Binge Eating. Please help.

ykondo

Before going to college, I had never BINGED. I had eaten a lot but I never binged. However, during college, I tried going on a diet because I was started to gain weight and I guess I was not doing the diet right. I started to binge eat every week or so and I kept on going and going until the school year ended. I thought that my binging would stop after school ended.

I was wrong. I'm not on a diet anymore because I thought that would help with the binging. I do care about calories but I am not obsessed about it so I eat mostly what I want to during the day. But, I can't stop binging! It has been about 3 weeks since summer break has started and I have binged 3 times already. I don't get it.

Why do I do this? I want to lose weight so badly and yet, I binge. I'm getting fatter each day but I don't know how to go about my diet anymore because I'm scared that my binging will get worse.

What should I do? I want this to stop.

katheern

Someone posted this online yesterday on the forums. Hope it helps:

http://www.fitnessthroughfasting.com/how-to-stop-binge-eating.html

suzukigurl

In my opinion binge eating is a mental thing, try thinking about what you are about to put into your mouth and what it will do to your body and if you actually are even hungry. Also try to plan your meals ahead of time. It takes time to get used to it but it helps tremendously!! I think logging my food on here helps me see what I am putting into my body and was an eye opener for me. I have trouble with chips and candy, if I buy a bag I will eat it all. I try to buy in indivdual servings so this doesn't happen. Try to keep your mind busy with other things so you don't think about food or go for a walk and drink water and eat a protein bar. I hope you get the help you need I know it's hard. Feel free to add me as a friend if you like!! Good luck:flowerforyou:

Britt22706

I have a binging problem also. I have been very successful in avoiding it lately because every time I feel like I am going to go and binge and pig out on crap or whatever, I make myself do an activity that gets me away from the food!!

Last night I found myself in the kitchen staring in the cupboards...I knew that I wanted to just eat everything I saw. So I put on my shoes, and went for a 20 minute walk. When I got back, I got ready for bed, so there was no time to stuff my face.

Basically, try to find a healthy activity that takes it's place. Even if it's sitting in front of the TV like a zombie (no I'm not condoning just sitting there, I usually substitute my binging for an active activity), at least you aren't consuming everything in your kitchen!! Sometimes I even find cleaning a great substitute for binging!

gaeljo

Katheern! Great post! Thanks for sharing that.

In terms of binge eating, I too have had those moments, I think we all have had those moments. And let me just say that I'm deeply sorry for how you must be feeling. It is a really hard challenge, but guess what, you can overcome this.

One of the things that I do when this happens to me or I feel like my choices are getting way out of control, or I start eating too many calories, is I literally take a full 24 hours and fast and PRAY. I do this, probably once every 6 weeks or so. When I do a fast, it is hard, but I drink water, or tea and tons of it. Whenever I get hungry, which is a lot of the time, I take that hunger pain as a signal to start to pray and I ask God to help give me self control and I imagine that I am taking my issues of food and for me the foods I am really super bad with are potatoe chips, cookies and chocolate, I visuallize stuffing these items into a backpack and then I hand the back pack over to God. And I ask God to please take these things from me. It works, but i have to fast every few weeks. Not only that, but fasting is soooooo good for the human body. Now if you are diabetic, or have health issues then you need to talk to your doctor to see if it is ok. But fasting in general gives your body time to eliminate free radicals and do cell repair. So you get a secondary health benefit. Truly your problem is a spiritual one. Let me try and explain it like this...

Ok forgive me if this sounds really weird, but truly this works so follow me for a moment. Imagine you are a tree and you have roots, branches, leaves and produce fruit. The fruit you produce is a reflection of your root system. So, if you are an alcoholic (for example) the fruit you produce is alcohol. If you are have a food issue, then your fruit is potatoe chips (or whatever). you can keep picking the fruit off the tree to eliminate the fruit for the short term, but if you address whatever is at the root of your problem, then you can alter the fruit you are bearing for a longer period of time, if not altogether. In otherwords, there is a deeper issue that is causing you to continue to binge. You can't fix the problem in the short term by just pruning off the fruit of your tree. You have to dig down and find out what is creating this issue in the first place. If you take that time and fast and pray, God will reveal this answer to you and heal that. It says in the Bible (sorry if you don't beleive in that, but the wisdom is true whether you are a beleiver or not) to puruse the greater gifts, one of the greater gifts is the gift of healing. Often people interpret that as bringing healing to others, but it does mean to pursue your own healing as well. How do you pursue a spirtual healing? By seeking God and asking him to remove the issues through fasting, prayer and meditation. Now, for myself, God has not "removed" my problem, but he has given me the ability to handle my problem, God has shown me how to fast and seek Christ when I'm in moments of weakness throuhg prayer. In this way, I'm able to gain better self control and awareness.

Anyway, I hope this helps you. You have my sympathies for sure. What you are going through is a tough thing, I too have been there to a point. Take care and blessings upon your journey. Gael

natalie015

I have the same problem! It's so hard to get rid of and it def is a mental thing. I normally eat healthy all day and then between the hours of 7pm and 10pm I feel like I have to have everything... even if I don't like it. My binge eating also started when I went away to college. If you find anything helps please let me know. I am going to see a nutritionist in 2 weeks, so I will let you know as well. Thanks!!

WalkingGirl1985

I've been struggling with the same problem for several months. When I first started to lose my weight, I didn't binge at all and lost my first 50 pounds. Since Jan 2011, I started to binge in the winter months..first it was warm, salty comfort foods..I LOVE salty nuts, pringles, saltines..thats my binge food. I'm trying so hard to avoid it and try to do other things. I get the extra dessert gum like mint chocolate chip/strawberry shortcake and it can help the cravings at only 5 calories a stick. Try to brew a cup of coffee/tea..sometimes that helps me also. Walking is also a good idea. I saw a few others mention this in here before, try taking up knitting, color in a coloring book, take a bath..those are also good ideas. I also have a counseling session set up June 30, so I hope talking to someone who specializes in that field, will help as well. Best of luck to you, feel free to add me and you can talk to me anytime!! :happy: