Binge Eating

mushroom_girl

hi all,

im gonna be upfront and say that i am mainly posting this msg because i feel like i have no one else to talk to about these things. i just feel like i need to get it off my chest.

im a binge eater, quite massively so. im never happy unless im eating, and i spend my entire day obsessing over what and when i am going to eat next. today i was having a bad day at work and as soon as i left i went to tesco and bought a massive pizza, wedges and a big bag of smarties. i ate it all in one sitting. (granted i spent the whole evening feeling sick...) I do this all the time, i buy so much crap food and eat it in secret and then hide the wrappers. i know that i am only hurting myself in the long-run.

i just dont know what to do, sheer will-power doesnt do anything for me at all. I try so hard not to do it, but i always crumble in the end and give into the food. Im not massively fat by any standard, im a petite size 12, but at the rate this is happening (almost a daily thing now) its not going to be long before i start to get huge.

i have had issues with food and my weight since i was about 11ish. i have wavered between overeating and not eating at all since then, and im almost at the point where i wish i was able to just starve myself again.

how can i stop this?

stephen_n

Food issues are very complex and you really need help not advice.

http://www.rutlandcentre.ie/ is a possibility or just a good counselor who has a background with food issues http://www.irish-counselling.ie/

bluebee

Hi,

I`m be very similar to yourself with regards to eating loads of absolute crap one day and another trying to starve for as long as possible. For instance today I was feeling a bit sad and ate 6 bars of chocolate all at once, I swear I couldn`t even taste them! What a waste of money:rolleyes:

What really helps me when I notice things getting out of handis keeping a food log, just get a little notebook and write absolutely everthing that you`re eating in it. That way you`re not hiding what you eat from yourself, which is what we`re really doing when we hide all our wrappers in our handbags!

I`m a very normal size too, a size 12, that`s kind of weird. I like to plan aheah what I`m eating, so maybe you could use that to your advantage? You could plan healthy meals and snacks in advance. Always keep fruit and seeds on you, that way you can fight off the worst of the "I need crap right now".

Hope this helps x x

mushroom_girl

thanks to both of you for your replies!

i have tried the notebook thing before, it never really works for me. i dont know why, i either dont care seeing everything written down on paper, or i just forget to keep doing it after a few days.

i just feel like my need to constantly eat is ruling my life.

i will be looking into counselling for this, even though i fully accept that this is an issue, i'm just not able to stop by myself.

bluebee

That`s a really positive thing to do for yourself! Counselling honestly is great, it`s relieving being able to fully verbalise your issues and worries.
You might want to contact bodywhys, they could give you a list of counsellers in your area, and maybe support groups.

Good luck:)

kjl

I am always at a loss on these issues. Why not just replace your binge with a workout, I guarantee that you will feel better after it.

Also you need to write yourself a proper diet, dont take that Im using the word diet as to mean starve yourself. Not at all, just eat as much as you want of healthy food.

Go out tomorrow and buy the following

Fruit - apples, oranges, bananas, grapes, strawberries etc
Veg - Carrots, Parsnips, broccoli, peas, lettuces, onions etc
Carbs - Brown Rice, Whole Grain Bread, Porridge, green pasta, anything wholegrain
Protein - fat free milk, turkey and chicken breast, lean slices of ham, hummus
Snack - special k bars, nutragrain bars, yogart bars.

Drink lots of water

Basically avoid sugar, refined carbs (white bread, white pasta), and saturated fat.

Between working out and eating healthy you will acomplice several things

Firstly the natural endorphins you get from working out will eliminate the depression and will make you feel happy even when not eating.

Secondly eating healthy will make you lose weight, and feel great about yourself, you will find yourself with loads more energy and you will be more alert and attentive.

Give yourself a rest day, a day in the week where you can eat anything you want, you will soon find that junk food has lost its appeal because your body doesn't crave it any more.

Oh and a massive important one for you AVOID CHOCOLATE unless you want to die young, 4 squares of chocolate contains half your rda of saturated fat. 1 standard dairy milk contains the same fat as 8 hamburgers.

Food for thought, pardon the pun.

GL its a difficult journey, but a very rewarding one if you are successful

oh and one last thing, years of eating junk food have probably conviced you that certain foods like carrots, or whatever dont taste nice, this is rubbish, if you force yourself to eat properly, you will soon realise that this food actually tastes nicer then junk

LegacyUser

Hi OP
Whats happening is food has become your coping mechanism. Somewhere in your past you learned to turn to food anytime the going got tough. Thats why when you have a bad day in work you automatically reach for food. Food distracts you and numbs you to the feelings youre trying to avoid. In a nutshell your task is to unlearn that behaviour, find a new coping mechanism. Understanding is the first step, then accepting that this is the way you have turned out. Eating disorders are like ice bergs: theres so much more below the surface.
Counselling is great because at the very least you'll have somebody to talk to and who will not judge you. Thats a massive help. But you'll need to do the work yourself. So often people with eating disorders go into therapy thinking that their counsellor will tell them what to do and that in itself will do the job. But it wont. The people who overcome eating disorders are the ones who work hard and take responibility for themselves, they dont expect anybody else to have the answers for them. Like I said, get counselling, it will help a great deal but ultimately this is your gig and youre driving.

This book will help you to get going:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Overcoming-Binge-Eating-Christopher-Fairburn/dp/0898621798/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267197840&sr=1-1

beks101

kjl wrote: »

I am always at a loss on these issues. Why not just replace your binge with a workout, I guarantee that you will feel better after it.

Good advice in the rest of your post, but with all due respect, this is like saying to an alcoholic, ‘why not just replace your drinking habit with a walk in the fresh air, I guarantee you’ll feel better after it’

OP, you have a food addiction and like any addiction, you have it for a reason. I feel for you, I can also relate. I’ve had bouts of binge eating in the past, when I was both slim and overweight, and the lack of control, shame, self disgust and guilt you feel is just hell on earth. It throws a serious punch at your self confidence too and personally that’s been my biggest casualty from binge eating.

It’s the oldest cliché in the book, but this has got nothing to do with food – it’s all about how you feel about yourself. Simply put, you’re unhappy with some, or maybe many, elements of yourself/your life, and you're using food as a coping mechanism

Step number one, quit dieting. There are no ‘good’ and ‘bad’ foods, nothing should be ‘off limits’. I understand how bloody hard it is to feel good about yourself and allow yourself to eat what you feel like eating, guilt-free, when we live in a diet-obsessed society and many of your family, friends, acquaintances etc probably share your food and body image problems. But you are not going to get a hold of this until you stop depriving yourself.

You said, ‘I have wavered between overeating and not eating at all’ – can you not see the pattern here? Starve yourself, and your body will fight back – that’s what the binges are about. Tell yourself that pizza, wedges and smarties are STRICTLY OFF LIMITS and you will think of nothing but pizza, wedges and smarties.

What helps for me now is to eat a little bit of chocolate (my worst vice!) every day. A small bar, or maybe a few squares. I’m flexible with this – some days I don’t feel like any at all, but the option is there should I decide that I want it, instead of having to deal with a neon flashing NO! sign in my head every time I think of it. That NO will invariably lead to a big fat miserable YES!, as I’ll spend the day obsessing, avoiding, over-analysing, pining for what I’m ‘not allowed.’

That, and focusing on healthy eating. It takes a lot of patience and practice, to learn how to eat healthily with the goal of improving your physical and mental health, without ‘dieting’ – a word that should be banned from your vocabulary. You need to learn to love food, because food is fabulous! It nourishes you, it keeps you alive, it gives you energy, it improves your mood, your appearance, your state of mind. You need to start choosing the healthful ones, as well as giving yourself leeway to indulge in whatever you fancy once in a while, and I promise you, the urge to binge will become less over time.

For me, now, when I feel like I ‘need’ to binge, I can approach it with a bit of logical thought and almost invariably come to the conclusion that bingeing is going to make me miserable and set back my life for at least a few days. List out the ways yourself. For me, it’s:

- I’ll feel fat and bloated tomorrow and will feel uncomfortable in my clothes and self conscious around others
- I’ll miss the gym because I won’t feel like exercising
- I’ll be depressed and lethargic for at least two days
- It will affect my complexion: I’ll get a few spots or will appear peaky
- It will take me at least a week to get back into a normal eating routine as I’ll probably try, and fail, to start some sort of crash diet
- I won’t feel like socialising as I’ll feel ‘fat’ so I’ll probably miss out on that night out/work do/birthday etc
- Really bad indigestion!
- It'll be a waste of money I really can’t afford

So for me, bingeing is just not practical anymore. It’s too much work! When you look at things logically, you’ll begin to realise the same about your life, and the desire to stay healthy will begin to outweigh the need to binge.

I'd also suggest counselling if that’s something within your means. I went to a psychotherapist for a few months and just having a safe place to talk through your issues, cry, scream, get angry etc without judgement was a real turning point for me.

Best of luck OP, you can get past this! xx

LegacyUser

kjl wrote: »

I am always at a loss on these issues. Why not just replace your binge with a workout, I guarantee that you will feel better after it.

Also you need to write yourself a proper diet, dont take that Im using the word diet as to mean starve yourself. Not at all, just eat as much as you want of healthy food.

Go out tomorrow and buy the following

Fruit - apples, oranges, bananas, grapes, strawberries etc
Veg - Carrots, Parsnips, broccoli, peas, lettuces, onions etc
Carbs - Brown Rice, Whole Grain Bread, Porridge, green pasta, anything wholegrain
Protein - fat free milk, turkey and chicken breast, lean slices of ham, hummus
Snack - special k bars, nutragrain bars, yogart bars.

Drink lots of water

Basically avoid sugar, refined carbs (white bread, white pasta), and saturated fat.

Between working out and eating healthy you will acomplice several things

Firstly the natural endorphins you get from working out will eliminate the depression and will make you feel happy even when not eating.

Secondly eating healthy will make you lose weight, and feel great about yourself, you will find yourself with loads more energy and you will be more alert and attentive.

Give yourself a rest day, a day in the week where you can eat anything you want, you will soon find that junk food has lost its appeal because your body doesn't crave it any more.

Oh and a massive important one for you AVOID CHOCOLATE unless you want to die young, 4 squares of chocolate contains half your rda of saturated fat. 1 standard dairy milk contains the same fat as 8 hamburgers.

Food for thought, pardon the pun.

GL its a difficult journey, but a very rewarding one if you are successful

oh and one last thing, years of eating junk food have probably conviced you that certain foods like carrots, or whatever dont taste nice, this is rubbish, if you force yourself to eat properly, you will soon realise that this food actually tastes nicer then junk

This is not the Fitness forum... binge eating is alot different. This type of advice does NOT help. Bingeing is not stupidity and extreme ignorance to nutrition, it's an overwhelming compulsion

LegacyUser

mushroom_girl wrote: »

thanks to both of you for your replies!

i have tried the notebook thing before, it never really works for me. i dont know why, i either dont care seeing everything written down on paper, or i just forget to keep doing it after a few days.

i just feel like my need to constantly eat is ruling my life.

i will be looking into counselling for this, even though i fully accept that this is an issue, i'm just not able to stop by myself.

I would not recommend writing down what you eat- that'll make you feel worse. Food is on your mind enough as it is.

I suffered from binge eating for years and went to so many different types of counselors and GPs. The ONLY people who helped are Marino Therapy Centre. They'll save your life.

This website is also very inspiring for self-help stories: www.eatingdisorderselfhelp.com

Best of luck xxxx

LegacyUser

beks101 wrote: »

G
- I’ll feel fat and bloated tomorrow and will feel uncomfortable in my clothes and self conscious around others
- I’ll miss the gym because I won’t feel like exercising
- I’ll be depressed and lethargic for at least two days
- It will affect my complexion: I’ll get a few spots or will appear peaky
- It will take me at least a week to get back into a normal eating routine as I’ll probably try, and fail, to start some sort of crash diet
- I won’t feel like socialising as I’ll feel ‘fat’ so I’ll probably miss out on that night out/work do/birthday etc
- Really bad indigestion!
- It'll be a waste of money I really can’t afford

So true... binge eating is not helping you... it's self abuse. I hope that you seek decent help sooner than later. Eating Distress is not something that goes away on it's own unfortunately

Victor

Hope!! wrote: »

Bingeing is ... an overwhelming compulsion

Not necessarily. For some people its boredom and "grazing" takes over.

LegacyUser

Victor wrote: »

Not necessarily. For some people its boredom and "grazing" takes over.

It's distress- not laziness or ignorance of knowing that too many sugary foods etc can make us put on weight and make our blood sugars go crazy.

It's a relief mechanism. Nutrition is important in recovering but it is not just about the food!!

mushroom_girl

Just another word to say that all so much for your replies, and an extra thank you so much for recognising that this is not just a case of ignorance to good diet. when im not binging i actually do eat quite healthily, fruit and veg and all that sort of stuff. its just in between these foods i go through "episodes" where i just eat and eat and eat, and it generally doesn't even matter what i am eating.


so yeah, again, thanks.


oh, and someone recommended a book earlier, i have it ordered from amazon!!

Monkey61

kjl wrote: »

1 standard dairy milk contains the same fat as 8 hamburgers.

Eh what???I don't know what fat free substance you're making your burgers out of!

The problem with food is that in our society it is so representative of much more than just a substance to fuel our bodies. It is associated with happiness, celebration, reward etc. I loved my food when I was a kid. Especially cakes, chocolate, pizza etc and these things were always associated with happy times and special occasions. We were quite poor though and such things were strictly rationed as I mainly lived on beans and toast, so as soon as I moved out on my own and had my own spending power and needed cheering up - food was the automatic go to.

For years food was all I thought about. I was either obsessed with my weight and starving myself -or obsessed with my weight but eating too much out of extreme boredom and misery. Sugar is a particularly difficult one for me because I find the stuff extremely addictive and even now if I have one bar of chocolate, I want twenty. I have no impulse control when it comes to such things.

Anyway...whilst kjl's advice was woefully lacking in an understanding of food issues - you can pick out some good from it. Counselling would be a very good idea if you are willing to go for it - but there are a lot of things that you can do yourself to help break the cycle.

The main things I found handy were first of all - to keep busy. I know it is more deep rooted than being a simple habit, but stuff like that is habit forming and I found that breaking your usual patterns is a first step. If the evenings after work are times when you eat the most, then plan an activity which takes you away from your house/the supermarket etc. I would force myself to go for a walk with really loud music on, or go to a friends house, take a really long shower/bath etc, do housework.

Also fill the house with other things to occupy your hands and mouth with. Make cups of decaff tea or coffee, sip diet soft drinks (not great for you, but better than chips), have a huge stack of carrot sticks permanently at the ready.

These obviously aren't going to sort out the issues which are causing the food problems, but breaking they cycle itself is such a positive step that it might make you feel better about the whole thing. There is a way out though. I never thought I would be free from all of my food hang-ups but over time it just started to happen. I lost 2 stone, felt healthy and happy about my body and have never really looked back. I found other things to replace the giant gap in myself/life that I was trying to fill and now can turn to those things instead in times of need.

mushroom_girl

hi

i started this thread just over a year ago, and i just want to say thanks to those that replied. that book that i bought turned out to be a lifesaver.

its been about 9 months since i last had a proper binge, and i have lost 30lbs in the last year.

thanks to all,

mushroom.

Auldloon

kjl wrote: »

4 squares of chocolate contains half your rda of saturated fat. 1 standard dairy milk contains the same fat as 8 hamburgers.

Not true.

Edit to add just seen your last post mushroom girl. Didn't realise this was an old thread. Very well done on getting your problem under control and loosing all that weight;)

lilydonoghue

I just want to bump up this thread. I want to stop binge eating and may try that book too. any more advice from people who have beaten this would be helpful thanks

Merkin

lilydonoghue wrote: »

I just want to bump up this thread. I want to stop binge eating and may try that book too. any more advice from people who have beaten this would be helpful thanks

Please don't resurrect old threads. I suggest you open up your own thread if you have a personal issue, thanks.