What do you consider a binge?
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Venobambino
Posts: 35 Member
I'm doing the me versus the binge Nov. Challenge. I know everyone's binges are different and subjective, but wanted everyone's insight on what you consider a binge personally. Like, for example, if I eat an extra bowl of ice cream and go over by 130 calories, is that a binge? Is it possible to binge and still stay under calories in a day (like say I binged my 1800 cals in one sitting and didn't eat the rest of the day). Just curious. Trying to learn more about this disorder and myself. Happy November!
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For me it's not stopping after I know I've eaten enough. For example, I eat my dinner at night and then decide to have more, even after I know I'm satisfied. For me it can also be having trigger foods like ice cream and having a large amount of it.5
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Subjectively, feeling disgust & regret with one's self (knowing I ate waaay more than I should have) & having the mindset of needing to compensate either with extra hard dieting and/or exercising (excessive cardio).
Objectively, usually around 1,000+kcals over TDEE for the day (more of a problem stringing these as days in a row/forming a habit of; sometimes I purposely eat over +1,000kcal above TDEE when I've been dieting too hard/feeling excessively lethargic & burnt out and usually in the form of extra dietary fat so I physically don't feel sick to my stomach full).1 -
Excessive Eating (or Over Eating) consuming 500+ calories in a short time...eating 1,000 calories over my Macros or Daily calorie goal, and just basically eating lots of crap. -0.0- For me, this happens (when I'm off my sleep schedule, bored, anxious, and stressed), and is often a negative repetitive cycle! >.<2
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Thanks y'all. I've been in a horrible cycle the last week. I'll eat within my cals all day and then freak out at night. I can't seem to stop. Grrrr.1
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I call it binging if I eat over 500 over and/or I feel like I lost control or had mindless eating.3
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For me, it's anything where I feel out of control and unable to stop, should I choose to stop. Overeating is just overeating. Generally I can say ENOUGH! and walk away...
For me, that compulsion to eat even when I know I shouldn't and don't want to...or to think of NOTHING ELSE except what I've made a choice to avoid - to the point that i eat 1000+ calories of other stuff avoiding what I really want to eat - or that I eat it in massive quantity later - feeling powerless to not eat it, even if it is a 50 calorie item, to me, that's a compulsive eating issue or binge issue. That loss of control.
Now, allowing myself to overeat something healthier to stave off a binge, if it is truly a choice I make and not some excuse after the fact, that doesn't bother me. But the feeling powerless and having no choice in the matter, that's my largest problem. I know that everyone's issues are separate to them...3 -
tbh, I'm not sure. I've just had a bag of chips (100cal) and a milo (148cal) that was completely unplanned and done because I was bored and mildly stressed out. It's only 248 so I don't feel horribly about it, but I do feel guilty - does this count as a binge?
I like the thought of counting >500cal as a binge; but I know myself and will for sure binge on 480cals and not count the binge! (i'm cheating no one but myself, but I'm self-aware enough to know that).
Also - what's mindless eating? When I wanted and bought the chips and milo, I was very aware of what I was doing and very focused on the food. This happens with all my binges, where I'm actually very aware of what I'm eating, but in that moment, I want it and nothing will stop me.1 -
For me, mindless eating is when I am in a binge and just start grabbing food without thinking about it or planning.1
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For me, binges have more to do with the feelings around them. I feel out of control, like I can't stop, with tremendous amount of guilt and shame. I almost always do it in secret, and often feel the need to hide the evidence afterwards. It means continuing past the point where it is pleasurable, and into the point where it is painful.
So eating foods that aren't on my plan don't necessarily mean a binge, and a binge doesn't necessarily mean going over my target calories (though it is rare for me to binge and not go over my TDEE).3 -
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Over here in the Netherlands they (the doctors / counselors / psychologists kind of people) divide binges in two different types: subjective binge and objective binge.
A subjective binge is when you feel like you ate too much, even though it is just .... two snacks in stead of one... like every normal person can do from time to time. But you still feel a bit ashamed or guilty or dunno... Whatever you feel about binges....
An objective binge is like: eating way too much in a short amount of time, like 1000+calories. And all that comes with it.0 -
4000 to 9000 calories. Sad, huh.0
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For me, sometimes it's the sheer calories, but more often it's how I think and feel about it. If there's a lot of guilt and shame and beating myself up, it's a binge, whether it's 100 calories or 10,000 calories.
At the same time, sometimes eating a lot of calories but NOT having the guilt and shame, such as going out with friends or something planned, in my opinion it's not a binge, even if it was 2,000 or whatever calories.0 -
I don't think about binge eating in terms of calories or the amount of food eaten, it's more about my state of mind when I'm doing it.
Some of the things I associate with a binge are:
Eating when not actually hungry - it's more like trying to satisfy a unspecified craving
Yo-Yoing between sweet and savoury foods - I find if I eat something sweet, I'll have a craving for savoury food, but if I eat something savoury I'll crave sweet food
Inability to feel fully satisfied - no matter what I think I want to eat it doesn't make the urge to eat more go away
Avoiding structured meals - I can eat a lot more if instead of preparing a proper meal, I just keep snacking constantly throughout the day
Bingeing on my own - under no circumstances would I eat this much food in front of someone else, or reveal to anybody exactly how much I have eaten
I actually get a lot of pleasure from bingeing (I'm a real foodie). When I trying to stop eating mid-binge I'll repeatedly convince myself that having this one last thing, the thing I REALLY wanted all along, will give me enough satisfaction to enable me to stop eating and regain control. This is nearly always a lie.
Basically, it's all a trick of the mind. You find yourself inventing your own justifications as to why you need to eat, even though you've already stuffed yourself silly.
Obviously, bingeing is a real issue for me. I'm currently doing a DBT course designed to tackle emotional eating and stop bingeing. I haven't been on it long but so far it's going really well.
Can't wait till I banish the binges altogether.
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