how do you stop binging?

I too binge. There are a lot of reasons stress, boredom, sadness and once I start I can't stop. If I stay busy I do much better. I wish I had an answer for all of. Just know you aren't alone and if you find a solution, I am listening.

It depends, when I binged on clif bars I was dying. But today I've been okay and i'm not sure why. I do think that my body is hungry but I can't help but beat myself up. I'm in fear of gaining because I worked so hard to lose. I'm surprised i'm not freaking out about the 5 pounds I already gained.

It sounds like you are already at a healthy weight, maybe your body is just hungry and you trying to restrict your calories is revolting on you making you go overboard? I just don't know how it is not hurting your tummy with all that extra fiber with those bars. I binged on fiber/potein bars too once or twice . I was in not a good way for a couple of days. Try to not beat yourself up and definitely not restrict yourself too much. You are a small girl already. Go for health, feed your body.

Do NOT freak out. I bet you look so much better with those extra 5lbs. It may not feel good right now, but your body is saying hey, I need me some energy storage please.. That is all it is. It is energy that your hair, nails, organs and skin NEED to keep you alive and beautiful. :flowerforyou: Think of it that way.

I can definitely relate. I struggle with bingeing. For me, it helps to come on here and log my food. I also tell myself that I can eat whatever I want, except dairy. So if I want chocolate, I can have it, but it has to be the dairy-free stuff (I have a sensitivity to dairy). By telling myself I can have anything I want, with one exception, has helped a lot.

I've read Brain over Binge...it was ok. For me though, Overcome Overeating by Jane Hirshmann (sp?) and Carol Hunter has been the most helpful of all books. Everyone is different though!

I hope you start feeling better about yourself soon and that you get the bingeing under control.

If your college has a student health clinic ask them to check you for low iron anemia. If all you are eating is fruits and vegetables you are probably seriously deficient. Even a vegetarian diet has to make sure it is loaded with iron rich foods such spinach and lentils. At the very least you could get some supplements at the drug store before you start developing more serious symptoms such as muscle weakness and cramping, shortness of breath, extreme tiredness, etc.

I would say that this happened to me when I aimed for a weight that was too low for me. 95Ibs at 5'1 is a little low, I would say, and it is possible you will continue to hit this issue if you continue to aim for that number. You are perfectly healthy at 105 for your height. I would also suggest not buying these things for a while, or just buying them individually, one a day though having read one of your previous replies, that is not an option. (You could ask parents to hide them, if pushed) Another option is to leave enough calories for after dinner, so you can have some things before bed. What stops me(most of the time, but not always), is how utterly crap I feel the next day, emotionally, mentally and physically. And how long it takes to reverse the damage, so to speak. I cannot control myself too well with cereal... I do not keep it around now. Same with cookies. I do, however, have a pot of oatmeal, hot chocolate and a hard boiled duck egg before bed.

Yes. We are very similar. And let me guess every time you try to get help people look at you like your nuts cause your still skinny right?! I can totally relate. I do this almost every night and shamefully most night i wake up in the middle of the night and literally zombie mode to the kitchen. Like i cant stop. I even tried taking the medicine route with Xanax before bed. Did nothing. I too believe i had i diagnosed orthorexia. It HAS to be something to do with that. Peanut butter is my biggest weakness along with ice cream. I always go for something full of sugar. Its strange.

Let's work through this together. I think that the first step may be to gradually replace your binges with healthier things. For instance, i would binge on sugar so instead i left a huge bowl of precut fruit in the fridge and left myself no other option but to eat the fruit. Although i still felt like crap, it wasnt as terrible. Im going to friend you now

I've been having difficulty binging lately, also, on sugary carbs. One twinkie means three, on hoho means two, and let's not get me started on the brownies. I've found two things that seem to help most of the time. On is the old before and after pictures. On my fridge are pictures of me now, 61 pounds down, and on the door and inside the pantry where temptation lurks, I post before pictures. One on each shelf where goodies are, so I have to move the pictures if I really want to get a snack. The other thing, one that I find even more effective is to give any tempting food to my 18 year old son to keep in his room. He has instructions that if I ask for something, he is to give me only one. It works well because I hate to ask everyday, or ask for more than one because i don't want to embarrass myself by showing him a lack of willpower. It's hard, but if I fall off the wagon, for one or several days, these things seem to help me follow the straight and narrow again. But I'd love to see what anyone else does to battle the urge to binge.:embarassed:

This will be a long post, and for that I am sorry. I am telling my personal story as this is what worked for me. I can't guarantee the same results for everyone as I am not a dr., but I know that nutritionists recommend the diet I am doing.

Let me start by saying that diets and me were a huge problem. For a really long time I had severe willpower problems, and the idea of giving up my favorite foods really bothered me. I used to binge a lot too. I would especially binge at night. I would just get so hungry, and being that hungry made me reach for really bad foods (part of my problem was because I spent so many years eating so little during the day due to lack of hunger, my body programmed itself to be starving at night). That would just make me hungrier.

I started a diet (the every other day diet), and it seemed to be working as far as weight loss was concerned, but on my 500 calories days I would be so hungry. It got to a point that I would binge. I would eat healthier foods, because I felt bad for going over my calorie count, but it stopped working as well because I going over my overall calorie count.

After years of dieting with no weight loss, and going up and down in weight constantly no matter what I did, I finally went to the dr. (I gained 50 lbs. without significant change to my diet in less than a year). I thought I had a thyroid problem, but I was wrong. I had PCOS (and dangerously low vitamin D levels).

Unfortunately, due to the medication I was put on, I could no longer do the every other day diet (on diet days my calorie content was too low, and it would cause significant drops in my blood sugar, thus causing hypoglycemic episodes). I had to force myself to change my eating habits. For years I had dr.'s, nutritionists, fitness trainers, and everyone in general telling me to eat multiple small meals a day. I hated this idea because it meant cutting out basically all junk foods in order have a deficit in calories while still being able to eat multiple meals. However, with my medication, I had no choice. It was eat better, or get very ill due to the hypoglycemic episodes.

I thought that only eating a few calories at a time would just make me hungry all the time, but I was wrong. I actually have a hard time reaching my 1200 calorie goal because I stay full. I find the easiest thing for me to do is to take in part of my calories from real foods, and part of my calories through protein shakes (I use GNC lean shakes. They are 200 calories per serving, and they are surprisingly very filling). Doing this has helped significantly. I am not constantly hungry, therefore I am not constantly reaching for garbage foods.

I would suggest to any woman/man who gained a significant amount of weight in a short time to see a dr. It is vital to make the dr. do a FULL blood panel (they usually only test for the 2 main "typical" things that causes weight gain; diabetes and thyroid disorder). For years I told my dr.'s about my weight, and other problems, but none of them listened to me. They just told me that I needed to change my diet. I finally had a dr. listen to me and do a full blood panel. Turns out I had been right all those years; something was really wrong with me, and that something definitely had something to do with my weight gain.

Good luck to you!

I wish I knew. If I had health insurance I'd go see a nutritionist. So I'll suggest that. Especially if this is the first time this has happened to you. Perhaps you are fairly active and just need more calories. Perhaps you need different foods.

I was thinking about seeing a nutritionist. I suffered from Orthorexia for a majority of this year and have been trying to be in recovery since January. The food list I allow myself to eat is very limited and I think the binges might be a way for myself to feel like I have freedom to eat what I want. But in reality, it's bringing me into a really bad habit that I don't want to be in, especially since I already have disordered eating. I mean it's only been going on for two weeks so it's early enough for me to be able to break the habit, I just can't figure out how. I do go to the gym 5-6 times a week but I only burn around 300 calories each time (I have a polar watch). I do cardio and lift weights. Maybe this is a way for my body to tell myself that I need to eat more? Idk. I just want it to stop!

It's not binging. What you're experiencing is reactive eating. You're right about it being related to your orthorexia and not allowing yourself certain foods- it's exactly why you're experiencing these episodes.