boredom and habit I guess. If you are used to snacking, that's what you want to do.
I do the same thing. AT home I want to be munchin on somethine while I want TV and when it comes to secret eating? I'm a pro.
I can use my lunch break to go get junk or coffee and no one would ever know.
My last apartment, I'd go get fast food and hide in it my shopping bags then hide in my room and pig out so my roommate didn't know.
I still do it sometimes but I've gotten better in the past couple months. Recording what I eat helps. I COULD go get McD's and Starbucks right now, but I'd want to look up the calories and record it, then I'd be sad about it.
Living with my boyfriend helps too because I don't like hiding things from him. My roommate? I could have cared less.

Your Cheetos and popcorn choices weren't terrible at least. *silver lining!!*

Sometimes I just want to shove 4 cakes in my face. Or whatever I can get a hold of. I like eating (and drinking) and it has NOTHING to do with hunger.
I know this is why my weight loss is slow and why I gained 10 lbs this summer and I just try not to kick myself for it
make better choices when I can and when I make poor choices, try to balance it. Also, not depriving myself of stuff helps.
I'm not going to lose weight as fast, but that makes my skin all saggy anyway so w/e?

I also read that binging is often a control thing. When we can't control anything else in our lives, we can control what we eat.

I'm the same way. It's almost as though if no one sees it, it never happened. Whenever I feel like I'm about to binge, I try to get out and do something productive, whether it's revamping my resume, taking a walk, riding bike, playing with my dog, and it usually helps.

I've had TONS of terrible binges. One time I ate an ENTIRE package of my roommate's oreos. I didn't realize what I had done until the whole thing was gone, so I panicked and had to run around looking for a new bag, which seemed impossible to find that day. I eventually had to lie and tell her that the cookies were crawling with bugs so I had to throw them away.:embarassed:

i do the same thing, i always ruin great days because the second everyone goes to bed, i go for the fridge

and when i wake up in the middle of the night, i'll make a sandwich AND a bowl or 2 of cereal, even if im not hungry. it's like i HAVE to eat or i can't stop thinking about it and i won't be able to go back to sleep!

i do the same thing, i always ruin great days because the second everyone goes to bed, i go for the fridge

and when i wake up in the middle of the night, i'll make a sandwich AND a bowl or 2 of cereal, even if im not hungry. it's like i HAVE to eat or i can't stop thinking about it and i won't be able to go back to sleep!

:grumble: I do the samething

I'm not proud of it, but I tend to binge when I'm alone too. Let's face it, not many of us are going to eat a whole pizza or a whole bag of m&m's in front of a friend or family member. It sometimes amazes me how MUCH I can eat! But I tend to binge when I'm lonely, depressed, worried, and sometimes "just because". I think it's because I feel like I can't eat it around my husband so I grab the first chance I get to eat it when he's gone. I believe that's why we're all here...to support each other and turn to each other INSTEAD of eating. It's pretty hard to eat if you're typing, right? Anyway...YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

I've found myself doing this too. I'm really good at only eating within normal levels when I'm surrounded by people, but when I'm alone I will eat things, and portions that I know are out of control and that I would never eat in front of other people.

There are times I will sit and eat half a box of oreos or eating left over frosting out of a container. It's sick. And I know it's stupid.

I'm constantly trying to find ways to stop myself from doing this, and it seems so ridiculous cause every part of me knows how wrong it is to do it. I tell myself "if you wouldn't eat that in front of others, why will you eat it alone? If it makes you ashamed maybe you know you shouldn't be doing it."

Sometimes it works to stop myself, and sometimes it doesn't. Tips?

Wow, I always felt so alone about how much I can eat when I am alone. It does help to know that others do the same thing. I also get up in the middle of the night and eat. I try and keep track of how I am feeling, or how I ate that day, but I don't think that there is a rational answer as to why, and that makes it even more scary because I don't know how to change it. My plan it to keep trying to understand this problem and to try and break the habit.

I am also new here, but not new to emotional eating and hiding how much food I actually consume. One of the worst things I do is stop at a fast food drive through window on my way home from work and eat the food by myself in the car. I have to hide all traces of evidence well. Then when I get home, I eat the dinner my husband fixes for us. I'm ashamed of myself.

One of the most disgusting things I've ever done was buy a chub of salami and a knife from the supermarket, then eat the whole chub of salami by myself in my classroom when there were no students around to see me. I'll eat an entire package of chips or cookies or candy in a day. It's almost as if I NEED to finish the entire thing. I can't just have one serving size. I have to eat the whole thing, even if I'm not hungry and even if I feel sick to my stomach.

I'm glad I've found this group. I hope you all can help motivate me to overcome the emotional eating.

What was the trigger? Personally speaking, when I feel that I HAVE to have something, anything, there was a trigger. Stress, boredom, insecurity? Usually something. Once you find the triggers you can notice them coming on and divert yourself from it. Mine come at night when I'm bored and at work when it gets to be too much. Changing tasks for a few minutes helps. Keep at it though and don't give up. It could have been worse, so you did pretty good.

I too do the secret eating. I will even hide in a corner in our kitchen with a bag of Chocolate chips and pig out just long enough to eat a crap-ton but not long enough for hubby to wonder what Im doing.
And everytime I'm alone I feel its ok to pig out. I love to sit in my bed and watch a movie with a smorgasbord of food spread out for me to snack on.
Most of the time I eat out of boredom or depression. Last year was an awful personal year for me so I constantly found myself sneaking food.
And then after I eat and eat and eat and ruin whatever diet I am on, I feel like total poo which makes me even more depressed which causes me to think "well i screwed it up for today, might as well not worry about it and just ruin it more" so then I just eat more. Its a terrible cycle.
I saw it mentioned eating an entire thing of oreos. I will do that whenever oreos are near. That is my kryptonite. Out of everything I could possibly eat, that one thing just does it in for me. I dont even pay attention that I'm doing it. I just think oh one more, then one more then one more and before I know it their gone.