Binge eating and emotional eating

kimmykim92 · July 2017

Does anyone have any tips for overcoming binge eating and emotional eating? I have 80+ lbs to lose and if I don't stop binge eating and emotional eating I am never going to get there. Just feeling really down right now about where I am in live and struggling with hating how I look and being embarrassed about what I look like which I think is increasing how much I binge eat. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Mummytofitmummy · July 2017

The only thing that kicks me into gear is exercising as it makes me feel guilty about eating so much.
Also it really helps improve my mood.

Tykk · July 2017

I'm sad to say that I've been through this too, and I know exactly how you feel!

It turns out that food restriction is itself a trigger for binge eating. So it's ultimately a hopeless battle trying to lose weight before getting to the root of what is causing the binging.

Read this book, and it will help you decide what to do next.

Overcoming Binge Eating, Second Edition: The Proven Program to Learn Why You Binge and How You Can Stop, by Christopher Fairburn

81Katz · July 2017

All I can do, for me, is just make it to another day and just do better when I do slip up. If I get too down on myself my binges can last 2,3,4+ days and the worse I let myself feel the more I binge, eat, feel bad, repeat, etc. It just doesn't work. Easier said than done I know. I understand all too well the shame, guilt, regret, etc. that goes with binge eating. Plus it seems too easy to fall into a pattern or cycle. I just realllllllly have to keep myself from going to that place, it happens still, I just am working on not letting it happen too frequently. I'm a work in progress!

Sashslay · July 2017

I'm the same! I basically had to just push my way through the first week until I stepped on the scale and let the weight loss motivate me. Like seriously push, crying all the time, getting so irritated that I wanted to eat and couldn't. Cold turkey worked best for me, but it was a rough fricken turkey

kenyonhaff · July 2017

It's really, really hard.

Food feels good. It's comforting. It's supposed to. And it's not like you can just stop eating, right?

For me, it's a big combination of:

1) Awareness: "Mindfulness" is the big buzzword, but it's true. I have to be mindful of what I'm currently feeling, confront negative self-talk, catastrophication, take time to pause and breathe, and so forth. It's easy to simply mindlessly go to grab a bag of chips and eat it. Instead, I recognize the impulse, reflect on it, allow myself to feel it, and realize it's temporary and will go away - chips will not solve the problem and will in fact make me feel worse.
2) Replace one set of responses with another. When I feel stressed, angry, sad, or bored I go for a quick walk, or do some yoga, do a few minutes of "Just Dance", get a coffee or just sit down and read. A big concept of behaviors is that it is easier and more effective to substitute a behavior rather than just try to eliminate it.

Live0rDieTrying · July 2017

I don't know if you are a fan of routine, but I sure wasn't until I sat down and thought about a usual day for myself. I actually started planning out my day and decided to stop eating after a certain time. Typically if you quit eating after (for example 6:30 pm) a certain time, your body will process the food you have put into it overnight. I would do a lot of binging right after work, especially after stressful days.

I've since replaced binging with going to the gym, or going for a walk before I even go home. I'm actually tired when I do get home (a little after 7 pm), and more mindful of how I'm going to feel if I think of eating a bunch of food. So I either pass on the food and make my last meal my post-gym meal (probably around 6pm), or I go home and have something small like a yogurt, or a small pre-packaged meal (Lean Cuisine/Healthy Choice, anyone?). I know frozen meals contain a lot of sodium, so I try to get the ones that have simple ingredients, and little carbs (mostly meat & veg).

So far, it's working - I actually only binged once last week on Thursday night. It was my husband's birthday the next day so we had a pizza party to celebrate and boy did I chow down. However, I did take into account afterwards when the guilt hit, that I made it from Sunday till Thursday, and it's just a "bump in the road" as they say. I was more mindful the rest of the week and replaced my boredom binging with going outside for a few minutes and sitting alone, or playing that long-forgotten game on my phone, away from the kitchen.

I would say that you need to almost physically say to yourself, that you're not hungry if you aren't, and to go do something else until you are. It's hard when a lot of people's lives are centered around the kitchen - for lack of a better word, it's a huge impact in all of our lives.

That being said, I know you can do this. If you have to, just take it one day at a time- - that's what I'm doing. If you ever need someone to vent to or ask advice, I'm more than happy to help. Even though our journeys are alone, we can still rely on the help from others to make it not feel so lonely.

fiddletime · July 2017

Even if you just worked on maintaining, not gaining, for a few months, that might give you time to practice not bingeing, or if you binge, get back into the groove the next day. Most of us binge. Handling it takes practice.

Once you start to reduce your binges, then cut your calories. It's a slow way, but you're in this for life right, not to just lose some weight for an event or the holidays or something.

Niki_Fitz · July 2017

Instead of thinking of "quitting bingeing" I set out to use MFP to "learn to eat again." Because the not-eating was at the root of my binge eating problem.

Here are a few things that have been helping me:
- I have been learning to eat during the day with a focus on eating protein for satiety.
- while not keeping any foods permanently off-limits, I don't buy ANY foods I would typically binge on. I don't set myself up to fail.
- I focus on eating whole natural foods. I did a month-long challenge of whole food eating which retrained my cooking, shopping and food preferences. It's hard to binge on meat and veggies.
- I save some calories for high volume, low calories snacks after dinner. I can't quit the snacking habit just yet. So I'm learning to save calories for this indulgence and to practice moderation.
- I'm creating new rituals to replace eating. Like making big batches of iced herbal tea or lemon water to enjoy. Or writing on the community boards here.
- I have a rule for not eating in front of a page or screen, ever.
- I log EVERYTHING, every bite. I take a few notes on what triggered a binge if I have one. Then I move on.
- I allow myself to eat at maintenance some days so my body can learn what an appropriate amount of fuel feels like.
- I'm choosing slow loss and a healthy learning experience over too much restriction, which always brings backlash.
- Finally, I'm working on my self-esteem and on improving my thought processes and reactions to situations. Life is full of triggers. We can choose the thoughts we respond to them with.

The results? Since committing to this three months ago I've gone from bingeing several times a week to two or three isolated episodes of bingeing. It's hard work but it's a rewarding journey so far and the weight is slowly coming off, too. Feel free to message me, I am doing this with lots of support from MFP pals.

Binge eating and emotional eating

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