how do you stop binging?

ohheyyitsrenee

What are some iron rich foods i can eat? I don't like red meat. When school is over, which is in two weeks I will be able to focus on myself a little more and be able to find time to make doctors appointments

I honestly think that I am at a serious deficient. Literally all I eat is either oatmeal, granola bars, any type of fruit, any type of veggies, yogurt, cottage cheese.. yeah. That's how restricted I am. It's terrible. I mix egg whites into my oatmeal but I don't get much protein. I probably get an over abundance of vitamins. I have experienced muscle weakness in the past. I really truly don't eat a well balanced diet and part of it is because I don't know what to eat. I've been eating the same things for so long it's so hard to change it. I have a womens multi vitamin, should i start taking that?

If your college has a student health clinic ask them to check you for low iron anemia. If all you are eating is fruits and vegetables you are probably seriously deficient. Even a vegetarian diet has to make sure it is loaded with iron rich foods such spinach and lentils. At the very least you could get some supplements at the drug store before you start developing more serious symptoms such as muscle weakness and cramping, shortness of breath, extreme tiredness, etc.

Yes, take a women's multivitamin and also an iron supplement. Slow release Fe type are easier to digest. Iron supplements can be hard on your digestive system and take a while to get used to taking them. Here is a link for some symptoms to watch out for and you should start eating some iron rich foods. http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/iron-deficiency-anemia/basics/symptoms/con-20019327. But you should get checked because low iron may be a symptom that you have something else wrong with you.

Graelwyn75

I would say that this happened to me when I aimed for a weight that was too low for me. 95Ibs at 5'1 is a little low, I would say, and it is possible you will continue to hit this issue if you continue to aim for that number. You are perfectly healthy at 105 for your height. I would also suggest not buying these things for a while, or just buying them individually, one a day though having read one of your previous replies, that is not an option. (You could ask parents to hide them, if pushed) Another option is to leave enough calories for after dinner, so you can have some things before bed. What stops me(most of the time, but not always), is how utterly crap I feel the next day, emotionally, mentally and physically. And how long it takes to reverse the damage, so to speak. I cannot control myself too well with cereal... I do not keep it around now. Same with cookies. I do, however, have a pot of oatmeal, hot chocolate and a hard boiled duck egg before bed.

chelseasans

Yes. We are very similar. And let me guess every time you try to get help people look at you like your nuts cause your still skinny right?! I can totally relate. I do this almost every night and shamefully most night i wake up in the middle of the night and literally zombie mode to the kitchen. Like i cant stop. I even tried taking the medicine route with Xanax before bed. Did nothing. I too believe i had i diagnosed orthorexia. It HAS to be something to do with that. Peanut butter is my biggest weakness along with ice cream. I always go for something full of sugar. Its strange.

Let's work through this together. I think that the first step may be to gradually replace your binges with healthier things. For instance, i would binge on sugar so instead i left a huge bowl of precut fruit in the fridge and left myself no other option but to eat the fruit. Although i still felt like crap, it wasnt as terrible. Im going to friend you now

ohheyyitsrenee

I would be okay being between 100-105, I mean at this rate i'm half way there. Wouldn't be surprised if these last two day binges brought me there. I did elliminate the granola bars that I binge on, so hopefully that will help. Last week I binged on cliff bars and haven't touched them since. Same with the luna bars that I binged on the other day. I will no longer eat granola bars, for now at least. That's how I got rid of my peanut butter cravings, haven't eaten it in since Easter. I was hoping feeling like crap would stop me, especially because I felt terrible after last wednesdays binge on clif bars. I was in pain the next day due to over eating. But today and yesterday I didn't feel bad. I mean i'm full but it's a comfortable full if that makes sense? I'm embarrassed to say I ate 5,000 calories today and about 3,000-4,000 yesterday. I did consider leaving calories for after dinner, or planning in something eat after dinner since that's when I "usually" binge. These past two days were the highest binges I've ever had. I have no idea how long it will take to reverse the damage and i'm scared to be honest. I really haven't allowed myself to recover from my binges because when ever I try, I usually go a day without binging then it's back to binging again. I binged pretty much everyday last week having a damage of five pounds which isn't sooooo bad because I needed to gain. But those binge days weren't as high as these last two.

I would say that this happened to me when I aimed for a weight that was too low for me. 95Ibs at 5'1 is a little low, I would say, and it is possible you will continue to hit this issue if you continue to aim for that number. You are perfectly healthy at 105 for your height. I would also suggest not buying these things for a while, or just buying them individually, one a day though having read one of your previous replies, that is not an option. (You could ask parents to hide them, if pushed) Another option is to leave enough calories for after dinner, so you can have some things before bed. What stops me(most of the time, but not always), is how utterly crap I feel the next day, emotionally, mentally and physically. And how long it takes to reverse the damage, so to speak. I cannot control myself too well with cereal... I do not keep it around now. Same with cookies. I do, however, have a pot of oatmeal, hot chocolate and a hard boiled duck egg before bed.

Sinisterly

By logging daily and having mfp keep me accountable.

ohheyyitsrenee

It's only been two weeks so people haven't really noticed yet. I do think it has to do with orthorexia, I think my mind and body is so tired of eating the same foods everyday, the same 7 foods that I consider "okay" to eat. Peanut butter used to be okay with me until two weeks ago and the funny thing is, I used to eat it everyday so It didn't make sense to binge on. Along with granola bars, it does not make sense at all. But for some reason when I binge on them, they taste better and I think it's because a binge in unplanned. But we can get through this!!

Yes. We are very similar. And let me guess every time you try to get help people look at you like your nuts cause your still skinny right?! I can totally relate. I do this almost every night and shamefully most night i wake up in the middle of the night and literally zombie mode to the kitchen. Like i cant stop. I even tried taking the medicine route with Xanax before bed. Did nothing. I too believe i had i diagnosed orthorexia. It HAS to be something to do with that. Peanut butter is my biggest weakness along with ice cream. I always go for something full of sugar. Its strange.

Let's work through this together. I think that the first step may be to gradually replace your binges with healthier things. For instance, i would binge on sugar so instead i left a huge bowl of precut fruit in the fridge and left myself no other option but to eat the fruit. Although i still felt like crap, it wasnt as terrible. Im going to friend you now

ohheyyitsrenee

I do, I log everyday, I even go to the obsession of logging for the next day

By logging daily and having mfp keep me accountable.

onrainyydays

i would try not to cut something completely out, like after binging on peanut butter, not eating it for a long time, cause when i do that, there'll be a time where its like, i havent had peanut butter in forever, and then i eat some and cant stop cause it tastes sooo good. if you only eat a small portion of peanut butter every so often, you wont crave a huge binge-amount of it, at least thats how it works for me.

ginnamerkelswick2

I've been having difficulty binging lately, also, on sugary carbs. One twinkie means three, on hoho means two, and let's not get me started on the brownies. I've found two things that seem to help most of the time. On is the old before and after pictures. On my fridge are pictures of me now, 61 pounds down, and on the door and inside the pantry where temptation lurks, I post before pictures. One on each shelf where goodies are, so I have to move the pictures if I really want to get a snack. The other thing, one that I find even more effective is to give any tempting food to my 18 year old son to keep in his room. He has instructions that if I ask for something, he is to give me only one. It works well because I hate to ask everyday, or ask for more than one because i don't want to embarrass myself by showing him a lack of willpower. It's hard, but if I fall off the wagon, for one or several days, these things seem to help me follow the straight and narrow again. But I'd love to see what anyone else does to battle the urge to binge.:embarassed:

Clendenen49

cereals, peanut butter, cliff builder bars my favorite things to binge on . There so good ! hungry now thinking about it but you just need the power to say no.

ohheyyitsrenee

I tried to do that when I was binging on peanut butter, I mean I was literally eating a serving size everyday but I would still find myself finishing off the jars at night time. I'm hoping that when I do buy peanut butter again that I will have my binges under control. For now I survive off of PB2.

i would try not to cut something completely out, like after binging on peanut butter, not eating it for a long time, cause when i do that, there'll be a time where its like, i havent had peanut butter in forever, and then i eat some and cant stop cause it tastes sooo good. if you only eat a small portion of peanut butter every so often, you wont crave a huge binge-amount of it, at least thats how it works for me.

ohheyyitsrenee

First off, congrats on the 61 pounds down! That is a really smart idea on posting all pictures of yourself. I'm thinking about making my transformation pictures my phone background so I can look at it every time I want to binge. Maybe that could help? It's also smart that you gave all the tempting food to your son! That's a great way to be accountable for not binging.

I've been having difficulty binging lately, also, on sugary carbs. One twinkie means three, on hoho means two, and let's not get me started on the brownies. I've found two things that seem to help most of the time. On is the old before and after pictures. On my fridge are pictures of me now, 61 pounds down, and on the door and inside the pantry where temptation lurks, I post before pictures. One on each shelf where goodies are, so I have to move the pictures if I really want to get a snack. The other thing, one that I find even more effective is to give any tempting food to my 18 year old son to keep in his room. He has instructions that if I ask for something, he is to give me only one. It works well because I hate to ask everyday, or ask for more than one because i don't want to embarrass myself by showing him a lack of willpower. It's hard, but if I fall off the wagon, for one or several days, these things seem to help me follow the straight and narrow again. But I'd love to see what anyone else does to battle the urge to binge.:embarassed:

ohheyyitsrenee

I loved cliff bars until I ate like 15 of them last wednesday and couldn't move on thursday due to the increased fiber. LOL you'd think that would get me to stop binging too.

cereals, peanut butter, cliff builder bars my favorite things to binge on . There so good ! hungry now thinking about it but you just need the power to say no.

PJPrimrose

A friend of mine battled binging with 5 years of Over eaters Anonymous. She struggled daily with it! I was so happy she finally got help

It took that long for her to get to a reasonable (not skinny) weight.

Jajanda

This will be a long post, and for that I am sorry. I am telling my personal story as this is what worked for me. I can't guarantee the same results for everyone as I am not a dr., but I know that nutritionists recommend the diet I am doing.

Let me start by saying that diets and me were a huge problem. For a really long time I had severe willpower problems, and the idea of giving up my favorite foods really bothered me. I used to binge a lot too. I would especially binge at night. I would just get so hungry, and being that hungry made me reach for really bad foods (part of my problem was because I spent so many years eating so little during the day due to lack of hunger, my body programmed itself to be starving at night). That would just make me hungrier.

I started a diet (the every other day diet), and it seemed to be working as far as weight loss was concerned, but on my 500 calories days I would be so hungry. It got to a point that I would binge. I would eat healthier foods, because I felt bad for going over my calorie count, but it stopped working as well because I going over my overall calorie count.

After years of dieting with no weight loss, and going up and down in weight constantly no matter what I did, I finally went to the dr. (I gained 50 lbs. without significant change to my diet in less than a year). I thought I had a thyroid problem, but I was wrong. I had PCOS (and dangerously low vitamin D levels).

Unfortunately, due to the medication I was put on, I could no longer do the every other day diet (on diet days my calorie content was too low, and it would cause significant drops in my blood sugar, thus causing hypoglycemic episodes). I had to force myself to change my eating habits. For years I had dr.'s, nutritionists, fitness trainers, and everyone in general telling me to eat multiple small meals a day. I hated this idea because it meant cutting out basically all junk foods in order have a deficit in calories while still being able to eat multiple meals. However, with my medication, I had no choice. It was eat better, or get very ill due to the hypoglycemic episodes.

I thought that only eating a few calories at a time would just make me hungry all the time, but I was wrong. I actually have a hard time reaching my 1200 calorie goal because I stay full. I find the easiest thing for me to do is to take in part of my calories from real foods, and part of my calories through protein shakes (I use GNC lean shakes. They are 200 calories per serving, and they are surprisingly very filling). Doing this has helped significantly. I am not constantly hungry, therefore I am not constantly reaching for garbage foods.

I would suggest to any woman/man who gained a significant amount of weight in a short time to see a dr. It is vital to make the dr. do a FULL blood panel (they usually only test for the 2 main "typical" things that causes weight gain; diabetes and thyroid disorder). For years I told my dr.'s about my weight, and other problems, but none of them listened to me. They just told me that I needed to change my diet. I finally had a dr. listen to me and do a full blood panel. Turns out I had been right all those years; something was really wrong with me, and that something definitely had something to do with my weight gain.

Good luck to you!

ohheyyitsrenee

Thank you for posting this! I enjoy reading other people's stories. I am glad that you found out what was wrong with you and that it is under control! Considering I have lost a lot of weight and got down to an unhealthy amount (well before the binges) I probably should go to a doctor and get my blood tested. I just haven't gone because I didn't want to hear the doctors say you are underweight blah blah blah. It's part of my stubbornness but I know I should go. I have tried the GNC shakes before and they are pretty filling! I was thinking about drinking shakes again, maybe with dinner? I usually binge after dinner.

This will be a long post, and for that I am sorry. I am telling my personal story as this is what worked for me. I can't guarantee the same results for everyone as I am not a dr., but I know that nutritionists recommend the diet I am doing.

Let me start by saying that diets and me were a huge problem. For a really long time I had severe willpower problems, and the idea of giving up my favorite foods really bothered me. I used to binge a lot too. I would especially binge at night. I would just get so hungry, and being that hungry made me reach for really bad foods (part of my problem was because I spent so many years eating so little during the day due to lack of hunger, my body programmed itself to be starving at night). That would just make me hungrier.

I started a diet (the every other day diet), and it seemed to be working as far as weight loss was concerned, but on my 500 calories days I would be so hungry. It got to a point that I would binge. I would eat healthier foods, because I felt bad for going over my calorie count, but it stopped working as well because I going over my overall calorie count.

After years of dieting with no weight loss, and going up and down in weight constantly no matter what I did, I finally went to the dr. (I gained 50 lbs. without significant change to my diet in less than a year). I thought I had a thyroid problem, but I was wrong. I had PCOS (and dangerously low vitamin D levels).

Unfortunately, due to the medication I was put on, I could no longer do the every other day diet (on diet days my calorie content was too low, and it would cause significant drops in my blood sugar, thus causing hypoglycemic episodes). I had to force myself to change my eating habits. For years I had dr.'s, nutritionists, fitness trainers, and everyone in general telling me to eat multiple small meals a day. I hated this idea because it meant cutting out basically all junk foods in order have a deficit in calories while still being able to eat multiple meals. However, with my medication, I had no choice. It was eat better, or get very ill due to the hypoglycemic episodes.

I thought that only eating a few calories at a time would just make me hungry all the time, but I was wrong. I actually have a hard time reaching my 1200 calorie goal because I stay full. I find the easiest thing for me to do is to take in part of my calories from real foods, and part of my calories through protein shakes (I use GNC lean shakes. They are 200 calories per serving, and they are surprisingly very filling). Doing this has helped significantly. I am not constantly hungry, therefore I am not constantly reaching for garbage foods.

I would suggest to any woman/man who gained a significant amount of weight in a short time to see a dr. It is vital to make the dr. do a FULL blood panel (they usually only test for the 2 main "typical" things that causes weight gain; diabetes and thyroid disorder). For years I told my dr.'s about my weight, and other problems, but none of them listened to me. They just told me that I needed to change my diet. I finally had a dr. listen to me and do a full blood panel. Turns out I had been right all those years; something was really wrong with me, and that something definitely had something to do with my weight gain.

Good luck to you!

ohheyyitsrenee

I'm glad to hear that your friend got help!

A friend of mine battled binging with 5 years of Over eaters Anonymous. She struggled daily with it! I was so happy she finally got help

It took that long for her to get to a reasonable (not skinny) weight.

fificrazy

I wish I knew. If I had health insurance I'd go see a nutritionist. So I'll suggest that. Especially if this is the first time this has happened to you. Perhaps you are fairly active and just need more calories. Perhaps you need different foods.

I was thinking about seeing a nutritionist. I suffered from Orthorexia for a majority of this year and have been trying to be in recovery since January. The food list I allow myself to eat is very limited and I think the binges might be a way for myself to feel like I have freedom to eat what I want. But in reality, it's bringing me into a really bad habit that I don't want to be in, especially since I already have disordered eating. I mean it's only been going on for two weeks so it's early enough for me to be able to break the habit, I just can't figure out how. I do go to the gym 5-6 times a week but I only burn around 300 calories each time (I have a polar watch). I do cardio and lift weights. Maybe this is a way for my body to tell myself that I need to eat more? Idk. I just want it to stop!

It's not binging. What you're experiencing is reactive eating. You're right about it being related to your orthorexia and not allowing yourself certain foods- it's exactly why you're experiencing these episodes.

fificrazy

It depends, when I binged on clif bars I was dying. But today I've been okay and i'm not sure why. I do think that my body is hungry but I can't help but beat myself up. I'm in fear of gaining because I worked so hard to lose. I'm surprised i'm not freaking out about the 5 pounds I already gained.

It sounds like you are already at a healthy weight, maybe your body is just hungry and you trying to restrict your calories is revolting on you making you go overboard? I just don't know how it is not hurting your tummy with all that extra fiber with those bars. I binged on fiber/potein bars too once or twice . I was in not a good way for a couple of days. Try to not beat yourself up and definitely not restrict yourself too much. You are a small girl already. Go for health, feed your body.

Do NOT freak out. I bet you look so much better with those extra 5lbs. It may not feel good right now, but your body is saying hey, I need me some energy storage please.. That is all it is. It is energy that your hair, nails, organs and skin NEED to keep you alive and beautiful. :flowerforyou: Think of it that way.

^ I'm glad someone else brought this up! It's true!

ohheyyitsrenee

I just researched re-active eating and you are 100% right. That's completely what it is and it make sense because I was living off of 8.9% body fat and I was underweight. Right now i'm at 108, from my three week binges and these last two days I haven't craved ANYTHING, I haven't wanted to binge at all. There's a bag of chocolate on my table, I looked at it and walked away. Last week I would've destroyed that bag! I binged pretty hard core this weekend and haven't since. These last two days I've been completely in control of my food again and it feels great! Maybe my body is at a weight it likes now? I'm still trying to lose the water weight, so I haven't fully seen my body yet and don't know how much I've truly gained but I'm just glad i'm not eating the whole kitchen again. I was crying everyday last week about it!

I wish I knew. If I had health insurance I'd go see a nutritionist. So I'll suggest that. Especially if this is the first time this has happened to you. Perhaps you are fairly active and just need more calories. Perhaps you need different foods.

I was thinking about seeing a nutritionist. I suffered from Orthorexia for a majority of this year and have been trying to be in recovery since January. The food list I allow myself to eat is very limited and I think the binges might be a way for myself to feel like I have freedom to eat what I want. But in reality, it's bringing me into a really bad habit that I don't want to be in, especially since I already have disordered eating. I mean it's only been going on for two weeks so it's early enough for me to be able to break the habit, I just can't figure out how. I do go to the gym 5-6 times a week but I only burn around 300 calories each time (I have a polar watch). I do cardio and lift weights. Maybe this is a way for my body to tell myself that I need to eat more? Idk. I just want it to stop!

It's not binging. What you're experiencing is reactive eating. You're right about it being related to your orthorexia and not allowing yourself certain foods- it's exactly why you're experiencing these episodes.