Binge eating help, recovery and support thread

I think it's difficult to be disciplined in every aspect of your life all the time. And eating is such an easy place to lose control! I have cravings for pop-tarts, donuts, cookies and ice cream, but I guess I've learned to not binge, as over-eating junk food makes me feel as bad as too much alcohol! Food hangovers suck. You just have to figure out a way to avoid the bad food. Don't buy it, don't eat out much. It's really hard to by-pass the oreos and pop-tarts at the store, and every now and then I buy them anyway ... but then I limit myself to one pop-tart or 4 oreos a day -- something like that. And others in my household eat them too, so I never get the whole box/bag!

I am bad at night though. We'll sit in bed and watch TV and eat chocolate.

JUST SAY NO!

I've given up alcohol, but when I was hungover from alcohol I wouldn't drink for a while or have a need or addiction to drink. Yet whenever I'm stuffed and bloated from food and tell myself not to do it again, just a day or two later I stuff my face again. It is getting really frustrating...

Get some self discipline, will you? Come on. Just stop binging. This thread is a joke.

Lucky you, you don't know how fast an addiction can take control over your life.

people will eating disorders come in all varieties...

two things i found are most important...

1. figure out what foods to eat that won't make you feel guilty after eating them

2. identify the foods that make you feel guilty/terrible and AVOID THEM FOREVER!!!

why measure cereal? only 1100 calories in a box of gluten free rice chex, just take down the entire box, this way you don't have to guess how many servings you had

idiot..... wrote:

Lucky you, you don't know how fast an addiction can take control over your life.

That's right. Because some of us have a measure of self discipline

ugh........ wrote:

I've given up alcohol, but when I was hungover from alcohol I wouldn't drink for a while or have a need or addiction to drink. Yet whenever I'm stuffed and bloated from food and tell myself not to do it again, just a day or two later I stuff my face again. It is getting really frustrating...

I think that often the reason this happens is people don't eat enough proper food at meal times, so get really hungry and then the self control goes. If you're doing a lot of running then you need to eat plenty of good quality food at meal times to fuel your running.

Weight loss shouldn't be rushed if you're training hard - a small calorie deficit is all you can really afford it you want to avoid feeling really hungry.

This is treatable with fairly high success rates using modified cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Some of the folks here should look into this but be warned that controlling the binge portion does NOT influence weight. I know I know, seems weird. But my colleagues have spent years on this and have failed to modify weight despite excellent success with the binge. Nonetheless, patients are quite happy to have control over the binge component so seek help!

I've developed a serious problem with this in recent months. I keep a food diary to try to hold myself accountable, but it doesn't really work. Here are a few sample entries:

One apple turnover, one large cup of froyo loaded up with toppings and fudge, two chocolate chip cookies, one small cookie dough fudge blizzard from Dairy Queen, one rice krispie treat, one volcano burrito from Taco Bell, ~1/2 of a pumpkin pie, ~1/2 pint haagen dazs ice cream, ~1/2 can of pringles, one Portuguese roll

---

Dunkin Donuts (six donuts, one apple fritter, one chocolate chip cookie, five cinnamon munchkins), one Rolo McFlurry from McDonalds, one Milky Way ice cream bar, one cinnamon roll donut from 7-11

---

These binges usually span about two hours, and occur on average 2 or 3 times per week. I've tried to count the calories a few times, and it usually ends up being in the 3000-4000 range, sometimes more. The cravings have become constant; I think about food 24/7. So far I've only gained about 10-15 lbs, but this has only been going on since June. I know I'm really in for it if this keeps up...

You guys wouldn't know a binge if it bit your dick off.

I regularly eat a extra large extra cheese extra pepperoni pizza, two quarts of ben & jerrys, a full bag of oreo double stuffs, and a dozen krispy kreme chocolate iced donuts.

that's why i'm 245 lbs now.

I like to think that I have a pretty solid diet. Every morning I have a bowl of oatmeal with pb&j on toast and a banana with a spread of Nutella on it. Morning snack is usually an apple with a granola bar or a trail mix. Lunch could be pasta with veg and meat followed by another snack with an apple and rice crackers dipped with humus. For dinner I may have two eggs on toast with beans and a spinach salad. Night time snack, biscuits with tea and a peanut butter and jam sandwich. For getting my sweet tooth on I like to have a little bit of chocolate on certain nights throughout the week. I am running about 100k a week atm with solid pace.

kvothe wrote:

[quote]just another poster wrote:

I used to skip runs when I binged, but now I try to get every run in, and more often than not, the binges aren't whole day affairs if I can run 13 times a week, but they're still there.

If i eat too much i pay for it when i run in the morning... that's usually the limiting factor for me. when i ran at night, i would have all day to digest, and would just consistently overeat at night.

My feelings:

ugh........ wrote:

Can we bring this thread back? I've been trying hard to eat better, but lately I've been overeating EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. I read up on nutrition, I know what is good and what isn't, yet I gorge myself on junk until I am sick. I have a good 10 pounds to go before I get to my race weight and these binges are getting really bad. It's so hard when food, especially junk food, is so easily available. Even if I don't carry it in the house, some opportunity always comes up when it is present.

No one in my real life knows about this problem (because I am not "fat" for a normal person) and I'm too shy to tell people... but it is eating me on the inside. I can't go more than 2-3 days without a binge happening...

My training would be going great if it weren't for unnecessary weight gain/constant full stomach. I've dealt with caloric restriction and getting very, very lean before, and it feels like my mind just takes any excuse now to unconsciously stuff my face daily, despite attempts at healthful eating and portion control.

Binge eating is more common among runners then I thought. I went through this for about 8 months, eating 4,000-5,000 a day and not working out. This is a ton of food considering I'm only 5 foot 5. In the end I gained 20 pounds. Since then I have lost it all- except for the final 5 pounds, am running again and really got my life back on track. What helped me is to take it a day at a time. Each day I would make it my goal to not binge just for that day. Completely telling yourself you will never binge again makes it a lot easier to give up. It only takes 21 days to form a habit. I feel like for me at least binging became just a bad habit that I would do when stressed, bored etc. So just focus on not binging for 21 days. Also make sure you have a big breakfast and drink 100 oz of water everyday. Another thing is to eat all of your food at the table. It's much easier to eat a whole box of junk while watching tv then it is to put it on a plate, all distractions away, and eat at the table.

Have some self control people, wow

gn1tmac wrote:

people will eating disorders come in all varieties...

two things i found are most important...

1. figure out what foods to eat that won't make you feel guilty after eating them

2. identify the foods that make you feel guilty/terrible and AVOID THEM FOREVER!!!

Hint: it's not the food.

What triggers the eating? It's not that easy to identify and resolve. Best of luck to all dealing with the issue. It's not the food.

Binge exercise leads to binge eating

Gluttony comes in all shapes and sizes and permeates into other areas of life.

I think that for a lot of people, binge eating happens when they've decided "it's too late now." (Actually true for a lot of addictions.) You think, "oh, I was just going to have a small scoop of ice cream, but instead I had 3, so now I might as well eat the whole quart." Try reminding yourself after the three scoops that you can stop there. You may still have a daily calorie surplus, you may be a LITTLE bummed that you didn't stick to your plan, but it's really not that bad. You'll feel fine tomorrow, and you'll be ready to run without feeling sick. Try a mantra like, "I can still stop."