HELP! Why do I binge eat, and how can I stop?

hereandback
hereandback Posts: 2
in Food and Nutrition
I binge about 3-4 times per week. About 4000 calories each day.
On other days I eat a good amount, my maintenance - which is 1400ish.
I don't restrict during the day, I eat what I want.
I eat very healthy, am pretty plant-based. My macros are good, get my iron/calcium, etc.
I've tried staggering my meals, eating every couple hours - I still binge.

Am I lacking a vitamin?
Could it be an allergy? Gluten? Soy? A stomach problem?

Replies

  • JessG11
    JessG11 Posts: 345 Member
    Whether it be a physical issue, or a mental/emotional issue, if you are binge eating like this and unable to understand why, talk to a counselor and your doctor. I had similar habits and I tried to change them. Over the past two years I have been diagnosed with thyroid issues and some deficiencies which caused me to have no energy which I would also binge on certain foods then because I wanted that energy. Once I got those issues corrected, or still do with meds, I realized I also had some pretty hardcore issues with anxiety and I would binge eat when stressed which was often. For sure seek some assistance and support! OA has some great resources too. I have a friend on my friends list who knows a lot about that end of it.
  • JessG11
    JessG11 Posts: 345 Member
    I just copied and pasted this from her page. She just posted this:

    From a "For Today" newsletter from OA. This is good. Written by a gal from England. A list of things to say to yourself when you feel like bingeing! Here's the link if you want to read the whole newsletter, it's really good: http://www.oa.org/pdfs/Lifeline_Mar12.pdf "• Choose life, not food. • Bingeing—Stop! • You’re worth more. • It doesn’t fix me—it makes me unhappy. • It makes my life unmanageable. • It messes up my life. • It takes away my happiness. • Don’t do it! • Bingeing takes away from me. • It steals from me. • It produces sadness, fatigue and confused thinking. • If you put rubbish in, you get rubbish out! • Concentrate on your relationship with manageability, with your feelings. • If you indulge, it will take away your shine. • Concentrate on what you’re building; every time you say “no,” you grow stronger and shinier. • Bingeing and overeating steal from you. • They take away recovery and replace it with dis-ease. • Work through the feelings you have now, do your food plan, call your sponsor, read some OA literature, do your morning readings, call a newcomer and pray . . . • Work through the sadness and unmanageability, stay focused, get back on track by reaching out, use the OA Fellowship and be honest. • You are a compulsive overeater. • Go through the darkness. • It’s not about weight. • Realize freedom exists at the end of this difficult time. • Go to any lengths to not binge or overeat. • When the madness comes, read this: It gets worse. • The manageable life God has given you will slip away if you choose food. Choose life!! The cravings will pass. I can do this, one day at a time. Today I can abstain from compulsive overeating."
  • _myrahhh
    _myrahhh Posts: 15
    Most of the times, binge eating is emotional. Pay attention to what you want to binge eat, how it makes you feel while you eat and then how you feel afterwards. I have struggled with binge eating all my life. I get an endorphin rush when I eat sweet or salty foods. I ended up replacing bad foods with fruits and rice cakes.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,050 Member
    A HABITUAL result due to not changing it. Many will state that it's due to stress, but lean people go through stress too. Some turn to drugs or alcohol. So to change the habit, one needs to come up with a more constructive one. For many of my clients, it was exercise.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • JessG11
    JessG11 Posts: 345 Member
    A HABITUAL result due to not changing it. Many will state that it's due to stress, but lean people go through stress too. Some turn to drugs or alcohol. So to change the habit, one needs to come up with a more constructive one. For many of my clients, it was exercise.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

    And people who are not lean have stress and do not deal with emotional eating. But before I take anything you've posted out of context, are you saying that people don't self medicate (with food) emotional distress (high anxiety) as well? Things get so mixed up on these forums I like to be sure.

    ETA: Are you also saying that people who use alcohol and drugs just need to change their habits such as exercise instead? I just want to understand your comment better. No negative intended.
  • _myrahhh
    _myrahhh Posts: 15
    Well, anxiety and stress are only few of the triggers for binge eating. Happiness, being bored & depression are also triggers. Which is why it's good to keep track of everything you feel when you binge eat.

    While replacing it with exercise might lead to a positive result, it's better to find what's triggering it so you don't relapse. Food is an addiction.
  • JessG11
    JessG11 Posts: 345 Member
    Well, anxiety and stress are only few of the triggers for binge eating. Happiness, being bored & depression are also triggers. Which is why it's good to keep track of everything you feel when you binge eat.

    While replacing it with exercise might lead to a positive result, it's better to find what's triggering it so you don't relapse. Food is an addiction.

    Yes there is a reason for these behaviors beyond just a habit. OP, you could very easily have a binge eating disorder. I encourage you to talk to someone about it!
  • Slacker16
    Slacker16 Posts: 1,184 Member
    I binge about 3-4 times per week. About 4000 calories each day.
    On other days I eat a good amount, my maintenance - which is 1400ish.

    (...)

    Am I lacking a vitamin?
    Could it be an allergy? Gluten? Soy? A stomach problem?
    No one can tell you much about vitamins or allergies unless you open your diary... All I can say is that 1400 seems rather low, are you sure it's your maintenance?

    Binge eating is often emotionally driven. Have you noticed any emotional triggers when you binge?
  • kuolo
    kuolo Posts: 251 Member
    It could be lots of things. Are you a healthy weight? Being underweight can cause your body to urge you to binge.
    Do you have a history of restricting food? This can cause a binge reaction.
    Your 1400 cals for maintenance makes me suspicious it is one of these two things.

    Yes, it can just be habit, if you do it for long enough. You can crave a binge for its own sake - if you think it's this try reading Brain Over Binge.

    I'm more inclined to go down the habitual/biological route than there having to be an emotional reason, but that's my personal opinion. Unless you are obviously stress/emotional eating (which you will know if you are, and I think is actually a slightly different thing to full-on binge eating disorder), don't feel you have to spend years looking for the emotional reason. Others will disagree on this one but everyone is different; I know when I have binged it was originally biological, from restricting and being underweight, then it became a kind of addiction. (I'm not going to get into this debate). I never binged for emotional reasons. I could use emotions as an excuse to give into the urge, but they were not the cause of the urge. Craving a binge was the cause of the urge.

    Certain foods make me more likely to have an urge to binge, which you might also find; I choose to avoid problem foods, and minimise my sugar intake. Other people say that moderation not avoidance is key. Again, it's personal.

    But no-one else can really tell you why you binge.
  • moondazed
    moondazed Posts: 73 Member
    I have struggled with emotional binge eating for almost my entire life. I became so dependant on food that when feeling upset/stressed/anxious, I would grab as much food as I could and stuff it in my face for hours! oh how the calories would so easily build up.... I found that I used food as a mechanism for my body to feel something other than "emptiness" or sadness. The same way people (myself included) would abuse other things like drugs or self harm, ect..
    I found the only way I have been able to get over it was to get on anti depressant medication. It's so odd, but ever since I've started taking it two weeks ago my want to binge has completely diminished. It's really amazing how much better I feel over all without all of that unnecessary food inside me, and my mind.

    So, I suppose you should look into finding your triggers and why you are binge eating! If it's emotional, seek professional help.

    If it's simply a habit you can't seem to shake, I would recommend practising meditation. I find that once you become more mindful of your body and food, it's a lot easier to stop abusing them. Also perhaps your intake is not balanced enough, and you are not getting enough protein/fat/ect... maybe playing around with your meals would help too.

    There are so many things that could cause someone to binge, and so it is really hard to pinpoint exactly and tell you why you do it. Despite everything, I would talk to your doctor or a nutritional about it and hopefully they can give you some insight!
  • hereandback
    hereandback Posts: 2
    It could be lots of things. Are you a healthy weight? Being underweight can cause your body to urge you to binge.
    Do you have a history of restricting food? This can cause a binge reaction.
    Your 1400 cals for maintenance makes me suspicious it is one of these two things.

    Yes, it can just be habit, if you do it for long enough. You can crave a binge for its own sake - if you think it's this try reading Brain Over Binge.

    I'm more inclined to go down the habitual/biological route than there having to be an emotional reason, but that's my personal opinion. Unless you are obviously stress/emotional eating (which you will know if you are, and I think is actually a slightly different thing to full-on binge eating disorder), don't feel you have to spend years looking for the emotional reason. Others will disagree on this one but everyone is different; I know when I have binged it was originally biological, from restricting and being underweight, then it became a kind of addiction. (I'm not going to get into this debate). I never binged for emotional reasons. I could use emotions as an excuse to give into the urge, but they were not the cause of the urge. Craving a binge was the cause of the urge.

    Certain foods make me more likely to have an urge to binge, which you might also find; I choose to avoid problem foods, and minimise my sugar intake. Other people say that moderation not avoidance is key. Again, it's personal.

    But no-one else can really tell you why you binge.
    Thanks for this post! Do you have any advice? Do you binge anymore? I don't do it as an emotional response really. I don't think I really do it when I'm bored either. I can have a fine, perfect day and binge.

    I am going to really get into exercise and see if that helps.

Categories