How to avoid binge eating

kommodevaran wrote: »

First, decide if it is binge eating or just eating more than you planned. If it is binge eating, you need professional help. Are you getting that?

Then make sure you're not depriving yourself, food-wise. Eat enough, and food you like. Eat regularly, and enjoy your meals.

Then avoid surrounding yourself with too much temptation. Schedule grocery shopping and only buy what you intend to eat.

Then get moderate exercise and sufficient sleep and rest. Practice handling emotions more effectively.

This is spot on. Are you cutting out things you really like? You don't need to. If its a case of you open a packet of biscuits and can't stop at 1 or 2 then maybe set yourself up portions with a certain amount of calories in? Like 100/200 calorie goody bags. Or maybe if you feel you need to eat more maybe try and swap to healthy snacks? Like a punnet of grapes (is high sugar but low calories) - you can eat an entire punnet for under 300 calories (roughly). Or strawberries?

For me it's all about eating often enough so that I am not hungry. Eating protein helps me feel full longer and makes it less likely that I will binge eat.

Hey everyone!
I have struggled with this issue for a few years. I realize that I started compulsively over eating and bingeing because I was restricting my calorie intake way too much. Using MPF has helped me stay at a healthy calorie goal and keeps me accountable for the times I may over eat. I’ve learned to be a lot more patient and forgiving with myself. Just because I over eat a little doesn’t mean the whole day is ruined or that I should go crazy on a jar of peanut butter.
I’ve also learned my triggers tend to be times of the day when I’m alone, so trying to anticipate those and trying to keep the self talk positive has helped a lot with surfing the urges.

I don't have snacks and sweets at home as they're not something I have ever typically bought. However, cakes, biscuits, crisps and other goodies seem to be on the spare desk at work almost daily, for one reason or another. When possible, I walk to my desk via a different route so that I don't pass them, although I still usually have one item a day if anything's available. One small chocolate bite, one sausage roll, one handful of crisps - that's fine but then I need to not walk passed them or I'd have more. I also log it immediately and adjust whatever I eat for the rest of the day / how much I exercise that evening, to ensure I meet my daily allowances. I also try to ensure I have healthier alternatives on my own desk so that I can have a handful of almonds or an orange or whatever, to stop my brain thinking that I want chocolate.

Last night I was at a bring-a-buffet-item supper with a large group of friends. Whilst I'd pre-planned what I thought I'd probably eat, of course I ended up picking at sausage rolls, mini pasties, mini pork pies, chicken nuggets, cheese chunks and crisps (as well as having the chicken drumstick that I intended to eat) whilst standing chatting. Yeah, I felt disappointed with myself but it's not a daily occurrence and it motivated me to spend a bit longer in the gym this evening so that over the week I'll roughly average OK. Mentally, I know it's a blip, it was a social evening and not all days are like that.

So, to the OP, perhaps one question is "how often are you bingeing?" and "when / where are you bingeing?". Can you avoid the situations? Can you change something small to make a binge less likely to happen? Can you exercise or cut down the next day to cancel out the binge? Can you have alternatives available so that you don't binge on things that then stress you out?