I Can't Stop Binge Eating
jpic2014
Posts: 13 Member
I have lost 10 pounds over the last ten months but for the past week I have been binge eating and gained 5 of them back! :sad: I am ready to quit if I can't start back up again. I was 1,767 calories OVER budget today... Help!
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Do you structure your base diet around a cheat day? Many people find that taking one day out of the week, like Saturday since it's common to go out anyway, and completely ignoring most of your nutritional restrictions for weight loss. This is reportedly better anyway, as in many cases it can help prevent the plateau as your body acclimates to your adjusted caloric intake.
If you have a cheat day, do you write down your cravings so you have something to aim for on your cheat day? I have never done this, but heard it is helpful for some people.0 -
You can stop if you really want to, barring some bizarre medical condition. It might not be easy, but you have to take responsibility for the foods you put in your mouth. Fill up on healthy, high protein lower calorie foods and water so bingeing becomes less appealing, and allow yourself a treat that fits in your calories so you don't feel deprived. Get out and take a walk when you feel like bingeing.
No one can stop you, but you. Unless...no wait...let me get my straightjacket!0 -
I'm sorry to hear that. But please don't give up on yourself. So what if you stumbled a bit? Losing weight isn't a straight linear path. There are a lot of zig zags. No matter how many times you fall, you have to keep getting back up again. Just tell yourself that starting from this very second you are going to get back on track. Not tomorrow, not the next day but right now, this very moment.
And also those 5lbs you gained back was probably nothing but water weight due to eating junk and sugar. Your body retains water to insulate itself from the junk you dumped into it. If you get back on track the water weight will disappear.
Stay strong.
By the way, I'm in the same position you're in. I'm a total sugar addict. Still trying to kick the sugar addiction and kick bingeing to the curb. I've been having a tough fight this last week and a half. But I always tell myself that I can't give up because once I give up on myself everything I worked so hard for in the last 3 years will be gone. And life will be meaningless if I don't pursue what I really truly want. Health and fitness is my lifestyle choice.0 -
You CAN stop. You just don't want to/aren't ready to. No one can do this for you. You need to want it for yourself.
Like others said, make sure you are eating enough protein, fiber, and healthy fats. Also, WATER! Drink up :drinker:
When you feel the urge to binge, do something to distract yourself… like taking a walk, reading a book, painting your nails, take a bath/shower, go for a run, etc.0 -
No, I don't do a binge day but that's a good idea. I'll try it out, thank you!0
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I had the same problem too recently, I did it for about 3 weeks and gained about 4 pounds. I stopped thought, and now I'm back on track. There is really nothing I can say to help you, but to just do it. I don't say this to sound mean, but no one cares that you are binge eating and no one cares that you are gaining weight! So you HAVE to do it yourself, because no one else is going to do it for you!0
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No, I don't do a binge day but that's a good idea. I'll try it out, thank you!
Just make sure it's not a full binge day that completely erases your progress for the week. Work your cravings into your daily goal, and have a nice big cheat meal once or twice a week to avoid binges.0 -
No, I don't do a binge day but that's a good idea. I'll try it out, thank you!
No. Do not have "binge days." Allow yourself ONE or TWO cheat meals a week. But do not spend an entire day binging. That's not going to help you; just sets you back to your old ways.0 -
well the good thing is you still were accountable for the calories so don't throw in the towel yet! Losing weight is the most frustrating thing to do in life in my opinion...I think its because eating habits are hard to break cause we grow up with most of these habits. Hang in there:happy:0
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I'm a binge eater...I have really good days where I may binge twice for the day and really bad ones where if feel like the entire day that I'm binging. The more I felt guilty, the more I would beat myself up, its a vicious cycle. What I have learned, which as been helping me," I TAKE IT ONE DAY AT A TIME! "
I eat more frequently so I'm never that hungry,it has really helped, I control what goes into my mouth and whenever I get that urge, I try my very much to find something to do...make a cup of tea...call a friend. You have a great support here use it, whenever it becomes to overwhelming...don't beat yourself and don't wait for tomorrow to start all over again....I hope this helped.:flowerforyou:0 -
I have been struggling with wanting to binge lately as well. When I get stressed, I tend to write things down. I actually just wrote this the other day, and thought I would share it with you. I'm not sure there is anything in it that will help, but then again, sometimes just knowing you aren't the only one going through something is enough to get you back on track.The View from a Plateau
I have a confession. I like chocolate….a lot….especially with peanut butter. In fact, I should probably own stock in Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. I also like cake, and cookies, and pasta, and bread, and pretty much any kind of junk food you can think of. But peanut butter cups….they are like crack, and I would eat them one right after the other, nonstop, if I could. And, anyone who knows me could probably guess (and rightly so) that I have done that in the past. I mean, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out you don’t get as big as I once was by eating carrot sticks and celery. I am definitely what you would call a junk food junkie.
You could also call me an emotional eater. I feel stressed or down in the dumps about something, and I eat. Then, I feel terrible about what I ate, how much I ate, or both. That just makes me feel worse, and I eat even more. It’s a vicious cycle that I am sure countless others can relate to as well.
Up until October of last year, that was how I coped with things. Since then, I have been working hard to change my views about food. I’ve cleaned up my diet, eating more fruits and vegetables, less processed foods, and more protein. I’ve also added exercise into my lifestyle. Over the course of making all these changes, I’ve lost over 75 pounds, and feel significantly healthier. I have energy that I hadn’t had in years. Recently,Todd and I took a vacation, and we did quite a bit of hiking. It was refreshing to realize that it was him trying to keep up with me, and not the other way around. I can’t remember a time when that was the case - possibly when we first started dating, but definitely not anytime in the last several years.
I used to never quite get it when people would say that long-term weight loss isn’t about a diet, but a lifestyle change. Anyone can follow a recipe or eating plan for a short period of time, and be successful with it, but bouncing from diet to diet every 30-60 days does nothing to help you learn how to make sustainable, long-term changes. In fact, most people who do this end up gaining back what they lost on the latest fad diet, and often times, actually gain back more than they lost. They then decide it is time to move on to the next diet, and the entire cycle repeats itself again. This isn’t new information, though. We all know it happens, but at the same time,we all want the quick fix. The desire for instant gratification that is so rampant in our society today is great for fueling that fire. The hard part is learning to stop thinking of weight loss as dieting, and to start thinking of it as a life long commitment to being a healthier you.
I was doing really well with making that shift in thinking. I was making better food choices, and as a result, I was looking and feeling better. I had more energy. I didn’t feel bloated or sluggish anymore. I actually wanted to get up off the couch and go move around for a change. I had found new recipes that I liked, and had even gotten better at eating that junk food that I love in moderation.
And then it happened. It’s that dreaded thing that anyone who has ever set out to lose weight spends way too much time and energy wondering about, worrying about, and trying to figure out how to avoid. I hit a plateau. In fact, I’m still there. It’s probably been somewhere between 6-8 weeks since I have seen any real weight loss. The scale seems to be stuck, bouncing up and down in the same 5-pound range. Ok, so maybe it isn’t a “true” plateau, because I have been continuing to loose inches. My clothes are still fitting differently, although I haven’t been dropping sizes as quickly either. That being said, I was able to buy a t-shirt a size smaller than what I have been buying lately. Todd keeps telling me that he still sees a difference from week to week, and that I am more toned and muscular than I was the week before. Yes, it’s all progress, and it counts. However, the scale is stuck. And, IT’S. DRIVING. ME. CRAZY!!
So much so, that I have taken a step or two backwards. I’ve gradually gotten to where I am snacking more again, and making not so great food choices. I know the consequences of making those choices, and I know that some of those food choices are triggers that set me up for weight gain. I also started omitting those foods from my food diary. Not only did I know they were bad choices, I didn’t want to see the red numbers in my food diary when I went over my allotted calories for the day. I rationalized what I was doing by telling myself that since I was working out every day, it didn’t really matter that I was eating more calories than I was allotted for the day. That train of thought quickly led to me feeling as if I needed to do more when I worked out, so that I would still get a benefit from doing so. The problem with that was two-fold. First, since I didn’t know how much I was really eating, I had no idea if I was actually burning more calories than I was eating in a given day. Secondly, I was approaching a point where I wasn’t giving my body enough time to recover after working out each day. Between the food I was choosing, and the exercising, I was feeling tired all the time again. I just felt run down, and needed to do something about it.
It took me a while to get there, but I finally realized the problem wasn’t what I was doing, although it may certainly look as if that is the issue. The problem was how I was thinking about things. Somewhere along the way, I had started looking at those foods I had been eating in moderation as something that I shouldn’t have at all. I convinced myself that if I had them, I wouldn’t be able to just eat alittle bit, but that I was going to be out of control. I just knew, instead of eating two cookies, I was going to eat the entire package. Food was becoming the enemy, and that isn’t a good way to look at it, whether you are trying to lose weight or not. Once I realized this, I knew I needed to do something about it. I had to find a way to change my way of thinking.
I wish I could say all it took was realizing that, and suddenly I was back on track again. Not so much. All those toxic thoughts were teetering on the edge of becoming self-fulfilling. After lots of praying and self-evaluation, I came up with a plan. I gave myself a set date for that plan to begin, and then I took a few days to get my head straight. I just had to get past the point I was stuck at in my head, so I decided to not worry about counting calories and accurately logging food for a few days. I knew that meant a gain on the scale. I also knew it would give me a chance to clear my head. I ate birthday cake, and ice cream, and candy bars, and bread. I knew I was going to gain some weight back, but I just had to get out of my head. As a result, I did gain a little bit of weight back, but I was also able to prove to myself that I could control portions of those foods, despite what I had been thinking lately. I also got a big old reminder in how junk in= junk out. I’ve been feeling extra tired, sluggish, and bloated the last few days. Yes, all that junk food tasted good at the time, but the miserable feelings afterwards have not been worth it. I know that after getting back on track, I will feel better in a few days, and I can’t wait. No, the junkfood didn’t kill me, but it didn’t do anything positive for me either. Just one more lesson to remind me that food really isn’t the enemy.
People like to compare losing weight to running a race. We’ve heard all the clichés about putting one foot in front of the other, how slow and steady wins the race, and every journey begins with the first step. Maybe that works for some people, but I have decided losing weight is more like crossing a mountain range. There are lots of ups and downs, and the journey may even turn out to be longer than you anticipated – all those ups and downs can make it difficult to accurately judge distance. The views along the way though, can be breath taking. Most of the time, you reach the top of the mountain, and you head right back down. Other times, you reach the top of the mountain, and find a large, flat meadow as far as you can see – a plateau. And maybe that is when those race analogies come into play, because you definitely need to just hunker down and continue to put one foot in front of the other. It can be slow going, but there is still progress being made. It’s just when you decide to take a break, sit down, and eat a box of Twinkies while walking across that meadow that it becomes a problem. After all, no matter how beautiful the views may be from that plateau, you will never get to see the views from the next mountain if you don’t cross it.0 -
I'm a binge eater. I find that I can not eat sugar and carbs in moderation I've tried and tried but if I get just a taste I can not stop and over indulge so I, personally, had to cut my carbs and do low calorie\low carb. When I do this my blood sugar is more stable which keeps cravings and hunger at bay.0
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Do you live on your own or with someone else?
When I lived a lone while I was studying abroad I bought only ONE week worth of groceries and planned out exactly what I was going to eat that week based off how many calories I need/day. Would this work for you? This would prevent binging because you know you only have X amount of food available. The benefit to this is that it also helps prevent stuff from spoiling before you eat them.
If you live with someone perhaps have them be your reminder for a few days fi they dont mind. Tell them to put a lock on the fridge or to smack you jk Sometimes it isnt enough to rely just on yourself and you need someone else to help.
Personally I really miss being able to control the grocery list. Ive moved back home and my parents wont budge on their routine(even though we all are overweight) If I had the money I would get an apartment just so I could lose weight
Best of luck!0
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