anyone experienced binge eating due to restrictive diet?

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uglyclub
uglyclub Posts: 83 Member
in Motivation and Support
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?
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  • YearsWorthOfFAT
    YearsWorthOfFAT Posts: 210
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    Happened to me. I held on about 6 months without having a single binge, tried to recover and the binges came. I overcame it by trying to eat more everyday while still staying in my food comfort zone. Around 1300 - 1500 calories is where i won't binge. You will stop bingeing, but after a while it becomes more of a psychological thing than a reaction to restricting your intake, that happened to me too. Most important thing is that you try to relax and if you still have the urge to eat everything in sight, even after eating more, you could have some soup or vegetables or taking a shower.

    Best of luck, i'm certain you'll get through this.
  • KaelaLee88
    KaelaLee88 Posts: 229 Member
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    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
  • fr053n
    fr053n Posts: 2,793 Member
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    Happened to me. I held on about 6 months without having a single binge, tried to recover and the binges came. I overcame it by trying to eat more everyday while still staying in my food comfort zone. Around 1300 - 1500 calories is where i won't binge. You will stop bingeing, but after a while it becomes more of a psychological thing than a reaction to restricting your intake, that happened to me too. Most important thing is that you try to relax and if you still have the urge to eat everything in sight, even after eating more, you could have some soup or vegetables or taking a shower.

    Best of luck, i'm certain you'll get through this.

    I second this.
  • karmac0matic
    karmac0matic Posts: 285
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    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.
  • uglyclub
    uglyclub Posts: 83 Member
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    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.
  • Dewymorning
    Dewymorning Posts: 762 Member
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    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.
  • Allterrain_Lady
    Allterrain_Lady Posts: 421 Member
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    Probably EVERYONE on a too much restrictive diet as binged.
    How many calories a day do you eat?
  • uglyclub
    uglyclub Posts: 83 Member
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    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.
  • Allterrain_Lady
    Allterrain_Lady Posts: 421 Member
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    How tall are you? How much do you work out?
    Those things matter too.
    Do you eat treats? I allow myself some chocolate every day. It helps with the urges that lead you to binge
  • Dewymorning
    Dewymorning Posts: 762 Member
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    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?
  • Charloo1990
    Charloo1990 Posts: 619 Member
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    I developed a binge eating problem when I started recovery and it lasted nearly a year and a half. No matter how hard I tried I just couldn't stop binging. In a way I think you've just gotta ride it out until your body can't take anymore. I couldn't take feeling sluggish anymore and this month has been so good, I think I've finally over come binge eating.
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
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    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.
  • agentventi
    agentventi Posts: 84 Member
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    I agree when I first started recovering and eating "fear foods" I would binge after. It was terrible. This went on for about 8 months. I haven't binged now in 3 months. I think it is because I allow myself treats when I want them and coconutmilk ice cream almost every night. And I eat my mealplan of 1800-2000 calories. This has been the only thing that has kept the binges away.
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
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    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.
  • uglyclub
    uglyclub Posts: 83 Member
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    How tall are you? How much do you work out?
    Those things matter too.
    Do you eat treats? I allow myself some chocolate every day. It helps with the urges that lead you to binge

    I'm 1.63 cm (5"4?) and pre-binge, I was 52.5 kgs and I haven't weighed myself since Friday's binge, and I probably won't until next week. I'm not allowed to do too much exercise, so all I do is 30 minutes on the stationary bike about five times a week, medium-ish intensity.

    I don't really allow myself treats because I prefer meals to snacks, although I like to have one or two almonds after every meal. But my meals are rather small and I'm estimating my calories to be about 1300 calories?

    ---

    Breakfast - toast with jam (150)

    Lunch (set lunches mon to fri) - palm-sized soy based product like tofu or mock fish
    - around two table spoons of rice (I try to have more sometimes, but rice tends to trigger binges since I've not allowed myself to eat it for such a long time)
    - a small handful of spinach or lettuce
    - my meals usually comes with one or two small fried item(s) like a samosa (200?)

    Dinner - cereal (300) or other meals that I'm guessing's around 300-400 calories too, I'm not very good at estimating calories of cooked food.

    Snacks - Coffee (100) and some almonds (100 max)

    On weekends, I usually eat higher calorie foods because we tend to eat out a lot on weekends, so around 2000 calories or more?

    My most recent binge was on a weekday, during lunch. I was trying to fight my urges to avoid the rice in my meal and ended up finishing my rice in a really hurried manner (if I didn't eat it now, I wouldn't be able to eat it at all) and from there, I started binging on every carbohydrate I could get my hands on. It was horrible, trying to resist the binge made me shake so much. I ended up going to the mall to buy more bread-foods. Aaah. I always binge on bread and nuts.
  • uglyclub
    uglyclub Posts: 83 Member
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    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.

    Thank you so much for this. Really.
  • Ulwaz
    Ulwaz Posts: 380 Member
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    just eat normally, the binges will stop, every now and again everyone does it without thinking, especially at parties, dont worry we are only human :)
  • uglyclub
    uglyclub Posts: 83 Member
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    just eat normally, the binges will stop, every now and again everyone does it without thinking, especially at parties, dont worry we are only human :)

    Yes!!! I'm trying my best to do that but I'm still learning what normal eating even is. Some say 2000, some say 2000 is too much, stick to 1500... I don't even know. :(
  • DianeinCA
    DianeinCA Posts: 307 Member
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    Looking at the "sample" daily plan you posted, the first thing that jumps out is that you need to eat more protein and you need to eat it with every meal. I'm guessing you're vegetarian or possibly vegan, which makes it tougher but not impossible. (After all, cows are vegetarian and they get their protein from somewhere.) So, you have two assignments:

    1) make a list protein sources you're okay with and figure out how to have some 3 or 4 times a day.

    2) Up your calories by 100 a day until you're in a more comfortable range for your daily needs. Try to get to about 1600 daily, including weekends.

    Your weight is already on the low side for your height, so instead of trying to lose right now, concentrate on figuring out a reasonable amount of calories you can eat every day to maintain your weight and end these binges.
  • QuietBloom
    QuietBloom Posts: 5,413 Member
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    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.

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