Do well for a while then sabotage with BINGE EATING

This can happen to me for 2 reasons.

1. If im craving really high fat foods, it means I hadn't been eating enough. This happened somewhere near the beginning of my plan, and I increased my daily calorie intake to prevent weekly binges.

2. if I'm craving carby or sugary foods, I'm eating too many carbs. Lowered carbs and cravings curbed.

Your not alone, I am doing this too and its not pretty, serves no purpose and doesn't make me feel any better! I'm heading out to the gym soon because sitting here and eating is not going to make it any easier on me in the long run! I suggest you just start each day well and literally take each day at a time.

I'm starting to accept that I will slip up from time to time but I'm most definitely not going to give up. It will take me longer than people with more will power than me but I wont give up.

I would just say to you to just keep trying to eat well and hopefully it will start to fall into place.

Edit to add that I have also upped my cals, because I think that maybe I was not eating enough to fuel my workouts and my new weight lifting programme. Maybe this is an idea for you also. Good Luck!

a lot of bingeing can be avoided by not undereating in the first place. If you aim for slow and steady fat loss and focus on feeding your body properly, most people can avoid bingeing.

Some bingeing is psychologically based, and if someone suffers from that, then therapy may help, but IMO you need to rule out undereating as a cause, because bingeing in response to undereating is a normal survival response and the way to stop it happening is not trigger it in the first place, i.e. eat properly. Binge eating that only happens when you're on a diet or trying to restrict calories is nearly always the direct result of undereating. Psychological binge eating tends to be triggered by your mood or things that happen and still happens even when the person is eating well or overeating.

If you need to check whether you're eating enough or not, go to the "in place of a road map" thread.

Also, being stricter and/or restricting calories more in response to bingeing generally makes it worse, because usually it's caused by restricting food too much in the first place... restricting it even more is just asking for it to happen again.

I think a lot of people do the same. I used to overeat whenever I got upset about something, but I've learned to control it better, and now binge out once a month or so instead of once a week.

Try not to keep high calorie food in the house, so it's harder to reach for it at those times... noone wants to binge on stuff they have to cook from scratch or tins of kidney beans :-)

So here's my experience:

I decided that the best way for me to stay clean was to make it a goal to last till my cheat day and would cycle through that in 1 -1.5 week intervals... well when I got to that cheat day I felt as if I had the OBLIGATION to cheat as much as possible knowing it would be a while since I'd get any sort of sweets afterwards... This led to MAJOR binges of STUFFING my face with ice cream and cake and IMMENSE GUILT. I could not handle it mentally.

So instead, I would break and eat a sweet snack during my diet and feel ashamed for a bit and that shame would make me WANT to stay away from sweets for the next couple days, then I'd break for a tiny snack (i'm talking like 10 chocolate chips that i might use for baking occasions) and I'd feel guilty and stay 100% clean for the next couple of days. Well when i go like this I found that I could go for much longer without feeling the need for a cheat day. Not only that but when I got to my cheat day I'd remember the shame from those few occasional breaks and really control what I ate throughout my cheat day. Then by the next day I just told myself, it's over, that's it, no more cheat day, back to the diet, lost your chance for that thing you want right now.

It's great. So now even when I'm dieting, if I've been real good I might take just a really small spoon out of the ice cream. Helps me stay clean!

I do this too! I'm a boredom and stress eater and I can go for a while on a diet and then suddenly i just want to stuff my face! Normally it's sugary foods...chocolate, biscuits...I could eat an entire packet of Bourbon Biscuits given half a chance with a sugary cup of tea!

I get up and walk around the house when I'm about to gorge myself on food. Go up to the bedroom and look out of the window for a bit, or stand in the garden, or probably even easier if you can manage it is to not purchase anything you are likely to binge on. Works fine if you live alone but if you have a family or house mates it's not that simple granted.

Or use the blog on here?? You could do that? I've just thought of that, so I might try it myself next time I'm on the verge of a binge.

Important to address - why do you binge?

Many of us on this site have the same problem - but we may have different reasons.

Are you eating too little or eating empty foods that don't satisfy you? Are you eating infrequently so you are starving by your next meal? If so, take a look at how many calories you regularly consume. Considering increasing it gradually - while staying under maintenance cals. Look at the composition of your food. Do you get enough fat, protein, and fiber? Are you drinking enough water? Consider eating more meals of fewer calories. I eat every three hours so that I never feel starving.

Is it emotional? Do your binges happen when you are bored or stressed? I eat to avoid dealing with my real issues. After I've eaten that large combo, I can feel crappy about having eaten that large combo instead of what is really bugging me. Find your emotional triggers and proactively do something else. Had a rough day? Schedule a pedicure with a friend. Go to a yoga class. Hit and kick stuff in a martial arts course. Bored? Take up photography. Or cycling. Or line dancing. Or volunteer with a local non-profit.

I'm getting better - but some days I still need to just EAT. I try to make my binges less harmful. I'll make homemade sweet potato chips. Tons of salt and then I dip them in Sriratcha. WAY over my daily sodium limit and sometimes over on cals - but it keeps me from eating the whole bag (or two) of store bought fried chips.

I'm not perfect. I still have crap days. But by finding my triggers, I binge less frequently.

I have always been a "big eater" snacking and seconds although I do not have a very sweet tooth, I can munch through biscuits and ice cream.

The success that I had this time in losing is not to make any food "banned" If it is off limits then I crave it. If I build in snacks I find it helps keeps me on track. If the road you are trying to walk is very narrow then you are going to fall off the path. If you make the path wider then easier to stay on track.

Don't be too hard on yourself, you just need a 500 cal deficit from maintenance. You can find room in that for the odd drink, even treats.

Relax, this is the long haul not a sprint.

I hear you. That was a HUGE challenge for me in the beginning. I still battle it, but it is a battle that I am winning more and more.
I am a big sugar fan. Cake, cookies, candy, etc. I could eat it for every meal, and for every snack.
However, transitioning into this new lifestyle, I have made some adjustments.
I eat more during the day. When I first started off, I had to have some kind of fruit, a lot more than veggies, at every meal, and snack. Yes, fruit does tend to carry a lot of sugar. But it was better for me than that Snickers bar. AND it also helped to curb my sugar craving.(Kind of a mind trick) It took about a month, but I am to the point now where I really do not crave sweets anymore. I am satisfied with lean protiens and VEGGIES!! And when I do eat a treat, it is not as satisfying as it once was.
Hang in there. You cannot change your eating habits overnight. I agree with previous responses to not beat yourself up about it. We ALL struggle with it. One day is NOT going to derail your progress. Just be sure to log it and review it. You will binge less as time goes on. And then when you do have days when you treat yourself and have a "5000 calorie day", you will be able to move past it and pick up where you left off without feeling the guilt. You cannot deprive yourself of what you want. Just have to learn how to enjoy it in moderation. It is a learning experience. Your going to do just great!

I used to do this to myself ALL the time. So I stopped restricting myself with "diets" as far as low carb, low fat, don't eat this...etc and now I don't have issues with mental or physical cravings to sabotage myself.

It's easier to plan into your calorie budget whatever you want to eat if you aren't denying yourself entire food groups. Don't beat yourself up about it though...just track and start fresh.

QFT! Great post!

I was like this. Now im back on track for the last 3 days and Im not going to binge (I had 3 cookies earlier and thats it) I set myself a goal of if I lose 7lbs I get new make up, another 7lbs and I get some make up brushes iv been after for ages. So Im rewarding myself for sticking to my goals and not going crazy! maybe make a goal of no binging for a week or a certain time and you get a treat?

Yesterday I was in tears about exactly this and feeling like there really MUST be something wrong with me but now I have read this(and I know it sounds cliche) but It's really good to know I'm not the only one. I've been doing this for about a year now and I feel like I'm in this constant cycle of doing well for a few days and then bingeing in a big way. I'll even eat in secret so my family can't comment on how much I'm eating - ultimately that would just make me want to eat more! I don't crave anything in particular, just whatever is there to eat - sweets, biscuits, crips, toast, ice-cream, cereal, but as soon as I start it takes me a day or two to stop and start the healthy eating again!
Being fairly new to MFP I was really proud to post up that I had lost 8lb - then this weekend I managed to gain 4lb back again. I know this will come off fairly quickly but to me that's not the point. I don't starve myself when I'm 'dieting' it's just because it's 'there' that I eat it.

Ok - so moan over (sorry) I'm determined that I will not do this to myself anymore. If any of you fancy adding me, maybe we could help each other out if we ever feel the urge to binge again....

Binge eating gets progressively worse. You should look into OA. It's very focused on treated binge eating, and it's very helpful. This is not something that's easy to just get over through sheer willpower in your own. Having some support and the insight of others is SOOOOO helpful. Without meaningful intervention, this behavior is likely to just keep coming back again and again.

The biggest thing for me has been taking it out of the realm of a food issue or a body image issue, and realizing it's more of a whole person issue, and that more than anything I need learn how to just cope with life better-- then the food stuff sort of corrects itself.