Binge days

Hi, I am curious as to what people call a binge...
I know some call 1 chocolate bar over target a binge. or even just a few hundred cals.
I myself, when I am in that 'binge zone' where I dont care even though I know I will feel awful for it, I tend to eat mindlessly for the entire day, eating constantly - anything - chocolate, cake, ice cream, cereals, bread, cheese. Until I am so physically full I can't consume any more. I am doubled over in pain and have to sleep with a pillow supporting my stomach.
I dont know exactly what I clocked up yesterday, but doing some mental sums I calculated about 8000 cals.
Does anyone else eat like this when they succumb to the dreaded buinge?

Replies

  • FluffyDogsRule
    FluffyDogsRule Posts: 366 Member
    When I binge, I typically alternate between salty and sweet, salty and sweet, salty and sweet. The only thing that stops me is going to bed. Usually I can hold off a binge until late afternoon, then it's a free-for-all. Mine are usually around 3000 calories. Totally different from overeating, which is when I am in a normal mind frame. When I binge, my mind is whack...I don't care at all.
  • tawny7
    tawny7 Posts: 276 Member
    I had gastric bypass in 2009 so my stomach is small. I can't physically binge like I was able to prior to surgery. However, it is the same out of control feeling while I'm binging. My biggest binges are potato chips, ice cream, chocolate, and popcorn. I feel like I am constantly purging because I am in so much pain after binging. Some days after binging/purging I find myself binging all over again.
    While I'm in the middle of it I feel like I want what I want and I'm going to eat it even though I'm going to be in physical and emotional pain afterwards. Basically controlling something in my life while I feel so many other areas of my life are out of my control.
  • WillLift4Tats
    WillLift4Tats Posts: 1,699 Member
    Like Fluffydog, I usually have a cycle of sweet and salty when I binge. And its not so much the amount or type of food, as it is that mindset I'm in when I binge. I'm out of control, feeling like a zombie with only one goal: to eat until I can't anymore. Its almost like I see myself doing these things, opening the bags, pouring out the amount, eating it until it's gone, getting up, opening the bag again, pouring more. Its like I can see that I'm doing this thing that I sorta remember I don't wanna do, but there's nothing to stop me from doing it, there's no desire (at that moment) to quit it. THAT's the binge for me.

    And yes, sometimes I've consumed over 8 or 9k worth of food, maybe more, I have no clue. Other times it can be as little as 500-1000 over my goal. It really depends.
  • Thanks all.. Yes, I too do the salty / sweet thing and what you say is true.... It's that lack of desire to stop the binge that really defines it for me. I know if i wanted to stop , I would. But I don't want to stop and that's the really frustrating thing for me.
  • lua_
    lua_ Posts: 258 Member
    Thanks all.. Yes, I too do the salty / sweet thing and what you say is true.... It's that lack of desire to stop the binge that really defines it for me. I know if i wanted to stop , I would. But I don't want to stop and that's the really frustrating thing for me.

    Just because you don't want to stop at the time (or if you're planning your next one) doesn't mean you don't want to stop. The nature of addiction and addictive habits is that a person can want to stop, but at the same time, not give a *kitten* and want to continue.
  • jberk4
    jberk4 Posts: 40 Member
    For me it is all about the mentality. Days where I overeat because of circumstance/holiday/social I don't consider. But when I am alone in the afternoon or night and as you guys said above, get zombielike, alternating between savory and sweet, shoving handfuls into my mouth, that is it. My brain is both shutdown just accepting that it's happening and dreading the aftereffect. I know I am capable of living a very healthy life (active, good and whole foods), yet I allow myself to go nuts in those moments. Then it effects my mentality for a week or more, trying to overcompensate for the binge. I finally think I beat it. And then it happens again :(
  • michellemybelll
    michellemybelll Posts: 2,228 Member
    Hi, I am curious as to what people call a binge...
    I know some call 1 chocolate bar over target a binge. or even just a few hundred cals.
    that **** seriously pisses me off. when people call THAT a binge. **** that. I want to scream, punch, throw ****, at the person claiming that's a binge. i don't care what their mindset was like. that ****ing **** is NOT a goddamn binge. if they think it is, they need some ****ing education.
  • ibleedunionblue
    ibleedunionblue Posts: 324 Member
    I've had several binge days this month, more than usual and much more than just overeating. I'm talking ridiculous amounts of caloric intake such as with ice cream, or even yesterday with cereal (3 large bowls or probably 9 serving sizes) and a half a box of moon pies.

    After a bings, I go off and severely restrict calories for several days. Then I will eat nothing but raw broccoli, salad, and oatmeal for several days until my weight is back down. My weight was down now 100 pounds (in under a year) to a very unhealthy 125 pounds. YES, men can suffer Eating Disorders too. Even though I hit 125 pounds, I have Binge episodes followed by starvation.

    Some foods I have no control over: such as Ice Cream or sweets like Cookies. I have to avoid them like the plague. When I had Ice Cream a week ago, I couldnt stop eating. My wife stopped at 1 ice cream cone, I had 3, then I purchased another pint and ate it. Who in the heck eats 3 ice cream cones and a pint of ice cream all within 30 minutes? The girl at the counter was in shock. Then came the guilt trip, the embarrassment, the shame, followed by days of starvation & restrictive eating.

    There are days I say I can not continue to live like this, and I want to die. The anxiety attacks following even the slightest bit of overeating is unbearable. I have to get my weight back into the 130's. I am way too thin and my fat intake was on average under 10% and that has actually caused medical issues. This include skewed results on bloodwork, fatigue, muscle loss, inability to control functions such as urination, dizziness, and awkward muscular movements.

    Today was a good day, yesterday was not. God only know what tomorrow may bring.
  • RachelRuns9
    RachelRuns9 Posts: 585 Member
    I just want to say thanks to everyone who posted here. I'm just having such a horrid binge day and it's so comforting to see other people write the same things that are going through my mind.

    xoxo
    Here's to a better tomorrow!
  • WanderingPomme
    WanderingPomme Posts: 601 Member
    A binge for me would be eating 3,000-3,500 calories above maintenance calories in a span of an hour or two, or even less than an hour. That's happened to me so many times. It's like I was on auto pilot and I was just eating EVERYTHING in sight. If I thought about it and I didn't have it at home, I would walk to the store and buy it. I live in a place where there are bakeries, burger king, mcdonald's, kfc, starbucks, shakey's open for 24 hours and 711s at every corner so food is accessible 24/7. I don't binge on burgers and pizza though but my weakness is pastries, anything bready.

    A binge would feel like someone else is taking over my body and when I finally snap out of it... I find wrappers and crumbs on the floor or table.
  • zenalasca
    zenalasca Posts: 563 Member
    A binge for me is usually 1000 calories... Which is why I've been so tetchy lately when I actually planned to eat over 1000 calories in one sitting XD even though it did no harm
  • when i binge its usually at least 3000 calories and can go on for days. I eat anything even if i dont really like the taste of it and i wont stop untill im physically sick. Its horrible and i really dont understand why i do it to myself
  • nutsnutsu
    nutsnutsu Posts: 16
    I had 3 binge days in a row last week and every day I consumed more than 3000kcal. Frankly speaking, last month I had a binge actually every week. After every binge I convince myself that I'm not going to do it anymore and if I want to save all the results I've achieved I should stop doing it.
    I can't imagine why I do this from time to time. Sometimes I really enjoy the taste of the junk food and sweeties (last week I ate the whole cake alone and it was SO SO DELICIOUS). But most of the time I just go to the kitchen, open the fridge and begin to eat every tasty thing I see in front of me. On the 3rd day of last week binge I went to have some Caesar salad and a slice of pizza. When I asked myself, why am I doing this, I couldn't find any answer. I ate all of this, ate an ice cream later and ate tons of sweets in the evening. Next day I noticed that my belly became bigger like if there was more fat that before. Even my mom noticed that, lol. Amazingly, but now it came back to normal: I have the same flat stomack, no fat and also my weight hasn't increased.
    I know that I'm able to eat some treats every day in small amounts but I don't do this because I'm afraid that I won't be able to stop eating it. I can't control myself. I think that one binge is normal, next day I will be back on track and will train harder, but it's endless cycle. Now I'm going 5th day without a binge and I hope this won't happen again, nah.
  • 81Katz
    81Katz Posts: 7,074 Member
    From last Thursday to last night I have been stuck in a day-after-day binge. I probably consumed 3000-5000 calories each day. I eat and eat with what feels like no end in sight. I am not even hungry most of the time. I eat until I just feel gross and full. I have had a hard time sleeping because the sugar/sweets keep me up then I crash mid-day, then I might doze when I shouldn't then I eat more and then I can't sleep at night because I feel so full and sometimes sick feeling. Sorry if TMI but my digestion is off like no other. I feel fat, bloated, having to use the bathroom a lot, plus I feel dehydrated.

    I don't know what is wrong with me. Like others say, it's always going to be the last time (it's not, hasn't been) and that I have learned my lesson from the misery I have induced upon myself (I never learn anything obviously)

    I am most upset because I slipped up and purged (vomit) something I have not done in almost 6 months. I had a sheer moment of disgust with myself and panic and there I went, purged. I am puffy and swollen looking in my face now. So as if I didn't feel bad enough, now I look bad which makes me just feel worse.

    I am so stuck it seems. I am ashamed at the weight I have re-gained, my self esteem is at an all time low, I am in just sooooo f-cking mad at myself for all this sh-t I do to myself.

    I don't know how to do this anymore. I say to myself let's say I get my sh-t straight, I think about how long that road will be to re-lose this weight and that means no slips, no binges, no off days, nothing. It just can't happen. I feel like I have been on a 'diet' forever and that is probably part of the problem, a 'diet' mentality. But that is what it feels like and it sucks.

    I feel very lost.
  • Moxie42
    Moxie42 Posts: 1,400 Member
    For me, a binge is when I'm eating "desperately." I feel like I can't stop, or don't want to, and I eat as much as I can as fast as I can. It usually happens with junk food but sometimes it'll be whatever happens to be accessible. I hide the evidence too because I KNOW what I did "isn't normal" and I don't want anyone to find out. Personally, it's that feeling of desperation to do it, followed by the shame of having done it...that tells me I did more than just "indulge."
  • IsMollyReallyHungry
    IsMollyReallyHungry Posts: 15,385 Member
    A binge for me is uncontrollable eating. I too had gastric bypass (2004) and this surgery still serves me well because I can't binge at all like I use to without getting sick as a dog. But I can graze enough to be out of control, so I eat a little at a time and calories can get way out of control. So eating when not hungry and it spirals into uncontrollable binges by grazing.
  • Agathist
    Agathist Posts: 13 Member
    For me it involves a planned trip to the shop, buying equal (has to be equal) numbers of sweet and savoury items, then eating them as fast as possible, usually before I even get home. I usually have to stop on the way home to throw the evidence in a bin otherwise I will be found out. Usually equates to about 3000 calories or more. I eat until it hurts. I know exactly what I am doing, but I won't let myself not do it. So bad :frown:
  • LKM54
    LKM54 Posts: 48 Member
    Binging for me is eating large quantities of food, not being hungry and can't get enough. I feel super ****ty afterwards.
  • When I binge it's like what a lot of people on here are describing. At some point during the day, usually the morning if I'm not at work, I know that this is going to be a binge day. In hindsight I always think 'you have control, next time do something, anything to distract yourself', but at the time it is a mixture of convincing myself I deserve it, it's being kind to myself, giving myself 'what I want' and a huge level of self-defeat, that it wouldn't matter what I did to distract myself, I will be in excruciating mental anguish until I give in to the binge.

    I then tend to eat 2 or 3 portions of salty food, such as pizza, burritos and tacos, then a carton of ice cream. I can repeat this a few more times until I can't stand up straight because I'm in so much pain. It seems that it is this pain that I'm looking for. Without it I feel empty, I have to affirm my existence from the inside through pain. Sometimes I bring it up and start again, other times I don't. When I don't I congratulate myself for 'beating' bulimia, but all I've done is substitute it for another ED.

    The day is always lost, there is no coming back once it's started. Or weekend, or even week. The only way I've been able to control it at all is to take protective measures to avoid the days from even beginning. Avoiding binge-drinking, because hangovers are always a trigger. Planning what I am going to do on a day off and sticking to it, usually starting with some exercise. Planning meals that I have to take time over to cook. I haven't binged in 2 weeks now. Feeling strong.

    Love to you all :flowerforyou:
  • From last Thursday to last night I have been stuck in a day-after-day binge. I probably consumed 3000-5000 calories each day. I eat and eat with what feels like no end in sight. I am not even hungry most of the time. I eat until I just feel gross and full. I have had a hard time sleeping because the sugar/sweets keep me up then I crash mid-day, then I might doze when I shouldn't then I eat more and then I can't sleep at night because I feel so full and sometimes sick feeling. Sorry if TMI but my digestion is off like no other. I feel fat, bloated, having to use the bathroom a lot, plus I feel dehydrated.

    I don't know what is wrong with me. Like others say, it's always going to be the last time (it's not, hasn't been) and that I have learned my lesson from the misery I have induced upon myself (I never learn anything obviously)

    I am most upset because I slipped up and purged (vomit) something I have not done in almost 6 months. I had a sheer moment of disgust with myself and panic and there I went, purged. I am puffy and swollen looking in my face now. So as if I didn't feel bad enough, now I look bad which makes me just feel worse.

    I am so stuck it seems. I am ashamed at the weight I have re-gained, my self esteem is at an all time low, I am in just sooooo f-cking mad at myself for all this sh-t I do to myself.

    I don't know how to do this anymore. I say to myself let's say I get my sh-t straight, I think about how long that road will be to re-lose this weight and that means no slips, no binges, no off days, nothing. It just can't happen. I feel like I have been on a 'diet' forever and that is probably part of the problem, a 'diet' mentality. But that is what it feels like and it sucks.

    I feel very lost.

    I'm so sorry you're going through this. I've been there time and time again. But I have been able to slowly get better, sort of. Add me if you want. *hug*