Binge Eating Issues

Start by just tracking everything you eat, even if you're not actively trying to stay in your goal. Maybe you can set your calorie goal to maintenance and just try to stick to that for a while, then gradually reduce your cals once you are back on track? Remember, you absolutely CAN control yourself, you are just finding it hard at the moment for whatever reason. Try practicing mindfulness, and listening to your body. Learn to catch yourself when you start a binge and instead of saying 'screw it, I'll try again tomorrow' take a few deep breaths and ask yourself if this is what you want. Be kind to yourself- you might see those numbers in the red a few times and maybe you'll binge but perhaps today's won't be as bad as yesterday because you stopped yourself and didn't have that last whatever it was you felt like eating. One day at a time!

This is my best advice cause I was a binge eater also:
When you do start to restrict your calories to lose-don't restrict too much!!! That kind of restriction WILL set you up for a binge!
Set MFP to lose 1/2 pound per week at first and eat the calories allotted to you. If you feel satisfied, you can try setting it to lose 1 pound per week. Then stay at that setting. If you exercise then eat 1/2 your exercise calories back. Drink lots of water. Work in at least one favorite treat a day. Eat food you like but also eat veggies, beans, some nuts and lots of protein. These foods will keep you satisfied. An eating plan to lose weight must not leave you hungry and I satisfied or it will not work!
If you do this and you're still bingeing a lot, see a therapist to discuss why you may be doing this.
If you binge still once in a while-FORGIVE yourself right away-be loving and kind to yourself and get back to your eating plan IMEDIATELY!!!!! People who have the most success with weightloss are those who don't give up despite the binges.
You can do it!

Fatbuster205 wrote: »

MrM27 wrote: »

Bloodbury wrote: »

Try fasting, don't eat from the moment you wake up to around 8:30pm in the evening. Your body will go into shock. between 8:30 to 10:30 consume 1500 calories. Do this for seven days. You will develop self control needed to stop these desires.

That's just really bad advice.

I agree!

Ditto. Yikes.

OP, I have been there. There have been two factors that have led to binging for me: Not eating enough and dealing with difficult emotions by relying on food to numb me.

As for the first reason, it's really important to create a small deficit if you want to lose weight, but it's VERY important to eat enough. As others have said, try tracking your food, really commit to it. Don't be afraid about what you might see. I was bulimic and received special ED treatment for 3 years. One of the recommendations of my therapist was to track food. NOT to make myself crazy, but to plan meals in advance and face whether I was starving myself to lose weight. I thought it would make my ED worse to track food, but it didn't. It really helped. It helped me too to know what I ate if I binged. I could see if I set myself up for it by starving myself preceding the binge, to practice being gentle with myself by looking at what I ate and saying, "It happened, but I am still a good worthwhile person, and I can move on and not give up." Sometimes what I considered a binge was just my body trying to get the food I had been denying it.

I found the emotional component significant. I dealt with pain and grief by eating eating eating or starving starving starving. Both behaviors have hurt my efforts to take care of myself, naturally, and trying to lose weight safely, carefully, and slowly. And I'm going to confess--I am still struggling with this after tons of therapeutic work, behavioral therapy (specifically, dialectical behavioral therapy which focuses on methods to deal with emotional distress), and determination. I don't binge like I used to, but I do undereat and then overeat because I can't give up the "I have to lose the weight fast." It's true I've lost 30 pounds, but it's been very, very hard to lose while not triggering my ED, from which I have mostly recovered, despite some bad habits. I'm miles from where I used to be.

All of this to say, make sure you eat enough and attend to any emotions that you might be numbing/avoiding by abusing food. Don't feel despair--you really can do this. It's hard at first, and you're not going to be perfect (perfectionism has not helped me), but practice in anything will help ingrain habits that promote self care. Good luck to you and all good thoughts!

Some great advice in this thread. For me it really helped to just log log log. Try to log today whatever happens. That's your starting point. Once you are willing to look at and be kind but real to yourself about your behavior, that's where change can happen.

The best advice I can give is to just log everything, even if youre not eating at a deficit. Then reduce it gradually, or focus on one thing a week...say you'll cut out full sugar drinks or all chocolate etc. It feels a lot less overwhelming doing it slowly then suddenly dropping from 3000 to 1500 etc

And drink water...LOTS of water. That always helps
x

lemonlionheart wrote: »

Start by just tracking everything you eat, even if you're not actively trying to stay in your goal. Maybe you can set your calorie goal to maintenance and just try to stick to that for a while, then gradually reduce your cals once you are back on track? Remember, you absolutely CAN control yourself, you are just finding it hard at the moment for whatever reason. Try practicing mindfulness, and listening to your body. Learn to catch yourself when you start a binge and instead of saying 'screw it, I'll try again tomorrow' take a few deep breaths and ask yourself if this is what you want. Be kind to yourself- you might see those numbers in the red a few times and maybe you'll binge but perhaps today's won't be as bad as yesterday because you stopped yourself and didn't have that last whatever it was you felt like eating. One day at a time!

and also this comment from a different user, sorry, I don't know how to quote two!
1) Make sure you get enough sleep
2) Make sure you are eating enough (especially enough fat)
3) Don't over exercise, and make sure you eat enough for you level of activity
4) DON'T try to "make up" for binges

This is excellent advice, log it (no matter how ugly, my diary is sometimes ridiculous!), learn from it, move on straight away, don't let one binge turn into a week or month.

Bloodbury wrote: »

Try fasting, don't eat from the moment you wake up to around 8:30pm in the evening. Your body will go into shock. between 8:30 to 10:30 consume 1500 calories. Do this for seven days. You will develop self control needed to stop these desires.

Bad, bad, bad!

Logging calories is your best bet.

I am currently in recovery from BED and have been involved in intense therapy to help the issue. I would love some friends here to help support me during my recovery. It's nice to know someone else "gets it".