Help dealing with binge eating
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medrut14
Posts: 3 Member
I struggle with binge eating and during this time in quarantine I’ve been having a harder time controlling it. I end up stuffing my face almost every night to the point I feel sick and then I spend the rest of my night feeling guilty and hating my self for losing control and giving in. I’m struggling quit a lot at keeping my binging undercontrol and wanted to know if anyone else is going through this right now and has any helpful tips. Thanks everyone!
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Replies
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Are you getting enough calories during the day?0
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I tend to start of slow with my calorie intake in the day and then I at the end of the day I go over board.0
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I’m trying to lose 20lbs. My calorie intake goal is pretty reasonable but I tend to save my calorie for the evening when I binge in hopes that can help prevent my binging but it doesn’t helpI tend to start of slow with my calorie intake in the day and then I at the end of the day I go over board.
Can you increase your calories to eat more during the day?
How much weight are you trying to lose, and what are your calorie goals set at?0 -
What do you binge on?0
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A few questions
What does a binge look like in calorie terms?
What was your eating pattern like before lock down? Is binging new or long term?
How much weight do you want to lose?
Have you been diagnosed with an eating disorder?1 -
At minimum, plan out breakfast and lunch the day ahead. Eat breakfast, knowing that you need to fit in all three meals so there is no reason to delay. I also used to binge later in the day and the compromise I made, is that I tend to save my largest meal for dinner. Breakfast and lunch might be like 400 cal each, then I'll have something bigger at dinner and have room for a couple of snacks in between or after dinner. The unknown is the enemy of disordered eating. Plan plan plan.
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Could it be you binge because you deprive yourself of food during the day? Do you build small things that you really like into your diet during the day?
Other than that: You have to find something to do despite the lockdown. How serious is yours? Can you go to the bins and bring paper to the recycle bin? Do that every day just for a bit of fresh air. Otherwise: what about a small workout over lunch? Doesn't need to be much: maybe some light yoga, a bit of bodyweight exercise, or put on a song and just dance wildly. What do you do in the evening? Find something useful to do: more exercise, learn a new skill, just keep yourself busy!1 -
bingeing can happen when you are bored or when you feel that food is the only good thing to look forward to. sometimes i feel like a fried chicken meal is the only thing that can make up for a crappy or boring day! intermittent fasting helped me to control my bingeing because i don’t give myself permission to eat at 9pm when i’m bored or watching netflix. not having the snacks readily at hand helped too 0
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iuoyuwwrmlioxneunm wrote: »Don't buy binge foods and don't keep them in your house? It's like having a stocked liquor cabinet around a raging alcoholic.
For me, ice cream and a lot of candy and cereal I tend to binge on. I can rack up 4,000 calories a day on those foods easily. It's hard to binge on things like chicken breast, broccoli, and celery.
Only semi-true here. True bingeing episodes don't even have to include food you actually like or enjoy all that much.
Personally, I could theoretically binge on everything in my kitchen except celery unless there's peanut around. IF I lived by myself I'd not bring home anything except chicken, fish and veggies. But since dh is here too, and he just does NOT understand how having a package of cookies in the house can be for me(or crackers, bread, anything at all), it's not going to happen. He can make a pint of Ben and Jerry's last 2 days, I might get it to last an hour.
OP, I can sincerely sympathize with what you're going through with this. I just started a thread about the same topic on the nutrition site. At the moment I have no advice, just complete empathy. I am as weak as I've ever been.2 -
@ReenieHJ That's a good point. Of course, if you can keep things out of the house, that's the most useful, but not realistic with other people in the house sometimes.
1. Make sure they know how hard it is for you and see if they can help either by not getting certain items or not having them around you so much.
2. Make it harder to access those items in the house. If you have certain problem snacks or foods sitting front and center in your cabinets, fridge, freezer, counter, etc. you're going to need all kinds of willpower to avoid eating them which is difficult for anyone, even myself who works in the nutrition space.
3. Take advantage of the fact that we don't want to go out of our way for things. Take problem items and store them out of sight in the basement or different rooms that take extra work to get to. If you have another fridge/freezer, don't keep things in the main one in the kitchen if possible.
4. Even when you do have a snack, control what you can. Don't eat out of the entire bag, pint, container, box, etc. Take a small portion out to start, EAT SLOWLY, put utensils or hand down between bites, have water between bites and try to eat more mindfully.
Won't do a 180 overnight, but some of those above actions go a LONG way in helping to avoid overeating in general. @medrut142 -
When you plan a restriction it perpetuates a binge. You are starting your day in fear of the binges and the binge and restrict loop begins.
Trying to save all your calories for the inevitable seems like you're being proactive but in reality it's a restriction and it's just continuing the loop.
You need to eat normally and eat regular meals and then find other means to deal with the night time, you cant remove the food, but you can pick and choose the food you binge on, you can ask for help from your husband, explain that you are struggling right now and that you could use his support.
Be conscious for those binges, if you eat normally all day and at night you find yourself eating, make sure you log the food, pick foods that arent calorie dense and be accountable for it. Log them before you eat them and acknowledge the food you are eating. Ask yourself each time you decide to get more food if you really want to eat as you watch those calories climb.
It's really hard to deny yourself those higher calorie foods sometimes but it is possible to get through those moments with minimal damage.
Also when you wake up the next day do not correct or restrict the calories you went over, make sure you just eat normally and eat all your calories because correction is restriction and restrictions loop to binges
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I feel ya. I'm struggling with this too. Sometimes I feel like I just don't care about the consequences and continue eating even though I know I need to stop. It feels so good in the moment but then it's like dang.... I'm even farther away from my goal. Wishing you peace and success!2
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The only thing I can add is, keeping myself busy helps me from snacking (or binging in your case). I make a hot cup of apple cider (70 calories) and read a good book. Or clean out/organize a closet while listening to music. Take a long shower or bath. Paint my nails. I try and walk/get in a good exercise session daily as it helps curb my appetite. When all else fails, go to sleep. Pre-logging your food is helpful for a lot of people as well - make sure you are getting enough calories (0.50-1lb per for a goal of weight loss).2
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I try to do something with my hands, such as painting my nails or the latest novelty is jigsaw puzzles on the ipad.
I have lower calorie snacks in the house such as rice cakes instead of crisps and fibre one bars instead of chocolate so a binge isn't as damaging as it once was.
Sorry I cant offer any other advice, if you're like me and it's an emotional/mental thing rather than hunger it's not easy to overcome that.0
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