Binge Eating: HELP

Do you know what happens immediately before you binge? Do you what triggers this is there a pattern? Have you considered doing some journaling, not just about food but what you are feeling and thinking and times, circumstances?

I was a binge eater for a long time and honestly, the only thing that helped was to "stop" trying to diet. After I went for a few weeks allowing myself to eat what I wanted throughout the day without worrying about it I A) only gained like 2 lbs and when I went back to eating on a "diet" (not really a diet) I just made some healthier choices and included unhealthy choices. I don't tell myself no ever. I tell myself, "just eat some". So instead of maybe eating 4 pieces of cake and a box of pizza in one sitting, Maybe during the week I'll have a piece of cake and some pizza, maybe some truffles and a chocolate bar or something spread throughout the week. This way of eating has really helped a lot, and helped with my weight yoyoing. Now I'm back to steadily losing weight, and I don't feel angry at myself when I eat something bad because its "allowed"

When you go for your walks in a morning, are you having breakfast? If not, it's kind of essential to have breakfast. If you exercise with no fuel, you'll run out of energy, and start to get headaches, cravings, etc.

Have breakfast, do your workout, have something after your work out, then continue with your daily routine. My point is, eat often, don't let yourself feel hungry. If you're not hungry, you won't feel the need to binge.

I personally always have fruit on hand if I get hungry, it's a quick, healthy and convenient thing to snack on.

Good luck!

I am also a binge eater and I find it takes a lot of willpower to tell myself to stop or to not even start. There's nothing worse than that feeling of being out of control. I haven't found any real solution to it other than therapy or confronting the reason why you're eating. Sometimes, even if you don't think so, there's an underlying reason.

Feel free to add me as a friend. I'm very supportive.

I also struggle with binge eating and often feel ashamed of myself. I find it helps to avoid any "trigger" foods to begin with. There are certain foods I just can't have around me. For example, I can't buy a loaf of bread from the bakery because I will eat the entire thing by myself, sometimes in just one day.

It also helps to be completely honest when logging the stuff I eat. I keep my diary open, and I've had a couple of days this past week where I went over by more than 1,500 calories. I'm embarrassed for my friends to see what I eat, but I also feel I need to be truthful with myself. I need to be accountable for what goes in my mouth. Sometimes during a binge, I lose track of all the food I consume. This is my on-going struggle, but I'm way better off now than I was before I started MFP seven months ago.

Feel free to add me as a friend.

I also struggle with binge eating and often feel ashamed of myself. I find it helps to avoid any "trigger" foods to begin with. There are certain foods I just can't have around me. For example, I can't buy a loaf of bread from the bakery because I will eat the entire thing by myself, sometimes in just one day.

It also helps to be completely honest when logging the stuff I eat. I keep my diary open, and I've had a couple of days this past week where I went over by more than 1,500 calories. I'm embarrassed for my friends to see what I eat, but I also feel I need to be truthful with myself. I need to be accountable for what goes in my mouth. Sometimes during a binge, I lose track of all the food I consume. This is my on-going struggle, but I'm way better off now than I was before I started MFP seven months ago.

Feel free to add me as a friend.

Spot on with the recommendation about not buying the loaf of bread. Up until my husband (then boyfriend) moved in, I didn't have ANY crap in the house unless someone was coming to visit. I kept lots of fruit handy and "binged" on that. I also second the part about letting go a little bit with the intense tracking. Calling attention to it sometimes makes it worse. I "gave up" logging my food "for Lent" to see if I could do it. (That's not meant to be insulting to Catholics... It was just a concept I could wrap my head around and it worked. I didn't gain 40 lbs. I didn't even really gain 4 and learned to trust myself a little more...)

I agree with tracking your mood too. I actually set up the "Weigh In" part of MFP to track my mood, how rested I feel, and how many hours sleep I got on a scale of 1 - 10. Each time I go into it, I put in 0 for all values first to reset if from the previous day's values (0, tab key, 0, tab key) and try not to look at the values that were there. I've learned that the days that I'm less rested or got the least amount of sleep are usually the more difficult days...

I've also found that drinking water helps a lot too. If you have a bottle with markings on it (22 ounces / 200 mL) and keep track of making sure you get your water in, it helps you shift your focus and keeps you feeling fuller, longer. That and if you're drinking enough water, the extra time you'd have to binge is spent getting rid of the water.