mini rant for those of you who "binge"

Heyman09

Didn't realize the amount of calories someone is over directly correlates with your weight loss...

And for the record...I feel like *kitten* when I eat 2000 extra calories just like I feel like *kitten* when I eat 500 extra calories. And it's not emotional for me. It's an addiction to junk food which I'm fully aware of and doing my best to work through. But judging other people because they aren't binging as much as you are is just flat out stupid.

I totally agree with you!!! I mean sometimes you have to binge and it doesn't matter how much over you are.

kdeaux1959

I agree with the "state of mind" argument. Yet I see where you are coming from and a lot of people worry about 20 or 30 calories over... Hey, calorie counting is really not that accurate anyway (within 100-200 calories maybe) because of slight differences in preparation methods... 6.1 oz vs 5.9 oz as 6 oz etc. Mindset can be an issue. Emotional eating is very detrimental especially if it becomes a lifestyle.

ccadroz93

its the emotion and the compulsion that makes it a binge, not the quantity. its the loss of control. not the number of calories. i think a lot of people do mistake over eating and feeling guilty with a binge though. but i dont see how the amount of calories you eat determines weather its a binge or not.

Very nicely put, my dear!! I am a recover(ed) anorexic. A binge for me at one point in my life was 50 calories! Of course at that time I only weighed 107 pounds too. Now at a healthy weight of 135 (going down from 182) a binge is anything I would not normally eat that I consume more than two portions. It's different for every individual.

MeMyCatsandI

I don't think you are crazy; just more sensitive to the idea than others may be. A binge for you may be three-ten times more than it is for another person yet both of you feelbadly about going over. I guess we are just all on our own journeys here and need to support each other the best we can. Hugs:flowerforyou:

I agree with this. I also think the word binge is used inappropriately (aka incorrectly) quite often. Most of us do not binge in the true sense of the word. I'm surprised to see so many people attacking the OP about this. A few days ago someone complained about how people wait for a parking spot closer to the store and the majority of responses were to jump in and say how much that annoys them too. REALLY? This OP, who apparently has an ED, expresses her feelings about the overuse of the word binge and she is attacked. A different OP complains about parking and she has people coming out of the witness protection program to join in on her b^^ch fest. Perhaps you could take a moment to try to understand where the OP is coming from!

BobbieLee1959

are we really here to quibble about things like this? We all need support and for the OP, if you need to rant, feel free, but do so realizing that NOT EVERYONE here is going to understand because we all have our own take on food and nutrition.

You may have a perfectly valid reason for feeling the need to post, but because I have not suffered the same torment as you, or have put this behind me, your rant appears to be an over reaction to something someone else has said.

If you have joined MFP for support and encouragement, please give as you receive. By validating the struggles of other users, you and I provide encouragement. Belittling someone for recognizing and trying to overcome a weaknesses (no matter how insignificant it appears to you) is counterproductive and unneccesary. Why not play nicely together and help one another instead of criticizing?

This is just my 2 cents worth.

kissedbytheocean

I've reread this thread and there are many, many different opinions here.

To me, a binge doesn't have anything to do with calories. It's about the mindset. I binged once on about 500 calories. Some wouldn't consider that a binge, but if you saw me in my "trance", pacing the kitchen, eating everything left and right without a second though, even sticking my fingers into a jar of Better than Bouillon vegetable stock paste, for goodness' sake, pleading to myself in my head to stop, maybe you'd feel differently.

Someone who goes to a restaurant, orders a salad, and then decides to have a piece of chocolate cake for dessert, and later decides that it was a binge, because they feel so "naughty" for breaking their diet... that's not a binge, in my opinion. Absolutely not, because they had control. They just *chose* to have a 500 calorie piece of cake.

cheesy_blasters

Some really interesting responses in this thread.

From my perspective, I think both are right. I do agree that certain terms are used so lightly today. I've been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. It basically destroyed a decade of my life. I will never get to experience the fun other people got to have in their 20s or having the best time of their life in university or college because I spent most of that time in bed or hiding in my apartment or worse.
And it does really bother me when people are bummed out or having a crap day and say they're depressed. It upsets me because they haven't lost what I lost and I still haven't forgiven myself for what I went through and it's like part defense mechanism, part jealousy, part anger at the fact I was (and still is) so sick and never getting the support and understanding I need. I think there's a lot of baggage that causes those feelings. I think so many people treat mental illness too lightly and when you experience your life crumbling, it destroys you to see someone showcase it as no big thing.

However, I think a lot of behaviour that people on the outside see is only a tiny piece of what's really happening. While some of those people complaining about their binges are just mis-speaking, I think others are really struggling with those feelings are shame of being out of control. While eating 500 calories shouldn't be a binge, there are so many habits we get into when we start hating ourselves and our relationship to food. I once had an anxiety attack at a grocery store because I didn't know which sugar was "right". Like, that's so messed up. It's just sugar. I use it a couple of times a week in coffee. Who cares? But I was so worried about making the wrong choice or doing something negative, it WAS a big deal. I think people see their calories like that. having a couple of chocolate bars shouldn't be a big deal. But it's the obsession with not being perfect or making a mistake that makes those couple hundred calories SO IMPORTANT. LIKE THE MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER. And I think there's a always a fear that we're only a few hundred calories away from our "old ways" of junk food or being overweight or unhealthy or whatever brought you here in the first place. So people eat and feel out of control and shameful and embarrassed about it. It's sad but they aren't the ones at fault, it's our attitudes towards food eating.

I don't know if any of that makes sense but it's basically my thoughts on the subject. I see both perspectives, I guess.

bewitchinglife

binge (bnj)
n.
1. A drunken spree or revel.
2.
a. A period of unrestrained, immoderate self-indulgence.
b. A period of excessive or uncontrolled indulgence in food or drink: an eating binge.
intr.v. binged, bing·ing or binge·ing, bing·es
1. To be immoderately self-indulgent and unrestrained: "The story is like a fever dream that a disturbed and imaginative city-dweller might have after binging on comics" (Lloyd Rose).
2. To engage in excessive or uncontrolled indulgence in food or drink.


One can binge without having and eating disorder. Just because someone says they binged.. and ate less than what you consider a binge does not mean they didn't binge. Clearly the meaning of the word is heavily weighted to you because of your experiences, but this does not mean that the other people are wrong. This is a sensitive topic to you, obviously but I don't see how judging other is going to help anyone.

RainxPain

Anywhere from 500-3,000 calories are my binges. I have BED, but it's gotten better lately. Haven't had a huge emotional binge in about a month or so.

cloud2011

I think the issue raised by a few people here, who feel that others misrepresent binges or depression...is interesting. But here's the thing: you don't know what other people are going through. Just because you may have an ED or mental illness, or a broken leg, doesn't diminish someone else's experience or pain.

If you feel they are co-opting your terminology or language, that's a problem you'll have to deal with, because no one has control over other people. And, to assume that someone else doesn't qualify to be in the same category as you, for whatever reason, may just turn out to be wrong.

You NEVER know what's going on with someone else.

myfitnessval

its the emotion and the compulsion that makes it a binge, not the quantity. its the loss of control. not the number of calories. i think a lot of people do mistake over eating and feeling guilty with a binge though. but i dont see how the amount of calories you eat determines weather its a binge or not.

this. i have binged both large and small for the same emotional reasons and i felt equally awful after both times. if people binging bothers you then delete them off your friends. simple as that.

gogojodee

its the emotion and the compulsion that makes it a binge, not the quantity. its the loss of control. not the number of calories. i think a lot of people do mistake over eating and feeling guilty with a binge though. but i dont see how the amount of calories you eat determines weather its a binge or not.

Very well said. How are we to know what their psychological state is or what they are feeling inside during and after a binge.

Also, for a lot of people, binge is just a generic term for overeating at that one point in time, it doesn't have the same clinical meaning that it does to others.

!!!

TurnLeftNow

You know, if you don't agree with the OP then don't post! There is NO reason to attack the OP. Seriously. She is asking for people who relate to her, not for people to call her stupid and rude for "owning binging" or whatever.

I get it. I completely agree. My binges are 2-3000 calories. I'd give anything to be upset over only a few hundred. Yes it is all the same. But the other person is only over eating by a few hundred whereas I am overeating by a few thousand. It makes me feel completely and totally alone. It makes me feel horrible and stupid and disgusting when I say I binged and it was 3000 calories and I am embarrassed. When someone says "I have a problem with binging too" I feel a little less alone and then they say "yeah I binged and ate over by 300 calories" it makes me feel like crawling into a hole and dying.

cheesy_blasters

I think the issue raised by a few people here, who feel that others misrepresent binges or depression...is interesting. But here's the thing: you don't know what other people are going through. Just because you may have an ED or mental illness, or a broken leg, doesn't diminish someone else's experience or pain.

If you feel they are co-opting your terminology or language, that's a problem you'll have to deal with, because no one has control over other people. And, to assume that someone else doesn't qualify to be in the same category as you, for whatever reason, may just turn out to be wrong.

You NEVER know what's going on with someone else.

While I agree with *what* you're saying, I think it's a HUGE problem to tell people with mental illnesses that it's their problem that society has a major stigma against mental illnesses and that they need to get over feeling ignored or alienated or diminished because people treat mental illness like a joke. I understand what you mean and while I agree a lot of people are calling for help, people DO treat depression or anorexia or binge eating along with other issues too lightly. People who AREN'T suffering from them do use those words. I think people who have lived through mental illness are in one of the best positions to recognize it but it's very difficult to be understanding when you're also told to "just get over it" or "I was depressed once but I'm fine now, you just need to want to get better" by others. If people would stop using serious words to describe their not so serious behaviour, people who really did need help would be much more likely to get it, because people would finally be able to hear them.

I think it takes understanding from all sides. People who use these words lightly need to realize that they could be hurting someone who really does desperately need help. People who have survived mental illnesses need to ask more questions and share their experiences.

I'm basing this not only on my personal experience but also my experience working in a college residence. One of my jobs was to keep an eye open for students who were displaying "warning" behaviour. The number of times I heard ridiculous stuff would blow your mind ("i only had a coffee this morning, so ana", "I hate taking the bus. It makes me want kill myself" etc etc.when you actually went to talk to them about what was going on they wouldn't be having these serious problems. They just didn't have the vocabulary to communicate what they were actually feeling). It means that 80% of your time is spent watching behaviour and 20% actually helping rather than the other way around.

Obviously I don't know what the OP is referring to specifically I'm just clarifying what *I* wrote, personally.

(Sorry if anyone feels like I'm trying to speak for them or something. This is how I feel about it, I'm sure there are other people with mental illnesses who disagree me).

weightingtobloom

I agree that binges are more about loss of control than calories consumed.

MissMdM

A subjective (small amount of calories) binge is small in comparison to objective binges (large amount of calories consumed in a short amount of time). However both have the classic feelings of intense cravings, loss of control and feelings of guilt and shame.

Both are distressing. The amount of calories consumed does not directly show the depth of despair of the person binging.