation. It's seen as weakness and gluttony, and not the terrible negative punishment it really is.

I have struggled with binging for most of my life, sometimes to extreme extents. There's a whole new level of shame sitting in a supermarket carpark with a shopping bag full of chocolate, candy, rotisserie chicken, and baked goods while eating a block of cheese straight out of the packet.

For me, the big changing point where I started to get a handle on it was to stop calling it comfort eating. That made it sound so warm and fuzzy, like my not-so-great for me but well intentioned friend. What it really was, what it is, is self harm. For me, it comes from the same place in my brain where is does for people who engage in other, more obvious and less "socially acceptable" forms of self harm. I would feel bad, or stressed, or angry, or just hopeless, and engaging in that binge would take focus away from that pressing issue and focus my bad feeling on the fact I now feel sick, and guilty, and ashamed. Still sucky feelings, but not world ending, and completely internalised.

Once I was honest with myself about that, that I was engaging in a concerted war against myself and causing myself pain and harm to distract or punish from more external issues, I could really start to work through the urges when they came.

I still struggle with the urge to binge from time to time in periods of high stress, and I still have issues with stopping once I've eaten something I consider off plan or uncontrolled, and I very much struggle with the slippery slope, but I have a much, much better handle on it now and can generally keep it contained to an amount of food that doesn't actually wreck my body by the time I'm done. It's been a very long time since I truly lost control rather than just overindulged. These days I can actually *gasp* moderate treats! I never thought I'd see the day haha.

So yes, welcome, and thank you for your honesty, and for making a space where I could give some in return.

lauramawdsley

Hi thank u for sharing I’m new to this part of my fitness pal and just found this can totally relate to u. From a personal who has had anorexia then binge eating I can understand how they don’t have the same “ weight” behind them when it came out I had anorexia everyone was behind me /putting themselves out to help me / nhs was getting me the help needed and everything but once I hit a normal weight and the binge eating took over there was absolutely no help nhs dismissed it/ friends and family just saw it as I was eating and overindulging as u had restricted for so long etc and didn’t really care. I understand that ur body sometimes overeats after an ED as per the “starvation study” but this wasn’t that I knew that from the beginning and 5 years later I still struggle and no one understands.
For now I kind of have it under control but I have worked a lot on this. I have read alit of self help books / taken me out pf situations or avoid situations that make me binge and am always working on myself with a goal to overcome and eat “normal” it is never ending and a constant mind struggle only I know about it’s hard but it is possible to overcome think little steps to improve this and build on them it’s thenonly way u can’t just stop and it’s over. I find when I’m well rested/ doing things to make me happy I am better once I’m tired lonely or mad or sad boom it’s back. Work on urself for urself figure out what u want/need/enjoy and go from there

Fiia2020

Hi! I myself am somewhat of a binge eater. I have thought a lot about the background of this within myself and have come to the conclusion that it is both a result of shame about eating and repeated very restrictive diets.
I've now reached the point where I'm no longer losing weight, but instead focusing on eating enough. Now what I mean by this is that I have calculated my basic daily energy needs and on top of that, all the extra calories from exercise. And I eat them all. This way, the risk of me falling into a new binge eating cycle is reduced. That means I eat 1800-2100 calories a day. I also no longer judge food as good or bad. So I don't deny myself any food either. (I'm eating candy right now as I write this 🤣). I'm also learning to eat without feeling ashamed and not hiding it from, for example, my husband or my children.
For me, it's also important to get enough sleep because I've noticed that I overeat more easily when I'm tired.
Each of us has our own cross to bear and I recommend that you carefully consider your own underlying reasons because I believe they have a lot to do with our problems. As a child, I was rewarded with food. And food still has a prize value in my thoughts and I'm working on this too. Not easy by any means, but a goal that is certainly achievable is to at some point be able to think of food only as food.
These were just my thoughts on this matter, nothing more, but the topic is important and relevant in a world filled with fitness.