Just had a massive binge and I feel awful

Stats: height weight age? How big of a deficit are you normally on? Do you exercise? Do you eat the calories back?

What sort of feelings do you have before you binge? Stress, anger, sadness, despair, frustration?

Log it and learn from it. It happens to me every few weeks, and no matter what, I track everything. My triggers are boredom and stress. What are yours?

Tashlovesfood wrote: »

I do try to vary it but find that chocolate is my downfall. If I have one small bar I want more. I'm normally quite good at controlling myself and haven't binged properly in months however I have just been feeling really low this week and it's like I gave in to the struggle.

What sort of chocolate do you like? Have you experimented with different kinds? I love chocolate, and I knew any "diet" that cut it out was doomed to failure so I had to find a way to include it!

I tried a few brands and settled on an 85% dark chocolate for my fix. I can have just one or two squares of that and not feel the need for any more, but if I have something sweeter - even just 72% - I crave more and can't leave the rest of the bar alone.

If you live with someone you could also ask them to keep the bar somewhere and just give you your "ration" each day... the thought of having to ask my husband for another square kept me from eating too much of it when I first started cutting down!

It may not work for you, and obviously it depends on how dark you like your chocolate, but for me the answer was the darker the better to control my cravings. I also found that eventually - and it did take several months - I was able to go without chocolate for longer periods of time and I didn't need it every day or two. The first time I realised I'd had an unfinished bar in the fridge for about two weeks was a revelation that I really could break the hold it had on me. But, like I said, the sweeter it is the harder it is for me to resist so I try to limit the amount of chocolate that comes into the house overall.

Chocolate is my trigger also. I learned to only buy 2 or 3 100 calorie dove bars at a time in the house. And I break it into lots of pieces. I will slowly eat the bar over a period of maybe 10 minutes and it tricks my mind.

I find that if I make myself log every bit of the binge, I won't do it as often. Also when I do binge I stop sooner knowing the difference it makes on my diary. It's a work in progress...I try to count the small successes and not dwell on the missteps. Also, trying to eat too few calories will set you up for a disaster. Try to find a calorie goal that is reasonable for you. It's really hard when you can't exercise!!

I know what you mean OP. I got in a cycle where I couldn't go two weeks without a cheat night. And cheat night for me felt like I was only eating my deficit that day, not a complete bing. And just doing that seemed to cost me two weeks. Meaning I'd plateau that week of the cheat and it wouldn't be until the following week that I'd show a loss again.

I learned the trigger for me is a certain level of hungerness. If I let it go too long I give in to temptation and the flood gate opens. So now I eat an extra snack when I hit that level. I may be slightly over for the day but no where near what it would have been had I let it go.

SueSueDio wrote: »

fascha wrote: »

Unless you're really short that seems awfully low. When I was 210 i was just walking and I cut on 1900 cals.

Depends how active you are, I guess... I'm 5'6" and started at 217lbs, and my maintenance was 1900. I started with 1400 and gradually cut from there as I lost more weight, but now I've adjusted my goal to 0.5lbs/week and I'm back to around 1400 (because I'm very sedentary and don't even get 3000 steps most days).

Yeah I didn't do a lot of high intensity stuff but I managed to get in 10k steps and it slid off on 1900. I can't get over what a big difference just walking makes. 10k steps easily affords me a few hundred in comparison to my binge watching Grey's Anatomy days of 3k lol

@Tashlovesfood Open your diary so that creepy strangers in public can see it and snarkily comment upon it. They won't. Instead, people who want to help will say something very likely to be true and flowing from their concern for your health.

Drink lots of water tonight. It will help flush your system out so you feel a bit better.

Bingeing is a psychological behaviour so if you can't figure out your root causes then it might be worth speaking to someone professionally, for a little perspective. You sound like you definitely want to change and this might be the kick start you need.

Ultimately: food is food. It isn't good or bad, it's just a sliding scale of nutritional value. And please don't think of yourself as a failure. The only time you could be a 'failure' is if you don't get back up and try again. But you are so, just keep trying, hon.

You really ate between 10,500 and 21,000 calories in one evening? One day isn't the end of the world. It's when you do this on multiple days that things become a problem.

Its ok to go off track sometimes. Try not to even buy junk. Like i cant even buy it for my husband or ill binge eat it most times lol, there are also alot of healthy snacks like celery an peanut butter yogurt an granola. But dont beat yourself up, your only human and chocolate is yummy lol just remeber how *kitten* u feel before you do it again

Here it is. It's been so helpful to me. Baby steps with an expected and anticipated MASSIVE outcome in the future. Even if it takes me years to overcome binging, as long as I eventually overcome, that's sooner than if I never starting to try.

5 Steps to Break Free From Binge Eating | MyFitnessPal http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/how-to-break-free-from-binge-eating/

Tashlovesfood wrote: »

I'm 29 years old, female and 211 pounds. I can't exercise at the moment as I have a kneecap issue which I need to have physio for but I was told to lose weight first - so it's a bit of a vicious cycle. I've tested various calories and generally if I eat above 1400 maximum I don't lose weight. So normally I try to eat around 1300 per day. I do try to vary it but find that chocolate is my downfall. If I have one small bar I want more. I'm normally quite good at controlling myself and haven't binged properly in months however I have just been feeling really low this week and it's like I gave in to the struggle.

I am also 29 and currently 66 kg. I eat at about 1400 calories per day+ exercise calories and lost like 5 kg in 7 weeks. It seems your calorie intake is too low, leaving you unsatisfied and ultimately bingeing.

I did it this weekend too, makes me feel like a hypocrite because I spend a lot of time on here giving advice for how to avoid binges, yet still do it myself.

The one takeaway for me? It's that I have absolutely seen myself making progress, binging much less often and MUCH less severely. I just learn more and more about my habits and what sets me off.

This weekend I learned that I should not go into an event planning not to eat anything. I felt SO awkward NOT eating at a very very small event because every single other person there besides my husband asked me why... So I gave in a little. Then out came the dessert, then take home candy gifts, and an entire sleeve of peeps oreos. I'm not proud. Then the next day I was still feeling like I had failed so I ended up saying "screw it!" at the store and bought all my favorite Easter candies at half price. Had another binge on cookie dough... Not cookies mind you. Couldn't even eat another one when they were done. I logged my overage to the best of my ability and got right back to work today. I still have candy left... And I'm going to eat it. But I'm also moderating it, only allowing three a day while still maintaining my other goals like drinking my water and getting my activity in. I went on two REALLY good walks today, did a work out from YouTube, and a few extra of my pilates moves I do after walks.

In the end you just have to learn from yourself. Again my lesson here is to just embrace meals away from home, I only felt awkward and that triggered my social anxiety and I overate to calm myself and soothe myself. Next time when I embrace the meal I will plan what to eat and just enjoy. Perhaps if I'd given myself the leeway to enjoy a ham dinner and a slice of Cheesecake, I wouldn't have bought several days worth of Easter candy... I'm hoping I'm sick of it before it's gone and learn more about how to moderate my intake given high supply of a tempting food.