How to resist binge eating?

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starfish502015
starfish502015 Posts: 24 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Most days I find it pretty easy to stick to my calorie deficit although once I over eat even slightly the binge eating is very hard to stop, does anyone have any helpful tips?

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  • random5483
    random5483 Posts: 63 Member
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    Tell yourself your calorie deficit is a weekly matter and not a daily matter when you go over your daily allowance. Just make sure you are under for the week. This might let you have a fun day or two every month without going over your total calorie goals for any given week.

    Or you could read the thread on the 800 lb guy and tell yourself you don't want to turn into him - http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10266031/800-pound-man-kicked-out-of-hospital-for-ordering-pizza/p1
  • Maxematics
    Maxematics Posts: 2,287 Member
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    It seems psychological, honestly. "Well, I'm already 150 calories over, so I may as well be 500 calories over..." That's not positive thinking, nor conducive to your goals. If you know there are days you would like to eat more, budget some extra calories. Eat 100-200 calories less than you normally would five days per week and that gives you, 500-1000 extra calories to play with two days per week. I personally don't do this, but I know many people here who do.

    When I'm hungrier, I recognize it and I eat more. Most days I'm slightly under my calorie goal, but there's a few times per month where I'm just ravenous. Last night I had yogurt and a protein bar because I was so hungry after walking for an hour and a half i the park. After I finished, I was like "Whoa, I'm still hungry." I grabbed another protein bar and a pack of fruit snacks. I said to myself "No. Wait 20 minutes and see if you feel full." Guess what happened after that? If you guessed that I put back the protein bar and the fruit snacks and did not go over my calorie goal, you'd be correct. There have been times where I have gone over my calorie goal, though. I think my maximum was 450 calories sometime last month. Did I care? Nope. I had already built up a great deficit over the week and I knew one day wouldn't hurt. I notice that people who often think of eating more food or eating "unhealthy" food as cheating/binging are often the ones who end up overeating those foods because they restrict them way too much every other day of the week.

    Bottom line? Listen to your body, eat the foods you like, and think about your weekly deficit overall rather than your daily deficit. You are not a machine and weight loss is not linear; you don't have to have the same results every week nor should you expect to.
  • starfish502015
    starfish502015 Posts: 24 Member
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    synacious wrote: »
    It seems psychological, honestly. "Well, I'm already 150 calories over, so I may as well be 500 calories over..." That's not positive thinking, nor conducive to your goals. If you know there are days you would like to eat more, budget some extra calories. Eat 100-200 calories less than you normally would five days per week and that gives you, 500-1000 extra calories to play with two days per week. I personally don't do this, but I know many people here who do.

    When I'm hungrier, I recognize it and I eat more. Most days I'm slightly under my calorie goal, but there's a few times per month where I'm just ravenous. Last night I had yogurt and a protein bar because I was so hungry after walking for an hour and a half i the park. After I finished, I was like "Whoa, I'm still hungry." I grabbed another protein bar and a pack of fruit snacks. I said to myself "No. Wait 20 minutes and see if you feel full." Guess what happened after that? If you guessed that I put back the protein bar and the fruit snacks and did not go over my calorie goal, you'd be correct. There have been times where I have gone over my calorie goal, though. I think my maximum was 450 calories sometime last month. Did I care? Nope. I had already built up a great deficit over the week and I knew one day wouldn't hurt. I notice that people who often think of eating more food or eating "unhealthy" food as cheating/binging are often the ones who end up overeating those foods because they restrict them way too much every other day of the week.

    Bottom line? Listen to your body, eat the foods you like, and think about your weekly deficit overall rather than your daily deficit. You are not a machine and weight loss is not linear; you don't have to have the same results every week nor should you expect to.

    This was so so helpful! Thank you so much! :)
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,986 Member
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    starfish502015 wrote: »
    Most days I find it pretty easy to stick to my calorie deficit although once I over eat even slightly the binge eating is very hard to stop, does anyone have any helpful tips?

    I've experienced "Well, I'm already over, so the heck with today..." in the past. I've learned:

    1. On normal days, I need to exercise to get enough calories to feel satisfied, so I have to make exercising a priority.
    2. That my appetite goes up premenstrually and eating regular foods at my maintenance calorie amount prevents me from Eating all the Food.

    I'm currently reading Eating Mindfully: How to End Mindless Eating and Enjoy a Balanced Relationship with Food, which I got from my library. Chapter 3, Moment-to-Moment Eating, has lots of tips to deaccelerate eating, which can short-circuit a binge / eating trance.
  • talismanicmagic
    talismanicmagic Posts: 36 Member
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    As a "former" binge eater, I found it easier to stick to my daily calorie goals. I log everything BEFORE I decide if I'm going to eat it.
    I'm only new to calorie counting but I'm determined to stick to my goals. I've had a few meltdowns this week, and was so tempted to grab a bag of crisps and devour the whole bag! I logged it, saw how many calories it was and it snapped me back to reality.
    For me personally I'm not giving myself the opportunity to have "fun" days, because everyday should be a fun day, and I need to learn that "fun" doesn't have to mean eating bad foods. I enjoy healthy foods, and I also enjoy unhealthy foods, but if I'm binging on bad foods I know how *kitten* I feel afterwards and how easy it is to just fall back into bad habits.
    Try and think of the bigger picture and LOG EVERYTHING before you decide to eat it!
    Good luck!
    If I can do it, anyone can do it!
  • OldAssDude
    OldAssDude Posts: 1,436 Member
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    starfish502015 wrote: »
    Most days I find it pretty easy to stick to my calorie deficit although once I over eat even slightly the binge eating is very hard to stop, does anyone have any helpful tips?

    Exercise every day and burn at least 500 calories. It will curb your appetite, and give you some extra calories to consume if you need to.
  • PinkPixiexox
    PinkPixiexox Posts: 4,142 Member
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    Maybe bank some calories on days where your appetite isn't so high to use for the 'hungry days'?
    Alternatively, you could exercise to 'earn' that bit extra :)
  • Upstate_Dunadan
    Upstate_Dunadan Posts: 435 Member
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    If you are going over calories because you are hungry - consider raising your protein intake. MFP sets protein macros pretty low and protein helps you feel full.

    If you are going over because you are eating unhealthy (or not as healthy foods) "trigger" foods, then cut them out. I know I personally don't do well with moderation, so instead of telling myself I'll eat 1/4 cup of ice cream, which I know will turn into eating the whole carton (think Ben & Jerry's), I just don't include it in my normal eating. Same goes with cookies and anything else sweet. I'll only eat those thing fully knowing it will lead to eating too much, and once in a while I'll just go ahead and splurge.

    If it's the "well I'm over, what the heck" issue as mentioned above, then you have to make sure you never go over - unless you are OK binge eating. Make it black and white.
  • SingRunTing
    SingRunTing Posts: 2,604 Member
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    First and foremost, no one can tell you how to do this. You need to figure it out for yourself. Sorry, there's just no way around that.

    Second, what helps me is to log everything when I feel like bingeing*. I might go a little bit over, but I know that my deficit is 500 calories. When I hit that 500 over mark and I know that I'm now looking at going over maintenance, it really makes me think before I continue.

    *This is really rare now, but logging is what helped me through it when I first started.
  • oolou
    oolou Posts: 765 Member
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    I try to only have food that is 'healthy' to binge on. Evenings are the worst for me. So I'll have extra bowls of cereal for example, or I'll make some scrambled eggs. I avoid buying stuff that I know is a trigger for binge eating - white bread is my bete noir, so I've stopped buying bread >.< And if there is chocolate in the house, I know I'm going to eat it ... I managed to scoff a whole bar earlier this week. But I didn't stress about it as I'd had good days previously so the overall deficit for the week was fine.

    Be aware of your trigger foods and don't buy them. Have other food ready to eat that won't make you feel terrible afterwards. And bear in mind the weekly deficit.
  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
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    What works for me:
    1.I learned not to be overly aggressive on calorie restriction. It's not a race. An easier diet I stick to is better than any diet I fail.
    2. I don't categorically restrict any food, so I can satisfy cravings add long as I plan for the calories.
    3. I preplan and prelog so I know what I will be eating. This shifts my food decisions to points when I'm not hungry, and can think with my head and not my stomach.
  • starfish502015
    starfish502015 Posts: 24 Member
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    All of your replies have been so extremely helpful thank you so much! I think logging food before is probably something I am going to start doing now, have not tried that and then maybe I'll stick to eating only the foods I've planned to eat rather than start eating something and go over my deficit like one of you said "since I'm over might as well eat everything" not going to do that anymore that's something I do often I've realised! But thank you all for such useful advice :)
  • dubird
    dubird Posts: 1,849 Member
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    If there are certain foods that trigger it, don't have them in the house. If you ABSOLUTELY MUST have whatever it is, go to the gas station and buy a SMALL bag of it. That way, you get to eat what you're craving, but you won't overeat by too much. I didn't binge, but I had a really bad snacking habit. I would open a bag of chips while reading or at the computer and not realize how much I was eating until the bag was empty. By keeping those kinds of foods out of the house normally, I stop myself from starting, and if I really want some chips, I go to the gas station and get a small bag. It's usually a couple of servings, but at least it's not a large bag of 15 servings that I'll finish off without realizing it!

    As for going over, everyone has days they go over. When it happens, log it and move on. Don't use it as an excuse to eat more, but chalk it up to experience and start fresh with your next day/meal. Prelogging helps some people, so if you're craving something, try logging a serving of it and see if you can fit it into you calories. If you can, pull out JUST that serving and put the bag away somewhere out of sight. For me, I don't do that, but I'll log after I eat and see where I'm at. Sometimes I'm over, and when that happens, I log it and move on. That took me a long time to learn, but once I did, this whole process became much easier!
  • steelyjoe22
    steelyjoe22 Posts: 40 Member
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    Historically, when I knew I had a bad day, I would just ignore it and hopefully start over tomorrow.

    The last few times I binge ate, I logged all my calories anyway. This lead me to see that skipping the ice cream at the end could have actually made a real difference, and it's not just "oh well, I screwed up, might as well go all out now."

    My advice would be to start with logging your food every day, regardless of how good or bad it looks. Don't beat yourself up or judge yourself, and then use the data to see where you could make some improvements.
  • Merrysix
    Merrysix Posts: 336 Member
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    I try not to have my trigger foods around, and plenty of foods I do like to eat that don't trigger me. I try never to be overly hungry which sets me up for binging - I do best with 5 or 6 smaller meals a day with plenty of protein in each meal so that way I don't feel hungry; exercise really helps me not want to binge. I pack a lunch bag for work/in the car with plenty of things I like to eat that don't trigger me.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,986 Member
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    dubird wrote: »
    If there are certain foods that trigger it, don't have them in the house. If you ABSOLUTELY MUST have whatever it is, go to the gas station and buy a SMALL bag of it. That way, you get to eat what you're craving, but you won't overeat by too much. I didn't binge, but I had a really bad snacking habit. I would open a bag of chips while reading or at the computer and not realize how much I was eating until the bag was empty. By keeping those kinds of foods out of the house normally, I stop myself from starting, and if I really want some chips, I go to the gas station and get a small bag. It's usually a couple of servings, but at least it's not a large bag of 15 servings that I'll finish off without realizing it!

    As for going over, everyone has days they go over. When it happens, log it and move on. Don't use it as an excuse to eat more, but chalk it up to experience and start fresh with your next day/meal. Prelogging helps some people, so if you're craving something, try logging a serving of it and see if you can fit it into you calories. If you can, pull out JUST that serving and put the bag away somewhere out of sight. For me, I don't do that, but I'll log after I eat and see where I'm at. Sometimes I'm over, and when that happens, I log it and move on. That took me a long time to learn, but once I did, this whole process became much easier!

    Yup, weighing out a serving, putting the bag away, logging the food, and only then eating it is very helpful for me with high calorie foods that I might otherwise overeat.

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