Mental strength techniques for binge eating and snacking

It obviously takes mental discipline as well, but I have certain meal 'times' I respect and outside of those, I do not eat. This helped me enormously when Covid hit and I had to work from home, where I had constant access to food.
For me this means:
- breakfast (if I have any)
- no morning snacks, ever
- lunch
- no afternoon snacks unless absolutely hungry: if hungry, I'll have one 100kcal snack (usually a small bag of breadsticks or some fruit)
- dinner
- evening snacks: I have an evening snack 99% of the time, but making sure it's within my calorie goal (I always try to leave calories left over for this purpose).
- A bit of discipline needed at the start, but it's pretty much a habit now for me.

Other ways to limit snacking: find a hobby that inhibits snacking - something that requires clean hands or gets your hands dirty, outdoor activities away from your pantry/fridge,...

Something else to think about: you mention 1700 calories as a VLC diet. It doesn't seem particularly low in calories to me, unless you're male and/or very active and/or have a lot of weight to lose. But perhaps, depending on your stats, increasing your calorie goal would be an option?

You mentioned stress, do you have a good support network you can reach out to? Finding a new behaviour such as calling a friend or messaging a buddy on MFP and talking it out when you're having a craving might be the real key here. I have struggled with emotional eating and snacking. I think it's important first to not punish yourself for lacking "discipline". When we start eating at a caloric deficit and lose weight our body naturally increases our appetite, and this is a good thing, it means our body is trying to protect us. Unfortunately, if your goal is to lose fat, this can feel like an impedance and if you want to keep burning fat you may have to feel a little hungry as you get used to it.

Try not to moralise food choices as "good" or "bad", and don't deprive yourself of things you enjoy eating. Instead, pay attention to foods that give you a high hedonic response, as this might help prevent overeating, e.g. where some people can have a few chips and stop, others end up eating the whole bag. Maybe make a note in your MFP diary of which foods you notice tend to trigger overeating and then make a plan for what you can do next time you're craving them, e.g. set a timer, go for a walk, call someone, try an alternative. I would also suggest eating foods that are very high fibre but low cal such as vegetables to maximise volume, and maybe see whether having more lower cal meals helps mentally. Sometimes you can delay having a snack when you know your next meal is in 1-2 hours.

When I quit smoking I was always told to use the 5 D's:
Delay.
Distract.
Drink Water.
Deep Breathing.
Discuss.

Also recommend:
https://physiqonomics.com/fat-loss/

Good luck this is no easy thing you're doing!