On binging...

BoxerBrawler
BoxerBrawler Posts: 2,032 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
My own personal thoughts. Maybe it can help someone, maybe not, just my own view on it.

The bottom line is the urge to binge is caused by not eating enough calories throughout the day. Another fact is that when a binge occurs, it never really truly satisfies does it? Nope, just makes the person who binges feel bloated and guilty for a while before getting back into the cycle of restricting and binging. Binging is not going to make you feel better, it is not going to "fix" the deficit that you created for yourself. The only way to avoid this is to increase the number of calories you're eating in a day. If you are in this situation may I suggest taking some baby steps in the right direction e.g., increase your calories by 50 for a day, and another 50 the next day or two days later, and so on...

When your body is screaming for calories there is little you can do to trick yourself into not eating everything in sight. You might be able to do this for a while but sooner or later you will have to give in.

In the meantime, the next time you feel a binge coming on, give yourself permission to binge in ten minutes. When ten minutes goes by, give yourself permission to binge in another five or ten minutes or so... this might help to avoid the binge or the guilt associated with it.

Replies

  • fruitikay
    fruitikay Posts: 12 Member
    One thing that always helps me is not having the "binging" foods in the house. I'm less likely to binge on broccoli than I am to binge on chips or cookies or something. It's harder when you live with other people or share food, but if all you have to eat is healthy things, it makes it harder binge. But increasing calories and allowing more healthy snacks in the diet can definitely help the urge to binge. The reason why we binge happens a lot when we are ravenously hungy, and we are hungry for a reason, because we haven't eaten enough. :)
  • Anilynlm
    Anilynlm Posts: 18 Member
    There are emotional reasons for bingeing too. It's not always just about calories.
  • BoxerBrawler
    BoxerBrawler Posts: 2,032 Member
    There are emotional reasons for binging too. It's not always just about calories.

    Absolutely! I totally agree with that. There are a lot of reasons for binges but I find the most common one is not having enough calories to begin with. I have actually never binged before but I have had times where I just eat and/or pick on stuff almost mindlessly for long periods of time... like a slow binge maybe? I don't think I've ever gone over a few hundred calories and I read that a binge could be up to several thousand in a sitting? Anyway...
  • llaurenmarie
    llaurenmarie Posts: 1,260 Member
    There are emotional reasons for binging too. It's not always just about calories.

    Absolutely! I totally agree with that. There are a lot of reasons for binges but I find the most common one is not having enough calories to begin with. I have actually never binged before but I have had times where I just eat and/or pick on stuff almost mindlessly for long periods of time... like a slow binge maybe? I don't think I've ever gone over a few hundred calories and I read that a binge could be up to several thousand in a sitting? Anyway...
    I think you're underestimating the definition of a binge. A true unintentional binge has nothing to do with calories, It's wanting to fill voids other than your stomach.
  • FFfitgirl
    FFfitgirl Posts: 369 Member
    I eat over 2000 cals a day and have. Binges.
    Not the type that I ate to many cookies, the type of that of an eating disorder
  • sarzo14
    sarzo14 Posts: 35 Member
    You don't have a good understanding of what binge eating is. It's an eating dissorder and you can't help but eat and eat and eat, even though you are full and can't breathe anymore you are still eating. I've had problems with binge eating for the past few years, but I've managed to overcome it and the small binges that happen (with to much cookies or to much chocolate) don't bother me, until it's not the real binges I used to have. It's not about to few calories at all ;)
  • EvanElric
    EvanElric Posts: 34
    I also think binging has a lot to do with lack of variety in a persons diet. If you're eating the same thing day in and day out you're bound to start craving something. Then when you finally let yourself indulge, you try and get in as much as you can because you know you're not going to get another chance for a while..
  • Nouurann
    Nouurann Posts: 183 Member
    I binged when I ate 1,200, 1,500, 1,800 and 2,300 calories a day. 2,300 was a surplus, by the way. So it's not about calories all the time. For me it had most to do with the constant pressure of calorie counting. Even if I was eating a lot, knowing that I was still restricted by numbers whether it be at 1,200 calories. Or 2,300 calories a day for an extended period of time led me to binge.
  • dottyb1tchmouse
    dottyb1tchmouse Posts: 31 Member
    I have actually never binged before but I have had times where I just eat and/or pick on stuff almost mindlessly for long periods of time... like a slow binge maybe?

    That's what I do. It mostly happens when I don't have enough going on with my day and I'm just sitting at home obsessing over my calorie limit and planning my next meal.

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