What do you count as 'binging'?

lausa22
lausa22 Posts: 467 Member
edited September 30 in Food and Nutrition
I'm just curious about what you class as 'binge eating';
An extra slice of cake after dinner?
Going over your calories by a certain amount?
Having a whole pizza to yourself rather than half?

Where do you think eating a little bit more becomes binge eating?
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Replies

  • RainyDayKelli
    RainyDayKelli Posts: 85 Member
    Binge eating, to me, is when I can no longer control myself. The occasional piece of cake after dinner is nothing compared to a day of bingeing.
  • Kalrez
    Kalrez Posts: 655 Member
    I feel like I'm binging anytime I do not feel in control of my eating. It doesn't matter how much or what I eat during the binge. If I don't feel in control of myself, if I feel more like a ravenous monster rather than a rational human, then I consider it a binge.
  • lsd007
    lsd007 Posts: 435
    I consider it a binge when I go to the fridge or pantry (or freezer in the case of ice cream) and eat so fast that I don't actually taste any of the food. I am usually standing there with the door still open. I am never hungry. It usually follows a very stressful day.
  • lsd007
    lsd007 Posts: 435
    I consider it a binge when I go to the fridge or pantry (or freezer in the case of ice cream) and eat so fast that I don't actually taste any of the food. I am usually standing there with the door still open. I am never hungry. It usually follows a very stressful day. It's always late at night when the rest of the house is in bed. It doesn't really matter what the food is as long as it is edible.
  • superhippiechik
    superhippiechik Posts: 1,044 Member
    Binging- Eating well beyond your limit...in private. A binge eater would never let other people see. They hide in the car,around the block,in the bathroom. Will make excuses to go to the store and eat a value meal before getting to the store and getting a taco on the way home. Hiding food,hiding to eat,sneaking bites when noone is looking. Eating till it hurts and then having a dozen more bites.Speaking from experience.
  • mommyfirst77
    mommyfirst77 Posts: 119
    I agree, to me it is when you are just completely out of control!!! Not so much when oh I really should not have eaten that snack pack of m&m's. More like oh crap I just ate the whole pound sized bag of m&m's!!!!
  • Black_Swan
    Black_Swan Posts: 770 Member
    When I eat a sandwich, and then a chocolate, and then drink a cocktail, and then eat chips, and then eat a chocolate bar, and then eat fries, and then have ice cream and Im standing there thinking "I cant believe it, why did I do this??".
  • tripitena
    tripitena Posts: 554 Member
    Like Kalrez said, it's a binge anytime I'm not in control and I'm eating compulsively.
    I also have a bad habit of nibbling while I'm cooking, sometimes to the point that not only am I not hungry for dinner I have no clue how much food/ how many actual calories I've consumed along the way. I'm doing that less now that I use MFP to log every thing.
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
    When I'd grab three fun-sized candy bars out of the bag... every time I passed through the kitchen.
  • ayshamc
    ayshamc Posts: 226 Member
    Yep, eating to the point where you feel like you are going to be sick.

    And then completely hating yourself for it afterwards :cry:
  • sister_bear
    sister_bear Posts: 529 Member

    Having a whole pizza to yourself rather than half

    In our house we call binges 'food blackouts.' As in, 'I started eating and then I don't remember anything, but all the food was gone.'

    Eating an entire pizza, a family serving... and a half of breadsticks, followed by cake, ice cream, and a few beers. That's a binge. Might even have a snack after that. Been there. Done that. That's what I call a binge and the sad thing is not even remembering that ate all of it, just feeling miserable afterwards.
  • PecanTanDiva
    PecanTanDiva Posts: 162
    I consider it a binge when I go to the fridge or pantry (or freezer in the case of ice cream) and eat so fast that I don't actually taste any of the food. I am usually standing there with the door still open. I am never hungry. It usually follows a very stressful day. It's always late at night when the rest of the house is in bed. It doesn't really matter what the food is as long as it is edible.


    This is me :blushing: I'm usually still standing there with the doors wide open after just snacking on something a minute ago.
  • lausa22
    lausa22 Posts: 467 Member
    I used to do this thing;
    I'd come home starving from not eating in College, so I'd put something in the oven. But because it took, say 30 minutes, to cook. I'd throw something little together whilst it cooked. So I'd end up eating a mini-meal before my meal, then a desert after it.

    I no longer do that, I haven't done for over a year now.
    I just asked this because to me, that was my binge, but I remember watching my friend snack, then have a meal, then a desert and THEN go to the store after and snack on the way home, only to eat more in the house. So it made me realise there are extremes to binging and everybody thinks differently.
  • SavCal71
    SavCal71 Posts: 350 Member
    To me, a binge has to be 1) mindless to begin with, 2) BIG consumption, and 3) at the end you KNOW you should be doing it. Basically when you feel you don't have any control.

    An extra piece of cake? No.
    A whole bag of chips? Yes
    6 cookies instead of 3? probably not
  • Rilke
    Rilke Posts: 1,201 Member
    I agree with most of the above, though some of them aren't really bingeing. I consider it to be mindless consumption of a LOT of food -- an amount that you would never eat in anything but solitude. Like an entire pizza, or a pound of pasta, or three or four orders from a fast food joint, or the entire half gallon of ice cream . . .
  • frannyannemum
    frannyannemum Posts: 142
    I consider binging as when you eat and you cannot stop. I tend to have a binge day (like a lot of women) just before TOM, namely today. Today I have been picking at chocolate muffins and crisps. Other than that, today has been quite a healthy day :(
  • estelle74uk
    estelle74uk Posts: 465 Member
    Im afraid I have had a binging day. The start of the day was fine, I trianed and had a nice breakfast. But I have totally overdone it on the peanut butter today, having about 8 rice cakes with it on. then have had a whole bag of the seeded things which honey, which was over 1000 cals a bag, now I have just eaten two scones, althugh they were free from wheat, gluten and milk, still 390 cals each with loads of butter and honey on them. :( It is my time of the month, but this gets my absoutely nowhere, and I had it from my partner, like its naughty. Ashamed probably.

    Now my stomach is hugely bloated. Looking like im pregnant and very uncomfortable. It was like that even before I had the second scone, but I still had it.
  • Qarol
    Qarol Posts: 6,171 Member
    I consider binging when you're eating beyond enjoyment. Food is to be enjoyed, whether it's considered healthy food or junk food. But if you've passed enjoyment and are just stuffing your face for the sake of it, that's binging. Like those retarded eating contests. It's such a waste of food, to eat it and not enjoy it.
  • annarface
    annarface Posts: 77 Member
    A binge to me is when you have no control over it and consume an inhumane amount of calories in a short space of time. Isn't the medical definition like 3,000 in 2 hours or something? Kind of what other people said.

    It confuses me how people consider a whole pizza a binge? Are your pizzas much bigger than mine or something, because I used to eat a whole pizza and consider it fine. I know a lot of people who eat whole pizzas... s:
  • vulrich93
    vulrich93 Posts: 99
    Having an extra 1000-2000 calories :)
    I don't count having dessert as binging. I count it as a treat.
  • Kalrez
    Kalrez Posts: 655 Member
    A binge to me is when you have no control over it and consume an inhumane amount of calories in a short space of time. Isn't the medical definition like 3,000 in 2 hours or something? Kind of what other people said.

    It confuses me how people consider a whole pizza a binge? Are your pizzas much bigger than mine or something, because I used to eat a whole pizza and consider it fine. I know a lot of people who eat whole pizzas... s:

    I could put away a medium pizza like it was nobody's business. Papa John's spinach alfredo deep dish pizza ... yeah. Whole thing. Gone. But that was in Beforeland :/
  • Rilke
    Rilke Posts: 1,201 Member
    A binge to me is when you have no control over it and consume an inhumane amount of calories in a short space of time. Isn't the medical definition like 3,000 in 2 hours or something? Kind of what other people said.

    It confuses me how people consider a whole pizza a binge? Are your pizzas much bigger than mine or something, because I used to eat a whole pizza and consider it fine. I know a lot of people who eat whole pizzas... s:

    Considering a 12" cheese pizza (no other toppings) is 1600-2000 calories, nobody -- except possibly a teenage boy with a supercharged metabolism, and even then it's a bad idea -- should be putting away an entire pie in one sitting.
  • annarface
    annarface Posts: 77 Member
    A binge to me is when you have no control over it and consume an inhumane amount of calories in a short space of time. Isn't the medical definition like 3,000 in 2 hours or something? Kind of what other people said.

    It confuses me how people consider a whole pizza a binge? Are your pizzas much bigger than mine or something, because I used to eat a whole pizza and consider it fine. I know a lot of people who eat whole pizzas... s:

    Considering a 12" cheese pizza (no other toppings) is 1600-2000 calories, nobody -- except possibly a teenage boy with a supercharged metabolism, and even then it's a bad idea -- should be putting away an entire pie in one sitting.

    Oh wow. I had no idea 12'' was like, the normal size?! I've only ever had those small frozen pizzas that are like the size of your hand haha.
  • LittleMissAlx
    LittleMissAlx Posts: 291 Member
    Eating so much of my own birthday cake that I feel like I'm about to literally burst at the seams, then find I've put on 2lb overnight? Luckily, I now have no inclination to eat cakes, biscuits, pizza or anything else junk food like in a very long time, lol.
  • hazelnutflav
    hazelnutflav Posts: 391 Member
    to me binging is eating until you puke so violently that your ribs hurt for the next 3 or 4 days.

    the last time this happened to me i was horrified by my actions and vowed never to do that again, and i have not nor will i ever.

    live & learn.
  • driventotheend
    driventotheend Posts: 20
    To me a binge is when no matter what or how much I eat, I am never satisfied. I can be full yet keep going back for more food - something salty, then something sweet, something crunchy, then something cold, etc. etc. The time that usually triggers a binge for me is when my husband is out and the kids are in bed, and I am all alone. I think it's a combination of feeling bored and lonely and also feeling free and unaccountable to anyone, no having to be a role model for the kids, no embarrassment of having a husband watch me go to town on a bag of chips.

    I'm actually really proud of myself because my husband went out with a friend last Friday and I was on my 3rd day into MFP, and instead of eating the whole kitchen, I made myself a healthy snack of greek yogurt with oat bran cereal on top, watched a couple of TV shows, and went to bed. Progress!
  • coltonsmumma
    coltonsmumma Posts: 80 Member
    The 4 crescent rolls I just inhaled for no reason.
  • spngebobmyhero
    spngebobmyhero Posts: 823 Member
    Its when I pick up most of the bag of chips (cookies, candy, etc) and can't stop myself from eating.

    Its also eating when I'm not hungry at all.

    Or when I go to a party and can't pull myself away from the chip bowl.

    I've been really good about not doing this lately, thank goodness.
  • theflyingartist
    theflyingartist Posts: 385 Member
    For me it's not when I consume the entire Ben & Jerry's container.
    It's when I eat it from the container before it has a chance to melt.

    If I do it in increments over a few hours, sure. But if you've lost control of what you're eating, and you don't remember tasting it or letting the flavor hit your tongue and give yourself all the time to enjoy what you're eating.. then it's a binge.
    All stress/emotional eating, no enjoyment.
  • gilmangirl
    gilmangirl Posts: 18 Member
    I always thought of it as eating more than you really need to. Eating because you're bored, upset, or whatever even though you're not hungry. Then again, every once in awhile it's okay to have a small treat. A small bag of M&Ms or chips, a reasonable slice of pie or dessert after a healthy dinner. A cookie in between meals, nothing too extreme or very often. Of course, the only time I see binging exceptable and don't feel guilty are holiday dinners!
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