Bingeing - please help

thinkthin9

thinkthin9

New member
I thought I could stop it myself but nothing is working. I feel so frustrated right now because I keep bingeing on food. I will basically have at least 1000 calories or more in one setting, usually at night after I have eaten all that I should for the day. I don't even know how many calories I had today. Maybe 2500-3000? I don't exercise enough to eat that much. Sometimes it seems like I will never get rid of this problem.
 
maybe you need to look inside yourself and find out WHY?
Or perhaps work your diet around when you seem to like eating ..
ie i have a problem bingeing on lamb, so when i know im having lamb for dinner ill make sure i eat less for breakfast and lunch so i have the calories spare.
Also Ill only buy x amount so no leftovers means theres nothing to binge/eat.

I also have a lot of stuff that i like to munch on handy in case i get bad bad munchies ( ie popcorn, carrots and hummus etc) which helps a LOT.

I dunno if this advice helps, But basically its your body and your mind, and you actively choose to binge in the end for whatever reason. You need to notice the early signs and do something else (go for a run or whatever).
 
Food Addiction

Food addiction. It's real and there are support groups for it: Overeaters Anonymous for one. I feel for you so much. I was tempted to purge b/c my bingeing was out of control (I didn't do it though). If you don't purge, I applaud you. That's a whole host of other problems.
What worked for me: I saw the result of other bingers on TV via a show called Big Medicine and it straightened me out. I NEVER want to be bed bound. I NEVER want to be diabetic or have heart problems that others in my family do. I NEVER want to have to have gastric bypass surgery to live. I tell myself everytime that I'm tempted that I am in total control of my eating. There is not some magical god that controls it, I DO.
Seek professional psychological help or join OA (which is free) if you need to. There's no shame in it. Hearing the stories of others with similar problems helps so much. I didn't join OA, but I did consider it.
 
binge eating

I do this soo much over stressful times in my life. Like over the last fortnight i've had exams and i've put on 3kg. I stopped pretty suddenly when I finally figured out WHY I binge eat. I found this site which may help: There's a tool there that helps you realise why you do this.

For me, when I'm feeling stressed OR stupid, I eat to feel relaxed OR competent. So to stop myself, I recognise this and do something else that makes me feel these things - like Yoga, or cleaning, or I actually just sit down and do the thing that I'm trying to avoid (Study).
 
When you "binge" like this, is the food easily accesible? Is it possible to just remove the food from being convenient to get to as a way of detouring yourself? In other words, only keep healthy/light snacks around the house and good foods. Foods that would be impossible to munch up 1,000 calories worth at a time (grilled chicken/fish, vegetables, fruits) Is the desire so strong that you would get in the car and drive somewhere at 10 o'clock in the evening?

Would that help at all?

I wish I had better advice!
 
I know exactly how you feel. I would binge for x amount of days straight..mostly at night or on one of my days off buying lots of chocolate or fast-food and eat it in my car. There was a point where I almost crossed the line into purging but thankfully didn't. I stopped by really looking inside myself and figuring out what void i was trying to fill. I read a lot of overeating and binge eating self-help books which further helped me figure it out. In the end I found that I binged out of lonliness, stress, and hopelessness. I was sick and tired of feeling the way I was and decided to change the things that I felt were causing me to binge. I started making actual friends and not acquaintances like I always had. And I joined a gym to help with stress. That was also about the time that I decided to get on with moving out of my parents house and going to a university to get my degree. All these changes allowed me to stop focusing on food and the way those first few bites made me feel. I hope this helps you in some way. I'm not saying this is what you need to do but i just wanted to let you know that I know how you feel. Anyway, I hope you figure it out and if you ever need to talk just PM me. :)
 
i def agree with wishies, i think that you need to look inside and decide what it is in you life that is pushing you to food. im sure that you do have a food addiction like all of us do, but what generally triggers it is stress, etc. if you can figure out what it is that youre using food as a comfort for maybe you can replace it with a walk or something... good luck!!
 
You are definitly not alone when it comes to binge eating, I had the same problem and I actually went to my doctor about it. Of course doctors try to medicate every problem so she put me on the pill Topamax. It does help but my concern was that this medicine treats migraine headaches and seizures. Do you find that the binging goes along with a certain emotion? If so, my advice would be to find another outlet for your emotions, reprogram your brain to crave something else a little more healthier that you enjoy. Maybe even ask yourself does this food taste better then being healthy feels or this may sound drastic but when you feel a binge coming on, try eating in front of a mirror with that part of your body that you want so badly to be smaller visible, for me that's everything, it causes me to think twice. Seriously, sometimes what works for you can seem a little drastic, but that's ok. Good luck with finding your personal solution.
 
Have you tried eating low carb for a few days? I have found this to severely cut my appetite. It also really restricts your choices. Once you manage to do it for a few days you notice a serious diminishing of the appetite. It takes a lot of planning though to make sure you have foods around that you actually can eat on the diet. This is not something I could even keep up for a week at a time, but doing it for a few days seemed to diminish my cravings for the next few days.
 
I've had problems with this too, I still do sort of with the occassional lapse but I'm really trying to keep it under control. My strategy was to just drink water when you want to binge, because more often than not when you binge you don't actually feel hungry but you're just craving food. So I just drink water to make me feel bloated and full.

Another strategy I had was just starting the day as late as possible so you can push your meals back, you won't be forced to think about food and wanting to binge when you're sleeping right?

THIS HAS BEEN HUGE FOR ME! I know it's hard to keep track of but I keep a mental tally of how many calories I've eaten so far in the day. I usually like to eat at night or with something in my stomach so I don't go to bed hungry, it makes me sleep a lot better. So I just pull up my mental tally of how many calories I've had during the day along with what kind of physical activities I've had and calculate how many calories I'm allowed to eat at that moment. I've been a big believer in the myth of not eating before bed but from what I've researched online it seems to be just that, a myth. Ever since finding out it does you no better or worse when you eat during the day or how often you eat (all that matters is caloric total), I've been meticulously counting after every meal just to remind myself how much more I can eat for the day. It's hard, it's petty at times, but at the end of the day I feel really happy to know I can still have a little something before bed and I'm still at or under my caloric maitenance for the day!

Empty calories. This kind of flows over from counting calories. Things like soda or pop or any flavored water. I've realized that one can or bottle of soda will contain about 200 calories! I'd much rather use that 200 calories to eat something rather than drink the soda. Plus, this usually adds up since a lot of people drink more than 1 can or bottle so it can add up to 400-600 saved calories for other foods you want to eat if you just drink water instead!

Portion control! That's a HUGE strategy for me at least, after calculating how many calories I'm allowed to eat I ONLY grab that much on my plate. After my plate empties, I'm done! Never grab a whole box of anything or eat in front of the fridge... your self control will be lacking here for sure but if you only have a plate of food in front of you, you're forced to stop after the plate empties.

Wait a few minutes after eating. I read about this for people who ate at buffets, after eating but you still "feel" hungry, wait 10 minutes. I've noticed that food takes about 10 minutes or so to settle in your stomach and more times than not I've felt full after this 10 minutes whereas 10 minutes earlier I felt I could've gorged another plate. Plus, this makes me feel a little confident/happy that I didn't overeat and binge so that's also a motivation to stop as well.

I'm by no means any expert on this stuff but through the years (I've started dieting 3 or 4 years ago) of dieting and trying to maintain my weight, these are the strategies I'd imploy. If any experts feel my strategies aren't healthy or anything of that sort, please post something so you can let me know too! Good luck!
 
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I used to binge too. I would eat until my stomach hurt and I would lie in bed groaning :(. I hated myself whilst I was doing it but I didn't stop. I don't really have any advice to give but just wanted to offer sympathy. I no longer do binge so it IS possible to get through it.
 
To avoid binging, try to buy food where you'll have no leftovers. No leftovers means you'll eat less. Just buy and eat sufficient food. besides, fat people are usually lazy. they'll feel lazy to buy more food if ever it runs out (just kidding) :D
 
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