Binge Eating at Goal/Healthy Weight

kittylocks2

By the way - this is not the typical me. I am usually upbeat and lots of fun. But some days - life just bums me out. This is one of them.

Cahgetsfit

This is an interesting thread. Before comp prep I would very occasionally binge. Like maybe once a month. I was flexible dieting though so when I felt like a piece of chocolate (or whatever) I would just make it fit my macros/calories. I ate mainly well following a 80:20 type rule. So for example on a Friday night I would get takeaway food (pizza or thai or whatever) and eat slightly less "healthily" on the weekend - the odd fish & chips would fit in the daily macros, etc.

Now I am on a bro diet for comp. When I was allowed a cheat meal per week I was doing fine because I had the cheat to look forward to. I never looked forward to cake and donuts - I always wanted a proper meal like lamb roast with veggies, seafood marinara, BREAD, home made hamburgers, etc. I occasionally would chuck in a nice desert yoghurt just to finish it off but choose the healthy option yoghurts.

Now I am not allowed cheats. And I have binged a bunch of times. So much so that I just decided I'd have a proper cheat meal (of good food) and not tell my coach because it's better I eat home made nachos than a whole box of fish and chips and half a packet of marshmallows (when I don't even LIKE marshmallows). I have never had ED in the past (apart from some emotional eating when I was depressed - hence the weight gain in the first place). This restricted comp diet really feels like an ED waiting to attack. I always have to keep in mind that it's only temporary and that I will never do it again. My coach tells me "don't think of it as food - it's only fuel to keep you going" I find that so wrong on so many levels because food to me is way more than fuel.

Anyway - the whole point is that I think you need to be balanced in what you eat. Sometimes eating too "clean" will make you miss stuff you NEED - like certain nutrients or a higher level of fat perhaps, and in turn leads to bingeing.

When I was IIFYM-ing I didn't take supplements except for Magnesium for DOMS. Now I have a frikking pantry full of pills and powders which I have to take various times a day - which I think is ridiculous because if I was on a healthy diet I wouldn't need any of this.

nevertoooldtodoit

Yes an entire sleeve of club crackers and 12 fudge stripe cookies when I was by myself. I don't know why. I didn't feel sad or lonely...maybe a little defiant. I'm trying to figure it out.

Christine_72

I'm curious, what if there was only broccoli, lettuce or some other boring foods in your cupboards, would you binge on that? Or is it only yummy foods that trigger a binge?

1Kristana

A really good book on this topic is Brain Over Binge by Kathryn Hansen. It's an interesting approach to squashing the binge monster.