Binge eating help

SaraAhmad117 wrote: »

I never really considered whether or not I had an issue with binge eating until recently. When I think about it, throughout high school I was sort of a loner. I would come home from school and while my brother was out skateboarding or practicing drums, I would grab a snack and sit down in front of the TV. A sandwich would turn into a sandwich and a large bag of chips. When the chips disappeared I would be craving something sweet and end up eating almost an entire box of cookies or half a carton of ice cream. Then I would make macaroni and cheese and eat the entire box. Then my mom would come home or my brother would get hungry, and since no one saw me eat all that food, I would have a big dinner too. And dessert. It seemed like no matter how much I ate I was never full or satisfied. I would never eat a lot in front of other people though.

When I finally started working out in my 20's and got my diet together, I would give myself 1-2 "cheat days" throughout the week. I thought this was a normal thing, and for many people it is. Except their "cheat days" consist of eating a different dinner or having a couple of drinks. I would go to the grocery store and buy EVERYTHING I had wanted to eat throughout the week. Lots of bread, cheese, meats, chocolates- anything. I would order Chinese food and/or pizza and eat the entire pizza or enough Chinese food to feed three to four people. I would stay home alone and enjoy it all. I didn't pay attention to the calories, but I'm positive it had to be around 4,000-5,000 a day easily. It didn't matter much to me because I would just get back on my diet and workout after the weekend.

Now I'm living in India, in a different culture, working from home for the first time and without a gym membership for the first time since about 2006. I gained back 30 lbs that I had lost before moving here a year ago, and I'm really reflecting on my eating habits because I don't have the option to go and burn off 1,000+ calories at the gym everyday. I've been back on my healthy eating routine for 17 days. In the last 17 days I really slipped up bad once. I wanted to "relax" after over a week of doing well. I ordered a medium pizza and asked my husband to get me a box of chocolate marshmallow pies (6 total in a box). I thought I would just have a few slices and a pie, but I ate the entire pizza in a couple of hours, and finished all six pies. Then my husband ordered his dinner out and I ate a plate of his mutton biryani (greasy Indian rice with meat). I would have eaten two spring rolls too and a chocolate bar but (thank God) the restaurant was out of rolls and I didn't have any chocolate left in the apartment. I woke up the next day and was going to just ignore it, but I thought it would help to see the damage I had done, so I logged all of the food. It was nearly 5,000 calories. That was kind of a wake up call. I think I may actually have this problem. Since that day, I've had just one other little slip which was no where near as bad, but still I could have avoided it. I ate three pieces of fried chicken with cheese, 5 vegetable momos (steamed dumplings), and two scoops of chocolate brownie ice cream for lunch, knowing full well that I had to go to a birthday dinner party where there was a LOT of fried food later that night. I guess it was almost as bad- I consumed more than two days' worth of calories in one. The next day I wanted a pizza so bad, but I just sat on the MFP forums all afternoon and distracted myself by reading what other people are going through in their weight loss, diet, and exercise struggles. It helped.

My main motivation not to binge right now is that I know I won't ever work out as hard at home as I would in the gym. I guess I don't really have any advice for you that you haven't heard before, but for me, seeing that so many other people face these issues and are struggling with them too is inspirational in its own way, and hopefully reading my very long story helps you by just knowing there's another person out there facing the same kind of problems.

Becky_charles29 wrote: »

I also used to binge and from sept last year, I was eating to the point of being uncomfortable. I have bipolar so hated the feeling of not being in control so I started purging. I knew it was wrong but it seemed the only way to control myself. I bought this up to my psychologist and her advise was to identify my trigger foods (pizza is mine, as well as sweets, sharing bags of chocolates and sharing bags of crisps) and stop bringing them into the house.

She then said to focus on making a note of everything I was eating (mfp was great for this) to give me some control back which helped. I still have to be careful with my triggers, but if I fancy something, I'll only bring home a small/individual portion. If it's not there, I can't have it.

There is an element of will power, but it's finding ways to help your will power become stronger

veganxpizza wrote: »

toe1226 wrote: »

A few things,

I wholly support veganism- especially if it is for political / ethical reasons, and if that is your reasoning - more power to you, but I will also state

- one of the most helpful things in eliminating binge eating for me, was stopping the demonization of any food, food group, or food type. NO BAD FOODS, ONLY BAD FEELINGS. that was HUGE!
- I can eat chocolate every day, ice cream every day, just portions of them. No food on this planet all by itself can make me fat or less worthy of a human being!
- Not undereating. You can still lose weight without undereating, and it won't leave you starving and desperate.
- Realizing that I was quite literally, killing myself. I got to the point where my heart would be bumping, I couldn't leave bed, it was not how I wanted to go.
- Cognitive behavioral therapy.
- Recognizing that every moment is your new moment. It's not all or nothing.

And finally, I really did love this blog post:

http://www.andiemitchell.com/2014/11/05/how-to-recover-from-binge-eating/#more-13213

Yeah I am vegan for ethical reasons. So I don't really look at meat and dairy foods as "bad" or "can't have"....I don't WANT them, because I'm not about taking lives to satisfy a food craving. I could go on and on.... (also anything non vegan has a vegan alternative, just saying) so it's not like I'm missing out on anything.
But anyways, yes I see what you are saying. Those "bad" foods for me are pizza, chips, ice cream, chocolate, chicken (vegan) nuggets, ranch, etc. etc. I always feel bad about eating them, but when I take a bite of ice cream, for example, I'm like "*kitten* it, I want more" and a bite leads to the entire pint. All the other things you mentioned are totally right, thank you for that advice! I will also check out the blog post.

MNMsMonique wrote: »

Binge eating is almost always associated with mental health and psychological issues. It may not necessarily be something major. I would recommend finding a local Eaters Anonymous group. I know that sounds silly, but they do exist and it often helps to talk to people with similar issues. It may be an alternative to therapy, which is expensive. If the group is not free, it should be very little cost. I've tried the smoothies and water and they work in the short term, but not in the long term (at least my experience). Hope this helps!

phreexx wrote: »

Do you notice a pattern? Personally I binge eat a lot before I start monthly. So maybe it's an iron thing or some other defecicancy. Maybe talk to your doctor about your patterns.
Exercise (for me) is a natural appetite suppressant. Intense exercise is anyway.

I hope you find something that works for you!