Binge eating issues

Ryals_Cori
Ryals_Cori Posts: 2 Member
in Motivation and Support
Hello - looking for support and suggestions on how to stop binge eating.
Backstory is I lost a lot of weight in 2014 was so proud of myself and my world was really great, 2015 I had twins and an additional little one following, since then I have been seriously depressed so much that I am currently meeting with a psychologist weekly. The biggest issue I have is binge eating I just can’t stop it and I also can’t identify why I can’t stop except that I think it’s mainly triggered by stress. Does anyone suffer from this type of eating disorder and how did you overcome it?! Thank you for any and all suggestions

Replies

  • harper16
    harper16 Posts: 2,564 Member
    Have you considered reaching out to a specialist about your binge eating?
  • LeWahnderful
    LeWahnderful Posts: 64 Member
    It sounds like you’re an emotional eating (I am also!) and you use overeating as a coping mechanism when you’re sad or not in a happy place. Next time you binge, if possible, take note of how you feel and why you feel that way. Don’t look at the notes, just get it out. After a week, review how you felt every time you binged. Maybe that’ll help? Good luck !!
  • MelodiousMermaid
    MelodiousMermaid Posts: 380 Member
    edited June 2020
    One thing I wanted to throw in from personal experience is to look at how much and how well you are sleeping at night (or during the day if you're a night person). The issues I have personally experienced are increased exponentially when I'm not sleeping well, both quantity and quality considered.

    If you are struggling with this, I recommend getting it looked into asap, as it's a really big piece of overall well-being.
  • swimmchick87
    swimmchick87 Posts: 458 Member
    edited June 2020
    The only thing that helped me long term was eating more calories in the first place. It sounds counter intuitive but it worked for me. A long time ago I read the book "Brain over Binge" and that helped me. It's controversial as the premise is that binging is a biological response to dieting and not something that's caused by "underlying issues." I would say I halfway agree with the author. I can absolutely point to emotional triggers and "underlying issues" that led to binging episodes. However, feeling physically starved and having this black and white relationship with food where I felt like I either had to be perfect or "already ruined it, might as well binge" absolutely played a gigantic part.

    When I first started this "new method" I was eating 1800-1900 calories a day, which was kind of terrifying at first. After being (trying to be) "on a diet" for most of my life it was crazy to purposefully eat what felt like a massive amount of calories. Yet, previously I was binging almost every day. I actually lose weight because I wasn't doing that anymore. Once the physical hunger was gone the desire to binge was also. Don't get me wrong- I certainly still "ate my feelings" at times and made some less than ideal food choices- but that desire to eat massive quantities of food was gone. I still have things I'm working on and am always a work in progress, but I haven't truly binged in years. I occasionally find myself wanting to stop and get take out on the way home from work after a stressful day (and sometimes I do), but back in my binging days I would have stopped to get takeout and gotten 3 meals just for myself. The idea of that now is just absurd to me, even though I lived like that for years.
  • podperson1
    podperson1 Posts: 207 Member
    It sounds like your binging is emotionally triggered. You get stressed/upset etc and use food as a way to cope. Can you try asking your psychologist to help you to work on this issue in more detail - looking at what the underlying causes of your stress are as well as working on finding/implementing new coping mechanisms instead of food.
  • joanna_82
    joanna_82 Posts: 151 Member
    Another vote for working it out with your psychologist. I’ve had a lot of eating issues in the past and it was a very big goal of therapy to get past them. I had to work hard in therapy to be really honest and also to trust the process of delaying/stopping a binge and trying to tap into my emotions to understand how I was feeling and how to deal with that without eating.
    I’m 95% recovered now, and losing my extra weight slowly and carefully. Still find myself thinking about food in stressful times, but mostly manage to avoid bingeing with alternative coping mechanisms. And I eat a lot of my previous ‘binge’ foods as part of my diet in small quantities, which brings me much more enjoyment.

    Good luck, I hope you can tackle it,

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