Buying binge food

ForRainyDays
ForRainyDays Posts: 9 Member
in Food and Nutrition
In the past, I have had problems binging on peanut butter, all types of nuts, and dried fruit, ESPECIALLY dried dates. And when mixed together, binges come in the form of granola bars. Like 10+. Because of this, my family kindly stopped buying nuts and dried fruit, except peanut butter, but I seem to have stopped binging on that at least (I don't know how that happened). My binges have caused great stress for my family...I am going off to university in September, and I really do not want to waste my last 2 months arguing with my family.

But my binge-eating had been getting better... However, my dad had been sneaking in dried dates in his room, and I found them by accident when I was searching for the camera. I was just going to have 1, then that became 50 (no joke...) and from then on, it was just a downward spiral.

• 3 sausages
• 1 Second Cup white chocolate macadamia cookie (bought)
• 2 Quaker oatmeal raisin cookies (bought)
• 2 vending machine cookies (bought)
• 1 Cadbury milk chocolate almond bar (bought)
• 8 honey granola bars (bought at night)
• 1 small McDonald French fries (bought at night)
• 5 pieces of garlic bread
• 2 cups spaghetti with anything on them...what was I thinking

And you know how crazy that is? I'm not even tall. I'm 5"1 bordering on 5"2. Yeah. Now all of that is going to stick to my butt and my thighs. My body shape is horrible! My arms are slim and my legs are huge, so I look quite poorly proportioned.

The reason I wrote "bought" was because this was the FIRST time I had ever gone out of my way to buy binge-food. And that is what scares me. I have always seen posts of what worked for others, where they would simply stop leaving trigger foods in the home (that's why my parents USUALLY didn't keep nuts and dried fruit in the house) but what happens when you reach a point where you can't prevent yourself from buying binge food? :/

I'm sure this is a mental issue more than anything, so any physical preventation I can think of will not work, right?

Any feedback would be great appreciated! :smile:

Replies

  • MoRiv1986
    MoRiv1986 Posts: 379 Member
    I'm not understanding. Did you eat all of this in a day?
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    See a therapist.
  • V87sarah
    V87sarah Posts: 1
    Hi, I can def relate. I hadnt binged in two years then in May I fell back into it. My main bingefood is pb too!
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
    bingeing isn't always a psychological problem. It is a survival response. For some people it is purely psychological, however in anyone, if you are deprived of sufficient nutrition - either certain specific nutrients, or not eating enough generally, that can cause binge eating.

    This is a basic survival response - our evolutionary ancestors had no idea what a healthy diet was or how much they should eat in a day. If they weren't getting enough of something, then they found food that was high in whatever they weren't getting enough of (or any food if they weren't getting enough overall) then they'd get the urge to keep eating it until it was all gone, i.e. bingeing on it. This addressed the nutritional deficiency, and prevented them from starving to death. We've inherited the same survival response. Deprive your body of nutrition that it needs, and you will end up fighting the urge to binge on the very foods that you're depriving yourself of.

    If nuts are a binge trigger food then are you getting enough healthy fat? Lack of healthy fat is a common culprit for this, because the body *needs fat* and many people when they want to lose weight, the first thing they do is cut fat out of their diet. This is a bad move, you need to include adequate amounts of healthy fat in the diet. Fat contains essential fatty acids and fat soluble vitamins. You don't get enough of these from consuming only low fat foods. You need foods that contain these, such as avocado, nuts, egg yolks, full fat dairy. Fat does not make you fat, eating too many calories makes you fat, so you must include healthy fat in your diet.

    Also, are you eating enough generally? All the foods you list are high in carbs or fat and many of them contain vitamins and are actually quite nutritious... are you eating enough to fuel your body properly? As in enough calories overall? Also, are you denying yourself enough carbohydrate? Your body needs it for energy. Granola bars contain B vitamins, are you getting enough of those?

    If it is purely a psychological issue, i.e you're certain that you're getting enough of everything your body needs and are not undereating, but these are still binge trigger foods for you then counselling may help, as there will be some psychological issue underpinning this if it's not purely a survival response to eating too little/an inadequate diet. Also tell your family to hide those foods somewhere else. And you need to not go looking for them, and avoid going through your family's stuff. It sounds like they are being really supportive by hiding these foods from you, and you can't expect the whole family to give them up. They're not leaving them in your face, they're hiding them from you, so they obviously do care and want to help.
  • SmartDataGirl
    SmartDataGirl Posts: 10 Member
    Heck I splurged for 2 days in a row - and I know the feeling of what you are doing. The problem is that you aren't splurging on the right kind of food. If you splurge, you have to make sure that
    -you have a little bit of room to splurge, lets say 200 calories
    -eat something like pig out on light soup, vegetables, and heavy fruit like watermelon, or something like strawberries or raspberries.
    -you must drink ALOT of water... like 2 glasses full before splurging

    What I see is that you splurge probably b/c you really love fattening stuff like chocolate, nuts, sugar, and bread. Honestly, I LOVE that stuff too, but limit yourself. eat 3 300 calorie meals, 2 100 calorie snacks. Basically for your snacks, snack 1 should be: 1 clif bar z honey graham bar, or 10 cashews. Snack 2: a slice of watermelon, or 10 slices of apples, or even 6 slices of apples and 1 block (one chocolate square) of cadbury chocolate.

    Stick to this and what the others say... just balance out your calories for your meals (avoid cakes like donuts/muffins for breakfast, and eat something like a fried egg with some toast).
  • ForRainyDays
    ForRainyDays Posts: 9 Member
    Yeah, in one day :/
  • ForRainyDays
    ForRainyDays Posts: 9 Member
    I am going to see one on Thursday, actually! I hope it is helpful, but I believe it is mostly something I need to fix myself.
  • ForRainyDays
    ForRainyDays Posts: 9 Member
    I think you're right that I am restricting on certain foods (cookies, junk food, etc) because I want to eat more heathily. That could certainly lead to me binging on those foods right? But I don't know how to re-introduce the healthier high-fat foods like nuts...and what's the reason for my sugar binges? (dates)

    Thanks for replying everyone!
  • loulou16459
    loulou16459 Posts: 9
    binge eating is terrible i struggle with it often.
    it all sstarted after i recovered from anorexia
    now im just huge and fat
  • janimei
    janimei Posts: 105 Member
    I have a list of 10 binge food I could have if I wanted them, with the acceptable binge amounts. Having the list, with the implied permission, helps keep me from bingeing most of the time.

    In the past 4 months I have exceeded 3000 calories 4 times (3 days when I had 4 to 7 KIND bars, all of the low-sugar variety). Since I joined MFP, I haven't exceeded 5000 calories in a day.

    The other two overeating events were restaurant meals of healthy foods but large amounts (big salad, veggies with melted butter, big hunk of steak, and fruit bowl, with a glass of wine and coffee with cream).

    I look at my progress report graph and see so many days when I did well, that it keeps me from being too hard on myself and then punishing myself with more bad behavior.

    When I'm logged onto MFP, I'm thinking of food, but in a different, healthier way.
  • peacepropaganda
    peacepropaganda Posts: 2
    I binge like 3 days a week. But when I do it's on 1/2 cup Greek nonfat yogurt w/ 2 mashed banana and 2tbsp natural chunky no salt added peanut butter. If I still want more, I eat large fruit until I can't eat anymore. However it's never more than 600 cal usually. But most my day I eat 4 servings veggies and the rest is eggs tuna and chicken.

    I like at add into my diary what is like to eat, and it helps me not to do so. Because my macros are way off and it's usually over by 3-4000 calories. I make sure I stay at 2200-2500 a day max. Stating busy, eating every 2 hours between 200-400 calories chewing gum, and only allowing myself to eat fruit/yogurt when I "binge" helps.
  • MadDogManor
    MadDogManor Posts: 1,530 Member
    I have a list of 10 binge food I could have if I wanted them, with the acceptable binge amounts. Having the list, with the implied permission, helps keep me from bingeing most of the time.



    I like this strategy - I may implement this.
  • ekat120
    ekat120 Posts: 407 Member
    I used to binge on things like that and still have to be careful about keeping some things, like granola bars, around in large quantities. Nuts and dried fruit I'm better with now though. Two things that really helped me:

    Geneen Roth's book, "When You Eat at the Refrigerator, Pull Up a Chair" I really identified with what she said about feeling "insatiable" on a fundamental level, not just with food but also with love, etc. The underlying belief that if you had everything you wanted, you would consume the world. Still struggle with that, but at least now I recognize it for what it is.

    Logging everything, even (especially) when I binged and didn't want to know how much I'd eaten.

    Also, be sure you're eating enough and a well-rounded diet. I tipped from what I would consider compulsive overeating to binging when I became a vegan while eaten at the dorms in college. It was really hard for me to get enough to eat from what the cafeteria provided, and I think that's when the switch flipped all the way over.

    And give yourself time. The problem didn't develop overnight, and it won't be solved overnight. Most of the improvements I've seen in myself have been over years, not weeks or even months. Progress is slow and nonlinear.

    Good luck at your therapist appointment!
  • skyekeeper
    skyekeeper Posts: 286 Member
    bump

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