anyone experienced binge eating due to restrictive diet?

Oh hun,

I think it's something that the majority of us do at some point or another

If I undereat or set my calories too low, I can lapse into binge eating and of course, there are certain times of the day when I am most vulnerable to this.

Like lots of people, I up my calories and try to pull myself out of the cycle. When I feel more able to be in-control, I eat as I feel is appropriate.

Good luck and just keep on keeping on, you can do this!

Kaela x

It's really really common, not even just for those with restrictive diets, but a lot of people attempting to eat healthy fall into it. It takes a ton of time to be able to avoid the binges but even then, there is always going to be a chance it'll happen.

I've had the problem, especially when it came to finally eating after a day of restriction. It was like a huge release to eat what I wanted and taste so many things. I think once you find a way to get to normal levels of intake (not too little) you'll be able to feel like bingeing less, and less often.

Thanks, guys. I really hope it doesn't become a psychological thing because I'm tired of eating disorders and I don't want myself jumping from one disorder to another.

Is 1300-1500 calories enough? My dietitian has me on a non-calorie focused meal plan, but I estimated it to be around 2100 calories or so? And she said I'd be allowed to eat more if I wanted. But I'm scared it might be too much.

Besides binging, I hope to solve my problem with food obsession. Food is all I think about. I get so excited over the prospect of having dinner with the family - too excited. Like someone who hasn't eaten in months. Even my mother's pointed out how weird she finds me when I'm around food... I used to be so anxious around food but now I'm the complete opposite.

I just want to be able to eat when I need to eat and not think about it. Food has become my entire life and I don't know how to come out of it.

2,100 calories sounds reasonable if you are trying to maintain your weight.

Probably EVERYONE on a too much restrictive diet as binged.
How many calories a day do you eat?

I've still not been able to bring myself to follow my 2100-calorie meal plan every day and only follow it on weekends. On weekdays, I have around 1300-1600 calories.

I'm just scared because my binges, although they've been becoming less frequent, have been increasing in the amount of calories. Last week I had 7000 calories. And it's really scary.

When are you more likely to binge, given that you are eating more on the weekend?

Binge eating is a normal survival response to eating too little. Deprive any animal of food and when they do get some, they'll eat all of it. All animals (humans are animals in the scientific sense of the word) have evolved this response in order to not accidentally starve to death.... animals don't know what calories are, and humans didn't either until modern times. Hunger evoled as a signal to mean "eat now" and food restriction can result in binge eating.... think Homo erectus (who we evolved from, mostly like us but with about 2/3 the size of our brains and much simpler technology... kind of the missing link between us and apes) in a food shortage. She finally finds some food, a lot of food, she doesn't know where her next meal is coming from, so she eats all of it, even past the point of feeling full. She doesn't have enough frontal lobe to be able to *plan* her way through the food shortage, i.e. to consciously think "there's not been much food lately, so it's a good idea to eat as much as I can now to have a better chance of making it through this food shortage" - she just follows her body's instincts, which is to eat all of it........ modern people have inherited all the same survival responses that our ancestors had... difference is our ancestors would never have done anything so irrational (from a survival point of view) as to deliberately restrict food intake. When you do that, you're fighting against your own survival responses.... for healthy fat loss in someone who needs to lose fat, a small deficit (i.e. for slow fat loss) stops this survival response kicking in and makes the diet easier to stick to...... but if you lose weight beyond what's healthy for you, then those survival responses are going to kick in anyway, no matter what. Because 0% body fat is dead and losing lean mass to preserve your fat stores can't go on indefinietly... at some point the body's going to run out of resources, and then you die. And your body is built to for survival, so when it's low on resources because you're not feeding it properly, then it's going to ramp up the survival responses and one of them is binge eating.

So, to answer your question: yes, binge eating can be caused by a restrictive diet. It's not the only possible cause, but even if other things are causing it, battling against your survival instincts is going to make it even harder to tackle the other causes.

Probably EVERYONE on a too much restrictive diet as binged.
How many calories a day do you eat?

I've still not been able to bring myself to follow my 2100-calorie meal plan every day and only follow it on weekends. On weekdays, I have around 1300-1600 calories.

I'm just scared because my binges, although they've been becoming less frequent, have been increasing in the amount of calories. Last week I had 7000 calories. And it's really scary.

That's putting the cart before the horse. If you eat more, you won't be binge eating. You're probably actually taking in more calories with what you're doing now, than if you just ate all the calories you're supposed to on a daily basis.

Probably EVERYONE on a too much restrictive diet as binged.
How many calories a day do you eat?

I've still not been able to bring myself to follow my 2100-calorie meal plan every day and only follow it on weekends. On weekdays, I have around 1300-1600 calories.

I'm just scared because my binges, although they've been becoming less frequent, have been increasing in the amount of calories. Last week I had 7000 calories. And it's really scary.

Your thinking is backward. According to what your doctor has you on, your weekly total should have been 14700. So you are still far under that, despite what you think are 'binges'. Your body is trying to repair the damage done by your eating disorder, and continuing to restrict your calories (despite what you think) is evidence that you are still in ED mode. Your binges are your body's way of trying to get the calories you need, and are healthy. What is not healthy is the continued restriction. Please talk to your doctor about this. What other kind of support do you have while you are trying to recover? I understand that seeing the calories add up is scary. That is probably why your doctor doesn't want to tracking them.

My advise, is to step away from MFP and tracking your calories. Or look into joining one of the groups on here specifically for people recovering from EDs.

Best of luck to you.

I binge, I have binged twice in the last two weeks and had a couple of mini-binges too. I do 2 fast days a week to make up for it and my calories average out at 1500-1750 a day.

I am trying to teach my body to accept less food and it is hard, I will get there though.

I don't know if my binge eating is due to emotional reasons, but it definitely started after I relapsed into my restrictive eating disorder. So I'm guessing that COULD be the reason. Ever since I upped my intake, I've been binging a lot less. But I still binge. And I'm terrified that I may never stop binging.

Has anyone developed a binging problem due to a restrictive diet? And has anyone managed to overcome this problem? And how?

I did it not in the forms of quantity but of quality like sugar on bread, zabaione, cakes, the matter fir me is anxiousness and at the monwnt lack of sex so of boyfriend, lack if live, that's sucks!!!!

Well put it this way, I'm 5'1 and 98lb and I go by my fitbit, which I I have to say I think slightly underestimates my calorie needs. I try not to eat less than 2000 calories on any one day, and my average intake to maintain my weight is 2400 calories per day. If I'm ill or I have an awfully stressful day (like last week) and I end up under-eating I spend the next 2-3 days eating everything in sight in my bodies attempt to catch up.

As you are not overweight, in fact your in the bottom third of 'normal' BMI wise, I would suggest listening to your body. If it's telling you to eat more and you are under-eating during the week then you do need to eat more. I find things easier to manage if I eat as close to my average calorie requirement as possible every day, and I suspect with your history that this would work out the safest and option for you too.

I just could not eat 2 cubes of chocolate, I would have to eat the whole bar.

I have to restrict the food I eat and look for sustenance from other sources.

Every night I have a Options Hot Chocolate, comes in at 60 calories and it just tastes gorgeous. Because its the only chocolate I have in the house if I DO binge, I will drink three and still have less calories than a bar of chocolate.

I have replaced biscuits and cakes with Nature Valley oats and nut bars, again if I do binge and eat three I am still on less calories than if I were to eat three kitkats or something.

Thank you all so much. I guess the general idea is to start following my meal plan and upping my intake during the weekdays.( I'm not a big snack/treats person, actually. I like eating bigger meals and lesser snacks).

I did a stupid thing and weighed myself last night before bed. I don't know why I did it, I guess I was just so curious to see if I'd gained any weight from Friday's binge. According to the scales, I've gained 6 pounds... And I KNOW logically a lot of it's probably water weight and food weight from last night's dinner but I just couldn't bring myself to go above 1200 calories today because of it. I want to go back to my pre-binge weight and start following my meal plan as if the binge had never happened. I feel like crying, what if I don't lose the weight I gained? Oh man. It's probably the anxiety talking right now but damn it..

What is your goal? Do you need to gain weight? If so, you are right on track.