Compulsive binge eaters
Replies
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I'm totally a compulsive eater. I'm also a compulsive exercieser, so I guess it evens out. Come to think of it, I'm compusive about sex, and shopping, and a whole lot of other behaviors too. So maybe it's not even about food, maybe it's more of an overarching lack of impulse control for me.0
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C'mon girls, this is my perspective:
You want fast weight loss and you have to reduce your food consumption too much, don't like to exercise much and try to get greedy, meaning that if you eat less and less then will lose your weight faster...
A word from a foodie, That's me!
I do not have binges because if I do, I eat, but in moderation!.
However, if i do eat the whole piece, then I know I will have to cut corners somewhere else or do some more cardio.
If you exercise, you can eat more without remorse.
Other advice: Surely you love a particular type of fruit. Have fruit in mid morning and mid afternoon and you will not be hungry!
Have a great breakfast and eat protein. You will not be hungry!
I have lady friends that don't have 100 cals at breakfast but at mid morning are so hungry that have 1000 cals snacks of junk food! Have a lovely breakfast with eggs, bread, marmelade. Find diet options if you like to eat more at breakfast and will have great days..
I love bread, I love pizza, hot dogs and burgers, but I eat them AT HOME cooked by wifey or me when we can CONTROL what you put into them.. the same pizza but half the cals...
Finally, the last option would be to lower your weight loss goals. Lose weight more solwly and you will not have problems.
Just have fun, relax, enjoy yourselves and enjoy food following the rules of your body!
I invite you to check at my food dairy and see for yourselves! Please enjoy this phase.. it's great and you will meet new friends.. Lose weight is easy if you follow the simple rules!0 -
I must admit, I do sometimes wonder if some personality types are more prone to binge eating behaviour.
For me, I have always been an all or nothing sort of person, and also the sort of person who wanted everything at once, perfection right away, no room for failure. If I am in a particular mode, and walk into a cafe or shop, I become overwhelmed by the sheer array of products for sale, and find I cannot just hone in on one item I really fancy above all others. I want to have it all in one go. There is no sort of thought of 'oh, I can have this today, and try that another time'. It is almost this sense of thinking it will all be gone the next day and there wont be another chance. Of time not being enough to fit everything in that I wish to. I am the same with other things as well. I find myself wanting to do multiple things each evening, but since there is limited time, obviously I cannot, so I end up just sticking to doing the same thing over and over.
Can anyone relate?
Anyway, please do add me, anyone else who struggles with periods of severe binge eating.
Sometimes I can pack away over 6k calories in a bad day.
YES! A million times yes! From start to finish you just described me. If I think I want a candy bar at the store, I can't choose one. Lord help me if they are on sale too! I'll just pick several and them all on the way home. Everything you just said is like a page from my own book.0 -
In your same boat girlfriend.0
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C'mon girls, this is my perspective:
You want fast weight loss and you have to reduce your food consumption too much, don't like to exercise much and try to get greedy, meaning that if you eat less and less then will lose your weight faster...
A word from a foodie, That's me!
I do not have binges because if I do, I eat, but in moderation!.
However, if i do eat the whole piece, then I know I will have to cut corners somewhere else or do some more cardio.
If you exercise, you can eat more without remorse.
Other advice: Surely you love a particular type of fruit. Have fruit in mid morning and mid afternoon and you will not be hungry!
Have a great breakfast and eat protein. You will not be hungry!
I have lady friends that don't have 100 cals at breakfast but at mid morning are so hungry that have 1000 cals snacks of junk food! Have a lovely breakfast with eggs, bread, marmelade. Find diet options if you like to eat more at breakfast and will have great days..
I love bread, I love pizza, hot dogs and burgers, but I eat them AT HOME cooked by wifey or me when we can CONTROL what you put into them.. the same pizza but half the cals...
Finally, the last option would be to lower your weight loss goals. Lose weight more solwly and you will not have problems.
Just have fun, relax, enjoy yourselves and enjoy food following the rules of your body!
I invite you to check at my food dairy and see for yourselves! Please enjoy this phase.. it's great and you will meet new friends.. Lose weight is easy if you follow the simple rules!
That is great advice, BUT when the diet becomes about something other than hunger, then theres trouble. Some folks are compulsive binge eaters driven by some unknown force. I made it through two days with no binges. However, that does not mean I am out of the woods. Each day is a new obstacle. We have to take it day by day, sometimes hour by hour. It's like an addiction.0 -
The words "binge" or "cheat meal" are not in my vocabulary anymore! You are in a restricted cal budget, not in a diet!
Ahh.. I forgot! If you think you really really want to go to Pizza Hut because you LOVE that pizza as I do, plan in advance! and say "OK, if I am going to eat that, then I will have to do this the rest of the day" and then you can do as you like and STILL lose weight!
Have a great day and please don't get mad at me, I just want you to feel great and happy!0 -
I went to an emotional eating workshop and one idea they gave was making a toolbox. Whenever you have an urge to eat, go get the box. Basically you are trying to change your behavior by at least acknowledging it. Are you sad, mad, etc? Some things you could put in are nail polish (hard to eat with wet nails), a journal to write down your emotions, an accountability buddy's phone number, strong mints or gum that give your taste buds something, uplifting quotes, a relaxing CD, pictures etc. I took up knitting and also finds it can distract from mindless eating.
I LOVE this idea! Thanks!0 -
Good luck you mastered the first step..you gave it a name. Hang in there
This is powerful. Good luck with your vices... we all have them. While you feel extremely out of control, you are actually in control and have more power than you believe. Learn what you need to arm yourself and approach it logically from an outsider's point of view. If you want to lose weight, it is a science experiment to see what works and what will not. Take notes. It helps remove the emotional aspect if you approach it with logic instead of anxiety and desperation.
Best of luck.0 -
The words "binge" or "cheat meal" are not in my vocabulary anymore! You are in a restricted cal budget, not in a diet!
Ahh.. I forgot! If you think you really really want to go to Pizza Hut because you LOVE that pizza as I do, plan in advance! and say "OK, if I am going to eat that, then I will have to do this the rest of the day" and then you can do as you like and STILL lose weight!
Have a great day and please don't get mad at me, I just want you to feel great and happy!
You are really not understanding what binge eating disorder is.
This is not to do with being on a diet.
It is usually an emotional driven disorder, and is not as simple as planning and moderation.0 -
I have BED and I would highly recommend the Overcoming Binge Eating book. I have tried OA but what worked best for me actually was seeing a real eating disorder counselor and then coming up with some strategies to overcome it. Honestly, the most significant way to ward off binges for me is to exercise and be active. It helps me deal with stress and excess energy in a positive way instead of self-medicating with food to the point where the food is controlling me from the moment I wake up til I go to bed (and I even night eat).0
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he name of the book is "Overcoming binge eating" by Dr Christopher fairburn0
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I have this same problem. If it's there I'll eat it. If it's not there, I'll find it.0
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Also, to the person who is talking about pizza hut, I agree with the person who says you don't understand what binge eating disorder is.
Many of us with BED have weight gain. However, in many cases bulimia (which I had first, but I have not purged in years) starts after dieting. It is a cycle of restriction and binges. Sure, there are times when I don't keep certain trigger foods at home. But the goal is to moderate your expectations of your own dietary rules. Often we binge because we either restricted or broke a rule and feel defeated. So if you can learn to eat pizza out of your home on special occasions, you have made a huge step.
One tool I also suggest is that if you feel a binge coming on, have a list of 20 things YOU LIKE TO DO. Not like clean the house or brush your teeth. Do those things you like instead! Dispel some of that uneasiness and restlessness. Also, spend more time pampering your body in other ways like taking baths with stuff you like, getting your nails done, buying a new outfit, etc. I don't know why, but it seems to help. There is an addiction model and a cognitive therapy model for this illness, and I prefer the cognitive therapy. I don't discount anyone who believes it's an addition though.0 -
I don't know if I said that but that's a great book. My counselor recommended it to me.0
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You are really not understanding what binge eating disorder is.
This is not to do with being on a diet.
It is usually an emotional driven disorder, and is not as simple as planning and moderation.
Look, it's not my life and I should not care, but many people feel guilty for eating what they like and then do not lose weight and get deep into guilt because they get obsessed with the forbidden thing..
I feel -perhaps wrongly- that is my obligation to help them overcome something that surely happened to me for years and almost cost me my life.
I had to be in a hospital bed about to die to understand that I had to take control of my life, and that sharing my misery was not enough for me.
I decided to change my perspective and then everything was easy.
That is why I want to share my experience with others... A positive perspective and these are my two cents...0 -
I must admit, I do sometimes wonder if some personality types are more prone to binge eating behaviour.
For me, I have always been an all or nothing sort of person, and also the sort of person who wanted everything at once, perfection right away, no room for failure. If I am in a particular mode, and walk into a cafe or shop, I become overwhelmed by the sheer array of products for sale, and find I cannot just hone in on one item I really fancy above all others. I want to have it all in one go. There is no sort of thought of 'oh, I can have this today, and try that another time'. It is almost this sense of thinking it will all be gone the next day and there wont be another chance. Of time not being enough to fit everything in that I wish to. I am the same with other things as well. I find myself wanting to do multiple things each evening, but since there is limited time, obviously I cannot, so I end up just sticking to doing the same thing over and over.
Can anyone relate?
Anyway, please do add me, anyone else who struggles with periods of severe binge eating.
Sometimes I can pack away over 6k calories in a bad day.
SAME HERE. i am the exact same way.0 -
Hunger has absolutely nothing to do with my binges. It's a different kind of monster.
I used to talk about being possessed and having no control, but one fateful day in September, I realized that I had been in control all along and was force-feeding myself on purpose. My payoff was that I got to focus my self-hatred on stuffing myself and take my attention off my freaking boring job and my son on drugs (<~ the worst stressor).
Realizing hasn't brought control, not yet anyway. But at least I don't think in terms of something uncontrollable that I am at the mercy of. I can see it's me, and I can try to divert my attention. Confronting my son has helped to some degree; at least I'm not stuffing all those suspicions down anymore.0 -
Yup....I can eat til I am so full I want to throw up....mostly fruits, veggies, nuts and dark chocolate....it sucks...and talking about it is the #1 best step to conquering this disorder.0
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Good luck you mastered the first step..you gave it a name. Hang in there
This is powerful. Good luck with your vices... we all have them. While you feel extremely out of control, you are actually in control and have more power than you believe. Learn what you need to arm yourself and approach it logically from an outsider's point of view. If you want to lose weight, it is a science experiment to see what works and what will not. Take notes. It helps remove the emotional aspect if you approach it with logic instead of anxiety and desperation.
Best of luck.
I am, like most of you, a compulsive overeater, or have BED. Long story short, I have tried all the strategies mentioned and read all the books. What I like about MFP is that it is allowing me to experience what the above quote describes.
"Anxiety and desperation" is what feeds my compulsion! I had a few bad days here and gained a few pounds and my reaction was to head off into a complete binge mentality. I do enter everything I eat in the food journal, even though I don't want to. Seeing it all in the food journal is giving me that "outsider looking in" perspective which is much less emotional. I am taking notes in the journal too, and that is helpful to getting away from my usual panic mode where I think "See, I am doing it again, this doesn't work either, nothing ever will and I just will be fat and unhealthy until I die". So, why not eat what I enjoy? And there I am, set up for another binge. I really like this detached attitude from which I am analyzing my eating patterns and I am not missing the desperation with which I am so very familiar. My friends here also keep repeating that it's for the long run that I am here and a short binge is not a big deal. Wow. That feels relaxing to hear!0 -
I suffer from horrible binge eating. I see my therapist every other week and he's a great help. I've been diagnosed with depression and all the medication has horrible weight gain for the first side effect. Not exactly what someone needs when they gorge themselves then hate themselves for not having control and gaining weight. I started taking St. John's Wort, 300mg, 3 times per day. I feel like it's helping with the depression, which in turns helps my eating disorder. My therapist said he can see a big difference in my countenance, too. I just wanted to mention this in case you feel like you should take the next step and add a medication. It's an herb, so it's natural. I'm still having binges, but they definitely are no where near as bad as they used to be. I used to hide food and eat and eat and eat until I wanted to throw up. Hugs to you for taking the first step of acknowledging your problem. I cried like a baby when I started talking to my therapist about it!0
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C'mon girls, this is my perspective:
You want fast weight loss and you have to reduce your food consumption too much, don't like to exercise much and try to get greedy, meaning that if you eat less and less then will lose your weight faster...
A word from a foodie, That's me!
I do not have binges because if I do, I eat, but in moderation!.
However, if i do eat the whole piece, then I know I will have to cut corners somewhere else or do some more cardio.
If you exercise, you can eat more without remorse.
Other advice: Surely you love a particular type of fruit. Have fruit in mid morning and mid afternoon and you will not be hungry!
Have a great breakfast and eat protein. You will not be hungry!
I have lady friends that don't have 100 cals at breakfast but at mid morning are so hungry that have 1000 cals snacks of junk food! Have a lovely breakfast with eggs, bread, marmelade. Find diet options if you like to eat more at breakfast and will have great days..
I love bread, I love pizza, hot dogs and burgers, but I eat them AT HOME cooked by wifey or me when we can CONTROL what you put into them.. the same pizza but half the cals...
Finally, the last option would be to lower your weight loss goals. Lose weight more solwly and you will not have problems.
Just have fun, relax, enjoy yourselves and enjoy food following the rules of your body!
I invite you to check at my food dairy and see for yourselves! Please enjoy this phase.. it's great and you will meet new friends.. Lose weight is easy if you follow the simple rules!
Errr... you are missing the point. People who aren't undereating or even trying to lose weight also have issues with binging. As earlier posters have mentioned, knowing what to eat does not solve the issue because it's a compulsion. Lastly, I really don't apreciate a man chiming in with a patronizing tone and the introduction, "c'mon girls."0 -
Errr... you are missing the point. People who aren't undereating or even trying to lose weight also have issues with binging. As earlier posters have mentioned, knowing what to eat does not solve the issue because it's a compulsion. Lastly, I really don't apreciate a man chiming in with a patronizing tone and the introduction, "c'mon girls."
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This is exactly what I was thinking. I just couldn't think of a nice way to say it. I find that wether or not I like a food has no bearing here. I have gorged on things were honestly terrible. I remember baking a cake once that turned out terrible. It was gummy and gross. (my oven was not getting hot enough it turned out. Had to get it repaired.) But I ate that gummy, gross, cake anyway! It was just THERE. So down the hatch! Baked a second cake, (still unaware of the oven temp issue) same problem, so guess what! OM NOM NOM NOM! Ate the gross, unfit for consumption mass that was supposed to be cake. It goes beyond just eating what we like. But even so, that food we like may just be healthy. I have packed in the veggies and fruits just as much as the cookies and cake. A binge is a binge no matter what the food is, or how much you like it.0
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