I'd like to better understand binge-eating :)

believetoachieve · March 2011

I don't suffer from this problem, but I've always wanted to learn about it, in order to support friends, and just better understand people without judging them. However, I feel like it'd be really rude to start this conversation on someone elses' thread, so I started my own.

What is this really? How is it physically possible to eat 3000 calories in one sitting?! I know I've eaten DQ blizzards before that were 800 calories, but I can't fathom 3000+ all at once. Do people just not feel full? Or do they KNOW they're full and keep eating anyway? (I'm not referring to bulimia). If they know they're full, why can't they stop? Is this a willpower issue, or a mental-health-type disease??

My heart goes out to anyone suffering from this affliction!!

cacrat · March 2011

Yeah, I could probably eat 3000cal in one sitting, it'd be tough though. There aren't a lot of people that are completely in tune with what they're bodies are telling them. Many obese people also eat because they're bored, or in a hurry, or emotional. I think its more of a psychological issue than a physical one.

alliecore · March 2011

Bump

I do understand the concept of binging, but don't have time to respond right now. Looking forward to hearing the responses.

Anna19911 · March 2011

I still binge eat but its never 3000 calories. Usually I'll have that second peice of cake or another helping of somthing. It is something i'm trying to work on and its definitaly an emotional thing for me.

mrspopo1 · March 2011

Hiya! Yes I am a sufferer of Binge Eating Disorder. I don't really know for sure what causes it but definitely think it's a psychological and emotional disorder. I guess it depends on each person. But if you use food for comfort like I do and something stressful happens, you can eat up to a 2-3k calories easily because you eat until you either get sick and purge or just until you feel sick than you don't purge because you'd feel guilty if you did. But than you feel guilty for having binged so it's a vicious cycle! I have joined a support group Eating Disorders Anonymous and that has helped tremendously. I don't think you have to obese to have it, just probably have emotional issues and food is used to deal. Probably some have BED because they have lost tune with what their body wants or needs, but for me personally it's totally about losing control and food comforts me. Hope this helped some!

Painten · March 2011

I don't know if it's always a binge. 3000 calories does sound a lot but i reckon that 1 meal it is doable. I think i've done it at a restaurant. Starter main desert and fizzy drinks too. Actually yeah that's probably a binge.

I don't know what i can say that could enlighten you. I know i rarely feel full, the odd occasion i feel even more hungry after eating than i did before i ate. I think about food all the time and for me it is all or nothing. I can't have a packet of anything in the house have a bit and leave it. It's there in my mind till it's gone. Nothing takes my mind of it. I can clean the house, do a work out, drink a pint of water and yet i can't stop thinking about whatever it is in the house. It's the same with alcohol,

crystal_sapphire · March 2011

I have BED.it's connected to a variety of other issues i have though

wdwghettogirl · March 2011

Food, for some (like me), is a drug. And the most difficult one to kick because you can't just quick cold turkey. Any other drug can be totally avoided, but you HAVE to eat to survive. So how do food addicts, binge eaters, whatever you want to call us, get a handle on it? It's SO hard! You can't really understand unless you live it. There have been times I have just gone thru the cupboards and pantries and just start pulling things out and eat everything I can get my hands on. As I'm doing it, I know what I'm doing is stupid and irrational, but I can't stop until that "need" is filled. It would be SO easy to eat a few thousand cals in 1 sitting because most binges don't consist of fruits and veggies. We reach for the fattiest, yummiest, most comforting things we can get ahold of. I've never had the purging problem after binging (small victory for me), but the guilt is crushing! Sometimes it's so overwhelming, and then you want to eat again to feel better. It's the vicious cycle mentioned by mrspopo1. Food, for an addict, is not about feeling full. It's getting that "high". It tastes good, makes you feel good (at the time), so you constantly want more. Then when the good feeling's gone, and you realize what/how much you ate, the high is gone, you crash and need it again. I hope that all made sense.

hellenyork · March 2011

I'm an emotional eater and for me, binge eating is completely easy and doable. Even though I'm full and I feel full, my emotions are telling me to keep eating because emotionally I don't feel full. Also, it's easy to eat so many calories because of the high fat and calorie content of most foods these days.

I would have a bad day at work and hit 2 or 3 different drive thru's on the way home for burgers, tacos, etc. Once you start adding up all the calories in those individual things it's easy to see how the calorie count gets so high.

california_peach · March 2011

I think that binge eating is very much like any other complusive behavior. Whether one is binging on alcohol, drugs or food the same basic principals apply. It is about self medicating to deal with some kind of pain, usually emotional pain. I can only speak for myself and I have been guilty to binge eating. I have not been diagnosed with any sort of disorder and I have never purged. I would binge eat when i was emotionally out of control and not able to otherwise cope with the emotional problem at hand. This would happen usually at times of deep depression. I was deeply ashamed that this was happening and I would go to great lengths to hide any and all evidence of this activity. I doubt seriously that my husband and family had any idea this was going on. This is of course very much a part of what lead to my weight issues. It was not about will power. I had will power to spare. Binge eating was about a lose of control.

I have over the last year taken control of my life and whenIi feel the urge to fall back on food as a form of self medication I evaluate why I am feeling that way and take steps to deal with in other more healthy way. Usually I do this by discussing whatever is bothering me with my spouse and by exercising (often I will do yoga and this helps to center my mind). I have done this without medical assitance, but if anyone out there feels they need help I would highly recommend getting it. Going it alone is not always the best way, it was just really the only way available to me and thus far things have worked out.

dlaplume2 · March 2011

I think everyone has their trigger food. Something they just can't seem to get enough of. I know it's weird, but I don't know if it affects endorphines or something. Pizza is one of mine. I can't seem to register full on pizza.

You may not have that with a blizzard becasue it is sweet, but isnt' there something that you could just keep eating and eating? You might just be that type that can control yourself and stop when you should. People on a binge just eat some and it is like getting high or drunk. Your inhibitions stop and you just lose track of reality. The thing is you have an empty pizza box to account for or a pizza hangover. You feel like crap. Just like you would if you went out and drank until you passed out, or puked.

I can't say I have eaten pizza till I puked, but I have had food where I feel like once I start I can't stop until it's gone.

Manda1987 · March 2011

I have BED, have since I was a kid.

I've actually counted the calories I've taken in some of my binges. A typical short binge was about 4000 calories, but they could last an entire day and total up to over 15 000 calories. A 4000 calorie binge would be an entire container of Ben & Jerry's, a bag of chips and a 4-pack of chocolate bars. It makes me cringe to say that I've eaten like this in the past. For those who say it would be difficult to take in more than 3000 calories,

For me, it starts as a compulsion when I'm upset or stressed out. You know how sometimes you feel like you need to check to make sure the oven's off, even though you know you turned it off? It's that sort of feeling, only you feel like you need to eat, even when you're full to the point of throwing up and you're not enjoying it. You can try and sit on your hands and drink water to curb it, but it nags and nags at you. I also have OCD, so I obsess over my compulsions. I can't stop thinking about something until I act it out. So that explains how I'd end up crying into a container of ice cream, or hating myself as I chased the entire 10 pc. bucket of KFC with laxatives and hid the garbage so my fiance wouldn't find out. Not a fun way to live.

jdavis193 · March 2011

I used to be bulimic! I understand the binge eating bc I have done it. Usually when someone has an eating disorder there are certain things that have happened in there life that they could not control. They can control what they put and take out of there body "sometimes" I had a horrible childhood and so I became bulimic bc I could only control that. I went to counseling to get over my childhood and I quit on my own with bulemia and the help of GOD. I didn't tell my counselor that I was bulemic I was to embarrassed. Binging is addicting to someone that usually has issues in there life. They are looking for fullfillment and they do that by food.

grumpy2032 · March 2011

with me it is pizza and chips! I could gulp down 3 slices and a half bag of chips on a slow ride home from town and town is only 3 miles away. I dont know what came over me but I just couldnt stop. Now I dont eat the things triger me . Doritoes I would eat them till gone I dont even know I did it. Pizza couldnt leave any in the box dont know why. so now untill i get a good handle on it I dont eat the triger foods.

whatupskinnyjeans · March 2011

While I don't think I have BED I did go thru a point when I had this horrible feeling that I just had to eat- I was going thru a hard time emotionally and if I was at home I would feel this crazy urge to just keep chewing and eating till all the food was gone. This may sound gross but I would spit out most of it cuz I didn't want the calories but I felt so out of control. Now I try to exercise or listen to music when I get that feeling.( this was before I started mfp)

Jess21684 · March 2011

its different with everybody in a way. its hard to explain.. I myself, am dealing with this. I binge at night usually but ill go thru my day not consuming very many calories, which I KNOW i shouldnt be doing and is setting me up for binge eating at night plus ive been going thru a emotional state recently. feeling very down on myself, isolated, lonely in a way ( I moved to SC w my bf and have no fam here, they R all still back in WI) and ive been batteling with depression for the past yr yr and a half and I def think that has a HUGE effect on my binge eating. im sure it def does not help the situation and is prob a big culprit, like maybe with everything im going thru and everything i feel, I could feel like in that momment, its the only thing that brings me comfort or any sort of joy

sad pathetic? I know. Ill go thru nights where I binge and then beat myself up for it and feel soo horrible about it and then try not to eat much the following day and just end up hungry and yada yada the cycle then continues.. its horrible and im makeing every effort in recognizing it now and trying to stop it cause its just slowing me down and i know I can get much better results and make much more progress

Levedi · March 2011

People binge for a lot of different reasons. Here's a glimpse into why I binge. I binge to feel emotionally safe and cared for - food is the replacement for the affection I don't feel from others.* I binge because I feel loathsome and worthless, so why not eat until it hurts? The food tastes good and I'm a fat, worthless slob anyway so I might as well get fat and enjoy the food, since I'm not capable of being as skinny/loveable as other people. Then I hate myself for eating so much. Then I eat more, to stuff the feelings of being worthless. Once I get into a cycle of food = feeling good, it's really hard to stop. And 3000 calories aren't hard to come by in one sitting if you're eating an entire box of chocolates or ice cream. Yes, it's physically possible. Heck, it's easy once you get used to it.

You said you want to help your friends who do binge, so let me offer this advice. Don't scold them or point out how disgusting their binging is. WE KNOW. Really, we do. Ditto on how harmful it is. Again, we know. What does help is addressing the underlying emotional needs that are driving the binging and offering unconditional love, as well as constructive replacements for the binging. I don't mean enabling - that's not love actually. I do mean the "I hate seeing you hurt yourself, and I won't lie to you about the reality of what you're doing or make excuses for you. But I will be there for you and love you and remind you of what's good about yourself." That's real love.

(*Note - I'm not saying "I binge because my Mom doesn't love me." I'm saying, I often binge because I feel unloved or lonely or unlovable. In my case, my parents do have emotional problems, but they do love me in their own, not terribly healthy ways. Plus, I'm an adult - I am still responsible for how I choose to deal with my own feelings.)

MakotoYuu · March 2011

I used to binge eat for many years, hence my very high weight. As to how it's possible, as others have said, it's really not about the eating but usually behavioral for me as well.

3k calories per meal is nothing. I used to eat 10-15k/day routinely without blinking an eye. After having been on a very strict diet and going through counseling among other things I eat way less now. I do still have trouble some days, but overall especially with therapy and other medical support, it's much easier to avoid doing it.

As for the physical mechanics of how it can be done, I used to have all sorts of problems. My throat would get scratched and torn up from eating so fast, and I ate so much I was actually in danger of rupturing my stomach. The more I binged the easier it was to eat more.

I can't speak for anyone else, but for me therapy definitely helped 100% more than any diet on its own. I was extremely skeptical and downright stubborn that it wasn't going to work, but the difference is pretty amazing. The emotional support and development I get from that make an enormous difference. I lose weight steadily and consistently now, avoid my trigger foods, and life is much better. I still do good up pretty bad some weeks, and I fall into odd eating habits during high stress periods. Overall though, progress has been made.

I'd like to better understand binge-eating :)

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