Binge Eating

Friend me. You are the same as I am. I'm 51. I have battled this for years and always lost. I have been extremely athletic but I couldn't get this one problem fixed till now. I went to a counselor, got a trainer and got support. two things that mad the biggest difference. It really change everything for me. First make up your mind. Each time you see a food you shouldn't eat. know who is in charge. Second know you have to change or you will not get changes. Give up processed food. stick to lean meat and vegetables. If you do this you will win. Other things . Buy a scale. it helped me. Its the food we eat it sparks hunger and you cant win if you eat sugar, flower and processed crap.

Binge eating is one of my problems. It is not even that I'll eat "bad" foods .... it is that I start in and just keep piling on course after course. I've nobody else in the house that I cook for anymore, so I'm working on eliminating the binge options from my cabinets and fridge.

So this was a huge issue of mine... somewhere along the line my mind got it twisted into thinking that I needed to feel uncomfortably full to feel satisfied and get that "comfort" I was seeking. I was fine at breakfast and lunch (primarily because you can't really binge eat in front of your coworkers) but at night I would ruin my whole day at dinner. I don't condone binge eating whatsoever but this is how I got past that hurdle. In the first few weeks of using myfitnesspal - I made sure I was saving enough calories for dinner time where I could eat until I was full, stuffed really. My dinners would look crazy - I would eat four oz of tilapia or chicken and like TEN cups of pan sauteed kale or spinach. Or I would make huge portions of roasted vegetables like mushrooms and bell peppers that are low calorie but super filling, especially in the quantities like I was eating. I made sure to weigh out my amounts of food on my food scale to get an accurate calorie count. After a few weeks, I didn't need to stuff myself anymore as my relationship with food became healthier. Mindful eating started to take over as my body adjusted to all the nutritious things I was eating. I still have the tendency to "clear my plate" at night - even if I know I'm satiated, but I definitely don't overeat anymore. Good luck to you! Getting outside help is probably a great step in the right direction!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/food-cravings-engineered-by-industry-1.1395225

You may want to check out this group here: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/726-binge-eating-support-group

I really like what healthygreek posted. I'm now 10 weeks binge-free and posted a long thread in the group about what has been helping me, but biggest things are logging everything, lowering carb intake moderately and upping fat and protein, and not banning any foods.

Kiyy wrote: »

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/food-cravings-engineered-by-industry-1.1395225

^The food industry gives us foods with fat, salt, and sugar so that we eat (and buy) more.
Eat unprocessed food.

shia23 wrote: »

So I seriously need some good advice on binge eating. I do ok during the day during the work week, but in the evenings and the weekend it's like I just give up. I need help. Food unfortunately has always made me happy and been my comfort. I had a bad childhood and food was the only comfort I knew. Now I use food when I happy sad stresses whatever. Today I literally ate an entire pie....which is so embarrassing to admit, but I'm to the point I just don't know what to do. My husband tries to be supportive, but he ends up enabling me because he knows food makes me happy. Now I just feel like a miserable fat depressed mess. I need some kind of outside help. I've never written on a blog before but I am getting desperate. Not only do I worry about my looks but my health. I get frustrated that I don't loose weight fast enough and then I just give up. Or I have one cookie chip ect and then decide well I might as well give up for today or I can just start tomorrow.... I've had hundreds of tomorrow's or Mondays.....now I just need some understanding and some advice. Thank you!

This could have been written by me, 12 months ago. I'd be fine all day, and then bam. Food completely controlled my life. I would eat 2 McDonalds burgers on the way home from work and then cook dinner and eat with the family. I've sat and ate half a caramel mud cake on my own. I have bought 2 pies and a cake from the bakery and ate them. It's frightening the amount of food I've eaten in one sitting.

Part of it is related to childhood food lessons (my father would yell and make me sit at the table until my dinner was all gone and then reward me with a bowl of icecream for dessert), but part of it is also related to carb addiction.

I personally have never been able to do "just a little bit of this or that within my calories". Restricting those "trigger" foods just causes me to fall apart and instead of having a couple of squares of chocolate I'll eat the whole block, and then a bag of chips and a bowl of icecream. And still gaze into the fridge.

The only thing that's stopped it, in 20 years of "I'll start over tomorrow", was cutting out all of the things that caused the problem. As of earlier this year I'm sugar free, I also don't eat grains, pasta, rice, potatoes etc. I eat mainly protein, and foods high in saturated fat. I've lost 58.6lbs. I haven't fallen off the wagon, or had a binge, in 6 months. I also haven't been hungry. I feel like it's saved my life, I really do. I eat about 1700 cals a day, and this week alone I've lost 7.7lbs. I don't kill myself at the gym, I go horseriding once a week.

I could have spent the NEXT 20 years trying to control portions and restrict calories and ended up gaining another 30kg. Or not, I would have been dead most likely.

As always, I don't deny that some people CAN have "just two squares of chocolate" or save their calories and eat McDonalds for dinner and lose weight. So no need to jump on me. I merely share MY experience (shared by many many other people). There are those of us who can't do that. Who always feel desperate and on the verge of losing control.

So much encouragement on this thread!! I currently have 4 days of abstinence from binge eating and I'm clearly white nuckling it as I think of food every waking moment. Please add me folks as I could really use the inspiration.